ORD.

[From the Messaggero of Rome, Jan. 6, 1915.]

DURAZZO, Jan. 4.

Yesterday the rebels by a letter signed "The Mussulman Committee"
demanded that the Ministers of Servia and France be consigned to them.

At 6:30 o'clock the attack against the city began.

Essad Pasha visited the trenches, notified the Italian Legation that
there was great danger, and demanded all possible assistance.

At 2:30 a few cannon shots from the Misurata and the Sardegna made
themselves heard, defending the city, silencing in this way the rebel
musket fire.

The Italian colony and the legations of Italy, France, and Servia are
embarked on the ships Sardegna and Misurata.

TO BELGIUM

By EDEN PHILLPOTTS.

[From King Albert's Book.]

Champion of human honor, let us lave
Your feet and bind your wounds on bended knee,
Though coward hands have nailed you to the tree
And shed your innocent blood and dug your grave,
Rejoice and live! Your oriflamme shall wave
While man has power to perish and be free--
A golden flame of holiest liberty,
Proud as the dawn and as the sunset brave.

Belgium, where dwelleth reverence for right
Enthroned above all ideals; where your fate
And your supernal patience and your might
Most sacred grow in human estimate,
You shine a star above this stormy night,
Little no more, but infinitely great.

[Illustration: The Balkan States, After the Second Balkan War.]

The War in the Balkans

General Aspect of the Near East on Aug. 1, 1914.

By Adamantios Th. Polyzoides, Editor The Atlantis.

The opening of the great European war found the Balkan Peninsula in
the political shape given to it by the Treaty of Bucharest, Aug. 10,
(old style, July 28,) 1913.

This treaty was signed in the Rumanian capital immediately after the
second Balkan war by Greece, Rumania, Bulgaria, Servia, and
Montenegro, and, considered in its essential points, was the handiwork
of European diplomacy, at whose instance Rumania had entered the war,
with the avowed purpose to re-establish the destroyed Balkan
equilibrium. Europe had two reasons for interfering in what was then
considered as the final settlement of the Balkan question. In the
first place, she wanted to reaffirm her authority and predominance
over the Balkan States, and, in the second, she considered it as an
indispensable part of her Near Eastern policy never to allow mu