BOOK IX: BALKA
RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_ (_Longe Intervallo_).
_February_ 10, 1908.
It is so long since I even thought of this journal that I hardly knowwhere to begin. I always heard that a married man is a pretty busy man;but since I became one, though it is a new life to me, and of a happinessundreamt of, I _know_ what that life is. But I had no idea that thisKing business was anything like what it is. Why, it never leaves me amoment at all to myself--or, what is worse, to Teuta. If people whocondemn Kings had only a single month of my life in that capacity, theywould form an opinion different from that which they hold. It might beuseful to have a Professor of Kingship in the Anarchists'College--whenever it is founded!
Everything has gone on well with us, I am glad to say. Teuta is insplendid health, though she has--but only very lately--practically givenup going on her own aeroplane. It was, I know, a great sacrifice tomake, just as she had become an expert at it. They say here that she isone of the best drivers in the Blue Mountains--and that is in the world,for we have made that form of movement our own. Ever since we found thepitch-blende pockets in the Great Tunnel, and discovered the simpleprocess of extracting the radium from it, we have gone on by leaps andbounds. When first Teuta told me she would "aero" no more for a while, Ithought she was wise, and backed her up in it: for driving an aeroplaneis trying work and hard on the nerves. I only learned then the reasonfor her caution--the usual one of a young wife. That was three monthsago, and only this morning she told me she would not go sailing in theair, even with me, till she could do so "without risk"--she did not meanrisk to herself. Aunt Janet knew what she meant, and counselled herstrongly to stick to her resolution. So for the next few months I am todo my air-sailing alone.
The public works which we began immediately after the Coronation aregoing strong. We began at the very beginning on an elaborate system.The first thing was to adequately fortify the Blue Mouth. Whilst thefortifications were being constructed we kept all the warships in thegulf. But when the point of safety was reached, we made the ships dosentry-go along the coast, whilst we trained men for service at sea. Itis our plan to take by degrees all the young men and teach them thiswise, so that at the end the whole population shall be trained for sea aswell as for land. And as we are teaching them the airship service, too,they will be at home in all the elements--except fire, of course, thoughif that should become a necessity, we shall tackle it too!
We started the Great Tunnel at the farthest inland point of the BlueMouth, and ran it due east at an angle of 45 degrees, so that, whencomplete, it would go right through the first line of hills, coming outon the plateau Plazac. The plateau is not very wide--half a mile atmost--and the second tunnel begins on the eastern side of it. This newtunnel is at a smaller angle, as it has to pierce the second hill--amountain this time. When it comes out on the east side of that, it willtap the real productive belt. Here it is that our hardwood-trees arefinest, and where the greatest mineral deposits are found. This plateauis of enormous length, and runs north arid south round the great bulk ofthe central mountain, so that in time, when we put up a circular railway,we can bring, at a merely nominal cost, all sorts of material up or down.It is on this level that we have built the great factories for warmaterial. We are tunnelling into the mountains, where are the greatdeposits of coal. We run the trucks in and out on the level, and can getperfect ventilation with little cost or labour. Already we are miningall the coal which we consume within our own confines, and we can, if wewish, within a year export largely. The great slopes of these tunnelsgive us the necessary aid of specific gravity, and as we carry an endlesswater-supply in great tubes that way also, we can do whatever we wish byhydraulic power. As one by one the European and Asiatic nations began toreduce their war preparations, we took over their disbanded workmenthough our agents, so that already we have a productive staff of skilledworkmen larger than anywhere else in the world. I think myself that wewere fortunate in being able to get ahead so fast with our preparationsfor war manufacture, for if some of the "Great Powers," as they callthemselves, knew the measure of our present production, they wouldimmediately try to take active measures against us. In such case weshould have to fight them, which would delay us. But if we can haveanother 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 comepeacefully till we have our buildings and machinery complete, we canprepare war-stores and implements for the whole Balkan nations. Andthen--But that is a dream. We shall know in good time.
In the meantime all goes well. The cannon foundries are built andactive. 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, andespecially siege-guns, will come later. And when the great extensionsare complete, and the boring and wire-winding machines are in workingorder, we can go merrily on. I suppose that by that time the whole ofthe upper plateau will be like a manufacturing town--at any rate, we haveplenty of raw material to hand. The haematite mines seem to beinexhaustible, and as the raising of the ore is cheap and easy by meansof our extraordinary water-power, and as coal comes down to the plateauby its own gravity on the cable-line, we have natural advantages whichexist hardly anywhere else in the world--certainly not all together, ashere. That bird's eye view of the Blue Mouth which we had from theaeroplane when Teuta saw that vision of the future has not been in vain.The aeroplane works are having a splendid output. The aeroplane is alarge and visible product; there is no mistaking when it is there! Wehave already a large and respectable aerial fleet. The factories forexplosives are, of course, far away in bare valleys, where accidentaleffects are minimized. So, too, are the radium works, wherein unknowndangers may lurk. The turbines in the tunnel give us all the power wewant at present, and, later on, when the new tunnel, which we call the"water tunnel," which is already begun, is complete, the available powerwill be immense. All these works are bringing up our shipping, and weare in great hopes for the future.
So much for our material prosperity. But with it comes a larger life andgreater hopes. The stress of organizing and founding these great worksis practically over. As they are not only self-supporting, but largelyproductive, all anxiety in the way of national expenditure is minimized.And, more than all, I am able to give my unhampered attention to thosematters of even more than national importance on which the ultimatedevelopment, if not the immediate strength, of our country must depend.
I am well into the subject of a great Balkan Federation. This, it turnsout, has for long been the dream of Teuta's life, as also that of thepresent Archimandrite of Plazac, her father, who, since I last touchedthis journal, having taken on himself a Holy Life, was, by will of theChurch, the Monks, and the People, appointed to that great office on theretirement of Petrof Vlastimir.
Such a Federation had long been in the air. For myself, I had seen itsinevitableness from the first. The modern aggressions of the DualNation, interpreted by her past history with regard to Italy, pointedtowards the necessity of such a protective measure. And now, when Serviaand Bulgaria were used as blinds to cover her real movements toincorporate with herself as established the provinces, once Turkish,which had been entrusted to her temporary protection by the Treaty ofBerlin; when it would seem that Montenegro was to be deprived for alltime of the hope of regaining the Bocche di Cattaro, which she had acentury ago won, and held at the point of the sword, until a Great Powerhad, under a wrong conviction, handed it over to her neighbouringGoliath; when the Sandjack of Novi-Bazar was threatened with the fatewhich seemed to have already overtaken Bosnia and Herzegovina; whengallant little Montenegro was already shut out from the sea by theoctopus-like grip of Dalmatia crouching along her western shore; whenTurkey was dwindling down to almost ineptitude; when Greece was almost abyword, and when Albania as a nation--though still nominally subject--wasof such unimpaired virility
that there were great possibilities of herfuture, it was imperative that something must happen if the Balkan racewas not to be devoured piecemeal by her northern neighbours. To the endof ultimate protection I found most of them willing to make defensivealliance.
And as the true defence consists in judicious attack, I have no doubtthat an alliance so based must ultimately become one for all purposes.Albania was the most difficult to win to the scheme, as her owncomplications with her suzerain, combined with the pride andsuspiciousness of her people, made approach a matter of extreme caution.It was only possible when I could induce her rulers to see that, nomatter 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 eyesto the fact that German lust of enlargement lay behind Austria's advance.At and before that time expansion was the dominant idea of the threeGreat Powers of Central Europe. Russia went eastward, hoping to gatherto herself the rich north-eastern provinces of China, till ultimately sheshould dominate the whole of Northern Europe and Asia from the Gulf ofFinland to the Yellow Sea. Germany wished to link the North Sea to theMediterranean by her own territory, and thus stand as a flawless barrieracross 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-speakingprovinces. Thus Austria, of course kept in ignorance of her neighbour'sultimate aims, had to extend towards the south. She had been barred inher western movement by the rise of the Irredentist party in Italy, andconsequently had to withdraw behind the frontiers of Carinthia, Carniola,and Istria.
My own dream of the new map was to make "Balka"--the BalkanFederation--take in ultimately all south of a line drawn from the Isle ofSerpents to Aquileia. There would--must--be difficulties in the carryingout of such a scheme. Of course, it involved Austria giving up Dalmatia,Istria, and Sclavonia, as well as a part of Croatia and the HungarianBanat. On the contrary, she might look for centuries of peace in thesouth. But it would make for peace so strongly that each of the Statesimpinging on it would find it worth while to make a considerablesacrifice to have it effected. To its own integers it would offer alasting settlement of interests which at present conflicted, and a sharein a new world-power. Each of these integers would be absolutelyself-governing and independent, being only united for purposes of mutualgood. I did not despair that even Turkey and Greece, recognizing thatbenefit and safety would ensue without the destruction or even minimizingof individuality, would, sooner or later, come into the Federation. Thematter is already so far advanced that within a month the various rulersof the States involved are to have a secret and informal meeting.Doubtless some larger plan and further action will be then evolved. Itwill be an anxious time for all in this zone--and outside it--till thismatter is all settled. In any case, the manufacture of war material willgo on until it is settled, one way or another.