NEWS OF THE WEEK.
SINCE our last issue the situation in the Balkans has grown daily worse, and as we write on Friday morning it seems very difficult to believe that war will be avoided. We have dealt with the more general aspects of the crisis elsewhere. Here we must try to chronicle the course of events, though the conflict of news, especially on Friday, makes the tangle very difficult to unravel. On Tuesday it was announced that the allied Balkan States had given orders for the general mobilization of their armies, and on Wednesday the Turks were reported to have ' followed suit. Wednesday was also. full.of, news of attempts on the part of the Great Powers to prevent the war, and on Thursday came the report that the Balkan Allies had actually presented an ultimatum to Turkey to the effect that hostilities would begin in six days unless the Turks would undertake to give autonomy on the Cretan model to Macedonia, Albania, and Old Servia. The presentation of the ultimatum was, however, denied on Friday, and there were rumours that the Great Powers had compelled the Allies to withhold the presentation of their Note, and that they were using as a lever to enforce their views the threat that they would ask Roumania to mobilize her forces and, if necessary, to take action. Since the Roumanian army is powerful and Roumania lies exactly in the rear of Bulgaria, such mobilization must no doubt very considerably affect the situation. On the. other hand, it is stated that all' the Roumanians • have done is to inform the Turks that they mean to remain neutral. In all probability, however, they will mobilize, though such mobilization. need-not-necessarily be hostile to the Allies, but may merely be a practical reminder that Roumania must not be-forgotten at the " sharing."
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