with
internal troubles, could do nothing. That was plain to every one but
the South Slavs.

Baron Nopcsa, the Hungarian traveller, whose knowledge of Albanian
matters is unrivalled, returned from a tour in the mountains. He was
violently anti-Serb, and, in reply to my hope that war would be
avoided, said very earnestly: "It can't be. Russia Is rapidly
recovering. The Slavs mean our destruction; it is now or never for
us. Our one chance is to crush them before they become too strong."
I suggested there was room for both. He maintained there was not.
"Let the Slav once get the upper hand, and there will be room for no
one else. You had better remember that!" As a choice of evils, he
favoured union with Germany against the common foe.

The pro-Serb attitude of England astonished every one except the
"Great Serbians," who did not think it strong enough, and hoped for
British naval support at least. To the Austrians it was
incomprehensible that England should have made such a complete
volte-face since 1878. The Czech consul-general, the Croatian
secretary, and the Dalmatian doctor--all Slavs--were dead against
Serbia and-all her claims. And in spite of the surprise expressed by
England it appeared that the question of Bosnia's status had been
discussed with England almost immediately after the proclamation of
the Young Turk revolution. For a Reuter telegram had reported:
"August 12, Vienna. . . . it was agreed at the conference between
Baron Aehrenthal and Sir Charles Hardinge at Ischl to-day that any
developments arising in Bosnia and the Herzegovina from the
constitutional changes in Turkey should be considered as purely
internal matters affecting Austria-Hungary and not involving any
question of international policy." Sir Charles Hardinge, who had
come in company with King Edward VII, at once returned to England.

The Moslems regarded the annexation as a Christian attack on Islam,
and, as it was Ramazan, demonstrated loudly at night in the
Christian quarter of Scutari. The Turkish Government boycotted all
Austrian goods, and as the bulk of Scutari's imports came from
Trieste the town felt this severely. The attache told me that
England was believed to be behind this boycott for commercial
purposes, and that as Austria manufactured a great deal expressly
for the Turkish market a prolonged boycott must spell ruin. How
easily we thought it spelt in those days!

Montenegro, meanwhile, went rabid because her special env