In spite of the apparent deadlock and the consequent dangers
and anxieties caused by the attitude of defiance taken up"for the present" by the Montenegrins, we are, for the reasons given in another column, fairly optimistic about the final solution of the Scutari problem. We believe that the will of the Concert of Europe will be accomplished by diplomacy plus liberal compensation to Montenegro, and not by a resort to arms. At the same time we are bound to say that the action of Austria-Hungary affords anything but a pleasant spectacle. It is either stupid or disingenuous, or both. On the face of it Austria-Hungary is presenting a kind of ultimatum to the rest of the Powers. She asserts that they must either bundle the Montenegrins out of Scutari in forty-eight hours or she will be obliged to do it herself with an expedition of sixty thousand men which she has prepared. Meanwhile her news- papers talk loudly about the honour of her army—always a suspicious circumstance. Considering that for a work of this kind Austria-Hungary can only count upon her German regiments, and considering the very serious ferment which is already beginning amongst the twenty-six millions of her Slavonic population at the thought of destroying the ewe lamb of the South Slays, the little and gallant highland kingdom of the Black Mountain, we are very sceptical an
to whether Austria-Hungary will really do anything but grumble.
Previous page
