Our prediction in last week's issue as to Austria-Hungary's reception
of the Tsar's intervention in the Balkan dispute was, we regret to note, fulfilled almost as soon as we wrote. The Neue Freie Presse admits that Russia, as the inspirer of the Balkan League, was bound to make a supreme effort on behalf of the Slav cause, which would have been gravely im- perilled by a war between Bulgaria and Servia. But when the Tsar enjoins on the Balkan States to remember their responsi- bility to the Slav cause, the Neue Freie Presse asks, " Do the Slays live only in Russia and in the Balkans, and not also in other States, which are by no means disposed to tolerate relations between their citizens and a foreign ruler ? " As we foresaw, the official Austrian view is that the Monarchy cannot tolerate the establishment of a Russian protectorate over the Balkans. The maintenance of the Balkan League must necessarily be an anti-Austrian move on the part of Russia.
