The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

OE EE EE LLL EE EEE EEE EO EEE EE ee

fn A

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Slav State and their countries is strikingly similar to that with regard to Belgium. The Belgian coast in the hands of a big naval and military power would imperil the position of the British navy in its home waters. The Dalmatian archipelago in the possession of such a power would endanger the British naval position in the Mediterranean and threaten her communications with Egypt and India. Great Britain can be proud of the fact that here, as in Belgium, her vital interests are in full harmony with high principle of freedom and justice to small nations. Can Great Britain fail to act thus without doing wrong to her moral and material interests ? There is some hope that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated and British money shall no more be put on the wrong horse. The Jugoslay Committee, composed of very representative persons from all the parts of the Southern Slav territory in Austria-Hungary, has undertaken the task of acquainting the British public with the real position and aspirations of the Southern Slavs, and in handing their memorandum to the British Foreign Office they said in it: “ The Serbs, Croats and Slovenes pray for the victory of the Triple Entente and confidently await from it salvation of the Southern Slav nation. The Jugoslavs form a single nation, alike by identity of language, by the laws of geography and by national consciousness. Only if united they will possess the resources necessary for an independent 227