Flanders, the cockpit of Europe; the Balkans, the checkerboard of European politics; in a word, this has been Continental history for over a century. We may go far in our explanations of the causes of this war, but we must inevitably turn to the land of many races and mongrel nations if we are ever clearly to understand them. The events of July, 1914, were in great part the result of the previous thirty years intrigue in the Balkans. The events of March, 1918, are surely the same. Pan-Germanism, for three years at a stand-still, once more takes up its march Eastward. The great Central Empire, extending from the North Sea to Constantinople and far into Asia Minor, the German dream realized stares the world in the face.

For today we learn that Rumania has bowed before the Kaiser, that Dobrudja has been ceded to the Central Powers, and that German and Turkish troops press on along the Black Sea to the very borders of Persia. Rumania a vassal of Austria, Bulgaria a willing tool, and vast territories wrung from Russia complete a brief but overwhelming accomplishment. The German tide, which we believed to be receding, has reached its highest flood. The Allies futilely hammer on the Western Front and their enemies reap whole nations in a seemingly irresistible advance. The world, as seen from our shores, presents a dark picture indeed.

In times like these, our nation must only be strengthened in its purpose. There can never be such a Germany when peace is finally attained. The Balkan question must meet a solution now that will last for all time. The basis must be the right of all people to decide their own fate. We can only hold grimly on and fight in our faith in right until the day is at last won, until races shall be divided into nations which are natural and which will forever maintain the mutual understanding of the whole world.