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ing, gives to Hungary only the one port of Fiume. wonder that it was determined, at all hazards and at the sacrifice of plighted faith, to seize the Serb provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure an ample hinterland for the tenuous Dalmatian littoral, and thus to give the Dual Realm an effective sea-coast of more than three hundred miles. No wonder, either, that it was similarly determined to set up the puppet state of Albania, to be a practical appanage of Austria and to give that power some hundreds of miles more of coast, almost continuous from Dalmatia southward, to and beyond the Strait of Otranto, with a frontage not merely on the Adriatic, but also on the open Ionian Sea.

LOOKING TOWARD SALONICA

There was another and perhaps a still stronger purpose in the rape of the Serb provinces. That was to push toward another sea, the Ægean, by way of Novi Bazar, the Vardar Valley and Salonica. That had been Austria's ambition for many years. More than once she had practically offered to support Russia in seizing Constantinople if Russia would support her in seizing Salonica. She had sought to secure sanction for such expansion at the Berlin Congress of 1878, and though she then failed her whole Eastern policy thereafter had been directed to that end. To that end she had alternately cajoled and bullied Serbia, striving to make and keep that country dependent upon her. And the most maddening blow that Austria had received since the loss of Venetia was that inflicted by Serbia in the Balkan War of 1912, in annexing Novi Bazar and Kossovo and forming a political union with Montenegro, thus throwing a complete barrier across Austria's path to the Egean. That barrier could not

be turned, and there is reason to believe that Austria in desperation resolved to break it down through the device of picking a quarrel with Serbia and waging a war of conquest.

SERBIA AND THE SEA

Serbia, too, had a desire for the sea. For centuries she had been shut up inland. Even when her independence was restored she remained occluded from the sea, and dependent upon Austria-Hungary for a route of communication with the rest of Europe. Naturally she desired her old sea frontage, of Dalmatia and Albania. The Austrian seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina destroyed for a time her hope of an outlet in that direction. she did expect as the fruit of her heroism in the war with Turkey to be permitted to take Scutari. When that was denied her, through Austrian opposition, her resentment against that power was greatly increased and confirmed.

But

More than that. She had at any rate taken Novi Bazar and thus made herself directly contiguous with Montenegro, a state as purely Serb as Serbia herself. The next step was logical and formidable. It was to make a compact with Montenegro for the organic union of the two nations. That was done just before the beginning of the World War. It was agreed that so long as Nicholas of Montenegro lived, he should remain an independent sovereign. But upon his death, his son should not succeed him but should abdicate in favor of the King of Serbia. Then the two kingdoms would become one.

AUSTRIAN DESPERATION

Now this Serbo-Montenegrin compact, which was for a time kept secret, became known at Vienna only a little

[graphic]

Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y. FRENCH SOLDIERS MARCHING TO THE MOBILIZATION POINT France flamed with excitement when the news of the German invasion came. The troops, ready and anxious for war, proceeded smoothly and swiftly to their concentration points, blazing with zeal to repel the invaders and recover the territory lost to France in the Franco-Prussian War.

THE HARBOR AT CHARLOTTE AMALIE

This beautiful and safe harbor is the chief port of the island of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. In early days it was a famous resort of the buccaneers who infested the Spanish Main. The purchase of these strategic islands from Denmark by the United States in 1917 was a protective measure.

[graphic]

while before the fatal visit of the Austrian heir-presumptive to Sarajevo. As might be supposed, it created a profound sensation and aroused both consternation and wrath. It was recognized as placing, if it were permitted to stand, the final seal of doom upon Austria's ambitions in that direction. Then it was determined, by hook or by crook, to have that compact broken. There seemed to be only one way in which to do this. That was to pick on some pretext a quarrel with Serbia, to wage war against that country, and to compel it to recede from the ground which it had thus taken. The pretext which was thus created proved to be much more tragic than had been intended, but, of course, it was not for that reason abandoned. So it came to pass that Austria practically demanded as an alternative to war that Serbia should abdicate her independent sovereignty and make herself an administrative appanage to Austria. All other demands than that Serbia was willing to grant, for the sake of peace. Her knowledge of her own government's integrity and blamelessness for the Sarajevo crime emboldened her to court all possible inquiry. But she could not and would not assent to having Austrian inquisitors usurp the places of Serbian judges and manufacture at Belgrade the spurious evidence which had been trumped up the year before at Agram. So she refused that one demand, and at that Austria, having anticipated such refusal, declared war.

DESIGNS AGAINST SERBIA

The purposes of Austria were threefold.

One was

to cripple Serbia, to humiliate her, to impose upon her a huge debt for war indemnity, and to exact from her in the peace treaty a practical acknowledgment of Austrian suzerainty.

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