The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

nearest seaport, Rieka (Fiume), is about 440 miles, the same as from Belgrade. The distance by waterway to Salonica would be from Budapest 600 miles and from Belgrade 460 miles. The places in Hungary situated on the rivers Theiss and Morish are nearer to Salonica and further from Fiume than Budapest is.

The present waterway from Belgrade by the Danube, Black and AXgean Seas, to Pireus is 600 + 255 + 357, in all some 1200 nautical miles long; whereas the projected waterway through Serbia would be 350+ 265=615 nautical miles—i. e. about 600 nautical miles shorter to any port on the Mediterranean or to Western Europe. Goods imported or exported by all countries of the basin of the Middle Danube would shorten their way considerably and avoid the paying of the heavy taxes through the Straits, as well as at the Sulina and the Iron Gates. The projected waterway would tend to minimise the importance of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus for the rest of Europe with the exception of Russia, and this can only be in the interest of a durable peace. Here we have touched only the principal features of the project, hoping that the British banking and engineering houses will fully discuss its possibilities at the conclusion of the peace, when the opportunity for its realisation would arise.

Among the products of British industries which would find a natural outlet in Greater

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