The statement that Ristics, the Servian Premier, is seeking mediation
is repeated and denied every day. The most probable story is that Prince Milan, who never quite believed in the war, is overwhelmed by his misfortunes, but that Ristics, a man of stronger fibre and sure of his influence in the Skuptschina, has decided to fight on. The applications for mediation, therefore, probably come from the Prince, and the refusals from his Premier, who knows how his countrymen fight in partisan warfare in the mountains. Ristics is probably right, even on grounds of policy, as the Turks will grant nothing to any mediator so long as Great Britain is on their side. It is from this country, "from the protector of the Turks," as John Lemoinne says, that mediation ought to come, and come quickly, if a determined movement of the North Slavonians to the aid of their Southern brethren is to be prevented. It cannot, with any decent regard for humanity or civilisation, be resisted.
