NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IF modern war is fast, modern peace redresses the balance by its slowness. Still, the condition of semi-peace, tempered by occasional alarums and excursions and assaults Oil fortified places, which has prevailed for the last few months is, as the soldier said, gradually losing "its sanguinary character." During the week a real step in advance has been made by a truce or armistice for a week certain, with an option of continuance, which has been arranged at the Tchatalja lines between the Bulgarians and the Turks. With the situation as a whole we have dealt elsewhere, but must note here the triangular character of the dispute between the Allies. Bulgaria is quarrelling with Greece, and Servia with both of them. The situation gives an opportunity for just the hind of intrigue and counter-plot in which the peoples of the Near East delight, and at which they are such adepts. The Balkans, indeed, might be described as the last refuge of melodrama and the tragedy of intrigue.
