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No. 6. Vienna, 11 February 1898. Second Year.

The Crete Problem.

By O. Erter.

In the past year the European Powers were agreed that the Turkish Empire was to be preserved in its territorial integrity. This concord, to be sure, looked very much as when wolf and fox make common cause together; but outwardly it existed, and it had, avowedly, the threefold purpose of protecting the Sultan's sovereignty, of preserving Turkey from the loss of the island of Crete, and of holding Greece back from the war upon whose outbreak the remaining Balkan states lay in wait, in order themselves, in their turn, to fall upon Turkey. Of all this, as is well known, the only thing that succeeded was to put the Balkan states in chains, and this was the joint work of Austria and Russia; the war was not prevented, and that Crete did not fall to Greece, Turkey had to thank only the victory of her arms, not the so-called "European Concert." For this, keenly-felt malices have been imputed to the latter, which it could pocket all the more calmly, as it was from the outset a mere notion, and moreover a wholly blurred notion.

But even to be merely such a thing it has ceased to be, ever since Russia, flanked by the English and the French, put forward the candidature of Prince George of Greece for the post of Governor, with which Austria and Germany will not reconcile themselves. "There is no Europe any more," Count Beust once lamented; today this saying would have a greater justification than thirty years ago, and the sad — or, if one will, the comical — thing about it is that on account of the Cretan governorship, and on account of the Greek aspirant to it, so radical a change of scenery is taking place. Upon such trifles hangs the grouping of the European Powers!

Naturally, it is no matter of indifference to Turkey that, by means of the "cold procedure," they mean to filch from her the island of Crete, by installing a son of the King of Greece as its Governor. To prevent this, the Sultan waged a victorious war, and his troops at present still hold the conquered Thessaly occupied. Had Turkey been willing to renounce Crete of her own accord, she would not have needed to wage the war. But she was told that she must defend her territorial integrity and her sovereignty — which were acknowledged by Europe as conditions of the general peace — with her weapons; that it was her cursed bounden duty and obligation to chastise the Greeks for Europe's sake. And most loudly of all was this said to her by Russia. She did what she had to do and what was demanded of her. But now Russia has abruptly changed its mind; it demands that Turkey admit the Greek prince as Governor of Crete — the very same prince who commanded the Greek torpedo flotilla destined for the conquest of Crete. And thereupon ensues that curious "Changez" of the international contra-dance, whereby Russia, arm in arm with England and France, suddenly stands planted as the vis-à-vis of Germany and Austria.

Experience teaches that diplomatic turnabouts must not be judged by the private moral code — which, moreover, would in the present case be quite pointless, since the motives of the surprising Russian turnabout are shrouded in the deepest obscurity. In the past year it was said that England favoured the Greek claim to Crete because it wished to bring Suda Bay, which commands the whole eastern Mediterranean, under its dominion — a thing that Russia, however, must needs thwart, so as not to have an inconvenient watchman before the Dardanelles. Now the two antipodes are of one mind; what England wills, that Russia wills also. Who can explain this riddle? And even were one inclined to assume that Russia only gives itself the appearance of willing what England wills, the more surely to cross England's designs, there would still remain the open question how France can join in, since Suda Bay commands also the road to Egypt and, as an English naval station, would be very inconvenient to French Mediterranean interests. But what was it that Axel Oxenstierna said to his son? "Thou seest, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed." To seek to penetrate into diplomatic motives and secrets is a breakneck business, and therefore one does more wisely to wait until they cease to be secrets. There is also, in the manifest facts, something over which one may grow thoughtful. And with that let us occupy ourselves for to-day.

That the so-called European Concert is a fiction, of which each Power avails itself only so long as it suits its own reckoning, one may well see even now with the unarmed eye. Yet at the same time the question forces itself upon one whether Turkish diplomacy did not fare better when it still counted upon the discord among the Powers, and not upon their concord. For, after all, everything that one perceives at this moment,