MARS AND THE LILLIPUTIANS

If the latest reports emanating from the Near East are to be believed, another periodic Balkan crisis is at hand. Jugo-Slavia buzzes with rumors of an Albanian invasion, and fighting, which had broken out along the Salonikan frontier between Greek and Bulgarian troops, has just been halted by a truce Now Greece has sent a twenty-four hour ultimatum to her aggressive neighbor demanding reparations.

Time was when such news would have been the signal for a general alarm. Incidents like the burning of Smyrna or the Corfu assassinations monopolized the front pages of the large journals for days, while editorial Cassandras warned their readers that they were standing upon the brink of another world conflict.

Apparently, the cry of wolf has been raised too often, however. Europe is more intent upon carrying out the terms of the Locarno treaties than in mixing up in the latest Balkan row, and the American press pursues the even tenor of its ways. Nowadays murders, assassinations and ultimate flying back and forth among the hot tempered members of the Balkan family remind one more of a mock-heroic farce or a travesty on the art of war, than a serious disturbance.