The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

those provinces, and is to-day fighting for the liberation of those provinces from the AustroHungarian rule. Unable to hinder the occupation of Bosnia and Hercegovina by Austria, Prince Gorchakov, at the Congress of Berlin, is reported to have said to Count Andrassy, m Viele go in; but Bosnia and Hercegovina will prove to be the tomb of Austria-Hungary.” Are the words of Prince Gorchakov to Count Andrassy no warning to Italy?

The Emperor Sigismund in 1415 pledged his word to Jan Hus guaranteeing his safety. Nevertheless, the congress of Church and State dignitaries in Constance found that a word given to a heretic has no value whatever, and Hus was burned alive. There will be eager patriots in Russia and elsewhere who will try to represent the action of Italy as a policy of blackmailing. Some will say that the word pledged by Russia when her armies stood exhausted in Galicia has no value. Europe, and Italy in particular, has every reason to avoid the possibility of a similar situation. We may reasonably fear that some people in Russia* may not wish to see the accomplishment of the unity and the complete liberation of the Southern Slavs. At the Berlin Congress of 1878 Russia

1 German influence there has been too strong and has been operating for too long a time to be eradicated so quickly. See G. de Wesselitzky’s book, German Canker in Russia.

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