The fate of Macedonia is left to the decision of
Austria, Russia, and the Turkish Reservists, and the rulers of the two Powers mentioned met in the Palace of Schonbrunn on Wednes- day. After an interview on the station at Vienna, marked only by the extreme precautions taken against Anarchists, the Czar and the Emperor lunched together, and their toasts to each other were in fact formal declarations that they would adhere to their policy in the Balkans. The speeches were otherwise polite and colourless, but the Czar in his used one singular expression :—" The humanitarian aim which we follow excludes all partiality, and must be attained by firmness and persistence, by the choice of the means most fitted to assure real and lasting tranquillisation." His Majesty can hardly have been thinking that if all Macedonians were dead there would be tranquillity in Macedonia; but what did he precisely mean by " partiality " ? The Times correspondent at Vienna, who saw the Czar seven years ago at Breslau, says that "he has grown in the meantime if possible less sturdy, and his expression has become at once wearier and more taciturn." His life, with its terrible responsibilities and dangers, would wear out the strongest man, and the Emperor of Russia is not strong.
Previous page
