Powers Will Act To Prevent War.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 8, 1912:
Agree on Steps in Balkan States and in Turkey, but Danger Is Still Great.
FERDINAND FEARS TO WEAKEN
May Be Assassinated If He Changes His Attitude — Pope Exhorts to Peace — Turks Still Expect War.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Tuesday, Oct. 8.— The outstanding features of the Balkan situation are the complete agreement of the powers over their course of action and the news that Turkey has anticipated the demand of the powers by promising to carry out the scheme formulated in 1880 by the international commission on Eastern Rumelia.
    The Balkan States have not replied to this proposal, but it is indicated from Sofia that unless the reforms are radical and are guaranteed by the powers war must ensue.
    The question of guarantees is apparently becoming the crux of the situation. It is recalled that this is not the first time that Turkey has made such promises, and the fact that the scheme it is now proposed to put into operation was drawn up twenty-two years ago is remembered.
    Great Britain announced that she accepted the French Premier's proposal for joint action on Sunday, and there is apparently no foundation for French criticisms of Great Britain's delay in acquiescing in M. Poincaré's plan. As a matter of fact, the French proposals did not reach London until Sunday evening, and the acceptance was telegraphed to Paris an hour later.
    The procedure adopted by the powers will be as follows: Russia and Austria will to-day (Tuesday) warn Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece that no change in the Balkan status quo will be permitted, and all five great powers will call upon Turkey to grant satisfactory reforms in Macedonia.
    The Daily Mail says it understands that there is no justification for assertions that differences of opinion on any question of principle have developed between the powers. As to the terms of the representations, the note to Turkey as originally drafted by M. Poincaré has undergone some modifications, but the modifications were not those which have been attributed to the British Foreign Office.
    Sir Edward Grey's statement yesterday in Parliament seems to have done little to allay the prevailing anxiety. He spoke of the state of affairs as "very critical," but expressed the belief that the war would be localized in the event of the failure of the powers to prevent it. He was not apparently in a position to state that the tension was yet relaxed.
    According to an authoritative statement from Turkish sources, the Porte's reform scheme may be regarded as a measure of decentralization but not of autonomy, and presupposes an Ottoman Governor General for Macedonia. If this is so, there is considerable doubt whether it will prove acceptable to the Balkan States, inasmuch as they are demanding virtual autonomy.
    A Daily Telegraph correspondent had a conversation yesterday with the Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonoff, on the train between Paris and Liege. M. Sazonoff said: "I am a little more hopeful than I was. I can hardly put more optimism into my words."
    The Daily News's Rome correspondent says the Pope presided yesterday morning at a special session of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. The text of an encyclical letter to be addressed to the Catholics of the Balkan States exhorting them to strive toward peace, was approved.
    At Lloyd's yesterday 8 guineas per cent. was quoted to insure cinematograph operators proceeding to the Near East against death by "accident." The period covered by the insurance is six months.