Ronald Montagu Burrows

“ Even, however, if we could be content to accept the status quo, under which the twenty-four millions of Slavs and four millions of Rumanians and Italians of Austria-Hungary are enslaved to the twelve millions of Germans and ten millions of Magyars, there still remains the question as to whether the Dual Monarchy can extricate herself from the war, with the best will in the world, without the connivance of Germany. ”

“ That there are Christians deeply attached to the Albanian nationalist idea we should be the lasts to deny. We see reason, however, to believe that they do not form a consistent proportion of the Christian population. We believe, too, that they are faced, not by an inert body of opinion, which such ideas have not yet reached, but may soon to reach, but by an active mass of Greek sympathizers, who have consciously rejected the Albanian idea, and are every whit as convinced and enthusiastic in their national sentiments as are their opponents. ”

“ Pre - Venizelist Greece met the Albanian claims to North Epirus by quoting the Hellenic sentiments of Epirotes as proof that racially they could not be Albanians. Venizelist Greece quotes them as a proof that race and language taken by themselves are no test of political allegiance. We may adapt the epigram of the philosopher who, when asked whether he denied the divinity of Christ, replied that he denied the divinity of no man. If we are asked whether we deny the Albanism of Koritza, we might reply that we deny the Albanism of no Greek. ”

“ The Magyars, the strong and virile ruling caste of Hungary, will fight to the death rather than forego their ascendency over their Slav and Rumanian subjects. The only separate peace that they would conclude would be on the basis of the status quo. The Federal Austria which some of our diplomatists dream of, in which Slav Bohemia, and Slav Croatia, Bosnia and Dalmatia, would be autonomous units of the same importance as German Austria and Magyar Hungary, would be intolerable to the Magyars and it is idle for us to dream that they would ever allow it. ”

“ Neither Yugoslavia nor Greece would be the best trustee for the young Albania. Their best men will be fully engaged in organizing their own extended territories. The fact that they adjoin the new State, and that frontier incidents will be bound to occur, would make it difficult for them to take a sufficiently detached point of view. Italy is neither too near nor too far. It should have good administrators and to spare for the purpose. It has experience on Albanian settlements within its own boundaries, and has a traditional sympathy for Albanian nationalism. ”

“ Germany itself might well be content to suffer a temporary blow to her prestige if in fact her scheme of Central Europe were established and her corridor to the East kept open. The Austro-Hungarian scheme is a will-o’-the-wisp and a snare. ”

“ The union of the Serbs of Serbia with the Serbs and Croats of Austria-Hungary, in a new Southern-Slav or Jugo-Slav State, is not a matter of our plighted word, except so far as we have included it in the peace terms that we laid down in our Note to America. ”

“ Our friends of the Unità will do a real service if they investigate them.
We are certain that they will decide that Italy has nothing to gain, and all to lose, by a warmth of of partisanship that might permanently estrange her Greek neighbours. Greece is willing to abide by the results of a genuine plebiscite. Need Italy ask for more? ”

“ Whatever Constitution were given to the Slavs on paper, the authorities would in practice see to it that it was made of no effect, by the familiar devices of intimidating the electors, falsifying the election returns, or overriding the laws by special royal decree. ”

“ The Albanians of the north and center are far behind their neighbors in the stage of civilization that they have reached. They will inevitably come into collision with them if they are not restrained. ”

“ The Moslems, however, are in a minority, and would be in a still great minority if the risings against the Turk of 1854, 1866, and 1877 had not been followed by persecutions which drove tens of thousands of Christian Epirotes to emigrate, and not a few to find an easier escape by embracing Islam.
Taking the pre - war population as we find it, the question is whether enough Christian Epirotes share the Moslem view to turn a minority into a majority. ”