The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

that the decisive battle between the German and Slav worlds was approaching, and it is a new proof of the German insight and magnificent organisation that they understood how to suggest about the Slav prejudices useful to them. Moreover, owing to the fatal blunder of the Russian Tsar Nicolas I, who saved Austria by defeating the Hungarian revolutionaries, the Magyars were until these last days considered as champions for freedom, and complaints against the fearful oppression of the Slav nations by the Magyar oligarchy were disregarded or decried here as mere Panslavist agitation.

Happily Great Britain awoke before it was too late. Thanks to many independent and unprejudiced British authors, who studied matters at the spot, a better knowledge was spread concerning Southern Slavs, and their just grievances against the Germano-Magyar rule in AustriaHungary moved all sincere friends of European liberties. The annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, when a solemn international treaty was violated, gave an insight into the political moral of German statesmen and was a prelude to the violation of Belgium. Great Britain at last realised that the complete subjugation of the Southern Slavs and the crushing of Serbia was only a necessary step to the realisation of the vast and ambitious scheme of German domination over the world.

British political opinion suddenly perceived

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