This much I should like to say, that we all feel in the Government that the House has treated the Government with great confidence through the Balkan Crisis.

Viscount WOLMER asked whether the recent further postponement of the promulgation of the Government's land policy is again due to the Balkan Crisis?

Powers with regard to the Balkan Crisis, has, of course, added greatly both to the work of the Foreign Office and the work of the respective Embassies.

Balkan Crisis of 1908—Attitude of Great Britain, 1811.

We all recollect the Great Balkan Crisis.

Does my right hon. Friend accept that, to many people inside and outside the House, it is not only incomprehensible but scandalous that we can once again devote two days to the European Communities (Amendment) Bill while ignoring the grave Crisis in the Balkans, which gets worse each week?

There have indeed been calls from across the pond for Britain to take a European lead in resolving the Balkan Crisis, and of course the Conservative side of the House in particular is anxious that Britain should continue to be seen as a reliable ally of the United States.

Peering into the future, we need only look at the deteriorating Crisis in the Balkans.

In the 1870s, Macedonia was the boiling point - the potential Bosnia, or killing field - that led to the Balkan Crisis of the time.

I draw to her attention early-day motion 521: [That this House congratulates the relief agencies on their efforts in response to the Crisis in the Balkans, but regrets the delay in coordinating a response which left many people frustrated and angry that they were unable to offer personal contributions to the disaster relief effort; and calls upon the Government to create in partnership with NGOs a permanent disaster relief contact point with a published emergency hotline phone number where offers of assistance can be logged while a substantive response is coordinated.

As has been said, the consideration of wider defence problems has been stymied to a considerable degree by the natural tendency to focus upon the Crisis in the Balkans.

A recent example of such differential treatment was the special exercise to evacuate and provide protection to Kosovo Albanians during the Crisis in the Balkans.

If the Home Office wishes to make special arrangements aimed at providing protection to particular groups seeking shelter in the United Kingdom, such as the Bosnians and Kosovars who were granted exceptional leave to remain during the recent Crisis in the Balkans, it is difficult to understand how that would require an exception.

If the Home Office wishes to make special arrangements aimed at providing protection for particular groups seeking shelter in the United Kingdom, such as the Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians who were granted exceptional leave to remain during the recent Crisis in the Balkans, it is difficult to understand how that would require any exceptions.

The Balkan Crisis obliged us to direct more of our attention to conflict prevention and crisis management.

No account was taken of the possible expansion of Crisis in the Balkans, now in Sierra Leone, and possibly in Zimbabwe.

Let us remember that during our involvement in the early part of the Balkan Crisis, it was clearly understood that the French had disclosed secrets.

If there is a Crisis in the Balkans, for example, and the Us is not willing to provide assistance and NATO is not willing to intervene, do we just turn our backs?

He posed this question: "If there is a Crisis in the Balkans, for example, and the Us is not willing to provide assistance and NATO is not willing to intervene, do we just turn our backs?

An example that is worth recalling in the latest response to the Balkan Crisis is the continuing military presence designed to maintain confidence in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.

What effect might starting negotiations in the early 1990s with Slovenia have had on the development of the Balkan Crisis?

Nobody should be under any illusions that we are considering the most serious Crisis in the Balkans since the end of the Kosovo war.

So far, the failure to produce an international initiative is ominously reminiscent of the early stages of the Balkan Crisis of the 1990s.

One has only to look at the Crisis in the Balkans to understand that.

Right now we might be on the verge of the biggest Crisis in the Balkans since the early 1990s.

I am afraid that a Crisis in the Balkans could be closer than we think.

Does the Minister recognise that in consequence the potential Crisis in the Balkans extends way beyond Kosovo and includes now Bosnia and Herzegovina where the Serb authorities and Republika Srpska intend to hold a referendum preparatory to a unilateral declaration of independence and the break up of the Bosnian state?

They failed against Serbia during the Balkan Crisis, and they failed against Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

In 1999 or 2000, I think, when we were looking at the Crisis in the Balkans, we were saying, “Isn't it horrific that this goes on on Europe's borders?