There is no special fact to record in regard to
the situation in the Near East. We have dealt elsewhere with the general considerations, which are far from reassuring. Meantime the attempts in the Vienna, and also in the Berlin, Press to represent this country us playing a Machiavellian part, and desiring to ruin Austria-Hungary, still continue. Of course this is the very reverse of the truth. Neither the British public nor the British Government are in any sense hostile to Austria-Hungary, but are, on the contrary, most friendly, and most anxious that the Empire of the Hapsburgs should continue strong and prosperous, not only for its own sake, and because of the long and intimate friendship between that Empire and Britain, but also as a necessary makeweight in the politics of Europe. Nothing could be more inconvenient to our diplomacy, and nothing more injurious to British interests, than the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We do not want to see the Dual Monarchy injured, and look with alarm upon the terrible risks to which it is being subjected owing to the infatuated policy of Baron Aehrenthal and those who stand behind him.
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