June 6th,
1913.
EUROPE hails a triumph of
diplomacy, with Sir Edward Grey as hero of the pageant. We do not
question the justice of this appreciation, but we entertain grave
doubts of the value to the world of the services which the
diplomatists have been rendering. So long as they were bent on
keeping a ring, isolating the war of the Balkans, and inhibiting
the intervention of interested Powers, they have done well, and the
countries that are saved from war owe them the warmest thanks. But
in so far as they have put pressure on the combatants of the
Balkans to bring about the peace which was declared last week, we
count them little better than marplots. It is possible that they
could not have achieved the one success without obtaining the
other. In that case, we hang in doubt whether to congratulate the
world on the result.
This will seem to many a
hard saying. War is so great an evil that cessation from it on any
terms can seldom be regretted. In this case the continuance of war
in the Balkans meant a continued peril of war in Europe, and its
cessation is doubly welcome. Yet there is a peace that is no peace,
and worse than war; there have been many treaties of peace that
were nothing else but a letting out of strife. If peace between the
Balkan Allies and the Ottoman Empire means war between the Allies -
and that contingency is not remote - where is the gain? It will be
harder than ever to keep the ring, and Europe may find itself the
poorer by the suppression of some gallant rising nationalities. .
.
The entire overthrow, the
total disappearance, of the Ottoman system, is the one hope for the
Levant. . .