The Great Powers are in a mess. Servia and Greece
have refused to disarm, and Bulgaria only agrees on condition that she obtains a guarantee against a Servian invasion. The Russian Government has, therefore, proposed that the request to disarm should be peremptorily enforced, which means that Russia should occupy Sofia and Philippopolis, Austria Belgrade, and the Maritime Powers Athens. The Hungarians say they will not occupy Belgrade ; and if Russia occupies Bulgaria, England, as well as Austria, will grow white with alarm. The Great Powers, therefore, are at a standstill. Just for the moment they are trying loud language, and the semi-official newspapers threaten the petty States with hostile occupation ;
but, to carry out the threats, the Powers must trust each other, and they do not. England, to begin with, will not accept the situation. Lord Salisbury, on Thursday night, was, indeed, most earnest in declaring that he disapproved the conduct of Greece ; but between that disapproval and a bombardment of the Piraeus, or allowing Russia to plant herself in Philip. popolis, the steps are very long. England, with a hundred thousand Bulgarian soldiers behind her, and supremacy open to her in the Black Sea and the Adriatic, is not precisely a negligeable quantity. The Powers can make a ring ; but if the Balkan States will fight, they must fight ; and Turkey, as the common enemy of all, must ultimately pay.
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