Fate of the Lebanon Syria, from Damascus to Aleppo, is suffering in divers, and terrible ways from the war. The majority of the population is said to be in sympathy with the anti-Turkish revolt in Arabia, and on July 6, 1917, Al Hussein ibn Ali, the new King of the Hedjaz, entered Southern Syria with troops and took possession of the little town of Akaba, pushing on beyond Ma'an, the Ma'on of the Old Testament. Jerusalem has long been threatened by the British expedition from Egypt. Natives of Syria, especially the Christians, are dying by thousands from starvation and disease. The Turkish Government has taken various and drastic measures to meet the double peril to its tottering power. Among other things, it has abolished the last of the old liberties of Lebanon, as related in the following article by K. T. Khairallah, a native Syrian, which is translated from the Temps of Paris: URKEY, profiting from the war's last vestiges of the autonomy of the Lebanon. The Temps of July 25, 1917, has announced the suppression of the elective Grand Council and the nomination of Turkish Governors in Batrou and Zahle. Since 1861, thanks to an international convention, the vilayet of Lebanon possessed a statute which guaranteed its autonomy. That convention, entered into on June 9 of that year by Turkey and the great powers-Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia-was modified in 1864, received the additional signature of Italy on July 27, 1868, and has since been renewed six times. In 1915, under cover of military necessity, Turkey violated Article 14 of that convention when she invaded Lebanon territory with 40,000 soldiers. The Lebanon, disarmed by the very terms of the international agreement, saw its militia dispersed, its high functionaries sent into exile, and had at last to resign itself to seeing a Turkish Governor, designated by Turkey, taking the place of the ruler who had been recognized by the great powers. It was only two years afterward, at the beginning of 1917, that the Government at Constantinople tried to justify this violation. By a note addressed to its German and Austrian allies it denounced the Treaties of Paris and Berlin, and concluded by announcing the abolition of Lebanon's autonomy. "It was under pressure of the French Government," the note declared, that that autonomy was created." 66 To justify its violations the Turkish Government has systematically garbled historical truth. The initiative of France in 1860 did not tend to create an autonomous government in the Lebanon, since that existed already; but to make it respected by those who were interested in destroying it. The great powers and Turkey herself at that time bore witness to "a state of fact." Ever since 1516, the year of the Ottoman entry into Syria, the Lebanon had not ceased to be governed by its independent emirs. If the civil war of 1860 caused its liberties to be restricted, the powers guaranteed to it in return certain economic advantages represented by dues which Turkey paid regularly until 1876. Since then she has not kept her bargain, and her debt to the Lebanon now amounts to many millions of francs. After the last protocol of Dec. 23, 1912, the people of the Lebanon protested. A petition signed by more than 300,000 persons was addressed to the great powers and presented on Dec. 17, 1913, by my colleague Skandar Ammun and myself, to the French Government. To put an end to the unsolved question, the Government at Constantinople found it simpler to take possession of the Lebanon. The people of that vilayet, who are in a most lamentable state, are incapable of making their rights respected. Lebanonians living abroad, acting through their political committees in Cairo, in New York, in Sao Paulo, in Buenos Aires, and elsewhere, have addressed protests to all the powers in behalf of their country's liberty. Their eyes naturally turn toward the Allies, who are fighting for justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples. They call attention to the extermination with which their country is threatened, and their right to freedom from the yoke which since 1861 has oppressed them. Yonder on the sunny hills of Lebanon, facing the Mediterranean waves, lived a little nation, industrious and pacific. For three years a thick veil has hidden from the eyes of the world the atrocities and nameless horrors which it has endured. What remains of it, now that famine, epidemic, and the "justice" of the Turk have wreaked their will upon it? At least let the ashes of the dead, of those who were our dear ones, rest in ground freed from all servitude! DOGS The Dogs of War By H. Wood Staff Writer of The Exchange Telegraph OGS have now become of such a general and important use in the entire French Army that it is no longer possible to supply the demand. Although numerous societies throughout France for the breeding of dogs send large and regular quotas to the armies, and although every dog pound in France contributes every cur that comes its way, thousands of dogs are still needed. For the numerous duties that have been developed dogs, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, can be utilized. The only qualification necessary is that of an average dog's intelligence, which is sufficient to permit its being trained for one of the regular services now assigned to the canine tribe in the French Army. A dog kennel (and by kennel is meant an establishment large enough for the training of hundreds of dogs) is now just as much the regular equipment of every French army as are its kitchens, its automobile trains, or its munition caissons. The kennel for each army is usually situated in the front line, where the army is fighting. As fast as dogs can be secured and trained they are sent down to the front for active participation in the fighting. Like everything else in the present great struggle, the rôle of the dog has changed and developed to an extent never before dreamed of. Previously war dogs had been trained only for two general purposes-that of carrying aid to the wounded and that of accompanying patrols for the purpose of scenting out the enemy. The Belgians had added one rôle of their own, owing to the development of dog transportation in the countrynamely, that of dog teams for drawing machine guns. While these original rôles are still preserved to a certain extent in the present struggle, the new tasks that have been developed for dogs are vastly more numerous and important. Two of these rôles-those of "liaison " dogs and sentinel dogs-can almost be said to have attained a degree of supreme importance. The "liaison" dogs, or those that carry messages from the first-line fighting troops to the commanding officers in the rear, have perhaps the most dangerous and the most useful rôle. One of the greatest problems developed by the present war-and one that has not yet been successfully solved by any army—is that of keeping up communication between the force attacking and the artillery and commanding posts in the rear. The terrible barrages of artillery fire with which the enemy seeks to cut off and prevent such communication explain the difficulty of the problem-a difficulty that is only equaled by the supreme necessity of a solution. The principal methods up to date have been only ground and surface telephones, (that are laid as fast as the troops advance,) wireless telegraphy, airplanes, and foot runners. Recently the Germans have tried a system of inclosing the message in a shell and shooting it from a trench mortar through the French barrage to the rear. None of these has completely solved the problem, any more than has the use of dogs by the French, but the latter are nevertheless rendering the most extraordinary service. Thousands of dogs are found that have an aptitude for this task. They are given a special training, even down to accustoming them to shell and barrage fire. Once they are given the message to carry to the rear it is seldom if ever that they fail to arrive with it, unless first killed either by shell or machine-gun fire. Hundreds of these dogs have fallen and are still falling victims on the field of honor; but when it is considered that every dog thus killed saves the life of a soldier who would have otherwise been obliged to carry the message rearward, it is readily seen that their deaths are not in vain. Many dogs that fail to show an aptitude for "liaison" work develop into excellent sentinels. The aptitude for this is not so easily developed as might be imagined, owing to the fact that the most valuable services must be rendered at night. Hundreds of dogs that prove first-class sentinels during the day might become nervous, fidgety, and excitable under night conditions at the front. The dogs, however, that arrive at the perfection required take their place on the top of the trench alongside the gun barrel of their master, detect every patrol or every individual soldier that attempts to approach the barbed-wire entanglements in front, and lets his master know in a quiet way, without even tipping off to the enemy, that his approach has been discovered. Although these new rôles have superseded to a large extent the original one of carrying aid to the wounded on the battlefield, dogs are still being trained and used in this work. One of the veterans along this line, who is named "Dick," and who won the Croix de Guerre at Verdun, where his master was killed and himself badly wounded, has just recovered sufficiently to go back into service. He has been attached to a section of the American Ambulance. Another one of these early Red Cross types, who also won the Croix de Guerre, but who was too badly wounded ever to be able to return to service, is being used in a unique way. He has the task of monitor at the Army Dog Hospital at Neuilly, and sees to it that refractory dogs become docile and obedient. If compulsory education for dogs produces the same general increase in intelligence that it is supposed to for humans, the canine population of France, with the close of the war, should be the centre of dog intelligence of the entire world. Breaking News of War Casualties The Australian Commonwealth Government has a humane and considerate method of informing relatives when soldiers lay down their lives on the battlefield. When the military authorities in Melbourne receive word that a soldier has been killed they send a wire to the priest or minister in the town where the nearest relatives to the man reside, and the message, which is addressed to the clergyman, is couched in the following terms: It is officially reported that Sergeant Billjim, No. 1234, Twenty-sixth Battalion, was killed in action on Jan. 27. Please inform Mr. and Mrs. Billjim (father and mother) and convey to them our deep regret, also the sympathy of their Majesties the King and Queen and the Commonwealth Government in the loss that they and the army have sustained by the death of this gallant soldier. The clergyman immediately conveys the sad intelligence, and in a few days the Premier, as head of the State, sends a letter which varies according to the different States. That sent by Crawford Vaughan, Premier of South Australia, who autographs every document, reads as follows: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Billjim: On behalf of the Government of South Australia, I desire to convey to you an expression of sympathy in the loss of your dear son who, it has been officially reported, was killed in action whilst serving with the Imperial Forces in France. The heroic deeds of those who have fallen in fighting for their Empire will never be forgotten, for it is realized that a man can render no greater service than to lay down his life in the cause of liberty, justice, and civilization. [Signature.] Indictment of Montenegro's King Documents Indicating That His Intrigues With Austria Have Forfeited His People's Confidence This noteworthy article, which appeared anonymously in The New Europe, sheds some new light upon the mysterious collapse of Montenegro in the Autumn of 1915, and indicates that King Nicholas has forfeited the confidence of his people. The author writes from the Jugoslav viewpoint, being an advocate of a great South Slavic State centring about Serbia; but after making allowance for this bias, the evidence presented is sufficient to show that the exiled King has placed himself under a moral boycott on the part of all Montenegrins of any political standing." King Nicholas and his family are in France. our HE great war has placed the dynastic principle on its trial. In own country and in Italy the royal houses have indentified themselves, even more closely than before the war, with the aspirations of their peoples, while in Belgium and Serbia King Albert and Prince Alexander have become the symbols of democratic kingship. But, by an irony of fate, our greatest and our smallest ally present us with the reverse of the medal. The world knows how the House of Romanoff came to an end; and, in the present article, we give our readers a glimpse of the dynastic straits to which King Nicholas has reduced himself and his family by a long course of intrigue. Mystery still surrounds the collapse of Montenegro in the Autumn of 1915; but it is now known that the King's third son, Prince Peter, had a secret meeting at Budva in Dalmatia in May of that year with the former Austro-Hungarian Military Attaché, Colonel Hupka; that telephonic communication was at times maintained between Cetinje and Cattaro; that by the King's orders the Montenegrin Army remained absolutely inactive for many months, and that General Jankovitch, the Serbian General, sent to Cetinje at the Czar's instance, and his successor, Colonel Peshitch, were hampered at every turn; that an agent of Prince Danilo negotiated in Switzerland with an agent of the Central Powers for a separate peace during the Bulgarian onslaught; that Prince Peter, on his father's orders, withdrew the Montenegrin troops from the key position of Mount Lovtchen at the critical moment and allowed the Austrians to enter al most unopposed; and that the King, disregarding the unanimous resolution of his Parliament to fight to the end, telegraphed to the Emperor Francis Joseph and Baron Burián. It was only the invading Austrian General's excessive conditions, and the stern attitude of his own officers, that finally determined King Nicholas to retire to Medua and so to Italy-the bulk of his army having meanwhile been caught helplessly in a trap. But, as is well known, Prince Mirko was left behind to reinsure Montenegro with the Central Powers. Once established in France, King Nicholas sought to retrieve his fortunes by offering the post of Premier to Mr. Andrew Radovitch, whose record as a patriot and a democrat is known to every Southern Slav. Subsequent events are related below. Admonished by a Patriot On Aug. 18, 1916, Mr. Radovitch presented a memorandum to King Nicholas in the following terms: The events now taking place in the various theatres of war provide me, as a devoted subject, with the occasion for drawing your Majesty's attention to the future destinies of our country. There is no longer any doubt as to the complete victory of our allies, which will lead to the final fall of the Turkish Empire in Europe, the defeat of Austria-Hungary, and the liberation and union of the Serbian people. More than any other people, it has paid with its blood for its deliverance, which will probably be followed by that of the Croats and Slovenes, who, in agreement with the Serbs, aim at creating a Jugoslav State. This idea represents the ideal of a whole people. who seeks to combat the movement will sooner or later be vanquished, for he will He find himself confronted by a torrent which carries away everything in its path. It is conceivable that, solely out of regard for the august person of your Majesty, Montenegro might be re-established, while the other Jugoslav territories formed a State under the sceptre of the Karageorgevitch. In the most favorable circumstances Montenegro would expand in Herzegovina as far as the Narenta, and would form, with Rugusa, the Bocche di Cattaro, and Skutari, a Stateof about a million inhabitants. The country is peopled by the most energetic elements to be found among the Serbs, but as its richness does not correspond to the spirit and enterprise of the people, discontent has sprung up, and from day to day the desire for union with its brethren of prosperous Serbia and Bosnia increases. After this war it will be very difficult to govern in all countries. Democracy will become dangerous, and will shatter like a torrent all obstacles in its way. The statesmen will be faced by the heavy task of guiding it prudently, in order to prevent overthrow and upheaval. There is no doubt that the events which took place in our country before and after the catastrophe will render Montenegro more difficult to govern than any other State; to this must be added the recent internment of the Montenegrins, and the famine to which a large part of our unhappy population will inevitably succumb. At the best, financial union will have to be followed by military and political union with Serbia or the Jugoslav State. But despite this imperious necessity, excited spirits in the two Serb States will leave no means untried to produce union, so that they would become the theatre of every kind of intrigue, such as our common enemies would encourage. Instead of the peace and wellbeing so amply merited by the Serbian people after so many sacrifices, discord and trouble would prevail. Abdication Tactfully Suggested The issue of such a situation can easily be foreseen, especially after the reign of your Majesty. You would find it impossible to accept the exorbitant demands of democracy, and would end, amid discontent, a reign which, especially during the first forty-five years, has been rich in glory. Recent events, however, need to be effaced by a striking act such as would worthily crown your Majesty's reign. Montenegro has, for many centuries, been the intrepid champion of Serbian liberty and the Slav vanguard toward the West. The day when, with God's help, the Jugoslav lands are liberated, this task will have been gloriously achieved. Your Majesty's great ancestor, the greatest of Serbian poets, the Prince Bishop of Montenegro, Peter Petrovitch Njegosh, offered to the Ban Jelashitch, a Croat and a Catholic, to place himself at the head of the Jugoslav State. Your predecessor, Prince Danilo, placed his throne at the disposal of Prince Michael, solely in order to realize union of the Serbs. Your Majesty in your youth gave free play to your patriotic sentiments in the hymn, "Onamo, Onamo," so dear to all Serbs, and in your works, "The Empress of the Balkans" and "The Poet and the Vila." Your Majesty has kindled the national conscience of our people and inspired it with the sacred idea of realizing the solemn vow of every Serb. The happy moment has come for your Majesty to realize this dream, and to leave behind you one of the proudest names in Serbian history. * * * Your Majesty should become the champion of a strong and compact Jugoslav State, in which the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes would enter, and, perhaps, later on, even the Bulgars, as an autonomous unit. This State should be formed on the model of Italy, with equality of all its members. The Croats are nearer to the Serbs than were the Piedmontese to the Neapolitans; both are more akin to the Slovenes than the Piedmontese to the Sicilians. Until a common code has been drawn up the various provinces must retain their present legislation. The differences between them will soon be smoothed over, as in Italy. The roughness of the Serbs of Serbia and Montenegro will be toned down by the culture and love of order of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes of the Hapsburg monarchy. The Croats cannot wish for an independent Croatia, since it would be under the tutelage of Hungary. For Union of Southern Slavs The memorandum goes on to point out that union must be followed by the fusion of the two Serb dynasties, which is rendered easier by the fact that the Prince Regent of Serbia is also the grandson of King Nicholas. It is therefore suggested that Kings Nicholas and Peter should both abdicate in favor of Prince Alexander, and that the succession to the throne of the united State should be assigned after him to Prince Danilo of Montenegro, and then alternately to the heirs of the two dynasties. The proper procedure would, it is added, be for King Nicholas and his heir to notify to the Czar their acceptance of these proposals, and then to conclude a formal treaty to that effect with the Serbian Government. The Montenegrin people |