In our opinion, though of course we may be proved
wrong by events, what Austria-Hungary is doing is to try to bluff the Powers into doing what she dare not do herself. She is, as it were, trading upon her own recklessness of talk, and wants to make the Powers feel : "If we do not hurry up and do some- thing strong and decisive, those terrible Austrians will butt in and spoil the whole settlement which we have so elaborately pieced together." By this time, however, we think that the Powers pretty well understand Austria-Hungary, and will discount the talk of the 60,000 invaders, who are ready to the last gaiter button, as only "pretty Fanny's way." We are quite sure that if the Powers would only give a mandate to Sir Edward Grey to deal with the Montenegrins by a mixture of firmness, friendliness, and compensation elsewhere, the difficulty would be got over.
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