GREAT POWERS’ SERMON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3952, 7 June 1913, Page 3

GREAT POWERS’ SERMON.

LITTLE MONTENEGRO LISTENS

A very rightly sarcastic editoi ial article in. the “Observer” calls attention to the sermon which the Great Powers have delivered to little Montenegro, from a text which they have all refused to live up to themselves.

NOT TIT. FOR TAT. “The Czar, whom the amateur pacifist regards as an encroaching monster, constantly makes the most serious concessions, for peace. Thanks 1 o the restraint of St. Petersburg, the European situation is finally relieved after one last spasm of passion and fear,” says the “Observer.” “The solution of the Montenegrin question is a study in the squalid romantic and the tragic grotesque. The six Powers have proved to Montenegro that she is sinfully-small. They would he moved to genuine indignation if she did not show a proper consciousness of her guilt by ceasing speedily to imitate the morals and methods which only large forces can legitimate. All the apostolic powers explain to King Nicholas the principles of unselfishness and moderation. It is very like the tone of the Holy Alliance. “That excellent but predatory race, the Albanians, have hitherto been licensed adepts in annexing what belonged to their neighbors. Vienna, slightly inexpert in a novel vocabulary insissts that the pretensions of King Nicholas to annex a few Albanians is a crime against freedom. AustriaHungary itself may include any diversity of elements. Germany may incorporate Frenchmen, Danes, and Poles. The Czardiom may embrace many millions of non-Russian peoples. Britain may rule over all colors of men. These are the prerogatives of Great Powers. States not too small may share these prerogatives in a minor degree. In the general shuffle, the Triple insists that Roumania. musttake away from her southern neighbor the Bulgarian town of Silistria. The Bulgarians will unavoidably annex in these, mixed regions a considerable quantity of Greeks and Turke. Greece will doubtless acquire the Jews of Salonika and other oddments. But Montenegro is not up to any standard of size justifying inclusion in this code of ethics.

“Hence the Powers employ the language of morality in dealing with King Nicholas and his subjects. Austria does not- care the fraction of a brass farthing for Albanian liberty in itself. Her purpose is to keep wedges driven into the Balkan combination until it splits again or consents to consolidate under Hapsburg influence. TTe quite admit that any other Great Power in Austria's place would have done the same. And as Paris was worth a mass the peace of Europe is well worth the procedure. But let us keep to that ground. Our gorge rises when we are asked to cant about the procedure.

NO INDIGNITY FOR MONTENEGRO.

“In common justice the little State of the Black Mountains should be compensated for the humiliating form of differential treatment prematurely applied by the coercive squadron nominally under British leadership. Nothing whatever can justify the inflicting of exceptional and wanton indignity upon King Nicholas alone merely because the natural position of his rocks is as troublesome to Vienna, as it always was to the Turke. “His original sin is purely geographical. Quite possibly, that thwarted, but tenacious, veteran may yet hold the key to problems bigger than his own. Smallness may be a miserable fault, but even here the fable of the lion and the mouse ought not to be forgotten by Britain or any other Power —certainly not by Russia.”