The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

stupendous, that the principal ambition of Germany lay in the East. Her hold upon Austria-Hungary has become complete, and if she is left in the possession of the Southern Slav lands her dream of world dominion, far from being shattered, will receive a fresh impulse and indeed be half realised.

The Southern Slavs know all this by centuries of long experience, and their aspirations flow directly from that fact. They think that in accordance with the solemnly acknowledged principle of nationality they have the right to be united in a national State as the sole guarantee of their independence and progress.

Serbia in the present struggle is only the recognised champion of their freedom. She has no ambition of conquest, but only the noble mission and a sacred duty to come to the assistance of her brothers in distress. In view of the enormous sacrifices and recognised loyalty to the cause of the Allies, Serbia has the right to expect the full guarantees for her future independence and development. Fortunately enough, the Allies can give her those guarantees without revoking any principle acknowledged by them or infringing the lawful rights of any other nation.

The Southern Slavs demand only this justice so long denied to them: the riddance of the foreign yoke in whatever form, so as to constitute an independent State of all the provinces inhabited by them. No half measures would

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