THE general European situation is well summed up as follows in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times illustrated weekly, sent us by the courtesy of Elder C. E. Leland:— In spite of all the earnest appeals from the peace advocates of to-day for peace on earth, it looks as if we might be on the very edge of another great struggle between the nations of the earth. We do not mean to play the rôle of the alarmist nor to raise the notion that this war will break out to-morrow or next year, or perhaps within seven years, or even at all, for sure. But we do think this it is not unwise to take due cognizance of the conditions that exist, and point out the disturbing elements in world politics. The war between Italy and Turkey may seem a small affair, and yet it is keeping every head of every government and every chancellery in Europe awake nights and busy days, fearful of what may break out of that insignificant brush over Tripoli. We have the heads of European governments running from one capital to another on secret missions. Italy has possessed herself of certain islands in the Levant which belong to Turkey. Every government in Europe is hoping against hope that this war may cease, and yet not one of them dares touch the subject of reconciliation with its little finger or with the end of a forty-foot pole. Turkey has been left isolated, Great Britain not daring to interfere in her behalf, Germany having cast her off, and Austria on the west ready to pounce upon the Balkan States, and Russia on the east ready to cross the Caucasus. There is lined up on one side in a loosely constructed entente Great Britain, France, and Russia, and on the other Germany, Austria, and Italy. Germany is afraid to advise Italy to make peace with Turkey except on Italy’s own terms, for fear the triple alliance may go to pieces; and France dares not say a word on behalf of Turkey, lest the threads that tie Russia to the French cause may be disrupted. Meantime Turkey sits grimly defiant upon the Bosporus, pointing out to Great Britain, and to France, too, the danger of angering the 300,000,000 followers of Mohammed, who look upon the sultan of Turkey as the earthly head of their religion. These Mohammedans are fanatical in their religious bigotry, and Great Britain has to deal with them in India and Africa, and France has to keep them quiet in Algeria and Morocco. Meantime Austria inaugurates a new military scheme which doubles its effective army, raising the peace standard to 350,000 and the war footing to 1,500,000. On the other side Russia votes $645,000,000 on a plan to construct in the short period of five years a new navy that, if the money is properly spent, will give the great northern bear really the greatest naval force in the world. For centuries the Muscovite empire has been hemmed in from open harbors, and thereby prevented from developing oversea commerce. Germany blocks her way on the Baltic, Turkey on the Euxine, Great Britain on the Persian Gulf, and Japan on the Pacific coast. Since the days of Peter the Great, Russia has been trying to reach the open sea, but has been checked in every attempt. What is the purpose of the new navy Russia proposes to create? Is it that she sees in the isolation of Turkey an opportunity to accomplish the purpose she had in mind when the Crimean war was waged by the allied forces of Italy, France, and Great Britain to keep the great empire from securing Constantinople, and was revived some forty years ago in the Balkan war, when with Russia and her armies at the walls of Constantinople the powers again stepped in and forbade her to enjoy the fruits of victory? If it is, then Armageddon is about to be charted.