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Show Conditions in the Balkans Give Rise to Fear of Another Great War Ey DR. FLOYD SPENCER, Ohio Wesleyan University. A THREAT of another great war, menacing the peace of all southern south-ern Europe and the Near East, hangs like a sinister storm cloud over the Mediterranean. The most casual observation makes it apparent to the traveler that' many things are wrong. Italy is fiercely bitter over Yugoslavia's Yugo-slavia's refusal to use the port of Fiume. The Yugoslavs will not use the har'oor because they want to develop their own ports along the Adriatic. Then, Salonika, the finest harbor on the Mediterranean, is guarded jealously by the Greeks. Yugo-Slavia and' Bulgaria, adjoining on the north, are looking with longing eyes at Salonika. If they should unite they would have a combined population of 17,000,000, twice that of Greece and about equal to that of Rumania, still further to the north. On the other hand, Rumania, under Premier Averescu, is not only envious of obtaining Yugo-Slavia but has been holding hands with Italy. Furthermore, the Greeks resent the Italian occupation of Rhodes and are dissatisfied with their relatively unimportant possessions in the (,'yclades islands to the west. Also, Mussolini has not been- building naval bases for sport. Thus should Italy make a suggestive gesture, or should Rumania play politics too openly with Russia or Bulgaria, or should Yugo-Slavia and Bulgaria enter a compact or should Turkey threaten Cyprus, a cataclysm could readily result. Of course nothing may happen but the pressure there is terrific. |