The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

foolish policy to demolish the natural locks and to open wide the sluices to the muddy tide of swollen ambitions. As the flood can never come from the small nations, the best means for stemming up that tide is to strengthen and fortify their position. Unsatisfied or weak, they can easily be ensnared by the wiles of insinuating diplomacy, or simply trampled upon like Belgium, and their dead body used by force or by consent to swell the forces of the conquering tide. The Southern Slav nation is the best example for the illustration of the above truth. If united and fortified in its ethnographical boundaries it would become satisfied and contented. The entire impetuosity of its temperament and the ardent intensity of its patriotism would be turned into a peaceful channel for the economic development of its vast territories, for the more noble achievements in the arts and sciences of its young and unfettered genius. The Southern Slavs would become a conservative power, jealously guarding their unity and independence. The interests and general line of policy of the Southern Slav State would be in complete harmony with the policy and interests of Great Britain.

The fighting qualities of the Southern Slavs have not only called forth the admiration of the world but they constitute a force which has entered into the calculation of the statesmen and Cabinets of Europe. It can be used for good or for evil. They can be most nobly employed if allied

223