I think myself that we
were fortunate in being able to get ahead so fast with our preparations
for war manufacture, for if some of the "Great Powers," as they call
themselves, knew the measure of our present production, they would
immediately try to take active measures against us. In such case we
should have to fight them, which would delay us. But if we can have
another year untroubled, we shall, so far as war material is concerned,
be able to defy any nation in the world. And if the time may only come
peacefully till we have our buildings and machinery complete, we can
prepare war-stores and implements for the whole Balkan nations. And
then--But that is a dream. We shall know in good time. In the meantime all goes well. The cannon foundries are built and
active. We are already beginning to turn out finished work. Of course,
our first guns are not very large, but they are good. The big guns, and
especially siege-guns, will come later. And when the great extensions
are complete, and the boring and wire-winding machines are in working
order, we can go merrily on. I suppose that by that time the whole of
the upper plateau will be like a manufacturing town--at any rate, we have
plenty of raw material to hand. The haematite mines seem to be
inexhaustible, and as the raising of the ore is cheap and easy by means
of our extraordinary water-power, and as coal comes down to the plateau
by its own gravity on the cable-line, we have natural advantages which
exist hardly anywhere else in the world--certainly not all together, as
here. That bird's eye view of the Blue Mouth which we had from the
aeroplane when Teuta saw that vision of the future has not been in vain. The aeroplane works are having a splendid output. The aeroplane is a
large and visible product; there is no mistaking when it is there! We
have already a large and respectable aerial fleet. The factories for
explosives are, of course, far away in bare valleys, where accidental
effects are minimized. So, too, are the radium works, wherein unknown
dangers may lurk. The turbines in the tunnel give us all the power we
want at present, and, later on, when the new tunnel, which we call the
"water tunnel," which is already begun, is complete, the available power
will be immense. All these works are bringing up our shipping, and we
are in great hopes for the future. So much for our material prosperity. But with it comes a larger life and
greater hopes. The stress of organizing and founding these great works
is practically over. As they are not only self-supporting, but largely
productive, all anxiety in the way of national expenditure is minimized. And, more than all, I am able to give my unhampered attention to those
matters of even more than national importance on which the ultimate
development, if not the immediate strength, of our country must depend. I am well into the subject of a great Balkan Federation. This, it turns
out, has for long been the dream of Teuta's life, as also that of the
present Archimandrite of Plazac, her father, who, since I last touched
this journal, having taken on himself a Holy Life, was, by will of the
Church, the Monks, and the People, appointed to that great office on the
retirement of Petrof Vlastimir. Such a Federation had long been in the air. For myself, I had seen its
inevitableness from the first. The modern aggressions of the Dual
Nation, interpreted by her past history with regard to Italy, pointed
towards the necessity of such a protective measure. And now, when Servia
and Bulgaria were used as blinds to cover her real movements to
incorporate with herself as established the provinces, once Turkish,
which had been entrusted to her temporary protection by the Treaty of
Berlin; when it would seem that Montenegro was to be deprived for all
time of the hope of regaining the Bocche di Cattaro, which she had a
century ago won, and held at the point of the sword, until a Great Power
had, under a wrong conviction, handed it over to her neighbouring
Goliath; when the Sandjack of Novi-Bazar was threatened with the fate
which seemed to have already overtaken Bosnia and Herzegovina; when
gallant little Montenegro was already shut out from the sea by the
octopus-like grip of Dalmatia crouching along her western shore; when
Turkey was dwindling down to almost ineptitude; when Greece was almost a
byword, and when Albania as a nation--though still nominally subject--was
of such unimpaired virility that there were great possibilities of her
future, it was imperative that something must happen if the Balkan race
was not to be devoured piecemeal by her northern neighbours. To the end
of ultimate protection I found most of them willing to make defensive
alliance. And as the true defence consists in judicious attack, I have no doubt
that an alliance so based must ultimately become one for all purposes. Albania was the most difficult to win to the scheme, as her own
complications with her suzerain, combined with the pride and
suspiciousness of her people, made approach a matter of extreme caution. It was only possible when I could induce her rulers to see that, no
matter how great her pride and valour, the magnitude of northern advance,
if unchecked, must ultimately overwhelm her. I own that this map-making was nervous work, for I could not shut my eyes
to the fact that German lust of enlargement lay behind Austria's advance. At and before that time expansion was the dominant idea of the three
Great Powers of Central Europe. Russia went eastward, hoping to gather
to herself the rich north-eastern provinces of China, till ultimately she
should dominate the whole of Northern Europe and Asia from the Gulf of
Finland to the Yellow Sea. Germany wished to link the North Sea to the
Mediterranean by her own territory, and thus stand as a flawless barrier
across Europe from north to south. When Nature should have terminated the headship of the Empire-Kingdom,
she, as natural heir, would creep southward through the German-speaking
provinces. Thus Austria, of course kept in ignorance of her neighbour's
ultimate aims, had to extend towards the south. She had been barred in
her western movement by the rise of the Irredentist party in Italy, and
consequently had to withdraw behind the frontiers of Carinthia, Carniola,
and Istria. My own dream of the new map was to make "Balka"--the Balkan
Federation--take in ultimately all south of a line drawn from the Isle of
Serpents to Aquileia. There would--must--be difficulties in the carrying
out of such a scheme. Of course, it involved Austria giving up Dalmatia,
Istria, and Sclavonia, as well as a part of Croatia and the Hungarian
Banat. On the contrary, she might look for centuries of peace in the
south. But it would make for peace so strongly that each of the States
impinging on it would find it worth while to make a considerable
sacrifice to have it effected.