n; while the opposition to
Servian annexation on the Adriatic littoral and of Greek annexation
in Epirus now for the first time reveals the deep concern of Italy
in the same question.

The Serbs are Slavs. And the unhappy relations between Servia and
Austria-Hungary have always intensified their pro-Russian
proclivities. The Roumanians are a Romance people, like the French
and Italians, and they have hitherto been regarded as a Balkan
extension of the Triple Alliance. The attitude of Austria-Hungary,
however, during the Balkan wars has caused a cooling of Roumanian
friendship, so that its transference to Russia is no longer
inconceivable or even improbable. Greece desires to be independent
of both groups of the European system, but the action of Italy in
regard to Northern Epirus and in regard to Rhodes and the Dodecanese
has produced a feeling of irritation and resentment among the Greeks
which nothing is likely to allay or even greatly alleviate. Bulgaria
in the past has carried her desire to live an independent national
life to the point of hostility to Russia, but since Stambuloff's
time she has shown more natural sentiments towards her great Slav
sister and liberator. Whether the desire of revenge against Servia
(and Greece) will once more draw her toward Austria-Hungary only
time can disclose.

In any event it will take a long time for all the Balkan states to
recover from the terrible exhaustion of the two wars of 1912 and
1913.

Their financial resources have been depleted; their male population
has been decimated. Necessity, therefore, is likely to co-operate
with the community of interest established by the Treaty of Bukarest
in the maintenance of conditions of stable equilibrium in the
Balkans. Of course the peace-compelling forces operative in the
Balkan states themselves might be counteracted by hostile activities
on the part of some of the Great Powers. And there is one
danger-point for which the Great Powers themselves are solely
responsible. This, as I have already explained, is Albania. An
artificial creation with unnatural boundaries, it is a grave
question whether this so-called state can either manage its own
affairs or live in peace with its Serb and Greek neighbors. At this
moment the Greeks of Epirus (whom the Great Powers have transferred
to Albania) are resisting to the death incorporation in a state
which outrages their deepest and holiest sentiments of religion,
race, nationality, and hu