Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/41

 CHAPTER V THE BALKAN CRISES

first of the frivolous acts by which Austria endangered the peace of the world took place in the autumn of 1908, when, without any necessity, the regions administered by her for the Turks, Bosnia and Herzegovina, were annexed; a shameless breach of treaty with Turkey, and a deep injury to the national feeling of the Yugo-Slavs, who were necessarily most embittered by this treatment of the Bosnians as chattels who could at will be exchanged or carried off. The danger of a world-war became imminent, for Russia saw herself forced back in her Balkan policy without receiving any compensation. But the other European States, and especially England, also uttered the most vigorous protests against this insolent tearing-up of the Treaty of 1878. Austria must have withdrawn had not the German Empire come to her side.

This attitude of Germany's laid the foundation for the later world-war. Yet German politicians have, even during this war (though before the collapse), defended it. Prince Bülow, in his previously quoted work, “The Policy of Germany,” takes credit for his action at this crisis:

“In my speeches in the Reichstag, as well as in my instructions to our representatives abroad, I

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