The outcome of the war in Montenegro is discussed at
length by the Times correspondents at Cettinje and Corfu in Monday's issue. The great aim of the Montenegrin people is to redress the failure of their military operations by diplo- macy and to secure Skutari and the fertile land that goes with it. Negotiations, or at any rate conversations, have been opened with Austria, but the price alleged to have been demanded for the readjustment of the Albanian boundary— the surrender of the Lovtchen Mountain, which dominates Cettinje—is resented by the Montenegrins. There is also talk of a compact with Italy. As regards the position of King Nicholas, it is premature to speak of a definite anti-dynastic movement, but there is no doubt that his popularity has suffered severely from the failure or negative results of the campaign ; faulty organization, equipment, and strategy being all laid at his door—a state of affairs inevitable in a patriarchal State. The strain of the war, again, has led to considerable distress ; there have been no signal victories to compensate for the heavy list of casualties, and the general discontent has been aggravated by the democratic influence exerted by the Montenegrins who returned from America as volunteers and by the " Young Montenegrin" party, who openly advocate absorption by Servia.
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