DIPLOMACY has clearly failed in its efforts to prevent a war between Turkey and the Balkan States, and it is now regarded as inevitable that the war must ensue. The Great Powers now have nothing left to them but to consider among themselves what will have to be done when the war is ended, for it is then that they will find themselves face to face with a host of complicated problems, in the attempted solution of which the general peace of Europe will be seriously endangered. Meanwhile, the position of Turkey has been vastly improved by the settlement of her quarrel with Italy and the cession of Tripoli. The Balkan League chose the moment for striking while Turkey had on her hands a war on the South of the Mediterranean. But, this being ended, Turkey is able to concentrate the whole of her forces in Thrace and Macedonia. We cannot doubt that the new feature in the case will seriously affect the chances of victory for the Balkan States, and we do not disguise our regret that this should be. Nothing would be more to our mind than to see completed the process of the shrinkage of Turkey's territory in Europe, and crowned with the restoration of Christian worship in the Church of St Sophia. To the East the Turk belongs, and to the East he ought long since to have been driven back by the Christian Powers. We shall watch with profound sympathy the heroic effort of the Balkan States to emancipate themselves from the control of a Mohammedan Power, and to advance the day when the faith of Islam shall no longer have a foot-hold on the soil of Europe.