This War Business
(Continued from page 7)
taking from the conquered nation of
some of its territory. A striking example
is that of the taking of Alsace-Lorraine
by Germany at the close of the Franco-
Prussian War. It is a matter of common
knowledge that this lost province of
Alsace-Lorraine was a very real con-
tributing factor in bringing France into
the struggle against Germany in 1914.
When a nation has lost part of its terri-
tory and part of its own people, it
dedicates itself to the task of winning
back that which it believes properly
belongs to it. But the way of the world
teaches that only by war have such lost
provinces been redeemed.
7. The Balkans.— ‘There is no other
way to describe one strong factor in this
discussion of war causes than by the
geographical term, “The Balkans.” The
word really describes a little peninsula
in the southeastern part of Europe.
The area of that peninsula is small,
but there has been crowded into it more
potentialities for war than in any other
like area in the world. A variety of
different and discordant races reside
there. All the great nations of Europe
have had some interest at stake in this
little area, and so, in a sense, the inter-
national aims and ambitions of the
different nations have concentrated
themselves in the Balkans. It was in a
little town on the western side of the
peninsula that an assassin’s bullet struck
down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
1914 and precipitated the World War.
The combination of these seven
factors, along with others that might be
enumerated, has provoked virtually all
the conflict between nations in our age,
and principally the terrible world conflict
of the recent past. In fact, the World
War was not simply a tragic accident;
it was the inevitable effect of a series
of causes,
Now looking out on the world in 1929,
the only rational way to decide whether
the future holds for us either peace or
war, is to determine whether the factors
which inevitably threw nations into
the world struggle of 1914 still exist,
or whether, for some mystic reason,
these causes have disappeared. And
what do we discover when we approach
the matter in this way? Astounding as it
may seem, we find all these [actors more
vigorously present than they ever were,
and new factors also.
Nor To BE CHALLENGED
ILI, any one challenge this state-
ment, sweeping though it is? Will
anyone be so bold as to claim that human
nature has changed any since 1914,
or that race hatreds have subsided in
any way? No, the very opposite is true.
Does any one believe that trade rivalries
are any less than they were? They are
keener than ever, and will continue to
grow keener as this era, with its de-
PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT
pendence upon mass production, con-
tinues. Will any one endeavor to defend
the proposition that the fear and sus-
picion of one nation toward another is
less today than in 1914? If so, why are
the nations even more busily engaged
in increasing armaments than ever
before? And why are they more vigor-
ously establishing interlocking alliances
than ever in the past? For certainly it
is a fact open to no question, that
armaments are greater now than in
any previous decade, that more money
is being spent on guns and national
defense than formerly. And he who
would question the statement that the
Coming
In the September
Watchman
By
A Reliable Promise of Peace.
Francis D. Nichol
Economic Unrest in Europe. By Louis
H. Christian
Does Science Hinder Faith? By John
Lewis Shuler
The Best Book on Hygiene and Sani-
tation. By Owen S. Parrett, M. D.
Are Funny Papers Really Funny? By
Merlin L. Neff
The Foreign Missionary — Why? By
William H. Branson
The Church Fathers. Shall we ap-~
peal to them for doctrine? By L.
Ervin Wright
“Rest Is Not Quitting.” By Martha
E. Warner
nations are bound together today by
more intricate alliances, reveals only
his own ignorance.
Is there any one who will say that the
dangerous factor of ‘lost provinces”
has been eliminated? What absurdity!
Where, before 1914, there was one
Alsace-Lorraine, there are today a dozen.
And can we possibly bring ourselves to
imagine that the Balkans are now merely
a peaceful aggregation of hills and
valleys, whose inhabitants live in con-
cord one with another, no longer agitated
by the conflicting interests of the great
states of Europe? Preposterous!
The eminent writer, Charles A. Beard,
in a significant article, entitled, “‘ Bigger
and Better Armaments,’ says:
“Finally there are the Balkans. Fuel
for an outbreak is already piled high
in that troublesome region, and wisps
of smoke swirl now east, now west, now
north, now south. It was in Bosnia that
one of the powder trains was fired by
the Serb assassin in 1914. For centuries
the Balkans have kept Europe in tur-
moil, or if you like, the great powers
have kept the Balkans in turmoil.
In any case, nothing is settled there as
a result of the great settlement.
“For every ill cured another has been
created. Where Croats and Roumanians
once groaned under Hungarian authority
Magyars now groan under Roumanian
and Jugoslav dominion. Fires still burn
in Macedonia — in spite of all the Jugo-
slavs have done to maintain order,
introduce civilization, and solve the
land question. Bulgaria, stripped of
winnings by Serbia and Greece in 1912
and deprived of rich lands at the Paris
adjudication, beats plowshares into
swords and looks abroad for allies.
With the consent of the powers, Italy
has taken possession of Albania, through
economic and military measures; and
Roman imperialists continue, as in
1915, to regard the Dalmatian coast
as their rightful heritage, even though
it is inhabited mainly by South Slavs.
STIRRING THE BREW
“IN THIS seething caldron, England,
France, and Italy stir continuously,
ever mindful of ‘national interest’ as
they watch it bubble and boil. One day,
Italy announces a marching army of
five million men; the next day American
bankers furnish Rome with cash for
experimentation; a little later, a respon-
sible English statesman gives personal
encouragement to Mussolini; then the
morning paper announces an alliance
between France and the Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes — a defensive alliance,
it is true, but an alliance prepared for
eventualities. French airmen fly (com-
mercial) airplanes in Jugoslavia and
the military men hold ‘conversations.’
Arms on their way from Italy to Hungary
are unearthed. A murder in Macedonia,
it is alleged, is financed on the banks of
the Tiber. The Serbs come to terms with
the Italian’ government; the Croats
threaten secession. Greece staggers
through one dictatorship after another
back to Venizelos, waiting on eventuali-
ties also.” —Harpers Magazine, January,
1020.
In view of such facts as these — and
facts they are, not fancies — should we
not give more serious consideration to
those Bible prophecies which speak of
war and bloodshed as characterizing the
last days in particular? Should we not
lend a more attentive ear to the ex-
pounders of the Bible prophecies who
reveal the meaning of these world events
in their relation to God’s plan for this
earth?
Next month we shall set forth further
facts concerning plans for war and for
peace and show their specific relation
to particular Bible predictions.
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE