p. 4 | The Terror on Europe’s Threshold by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 11, 1909

“The Terror on Europe’s Threshold”

By C. M. S.

ONE of the most striking articles that has appeared in the public prints in many years is the article published in the November issue of Everybody’s Magazine, written by E. Alexander Powell, F. R. G. S., entitled “The Terror on Europe’s Threshold.” Mr. Powell, who was sent to Europe by the publishers of that magazine, made a tour through Austria, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia, Germany, and Italy, studying the delicate adjustments of the exceedingly intricate situation there existing, and has written an article which every student of the Eastern question will find intensely interesting. He writes as an observing man of the world; but the student of prophecy can readily see in the developments which he portrays the mobilization of the forces that are to play the chief part in the closing act of this world’s history. It is impossible to give here more than a brief summary of the article.

Mr. Powell makes no secret of his belief that the occupant of the Vatican is sedulously manipulating the politics of Europe with a view to the establishment of a mighty Roman empire. Five men, he says, hold the destiny of Europe in their hands. These are, the king of England, the Russian foreign minister, the emperor of Germany, the heir presumptive to the Austrian throne (Archduke Franz Ferdinand), and the papal secretary of state.

Although there are five of these men in whose hands the destiny of Europe trembles, Mr. Powell declares that “all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon.” On the one side will be ranged Germany, Austria-Hungary, and perhaps rejuvenated Turkey, all under the leading of Emperor William of Germany; on the other side, Great Britain, with “disrupted France and bankrupt Russia, with Portugal and Spain thrown in to make up good measure.” “Italy,” he says, “when it comes to forming in battle array, will go over to England,” in spite of the fact that nominally she is now joined with Germany and Austria in the triple alliance.

Germany’s isolation, brought about chiefly through British diplomacy, is the irritating factor in the case; and England’s threat to erect a tariff wall around all her own possessions, with the probability that many German manufacturers will be forced into bankruptcy through inability to compete in British markets, adds to the irritation and the certainty of trouble. By ententes, rapprochements, understandings, and marriages between reigning families, Britain has succeeded in making Germany’s isolation practically complete, with the one exception in the case of Austria. This, with the prospect of a British tariff on imports, and the fact that Germany must find room for her annual increase of two million new citizens, makes her condition desperate. That is why it is that German officers and soldiers have one toast to which they drink at every meal—Der tag, the day, meaning the day when they will try conclusions with Britain in battle; that is why it is that Germany is increasing her navy with such feverish haste; and that is why Austria, her ally, who has so little practical use for a fleet of her own, is now building thirteen huge battle-ships. Says Mr. Powell:—

Every thinking Englishman is convinced that Germany meditates a sudden attack on England, and when that attack comes, as it surely will, Britain’s only hope of salvation lies in her fleet. . . . This year British naval estimates call for an expenditure of eighty million dollars, and Germany has raised hers four millions more. Look at it any way you will, there can be but one end to a race which is impoverishing both nations, and that end is war. If England wins, she will have secured herself for half a century to come. If Germany triumphs, her victory will give her the position which England holds now; it will make Germany mistress of Europe; it will place her in a position where she can make free trade in England one of the terms of peace; it will give her a free hand in the Balkans, in Mesopotamia, and in Persia; will give her the pick of England’s colonies oversea, and a billion dollars indemnity with which to build a navy that will overawe the world.

England knows all this, and is straining every nerve to meet the emergency; she is building war-ships to the limit of her ability, and is teaching her schoolboys to shoot and to practise the tactics of battle.

With the certainty that a European clash is inevitable, the part of the Papacy in it becomes to us of the greatest significance. Austria is the most Catholic country in Europe; Germany is nominally Protestant. Will Catholic Austria fight for Protestant Germany, against Catholic Italy and Protestant England? If she will, Germany might look for success; if she will not, Germany’s program is impossible. Who will decide the question? Mr. Powell declares it will be decided by the Catholic Church. Let us see how he proves his assertion:—

In Franz Ferdinand [heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary] you have before you one of the most remarkable, as he is one of the most mysterious, figures in the Europe of to-day. . . . He is a clerical of the clericals. If he had not been born an archduke, he would have been a Jesuit. And it is not too much to say that in his every action one may detect the shrewd and masterful workings of the Society of Jesus. Whether Austria throws in her lot with Protestant Germany, whether she goes to war with Catholic Italy or France, whether she gives her assistance to her ancient ally, England, depends ultimately on the subtle and brilliant diplomats who direct the destinies of the Church of Rome. What they suggest, that will Franz Ferdinand do.

In him the Church of Rome sees an instrument to regain its old-time influence in the European concert, perhaps even to restore to His Holiness the temporal power which Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel snatched from the church, the loss of which has made the Pope the prisoner of the Vatican. Already the empire building has begun; the first step was the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In every city and village and hamlet in the Balkans will you find these missionaries of empire—somber Jesuits, lean-featured Trappists, cowled and sandaled Franciscans, preaching, praying, proselytizing. Keen-sighted and wary, consummate diplomatists every one, already their influence in the Balkan peninsula has become enormous. . . . They it is who are the real pioneers of Austrian expansion.

The writer shows that it is these emissaries of the Catholic Church who are urging Austria on to the possession of what Russia will never permit her to obtain without a tremendous struggle—that is, the Dardanelles; also to the control of the Suez Canal, which England will never permit without the greatest struggle in her history. But if the Catholic Church sees definite prospect of regaining temporal dominion through a coalition of the forces of Germany and Austria, she would not hesitate a moment to urge on the program, even though the bloodiest war in the history of the world should follow. With England, the citadel of the English Catholic Church, humiliated, cut off from India, and deprived of her dependencies; with Russia, the supporter of the Greek Catholic Church, humiliated and crumpled back

from the Dardanelles; with Italy, whose king took from her the Papal States and the control of the city of Rome, humiliated, and forced to concede her spiritual and temporal sovereignty, while she herself sweeps on toward universal rulership, Rome could gloat over her success and her prospects, and declare of herself, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” When she had accomplished that part of her program, the way would then be open for her to do for the land of Luther what she had done for the land of Episcopalianism. Germany, in yoking up with Austria to attack England, would be playing directly into the hands of Rome and insuring her own humiliation as the culmination of the Papacy’s program.

It can thus readily be seen what a tremendous influence the Catholic Church is wielding at the present time in the Old World, and how, through her own ambition for world power, she is spurring on the forces that are to meet in the death-struggle of Armageddon.

C. M. S.