rely Bulgar district south of Silistria
by Roumania. On the other hand, Kaiser William thus congratulated her
king, Charles (a Hohenzollern), on the peace, a "splendid result, for
which not only your own people but all the belligerent States and the
whole of Europe have to thank your wise and truly statesmanlike policy.
At the same time your mentioning that I have been able to contribute to
what has been achieved is a great satisfaction to me. I rejoice at our
mutual co-operation in the cause of peace."

[Footnote 542: Roumania's sudden intervention annoyed Austria, who had
hoped for a longer and more exhausting war in the Balkans.]

[Footnote 543: Edith Durham, _The Struggle for Scutari_, p. 315.]

This telegram, following the trend of Austro-German policy, sought to
win back Roumania to the Central Powers, from which she had of late
sheered off. In other respects the Peace of Bukharest was a notable
triumph for Austria and Germany. Not only had they rendered impossible a
speedy revival of the Balkan League which had barred their expansion
towards the Levant, but they bolstered up the Ottoman Power when its
extrusion from Europe seemed imminent. They also exhausted Servia,
reduced Bulgaria to ruin, and imposed on Albania a German prince,
William of Wied, an officer in the Prussian army, who was destined to
view his principality from the quarter-deck of his yacht. Such was the
Treaty of Bukharest. Besides dealing a severe blow to the Slav cause, it
perpetuated the recent infamous spoliations and challenged every one
concerned to further conflicts. Within a year the whole of the Continent
was in flames.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CRISIS OF 1914

"We have an interest in the independence of Belgium which is
wider than that which we have in the literal operation of the
guarantee. It is found in the answer to the question whether
this country would quietly stand by and witness the
perpetration of the direst crime that ever stained the pages
of history and thus become participators in the
sin."--GLADSTONE:

Speech of August 1870.

The Prussian and German Army Bills of 1860 and onwards have tended to
make military preparedness a weighty factor in the recent development of
nations; and the issue of events has too often been determined, not by
the justice of a cause, but rather by the armed strength at the back of
it. We must therefore glance at the military and naval preparatio