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diff --git a/39688.txt b/39688.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ebb827 --- /dev/null +++ b/39688.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5856 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Balkan Peninsula, by Frank Fox + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Balkan Peninsula + +Author: Frank Fox + +Release Date: May 13, 2012 [EBook #39688] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALKAN PENINSULA *** + + + + +Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Margo Romberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE BALKAN PENINSULA + + + + +AGENTS + +AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + +AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE + +CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. + ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO + +INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. + MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY + 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA + + + + +[Illustration: A BALKAN PEASANT] + + + + +THE BALKAN PENINSULA + +BY + +FRANK FOX + +AUTHOR OF + +"AUSTRALIA," "BULGARIA," "SWITZERLAND," ETC. + +PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK, LTD. +4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. + +1915 + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book was written in the spring of 1914, just before Germany plunged +the world into the horrors of a war which she had long prepared, taking +as a pretext a Balkan incident--the political murder of an Austrian +prince by an Austrian subject of Serb nationality. Germany having +prepared for war was anxious for an occasion which would range Austria +by her side. If Germany had gone to war at the time of the Agadir +incident, she knew that Italy would desert the Triple Alliance, and she +feared for Austria's loyalty. A war pretext which made Austria's +desertion impossible was just the thing for her plans. + +It would be impossible to reshape this book so as to bring within its +range the Great War, begun in the Balkans, and in all human probability +to be decided finally by battles in the Balkans. I let it go out to the +public as impressions of the Balkans dated from the end of 1913. It may +have some value to the student of contemporary Balkan events. + +My impressions of the Balkan Peninsula were chiefly gathered during the +period 1912-13 of the war of the Balkan allies against Turkey, and of +the subsequent war among themselves. I was war correspondent for the +London _Morning Post_ during the war against Turkey and penetrated +through the Balkan Peninsula down to the Sea of Marmora and the lines of +Chatalja. In war-time peoples show their best or their worst. As they +appeared during a struggle in which, at first, the highest feelings of +patriotism were evoked, and afterwards the lowest feelings of greed and +cruelty, the Balkan peoples left me with a steady affection for the +peasants and the common folk generally; a dislike and contempt, which +made few exceptions, for the politicians and priests who governed their +destinies. Perhaps when they settle down to a more peaceful +existence--if ever they do--the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula +will come to average more their qualities, the common people becoming +less simple-minded, obedient, chaste, kind: their leaders learning +wisdom rather than cunning, and getting some sense of the value of truth +and also some sense of ruth to keep them from setting their countrymen +at one another's throats. But at the present time the picture which I +have to put before the reader, with its almost unbelievable +contradictions of courage and gentleness on the one side and cowardly +cruelty on the other, is a true one. + +The true Balkan States are Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania. +Roumania is proud to consider herself a Western State rather than a +semi-Eastern Balkan State, though both her position and her diplomacy +link her closely with Balkan developments. Turkey, of course, cannot be +considered in any sense as a Balkan State though she still holds the +foot of the Balkan Peninsula. Greece has prouder aspirations than to be +considered one of the struggling nationalities of the Balkans and dreams +of a revival of the Hellenic Empire. But in considering the Balkan +Peninsula it is not possible to exclude altogether the Turk, the Greek, +the Roumanian. My aim will be to give a snapshot picture of the Balkan +Peninsula, looking at it as a geographical entity for historical +reference, and to devote more especial attention to the true Balkan +States. + + FRANK FOX. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. The Vexed Balkans 1 + + II. The Turk in the Balkans 19 + + III. The Fall of the Turkish Power 37 + + IV. The Wars of 1912-13 53 + + V. A Chapter in Balkan Diplomacy 78 + + VI. The Troubles of a War Correspondent in + the Balkans 94 + + VII. Jottings from my Balkan Travel Book 124 + +VIII. The Picturesque Balkans 149 + + IX. The Balkan Peoples in Art and Industry 162 + + X. The Future of the Balkans 175 + + Index 207 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FACING PAGE + +A Balkan Peasant _Frontispiece_ + +Trajan's Column in Rome 7 + +The Walls of Constantinople from the Seven Towers 10 + +Sancta Sophia, Constantinople 21 + +King Peter of Serbia 28 + +King Nicolas of Montenegro 33 + +Montenegrin Troops: Weekly Drill and Inspection of +Weapons 35 + +The King of Roumania 39 + +The Shipka Pass 42 + +King Ferdinand of Bulgaria 46 + +King Ferdinand's Bodyguard 48 + +Bulgarian Infantry 53 + +Bulgarian Troops leaving Sofia 60 + +General Demetrieff, the Conqueror at Lule Burgas 69 + +Adrianople: A General View 76 + +Roumanian Soldiers in Bucharest 85 + +Adrianople: View looking across the Great Bridge 88 + +General View of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria 92 + +Sofia: Commercial Road from Commercial Square 101 + +Bucharest: The Roumanian House of Representatives 108 + +General Savoff 117 + +Bulgarian Infantry 124 + +Ox Transport in the Balkans 133 + +A Balkan Peasant Woman 136 + +A Bagpiper 140 + +Some Serbian Peasants 149 + +General View of Sofia 156 + +Bucharest 161 + +A Bulgarian Farm 166 + +Albanian Tribesmen 176 + +Greek Infantry 181 + +Podgorica, upon the Albanian Frontier 188 + +_Sketch Map on page xii._ + +[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA] + + + + +THE BALKAN PENINSULA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VEXED BALKANS + + +The Fates were unkind to the Balkan Peninsula. Because of its position, +it was forced to stand in the path of the greatest racial movements of +the world, and was thus the scene of savage racial struggles, and the +depositary of residual shreds of nations surviving from great defeats or +Pyrrhic victories and cherishing irreconcilable mutual hatreds. As if +that were not enough of ill fortune imposed by geographical position, +the great Roman Empire elected to come from its seat in the Italian +Peninsula to die in the Balkan Peninsula, a long drawn-out death of many +agonies, of many bloody disasters and desperate retrievals. For all the +centuries of which history knows a blood-mist has hung over the Balkans; +and for the centuries before the dawn of written history one may +surmise that there was the same constant struggle of warring races. + +It seems fairly certain that when the Northern peoples moved down from +their gloomy forests towards the Mediterranean littoral to mingle their +blood with the early peoples of the Minoan civilisation and to found the +Grecian and the Roman nations, the chief stream of these fierce hordes +moved down by the valley of the Danube and debouched on the Balkan +Peninsula. Doubtless they fought many a savage battle with the +aborigines in Thessaly and Thrace. Of these battles we have no records, +and no absolute certainty, indeed, that the Mediterranean shore was +colonised by a race from the North, though all the facts that we are +learning now from the researches of modern archaeologists point to that +conclusion. But whatever the prehistoric state of the Balkan Peninsula, +the first sure records from written history show it as a vexed area +peopled by widely different and mutually warring races, and subject +always to waves of war and invasion from the outside. The Slav historian +Jirecek concludes that the Balkan Peninsula was inhabited at the +earliest times known to history by many different tribes belonging to +distinct races--the Thraco-Illyrians, the Thraco-Macedonians, and the +Thraco-Dacians. At the beginning of the third century, the Slavs made +their first appearance and, crossing the Danube, came to settle in the +great plains between the river and the Balkan Mountains. Later, they +proceeded southwards and formed colonies among the Thraco-Illyrians, the +Roumanians, and the Greeks. This Slav emigration went on for several +centuries. In the seventh century of the Christian era a Finno-ugric +tribe reached the banks of the Danube. This tribe came from the Volga, +and, crossing Russia, proceeded towards ancient Moesia, where it took +possession of the north-east territory of the Balkans between the Danube +and the Black Sea. These were the Bulgars or Volgars, near cousins to +the Turks who were to come later. The Bulgars assumed the language of +the Slavs, and some of their customs. The Serbs or Serbians, coming from +the Don River district had been near neighbours of the Volgars or +Bulgars (in the Slav languages "B" and "V" have a way of interchanging), +and were without much doubt closely allied to them in race originally. +Later, they diverged, tending more to the Slav type, whilst the Bulgars +approached nearer to the Turk type. + +There may be traced, then, in the racial history of the Balkans these +race types: a Mediterranean people inhabiting the sea-coast and +possessing a fairly high civilisation, the records of which are being +explored now in the Cretan excavations; an aboriginal people occupying +the hinterland of the coast, not so highly cultivated as the coast +dwellers (who had probably been civilised by Egyptian influences) but +racially akin to them; a Northern people coming from the shores of the +Baltic and the North Sea before the period of written history and +combining ultimately with the people of the coast to found the Grecian +civilisation, leaving in the hinterland, as they passed towards the sea, +detachments which formed other mixed tribes, partly aboriginal, partly +Nordic; various invading peoples of Semitic type from the Levant; the +Romans, the Goths and the Huns, the Slavs and the Tartars, the Bulgars +and the Serbs, the Normans, Saracens, and Turks. Because the Balkan +Peninsula was on the natural path to a warm-water port from the north to +the south of Europe; because it was on the track of invasion and +counter-invasion between Asia and Europe, all this mixture of races was +forced upon it, and as a consequence of the mixture a constant clash of +warfare. There was, too, a current of more peaceful communication for +purposes of trade between the Levant and the Black Sea on the one side +and the peoples of the Baltic Sea on the other side, which flowed in +part along the Balkan Peninsula. + +In _Italy and her Invaders_ Mr. T. Hodgkin suggests: + + During the interval from 540 to 480 B.C. there was a brisk + commercial intercourse between the flourishing Greek colonies on + the Black Sea, Odessos, Istros, Tyras, Olbia and + Chersonesos--places now approximately represented by Varna, + Kustendjix, Odessa, Cherson, and Sebastopol--between these cities + and the tribes to the northward (inhabiting the country which has + been since known as Lithuania), all of whom at the time of + Herodotus passed under the vague generic name of Scythians. By this + intercourse which would naturally pass up the valleys of the great + rivers, especially the Dniester and the Dnieper, and would probably + again descend by the Vistula and the Niemen, the settlements of the + Goths were reached, and by its means the Ionian letter-forms were + communicated to the Goths, to become in due time the magical and + mysterious Runes. + + One fact which lends great probability to this theory is that + undoubtedly, from very early times, the amber deposits of the + Baltic, to which allusion has already been made, were known to the + civilised world; and thus the presence of the trader from the + South among the settlements of the Guttones or Goths is naturally + accounted for. Probably also there was for centuries before the + Christian Era a trade in sables, ermines, and other furs, which + were a necessity in the wintry North and a luxury of kings and + nobles in the wealthier South. In exchange for amber and fur, the + traders brought probably not only golden staters and silver + drachmas, but also bronze from Armenia with pearls, spices, rich + mantles suited to the barbaric taste of the Gothic chieftains. As + has been said, this commerce was most likely carried on for many + centuries. Sabres of Assyrian type have been found in Sweden, and + we may hence infer that there was a commercial intercourse between + the Euxine and the Baltic, perhaps 1300 years before Christ. + +A few leading facts with dates should give a fairly clear impression of +the story of the Balkan Peninsula. About 400 B.C. the Macedonian Empire +was being founded. It represented the uprise of a hinterland Greek +people over the decayed greatness of the coast-dwelling Greeks. At that +time the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula was occupied by the Getae +or Dacians. Phillip of Macedon made an alliance with the Getae. +Alexander the Great of Macedonia thrashed them to subjection and carried +a great wave of invasion into Asia from the Balkan Peninsula. + +[Illustration: TRAJAN'S COLUMN IN ROME + +Commemorates the victories which brought all the Balkan Peninsula under +the Roman sway] + +About the year 110 B.C. the Romans first came to the Balkan Peninsula, +finding it inhabited as regards the south by the Greek peoples, as +regards the north by the Getae or Dacians. The southern people were +quickly subdued: the northern people were never really subdued by the +Romans until the time of Trajan (the first century of the Christian +era). He bridged the Danube with a great military bridge at the spot now +known as Turnu-Severin, and Trajan's Column in Rome commemorated the +victories which brought all the Balkan Peninsula under the Roman sway. +Trajan found that the manners and customs of the Dacians were similar to +those of the Germans. These sturdy Dacians were conquered but not +exterminated by the Romans. Dacia across the Danube was made into a +Roman colony, and the present kingdom of Roumania is supposed to +represent the survival of that colony, which was a mixture of Roman and +Dacian blood. + +In the third century of the Christian era the Goths made their first +appearance in the Balkan Peninsula. The Roman Empire had then entered +into its period of decline. The invasions of the Visigoths, the Huns, +the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards were to come in turn to +overwhelm the Roman civilisation. The Gothic invasion of the Balkan +Peninsula was begun in the reign of the Roman Emperor Phillip. Crossing +the Danube, the Goths ravaged Thrace and laid siege to Marcianople (now +Schumla) without success. In a later invasion the Goths attacked +Philippopolis and captured it after a great defeat of the Roman general, +Decius the younger. Then the Roman Emperor (Decius the elder) himself +took the field and was defeated and killed in a great battle near the +mouth of the Danube (A.D. 251). That may be called the decisive date in +the history of the fall of the Roman Empire. It was destined to retrieve +that defeat, and to shine with momentary glory again for brief +intervals, but the destruction of the Emperor and his army by the Goths +in 251 was the sure presage of the doom of the Roman Power. + +One direct result of the battle in which Decius was slain was to bring +the headquarters of the Roman Empire to the Balkan Peninsula. It was +found that a better stand could be made against the tide of Gothic +invasion from a new capital closer to the Scythian frontier. +Constantinople was planned and built, and became the capital of the +Roman Empire (A.D. 330), and thus brought to the Balkan stage the death +throes of the mightiest world-power that history has known. From that +date it is wise for the sake of clearness to speak of the Roman Empire +as the Greek Empire, though it was some time after its settlement in +Constantinople before it became rather Greek than Roman in character. + +With the issue between the Goths and the Greek Empire, in which peaceful +agreements often interrupted for a while fierce campaigns, I cannot deal +here at any length. It soaked the Balkan Peninsula deep in blood. But it +was only the first of the horrors that were to mark the death of the +Empire. Late in the fourth century of the Christian Era there burst into +the Balkans from the steppes of Astrakhan and the Caucasus--from very +much the same district that was afterwards to supply the Bulgars and the +Serbs--the Tartar hordes of the Huns. Of these Huns there is a vivid +contemporary Gothic account. + + We have ascertained that the nation of the Huns, who surpassed all + others in atrocity, came thus into being. When Filimer, fifth king + of the Goths after their departure from Sweden, was entering + Scythia, with his people, as we have before described, he found + among them certain sorcerer-women, whom they called in their native + tongue Haliorunnas (or Al-runas), whom he suspected and drove forth + from the midst of his army into the wilderness. The unclean spirits + that wander up and down in desert places, seeing these women, made + concubines of them; and from this union sprang that most fierce + people [of the Huns], who were at first little, foul, emaciated + creatures, dwelling among the swamps, and possessing only the + shadow of human speech by way of language. + + With the Alani especially, who were as good warriors as themselves, + but somewhat less brutal in appearance and manner of life, they had + many a struggle, but at length they wearied out and subdued them. + For, in truth, they derived an unfair advantage from the intense + hideousness of their countenances. Nations whom they would never + have vanquished in fair fight fled horrified from those + frightful--faces I can hardly call them, but rather--shapeless + black collops of flesh, with little points instead of eyes. No hair + on their cheeks or chins gives grace to adolescence or dignity to + age, but deep furrowed scars instead, down the sides of their + faces, show the impress of the iron which with characteristic + ferocity they apply to every male child that is born among them, + drawing blood from its cheeks before it is allowed its first taste + of milk. They are little in stature, but lithe and active in their + motions, and especially skilful in riding, broad-shouldered, good + at the use of the bow and arrows, with sinewy necks, and always + holding their heads high in their pride. To sum up, these beings + under the form of man hide the fierce nature of the beast! + +[Illustration: _Sebah & Joaillier_ + +THE WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE FROM THE SEVEN TOWERS] + +Not a lovable people the Huns clearly: and the modern peoples who have +some slight ancestral kinship with them hate to be reminded of the fact. +I remember the fierce indignation which a French war correspondent +aroused in Bulgarian breasts by his description--which had eluded the +censor--of the passage of a great Bulgarian train of ox wagons because +he compared it to the passage of the Huns. + +The Huns were, with the exception of the Persians who had vainly +attacked the Greek States at an earlier period, the first successful +Asiatic invaders of Europe. For a full century they ravaged the Empire, +and the Balkan Peninsula felt the chief force of their barbarian rage. +By the fifth century the waves of the Hun invasions had died away, +leaving distinct traces of the Hunnish race in the Balkans. The Gepidae, +the Lombards, and later the Hungarians and the Tartars then took up the +task of ravaging the unhappy land which as the chief seat of power of +the Greek Empire found itself the first objective of every invader +because of that dignity and yet but poorly protected by that power. +Constantinople was never taken by these barbarians, but at some periods +little else than its walls stood secure against their ravages. + +Meanwhile the first Saracens had appeared in the Peninsula, curiously +enough not as invaders nor as enemies, but as mercenary soldiers in the +army of the Greek Empire fighting against the Goths. To a Gothic +chronicler we are again indebted for a vivid picture of these Saracens, +"riding almost naked into battle, their long black hair streaming in the +wind, wont to spring with a melancholy howl upon their chosen victim in +battle and to suck his life-blood, biting at his throat." Perhaps the +Gothic war correspondent of the day studied picturesqueness more than +accuracy, like some of his modern successors. But, without a doubt, the +first contact with Asiatics, whether Huns or Saracens, gave to the +European peoples a horror and a terror which had never been inspired by +their battles among themselves--battles by no means bloodless or +merciful. As the Asiatic waves of invasion later developed in strength +the unhappy Balkan Peninsula was doomed to feel their full force as they +poured across the Bosphorus from Asia Minor, and across the Danube from +the north-eastern Asiatic steppes. + +It would be vain to attempt to chronicle even in the barest outline all +the horrors inflicted upon the Balkans from the date of the first +invasion of the Huns in the fourth century to the first invasion of the +Turks in the fourteenth century. To say that those ten centuries were +filled with bloodshed suffices. But they also saw the development of the +Balkan nationalities of to-day, and cannot therefore be passed over +without some attention. Let us then glance at each Balkan nation during +that period. + +_Roumania_, inhabited by the people of the old Roman-Dacian colony, +stood full in the way of the Northern invasions of Goths, of Huns, of +Hungarians, of Tartars. It was almost submerged. But in the thirteenth +century the country benefited by the coming of Teutonic and Norman +knights. The two kingdoms or principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia +(which, combined, make up modern Roumania) were founded in this century. + +_Bulgaria._--In the seventh century Slavs had begun to settle in +Bulgaria. The Bulgars or Volgars followed. They were akin to the Tartars +and the Turks. Together Slavs and Bulgars formed the Bulgarian national +type and founded a very robust nation which was almost constantly at war +with the Greek Empire (with its capital at Constantinople). At times +Bulgaria seriously threatened Constantinople and the Greek Empire. A +boastful inscription in the Church of the Forty Martyrs at Tirnovo, the +ancient capital of Bulgaria, records: + + In the year 1230, I, John Asen, Czar and Autocrat of the + Bulgarians, obedient to God in Christ, son of the old Asen, have + built this most worthy church from its foundations, and completely + decked it with paintings in honour of the Forty holy Martyrs, by + whose help, in the 12th year of my reign, when the Church had just + been painted, I set out to Roumania to the war and smote the Greek + army and took captive the Czar Theodore Komnenus with all his + nobles. And all lands have I conquered from Adrianople to Durazzo, + the Greek, the Albanian, and the Serbian land. Only the towns round + Constantinople and that city itself did the Franks hold; but these + too bowed themselves beneath the hand of my sovereignty, for they + had no other Czar but me, and prolonged their days according to my + will, as God had so ordained. For without him no word or work is + accomplished. To him be honour for ever. Amen. + +The wars were carried on under conditions of mutual ferocity which still +rule in Bulgarian-Grecian conflicts. An incident of one campaign was +that the Greek Emperor, Basil, the Bulgar-slayer, having captured a +Bulgarian army, had the eyes torn out of all the men and sent them home +blinded, leaving, however, one eye to every centurion, so that the poor +mutilated wretches might have guides. In the early part of the +fourteenth century a Bulgarian Czar, Michael, almost captured +Constantinople. He formed a league with the Roumanians and the Greeks +against the Serbs, who were at the time promising to become the +paramount power of the peninsula. But Czar Michael was defeated by the +Serbs and Bulgaria became dependent upon Serbia, which was the position +of affairs at the time of the first serious Turkish invasion of the +Balkan Peninsula. + +_Serbia._--Invading tribes of Don Cossacks began to come in great +numbers to the Balkan Peninsula in the sixth century. In the seventh +century they were encouraged by the Greek Empire to settle in Serbia, on +condition of paying tribute to Constantinople. They set up a kind of +aristocratic republic of a Slav type. In the ninth century they began to +fight with the neighbouring and kindred Bulgarians. Early in the tenth +century (A.D. 917) the Bulgarians almost effaced Serbia from the map; +but the Serbs recovered after half a century, only to come shortly +afterwards under the sway of the Greeks. In the eleventh century the +Serbians held a very strong position and were able to harass the Greek +Empire at Constantinople. They entered into friendly relations with the +Pope of Rome, and for some time contemplated following the Roman rather +than the Eastern Church. In the twelfth century King Stephen of Serbia +was a valued ally of the Greek Empire against the Venetians. He +established Serbia as a European "Power," and the Emperor Frederick +Barbarossa visited his court at Belgrade. This king was the first of a +succession of able and brave monarchs, and Serbia enjoyed a period of +stable prosperity and power unusually lengthy for the Balkans. Except +for the strife between the Eastern and Roman Catholic Churches for +supremacy in Serbia, the nation was at peace within her own borders, and +enjoyed not only a military but an economic predominance in the Balkans. +Mining and handicrafts were developed, education encouraged, and the +national organisation reached fully to the average standard of European +civilisation at the time. By 1275 the Serbs were the chief power in the +Balkans. They defeated the Greeks, marched right down to the Aegean and +reached the famous monastery of Mount Athos, to which the first King +Stephen (Nemanya) had retired in 1195 when he abdicated. + +In 1303 the Serbians forgot their quarrel with the Greeks and helped +them against the Turks, undertaking an invasion of Asia Minor. In 1315 +they again saved the Greek Empire from the Turks. When in 1336 Stephen +Dushan, the greatest of Serbian kings, who has been compared to Napoleon +because of his military genius and capacity for statesmanship, came to +the throne, Bulgaria was under the suzerainty of Serbia, and the Serb +monarch ruled over all that area comprised within the boundaries of +Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, and Greece by the recent treaty +of Bucharest (1913). King Stephen Dushan was not only a great military +leader, he was also a law-maker and a patron of learning. His death on +December 13, 1356, at the Gates of Constantinople--he is said to have +been poisoned--opened the way for the Turkish occupation of the Balkan +Peninsula. That occupation was made possible in the first instance by +the mutual jealousies of the Christian peoples of the Balkans. It was +kept in existence for centuries by the same weaknesses arising from +jealousy. In 1912 it was swept away in a month because in a spasm of +common sense the Balkan Christian peoples had united. In 1913 it was in +part restored because internecine strife had broken out again among the +Balkan natives recently allied. It will probably continue until the +lesson of unity is learned again. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE TURK IN THE BALKANS + + +It seems to be difficult to speak without violent prejudice on the +subject of the Turk in the Balkans. One school of prejudice insists that +the Turk is the finest gentleman in the world, who has been always the +victim and not the oppressor of the Christian peoples by whose side he +lives, and whose territories he invaded with the best of motives and +with the minimum of slaughter. The other school of prejudice credits the +Turk with the most abominable cruelty, treachery, and lust, and will +hear no good of him. In England the issue is largely a political one. A +great Liberal campaign was once founded on a Turkish massacre of +Bulgarians in the Balkans. That made it a party duty for Liberals to be +pro-Bulgarian and anti-Turk, and almost a party duty for Conservatives +to find all the Christian and a few ex-Christian virtues in the Turk. +Before attempting to judge the Turk of to-day, let us see how he stands +in the light of history. It was in the fourth century that the first +Saracens came to the Balkan Peninsula as allies of the Greek Empire +against the Goths. They were thus called in by a Christian Power in the +first instance. It was not until the fourteenth century that the Turks +made a serious attempt to occupy the Balkan Peninsula. They were helped +in their campaign considerably by the Christian Crusaders, who, +incidentally to their warfare against the Infidel who held the Holy +Sepulchre, had made war on the Greek Empire, capturing Constantinople, +and thus weakening the power of Christian Europe at its threshold. +Bulgaria, too, refused help to the Greeks when the Turkish invasion had +to be beaten off. The Turks' coming to the Balkans was thus largely due +to Christian divisions. + +[Illustration: _Sebah & Joaillier_ + +SANCTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE + +Built by Justinian I, consecrated 538, converted into a Mohammedan +mosque 1453. It is now thought that the design of its famous architect, +Anthemius of Tralles, was never completed. The minarets and most of the +erections in the foreground are Turkish] + +Without being able at the time to capture Constantinople, the invading +Turks occupied soon a large tract of the Balkan Peninsula. By 1362 they +had captured Philippopolis and Eski Zagora, two important centres of +Bulgaria. It was not a violence to their conscience for some of the +Bulgarian men after this to join the Turkish army as mercenaries. When +the sorely-beset Greeks sent the Emperor John Paleologos to appeal for +help to the Bulgarians, he was seized by them and kept as a prisoner. + +A united Balkan Peninsula would have kept off the Turks, no doubt. But a +set of small nations without any faculty of permanent cohesion, and +hating and distrusting one another more thoroughly than they did the +Turk, could do nothing. The Balkan nations of the time, though united +they would have been really powerful, allowed themselves to be taken in +detail and crushed under the heels of an invader who was alien in blood +and in religion. In 1366 the Bulgarians became the vassals of the Turks, +and the Serbians were defeated at Kossovo. The fall of the Greek Empire +and the subjugation of Roumania followed in due course, and by the +seventeenth century the Turks had penetrated to the very walls of +Vienna. At one time it seemed as if all Europe would fall under the sway +of Islam, for, as elsewhere than in the Balkans, there were Christian +States which were treacherous to their faith. But that happily was +averted. For the Balkan Peninsula, however, there were now to be +centuries of oppression and religious persecution. It will be convenient +once again to set forth under three national headings the chief facts +regarding the Turkish conquest of the Balkans. + +_Bulgaria._--By 1366 weakness in the field and civil dissensions had +brought Bulgaria to the humiliation of becoming the vassal of the Turk. +In 1393 the Turks, not content with mere suzerainty, occupied Bulgaria +and converted it into a Turkish province. In 1398 the Hungarians and the +Wallachians (Roumanians) made a gallant attempt to free Bulgaria from +the Turkish yoke, but failed. Some of the Bulgarians joined in with +their Turkish conquerors, abandoned the Christian religion for that of +Islam, and were the ancestors of what are known to-day as the Pomaks. +The rest of the people gave a reluctant obedience to the Turkish +conqueror, preserving their Christian faith, their Slav tongue, and +their sense of separate nationality. The Greeks, who had come to some +kind of terms with the Turkish invaders, assisted to bring the Bulgarian +people under subjection. The Greek church and the Greek tongue rather +than the Turkish were sought to be imposed upon the Bulgarians. The +subject people accepted the situation with occasional revolts, but more +tamely than some other Balkan nations. It was not a general meek +acquiescence, though it was--possibly by chance, possibly because of the +fact that a racial relationship existed between conqueror and +conquered--not so fierce in protest as that of the Serbians. In writing +that, I do not follow exactly the Bulgarian modern view, which +represents as much more vivid the sufferings and the protests of the +Bulgarian people, and ignores altogether the racial relationship which +existed between Bulgarian and Turk, and enabled a section of the +Bulgarian nation to fall into line with the conqueror and embrace his +religion and his habits of life, a relationship which to this day shows +its traces in the Bulgarian national life. But in Balkan history as +written locally, there is usually a certain amount of political +deflection from the facts. A modern Balkan historian, giving what may be +called the official national account of the times of the Turkish +domination, says (_Bulgaria of To-day_): + + Had the rulers been of the same race and religion as the + vanquished, the subjection might have been more tolerable. Ottoman + domination was not, however, a simple political domination. + Ottoman tyranny was social as well as political. It was keenly and + painfully felt in private as well as in public life; in social + liberty, manners and morals; in the free development of national + feeling; in short, in the whole scope of human life. According to + our present notions, political domination does not infringe upon + personal liberty, which is sacred for the conqueror. This is not + the case with Turkish rule. The Bulgarians, like the other + Christians of the Balkan Peninsula, were, both collectively and + individually, slaves. The life, possessions, and honour of private + individuals were in constant peril. The bulk of the people, after + several generations, calmed down to passivity and inertia. From + time to time the more vigorous element, the strongest + individualities, protested. Some Bulgarian whose sister had been + carried off to the harem of some pasha would take to the mountains + and make war on the oppressors. The haidukes and voivodes, + celebrated in the national songs, kept up in mountain fastnesses + that spirit of liberty which later was to serve as a cement to + unite the new Bulgarian nation. + + But it is a noteworthy fact that the Osmanlis, being themselves but + little civilised, did not attempt to assimilate the Bulgarians in + the sense in which civilised nations try to effect the intellectual + and ethnic assimilation of a subject race. Except in isolated + cases, where Bulgarian girls or young men were carried off and + forced to adopt Mohammedanism, the government never took any + general measures to impose Mohammedanism or assimilate the + Bulgarians to the Moslems. The Turks prided themselves on keeping + apart from the Bulgarians, and this was fortunate for our + nationality. Contented with their political supremacy and pleased + to feel themselves masters, the Turks did not trouble about the + spiritual life of the _rayas_, except to try to trample out all + desires for independence. All these circumstances contributed to + allow the Bulgarian people, crushed and ground down by the Turkish + yoke, to concentrate and preserve its own inner spiritual life. + They formed religious communities attached to the churches. These + had a certain amount of autonomy, and, beside seeing after the + churches, could keep schools. The national literature, full of the + most poetic melancholy, handed down from generation to generation + and developed by tradition, still tells us of the life of the + Bulgarians under the Ottoman yoke. In these popular songs, the + memory of the ancient Bulgarian kingdom is mingled with the + sufferings of the present hour. The songs of this period are + remarkable for the oriental character of their times, and this is + almost the sole trace of Moslem influence. + + In spite of the vigilance of the Turks, the religious associations + served as centres to keep alive the national feeling. + +A conquered people which was allowed to keep up its religious +institutions (with "a certain amount of autonomy"), and later to found +national schools ("to keep alive the national feeling"), was not exactly +ground to the dust. And truth compels the admission that Bulgaria under +Turkish rule enjoyed a certain amount of material prosperity. When the +Russian liberators of the nineteenth century came to Bulgaria they +found the peasants far more comfortable than were the Russian peasants +of the day. The atrocities in Bulgaria which shocked Europe in 1875 were +not the continuance of a settled policy of cruelty and rapine. They were +the ferocious reprisals chiefly of Turkish Bashi-Bazouks (irregulars) +following upon a Bulgarian rising. The Turks felt that they had been +making an honest effort to promote the interests of the Bulgarian +province. They had just satisfied a Bulgarian aspiration by allowing of +the formation of an independent Bulgarian church, though this meant +giving grave offence to the Greeks. Probably they felt that they had a +real grievance against the Bulgars. After the Bulgarian atrocities of +1875 there ended the Turkish domination of the country. + +_Serbia._--In December 1356 the great Serbian king, Stephen Dushan, +soldier, administrator, and economist, died before the walls of +Constantinople, and the one hope of the Balkan Peninsula making a stand +against the Turks was ended. Shortly after, the Turks had occupied +Adrianople, their first capital in Europe, defeating heavily a combined +Serbian and Greek army. Later the Serbian forces were again defeated by +the great Turkish sultan Amurath I., and the Serbian king was killed on +the battle-field. King Lazar, who succeeded to the Serbian throne, made +some headway against the invaders, but in 1389, at the Battle of +Kossovo, the Serbian Empire came tumbling to ruins. The Turkish leader, +Amurath, was killed in the fight, but his son Bajayet proved another +Amurath and pressed home the victory. Serbia became a vassal state of +Turkey. + +But there was to be still a period of fierce resistance to the Turk. In +1413 the Turks, dissatisfied with the attitude of the Serbs, entered +upon a new invasion of the territory of Serbia. In 1440 Sultan Amurath +II. again overran the country and conquered it definitely, imposing not +merely vassalage but armed occupation on its people. John Hunyad, "the +White Knight of Wallachia," came to the rescue of the Serbs, and Amurath +II. was driven back. An alliance between Serbs and Hungarians kept the +Turk at bay for a time, and in 1444 Serbia could claim to be free once +again. But the respite was a brief one. In 1453 Constantinople fell to +the Turks, and the full tide of their strengthened and now undivided +power was turned upon Serbia. A siege of Belgrade in 1457 was repulsed, +but in 1459 Serbia was conquered and annexed to European Turkey. Lack of +unity among the Serbs themselves had contributed greatly to the national +doom, but on the whole the Serbs had put up a gallant fight against the +Turks. And even now a section of them, the Montenegrins, in their +mountain fastnesses kept their liberty, and through all the centuries +that were to follow never yielded to the Crescent. + +The condition of the Serbs in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was +very unhappy. They could come to no manner of contentment with Turkish +rule, and sporadic revolts were frequent. At times the Hungarians from +the other side of the Danube came to the aid of the revolters, but never +in such strength as to shake seriously the Turkish power. Very many of +the Serbs left their country in despair and sought refuge under the +Austrian flag. To-day a big Serb element, under the flag of +Austro-Hungaria, is one of the racial difficulties of the Dual +Monarchy. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +KING PETER OF SERBIA] + +The Serb exiles carried to their new homes their old sympathies, and +largely because of their efforts Austria in 1788 went to the rescue of +Serbia, and for a brief while the land again was free. But the Turkish +power returned and Serbia stumbled blindly, painfully through years of +reprisals, which culminated in the great massacre of Serbs by Turks in +1804, which, like the Turkish massacre of Bulgarians in 1875, really +declared the doom of the Turkish power in the country. Following this +massacre George Petrovic, "Black George," or "_Kara_ George," as the +Serbians knew him, raised the standard of revolt among his countrymen. +He was a fierce blood-stained man, this first liberator of the Serbs, a +man on whose head was the blood of his father and his brother. His grim +character was fitted for his grim task. The story of that task will come +better within the scope of a following chapter, which will tell of the +liberation of the Balkans from the Turks. + +_Roumania._--It was not until 1391 that the Turks crossed the Danube and +attacked the kingdoms of Wallachia and Moldavia, and reduced Wallachia +to the position of a tributary state. King Mirtsched made a gallant +fight against the invaders, but the Turks proved too strong. That was +the beginning of a Turkish dominance of Roumania, which was never so +complete as that exercised over Bulgaria and Serbia, but left the two +Roumanian kingdoms of Wallachia and Moldavia as vassal states. Mutual +jealousy between them prevented effective operations against the Turk, +and helped to make their vassalage possible. In the fifteenth century +both kingdoms had great rulers. Wallachia was ruled by Vlad the Impaler, +an able but cruel man, who seems to have earned the infamy of inventing +a form of torture still practised in the Balkans as a matter of +religious proselytising, that of sitting the victim on a sharp stake, +and leaving him to die slowly as the stake penetrated his body. Moldavia +had as king Stephen the Great, who has no such ghastly reputation of +cruelty. But able princes could effect little with communities weakened +by the luxury of the nobles and the helpless poverty of the serfs. +Still, the Roumanians had intervals of victory. In the sixteenth century +Michael the Brave (whose memory is commemorated by a statue in +Bucharest) drove the Turks back as far as Adrianople, liberating +Roumania and Bulgaria. He annexed Moldavia and Transylvania to +Wallachia, and was in a sense the founder of modern Roumania. But the +union thus effected was not enduring and the Turkish ascendancy grew +stronger. The Turkish suzerain forced upon the Roumanian peoples +governors of the Greek race, who carried on the work of oppression and +spoliation with an industrious effectiveness quite beyond the capacity +of the Turk, who at his worst is a fitful and indolent tyrant. + +In the last quarter of the seventeenth century the Russian Power began +to take a close interest in Roumania. In 1711 there was a definite +Russian-Roumanian alliance. By this time the Roumanians were resolutely +hostile to the Turkish domination. True, they had been spared most of +the cruelties which were in Servia a customary and in Bulgaria an +occasional concomitant of Turkish rule. But they were deeply injured by +the corrupt, the luxurious, the exacting administration of the Greek +rulers forced upon them by the Turkish government. Though they suffered +little from massacre they suffered much from "squeeze." There was not +only the greed of the Turk but the greed of the intermediate Greek to be +satisfied. From 1711 until the final liberation of Roumania, Roumanian +sympathies were generally with the Russians in the frequent wars waged +by them against Turkey. In 1770 the Russians occupied Roumania and freed +it for a time from the Turk, but in 1774 the Roumanians went back to +the Turkish suzerainty. During the Napoleonic wars Russia gave Roumania +some reason to doubt the disinterestedness of her friendship by annexing +the rich province of Bessarabia, a part of the natural territory of the +Roumanian people. The year 1821 saw the outbreak of the Greek war of +independence, in which Roumania took no part, having as little love for +the Greek as for the Turk. She won one advantage for herself from the +war, the right to have her native rulers under Turkish suzerainty. In +1828, as a result of a Russo-Turkish war, Roumania won almost complete +freedom, conditional only on tribute being continued to be paid to the +Sultan. She found a new master, however, in Russia, and was forced to +keep up a Russian garrison within her borders, nominally as a protection +against Turkey, really as a safeguard against the growth in her own +people of a spirit of national independence. The Crimean War (1853) +freed Roumania from this Russian garrison, and in 1856 the Treaty of +Paris declared Roumania to be an independent principality under Turkish +suzerainty. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +KING NICOLAS OF MONTENEGRO] + +_Montenegro._--The existence of Montenegro as a separate Balkan state +dates back to the Battle of Kossovo. The Montenegrin is a Serbian +Highlander, and whilst the Serbian Empire flourished, claimed for +himself no separate national entity. When, however, the rest of Serbia +was subjugated by the Turks, "the Black Mountain" held out, and there +gathered within its little area of rocky hill fastnesses the free +remnants of the Serbian race. The story of that little nation is quite +the most wonderful in all the world. It transcends Sparta, and makes the +fighting record of the Swiss seem tame. At the height of its power +Montenegro had a population of perhaps 8000 males, and little source of +riches from mines, from trade, or even from fertile agricultural land. +Yet Montenegro kept the Turks from her own territory, and was able at +times to give valuable help to the rest of Europe in withstanding the +invasion of Islam. + +The system of government instituted was that of a theocratic despotism: +the head of the nation was its chief bishop, and he had the right to +nominate a nephew (not a son--as a bishop of the Greek Communion he +would be celibate) to succeed him. The Montenegrin dynasty was founded +in 1696 by King Danilo I., and has endured to this day, though recently +the functions of the chief priest and king have been separated, and the +present monarch is purely a civil ruler. + +It is not possible here to give even the barest mention of the leading +facts in the proud history of little Montenegro. In the seventeenth +century she was the valued friend of Venice against the Turks; in the +eighteenth century she was aided by Peter the Great of Russia; later she +met without being subdued the warlike power of Napoleon. All the time, +during every century, every year almost, there was constant warfare with +the Turks. One campaign lasted without interruption from 1424 to 1436, +and was marked by over sixty battles. The little population of the patch +of rocks in the mountains was worn down by this incessant fighting, but +was recruited by a steady flow of exiles from other parts of the Balkan +Peninsula, anxious for freedom and for revenge on the Turk. Sometimes +the tide of battle went sorely against the mountaineers, and almost all +their country was put under the heel of the Moslem. But always one eyrie +was kept for the free eagles, and from it they swooped down with renewed +strength to send the invader once again across their borders. Repeatedly +the Turk levied great armies for the conquest of Montenegro (once the +Turkish force reached to the number of 80,000). Repeatedly great +European Powers which had proffered help or had been begged for help +failed little Montenegro at a crisis. But never were the stout hearts of +the Black Mountain quelled. In 1484, when Zablak had to be evacuated and +the whole nation was confined to the little mountain fortress of +Cettinje, Ivan the Black offered to his people the choice of ending the +war and making peace with the Turks. They rejected the idea, and swore +to stand by the freedom of Montenegro until the last. The oath was never +broken. Right down to 1832 a free Montenegro faced Turkey. In that year +the Turks, despairing of an occupation of the country, suggested that +Montenegro should agree at least to pay tribute. That offer was rejected +and yet another war entered upon. A war against Austria followed, in +which the desperate Montenegrins used the type of their printing presses +to make bullets for the soldiers. + +[Illustration: MONTENEGRIN TROOPS + +Weekly Drill and Inspection of Weapons] + +That there was lead type to be so used shows that the Montenegrins had +not altogether neglected the arts of peace. In 1493 a printing press had +been set up in Cettinje and the first Montenegrin book printed in the +Cyrillic character. During the next century this printing press was +kept busy with the issue of the Gospels and psalters under the rule of +the brave Bishop Babylas. The state of Montenegro at this time aroused +the admiration of the Venetians, and there is extant a book in praise of +Montenegro written in 1614 by a Venetian noble, Mariano Bolizza. + +When the time came for the other Balkan States to throw off the Turkish +yoke Montenegro was not reluctant to join in the movement for +liberation, and she was later first in the field in the campaign of +1912. + +This very brief record of the leading facts of Balkan history has now +brought each of the peoples up to the stage at which the final and +successful effort was made with the help of Russia to drive the Turks +out of Balkan territory. The story of that effort will be told in the +succeeding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FALL OF THE TURKISH POWER + + +In the nineteenth century the Turkish dominion was pushed back in all +directions from the Balkan Peninsula. At the dawn of that century +Montenegro was the only Balkan state entirely free from occupation, +vassalage, or the duty of tribute to the Sublime Porte. At the close of +that century Montenegro, Serbia, Roumania, Greece, and Bulgaria were all +practically free and self-governing. + +In 1804, as has been recorded, Kara George in Serbia raised the standard +of revolt against Turkey. In 1806 the Serbs defeated the Turks in a +pitched battle, and for a moment Serbia was free. But in 1812 when the +Turkish power resolved upon a great invasion of Serbia, the heart of +Kara George failed him and he left his country to its fate, taking +refuge in Austria. Thus deserted by their leader, the Serbs did not +abandon the struggle altogether. Milosh Obrenovic stepped to the front +as the national champion, and though he could make no stand against the +Turkish troops in the open field he kept up an active revolt from a base +in the mountains. The contest for national liberty went on with varying +fortune. Troubles at this time were thickening around Turkey, and +whenever she was engaged in war with Russia the oppressed nationalities +within her borders took the opportunity to strike a blow for liberty. By +1839--it is not possible to make a record of all the dynastic changes +and revolutions which filled the years 1812-1839--Serbia was practically +free, with the payment of an annual tribute to Turkey as her only bond. +During the Crimean War she kept her neutrality as between Russia and +Turkey. The Treaty of Paris (1856) confirmed her territorial +independence, subject to the payment of a tribute to Turkey. In 1867 the +Turkish garrisons were withdrawn from Serbia; but the tribute was still +left in existence until the date of the Treaty of Berlin. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +THE KING OF ROUMANIA] + +Roumania in 1828 (then Wallachia and Moldavia) had won her territorial +independence of Turkey subject only to payment of a tribute. The Treaty +of Paris (1856) left her under a nominal suzerainty to Turkey. In 1859 +the two kingdoms united to form Roumania, and in 1866 the late King +Charles, as the result of a revolution, was elected prince of the united +kingdom. + +Bulgaria had remained a fairly contented Turkish province until the +rising of 1875, and its cruel suppression by the Bashi-Bazouks. As a +direct consequence of that massacre European diplomacy turned its +serious attention to the Balkan Peninsula, and at a Conference demands +were made upon Turkey for a comprehensive reform applying to Serbia, +Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria. The proposed reform was +particularly drastic as applied to Bulgaria, which was still in effect +Turkish territory, whilst all the other districts had achieved a +practical freedom. It was proposed to create two Bulgarian provinces +divided into Sandjaks and Kazas as administrative units, these to be +subdivided into districts. Christian and Mohammedans were to be settled +homogeneously in these districts. Each district was to have at its head +a mayor and a district council, elected by universal suffrage, and was +to enjoy entire autonomy in local affairs. Several districts would form +a Sandjak with a prefect (_mutessarif_) at its head who was to be +Christian or Mohammedan, according to the majority of the population of +the Sandjak. He would be proposed by the Governor-General, and nominated +by the Porte for four years. Finally, every two Sandjaks were to be +administered by a Christian Governor-General nominated by the Porte for +five years, with consent of the Powers. He would govern the province +with the help of a provincial assembly, composed of representatives +chosen by the district councils for a term of four years. This assembly +would nominate an administrative council. The provincial assembly would +be summoned every year to decide the budget and the redivision of taxes. +The armed force was to be concentrated in the towns and there would be +local militia besides. The language of the predominant nationality was +to be employed, as well as Turkish. Finally, a Commission of +International Control was to supervise the execution of these reforms. + +The Sublime Porte was still haggling about these reforms when Russia +lost patience and declared war upon Turkey on April 12, 1877. Moving +through the friendly territory of Roumania, Russia attacked the Turkish +forces in Bulgarian territory. In that war the Russians found that the +Turks were a gallant foe, and the issue seemed to hang in the balance +until Roumania and Bulgaria went actively to the help of the Russian +forces. The Roumanian aid was exceedingly valuable. Prince Charles +crossed the Danube at the head of 28,000 foot soldiers and 4000 cavalry. +He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces against Plevna, and +his soldiers were chiefly responsible for the taking of the Grivica +Redoubt which turned the tide of victory against the Turks. The +Bulgarians did but little during the campaign: it was not possible that +they should do much seeing that they could only put irregulars in the +field. Nevertheless some high personal reputations for courage were +made. During my stay with the Bulgarian army in 1912 I noted that there +were of the military officers three classes, the men who had graduated +in foreign military colleges--usually Petrograd,--very smart, very +insistent on their military dignity, speaking usually three or four +languages; officers who had been educated at the Military College, +Sofia; and the older Bulgarian type, dating sometimes from before the +War of Liberation. Of these last the outstanding figure was General +Nicolaieff, who as captain of a Bulgarian company rushed a Turkish +battery beneath Shipka after the Russians had been held up so long that +they were in despair. A fine stalwart figure General Nicolaieff showed +when I met him at Yamboli, a hospital base town of which he was military +commandant. Another soldier of the War of Liberation, a captain in rank, +I travelled with for a day once between Kirk Kilisse and Chorlu. We +chummed up and shared a meal of meat balls cooked with onions, rough +country wine (these from his stores), and dates and biscuits (from my +stores). He spoke neither English nor French, but a Bulgarian doctor who +spoke French acted as interpreter, and the old officer, who after long +entreaty at last had got leave to go down to the front in spite of his +age, yarned about the hardships and tragedies of the fighting around +Stara Zagora and the Shipka Pass. Some of the Bulgarians, he said, took +the field with no other arms than staves and knives, and got their first +rifles from the dead of the battle-fields. + +[Illustration: THE SHIPKA PASS] + +Serbia took a hand in this campaign, too, though she hesitated for some +time, going to the aid of Russia through fear of Austria. Beginning +late, at a time when the mountains were covered in the winter snows, the +Serbians suffered severely from the weather, but won notable victories +at Pirot, at Nish, and at Vranga. The Turks were in full retreat on +Constantinople when the armistice and Treaty of San Stefano put an end +to the war. + +It seems to be one of the standing rules of Balkan wars and Balkan peace +treaties that those who do the work shall not reap the reward, and that +a policy of standing by and waiting is the wisest and most profitable. +In this Russo-Turkish war the Roumanians had done invaluable work for +the Russian cause. In return the Treaty of San Stefano robbed them +shamefully. The Bulgarians had done little, except to stain the arms of +the allies with a series of massacres of the Turks in reprisal for the +previous atrocities inflicted upon them by the Bashi-Bazouks. The +Bulgarians were awarded a tremendous prize of territory. If the grant +had been confirmed it would have made Bulgaria the paramount power of +the Balkan Peninsula. By the Treaty of San Stefano, Bulgaria was made +an autonomous principality subject to Turkey, with a Christian +government and national militia. The Prince of Bulgaria was to be freely +chosen by the people and accepted by the Sublime Porte, with the consent +of the Powers. As regards internal government, it was agreed that an +assembly of notables, presided over by an Imperial Commissioner and +attended by a Turkish Commissioner, should meet at Philippopolis or +Tirnova before the election of the Prince to draw up a constitutional +statute similar to those of the other Danubian principalities after the +Treaty of Adrianople in 1830. The boundaries of Bulgaria were to include +all that is now Bulgaria, and the greater part of Thrace and Macedonia. + +The European Congress of Berlin which revised the Treaty of San Stefano +recognised that the motive of Russia was to create in Bulgaria a vast +but weak state, which would obediently serve her interests and in time +fall into her hands: and that the injury proposed to be done to Roumania +was inspired by a desire to limit the progress of a courageous but an +unfortunately independent-minded friend. The Congress was suspicious of +the Bulgarian arrangement, and clipped off much of the territory +assigned to the new principality. The injury done to Roumania was +allowed to stand. Then, as in 1912-1913, when Balkan boundaries were +again under the discussion of an inter-European Conference, the vital +interests of the great Powers surrounding the Balkan Peninsula were to +keep its peoples divided and weak. Both Russia and Austria had more or +less defined territorial ambitions in the Balkans: and it suited neither +Power to see any one Balkan state rise to such a standard of greatness +as would enable it to take the lead in a Balkan Union. Especially was it +not the wish of Austria that any Balkan state should grow to be so +strong as to kill definitely the hope she cherished of extending down +the Adriatic and towards the Aegean. + +By the Treaty of Berlin, which followed the Congress of Berlin, the +greater part of the Balkan Peninsula was freed altogether from Turkish +rule. Roumania and Serbia were relieved from all suggestion of tribute +or vassalage. Bulgaria was left subject to a tribute (which was very +quickly afterwards repudiated). Where the Turkish power was left in +existence in European Turkey it was a threatened existence, for the +newly freed Christian peoples began at once to conspire to help to +freedom their nationals left still under Turkish rule. The war of 1912 +began to be prepared in 1878. + +There was, however, a period of comparative peace. Roumania, though +discontented, decided to bide her time. Her prince was crowned king with +a crown made from the metal of Turkish cannon taken at Plevna. That was +the only hint that she gave of keeping in mind the greatness of her +services which had been so poorly rewarded. + +Montenegro, whilst deprived of the great and the well-deserved expansion +which the Treaty of San Stefano offered, had some benefit from the +Treaty of Berlin. The area of the kingdom was doubled and it won access +to the Adriatic. A little later the harbour of Dulcigno was ceded to +Montenegro by Turkey under pressure from the Powers, and she was left +with only one notable grievance, that of being shut off from Serbia by +the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar, which Austria secured for Turkey, apparently +with the idea of one day seizing it on her way down to Salonica. + +[Illustration: _Chusseau Flaviens_ + +KING FERDINAND OF BULGARIA] + +Serbia increased her territory by one-fourth under the Treaty of Berlin, +but was not allowed to extend towards the Adriatic, and, nurturing as +she did a dream of reviving the old Serbian Empire, was but poorly +satisfied. + +Bulgaria, if it had not been for the promises of the Treaty of San +Stefano, might have been fairly content with the provisions of the +Treaty of Berlin. She had been the first nation in the Balkans to yield +to the Turks. She had allowed her sons to act as mercenary soldiers to +aid the Turks against other Christians: and during the period of +oppression she had suffered less than any from the rigours of the +invader, had protested less than any by force of arms. Yet now she was +given freedom as a gift won largely by the sacrifices of others. But, +though having the most reason to be content, Bulgaria was the least +contented of all the Balkan States. The restless ambition of the people +guiding her destinies was manifested in an internal revolution which +displaced the first prince (Alexander of Battenberg) and put on the +throne the present king (Ferdinand of Coburg). Bulgaria, too, repudiated +the friendly tutelage which Russia wished to exercise over her +destinies. + +The territorial settlement made by the Berlin Treaty was first broken by +Bulgaria. That treaty had cut the ethnological Bulgaria into two, +leaving the southern half as a separate province under the name of +Eastern Rumelia. In 1885 Eastern Rumelia was annexed to Bulgaria with +the glad consent of its inhabitants, but in spite of the wishes of +Russia. Serbia saw in this the threat of a Bulgarian hegemony in the +Balkans, and demanded some territorial compensation for herself. This +was refused. War followed. The Bulgarians were victorious at the Battle +of Slivnitza, an achievement which was in great measure due to the +organising ability of Prince Alexander. The victory secured Rumelia for +Bulgaria. But no sense of gratitude to Prince Alexander survived, and +the Russian intrigue which secured his abdication and flight was +undoubtedly aided by a large section of the Bulgarian people. +Stambouloff, a peasant leader of the Bulgarians and its greatest +personality since the War of Liberation, was faithful to Alexander, but +was not able to save him. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +KING FERDINAND'S BODYGUARD] + +The Bulgarian throne after Alexander's abdication was offered to the +King of Roumania. The acceptance of the offer would possibly have led to +a real Balkan Federation. The united power of Roumania and Bulgaria, +exercised wisely, could have gently pressed the other Balkan peoples +into a union. That, however, would have suited the aims neither of +Russia nor of Austria, the two Empires which guided the destinies of the +Balkans, chiefly in the light of their own selfish ends. The Roumanian +king refused the throne of Bulgaria, and in 1887 Prince Ferdinand of +Coburg became Prince of the State. It was not long before he fell out +with Stambouloff, the able but personally unamenable patriot who chiefly +had made modern Bulgaria. In the conflict between the two Prince +Ferdinand proved the stronger. Stambouloff was dismissed from office, +and in 1895 was assassinated in the streets of Sofia. No attempt was +made to punish his murderers. + +In 1908 Bulgaria shook off the last shred of dependence to Turkey. The +bold action was the crown of a clever diplomatic intrigue by Prince +Ferdinand. Since the murder of Stambouloff the Prince had been +sedulously cultivating in public the friendship of Russia: but that had +not prevented him carrying to a great pitch of mutual confidence a +secret understanding with Austria. The Austrian Empire was anxious to +annex formally the districts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which it had +long been in occupation. Objection to this would surely have come from +Russia; but Russia was impotent for the time being after the disastrous +war with Japan. Just as surely it would come from Serbia which would see +thus definitely pass over to the one Power, which she had reason to +fear, a section of Slav-inhabited country clearly connected to the Serbs +by racial ties. Serbia, it might be expected, would have the support of +France and England as well as Russia. For Bulgaria the offer to +neutralise Serbia made to Austria all the difference between an action +which was a little risky and an action which had no risk at all. +Bulgaria supported Austria in the annexation, and, as was to have been +expected, Serbia found protest impossible, since Russia, France, and +England swallowed the affront to treaty obligations to which they were +parties. It was Bulgaria's reward to have the support of the Triple +Alliance in throwing off all fealty and tribute to the Sublime Porte. +Prince Ferdinand became the Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. + +Nor was that the end of Bulgarian ambition. The "big" Bulgaria of the +San Stefano treaty floated before the eyes of her rulers constantly, and +she began to prepare for a war against Turkey, of which the prize +should be Thrace and Macedonia. An obstacle in Macedonia was not only +that the Turks were in occupation, but that the Greeks considered +themselves entitled to the reversion of the estate. Rivalry between the +three nations was responsible for the Macedonian horrors, which went on +from year to year, and made one district of the Balkans a veritable hell +on earth. These horrors have been set at the door of the "Unspeakable +Turk." The Turk has quite enough to answer for in the many hideous +crimes which he has undoubtedly committed. It is not quite just to hold +him wholly responsible for the terrible state of Macedonia during the +last few years. Greek and Bulgarian were alike interested in making it +appear to the world that Turkish rule in Macedonia was impossible. To +effect this they insisted that rapine and massacre should become normal. +If the Turk did not wish for massacres he was stirred up to massacres. +Christian pastors were not prevented by their Christian faith from +murders of their own people, if it could be certain that the Turks would +have the discredit of them. Side by side with the atrocities which were +committed by Turks against Christians and Christians against Turks, the +two sets of warring Christians, the Bulgarian Exarchates and the Greek +Patriarchates, attacked one another with a fiendish relentlessness, +which equalled the most able efforts of the Turks in the way of rape, +murder, and robbery. + +In excuse for part of this, _i.e._ that part which stirred up the Turks +to atrocities even when they wished to be peaceful, there could be +pleaded the good object of striving for the end of all Turkish rule in +Christian districts of the Balkans. The excuse will serve this far: that +without a doubt a Christian community cannot be governed justly by the +Turk, and the very strongest of steps are warranted to put an end to +Turkish domination of a district largely inhabited by Christians. But no +consideration, even that of exterminating Turkish rule, could justify +all the Christian atrocities perpetrated in Macedonia: and there is +certainly no shadow of an excuse for the atrocities with which Bulgarian +sought to score against Greek and Greek against Bulgarian. The era of +those atrocities has not yet closed. The Turk has been driven from +Macedonia, but Greek and Bulgarian continue their feud. For the time the +Greek is in the ascendant, whilst the Bulgarian broods over a revenge. + +[Illustration: BULGARIAN INFANTRY] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WARS OF 1912-13 + + +By 1912, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro had contrived, in +spite of any past quarrels, in spite of the mutual jealousies even then +being displayed in the recurring Macedonian massacres, of Christians by +Christians as well as by Turks, to arrive at a sufficient degree of +unity to allow them to make war jointly on Turkey. Bulgaria and Serbia +concluded an offensive and defensive alliance, arranging for all +contingencies and providing for the division of the spoils which it was +hoped to win from the Turks. Between Bulgaria and Greece there was no +such definite alliance, but a military convention only. The division of +the spoil after the war was left to future determination, both Greek and +Bulgarian probably having it clearly in his head that he would have all +his own way after the war or fight the issue out subsequently. A later +Punch cartoon put this peculiarity of a Balkan alliance with pretty +satire. Greece and Serbia were discussing what they should do with the +spoils they were then winning from Bulgaria. "Of course we shall fight +for them. Are we not allies?" said one of the partners. + +I was through the war of 1912 as war correspondent for the London +_Morning Post_, and followed the fortunes of the main Bulgarian army in +the Thracian campaign. In this book I do not intend to attempt a history +of the war but will give some impressions of it which, whilst not +neglecting any of the chief facts in any part of the theatre of +operations, will naturally be mainly based on observations with the +Bulgarians. + +First, with regard to the political side of the war, one could not but +be struck by the exceedingly careful preparation that the Bulgarians had +made for the struggle. It was no unexpected or sudden war. They had +known for some time that war was inevitable, having made up their minds +for a considerable time that the wrongs of their fellow-nationals in +Macedonia and Thrace would have to be righted by force of arms. Attempts +on the part of the Powers to enforce reforms in the Christian Provinces +of Turkey had, in the opinion of the Bulgars, been absolute failures, +and they had done their best to make them failures, wishing for a +destroyed Turkey not a reformed Turkey. In their opinion there was +nothing to hope for except armed intervention on their part against +Turkey. And, believing that, they had made most careful preparation +extending over several years for the struggle. That preparation was in +every sense admirable. For instance, it had extended, so far as I could +gather, from informants in Bulgaria, to this degree: that they formed +military camps in winter for the training of their troops. Thus they did +not train solely in the most favourable time of the year for manoeuvres, +but in the unfavourable weather too, in case that time should prove the +best for their war. The excellence of their artillery arm, and the proof +of the scientific training of their officers, prove to what extent their +training beforehand had gone. + +When war became inevitable, the Balkan League having been formed, and +the time being ripe for the war, Bulgaria in particular, and the Balkan +States in general, were quite determined that war should be. The Turks +at this time were inclined to make reforms and concessions; they had an +inclination to ease the pressure on their Christian subjects in the +Christian provinces. Perhaps knowing--perhaps not knowing--that they +were unready for war themselves, but feeling that the Balkan States were +preparing for war, the Turks were undoubtedly willing to make great +concessions. But whatever concessions the Turks might have offered, war +would still have taken place. I do not think one need offer any harsh +criticism about the Balkan nations for coming to that decision. If you +have made your preparation for war--perhaps a very expensive +preparation, perhaps a preparation which has involved very great +commitments apart from expense--it is not reasonable to suppose that at +the last moment you will consent to desist from making that war. The +line which you may have been prepared to take before you made your +preparations you may not be prepared to take after the preparations have +been made. And, as the Turks found out afterwards, the terms which were +offered to them before the outbreak of the war were not the same terms +as would be listened to after that event. + +To a pro-Turk it all will seem a little unscrupulous. But it is after +the true fashion of diplomacy or warlike enterprise. The simple position +was that Turkey was obviously a decadent Power; that her territories +were envied and that if there had not been a real grievance (there was a +real grievance) one would have been manufactured to justify a war of +spoliation. It not being necessary to manufacture a grievance, the +existing one was carefully nursed and stimulated: and when the ripe time +came for war the unreal pretext that war was the alternative to reform +and could be avoided by reform was put forward. No reform would have +stopped the war just as no "reform" would stop, say, San Marino +attacking the British Empire if she wanted something which the British +Empire has got and felt that she could get it by an attack. + +I do not think that the Balkan League would have withdrawn from the war +supposing the Turks before the outbreak of the war had offered autonomy +of the Christian provinces. I was informed in very high quarters, and I +believe profoundly, that if the Turks had offered so much at that time +the war would still have taken place. + +There is another interesting lesson to be gleaned from the political +side of this war. At the outset, the Powers, when endeavouring to +prevent hostilities, made an announcement that, whatever the result of +the war, no territorial benefit would be allowed to any of the +participants; that is to say, the Balkan States were informed, on the +authority of all Europe, that if they did go to war, and if they won +victories they would be allowed no fruits from those victories. The +Balkan States recognised, as I think all sensible people must recognise, +that a victorious army makes its own laws. They treated this _caveat_ +which was issued by the Powers of Europe as a matter to be politely set +aside; and ignored it. + +Political experience seems to show that if a nation, under any +circumstances, wishes its international rights to be respected, it must +be ready to fight for them. There is proof from contemporary history in +the respective fates of Switzerland and Korea. Both nations once stood +in very much the same position internationally; that their independence +was, in a sense, guaranteed. Korea's independence was guaranteed by both +the United States and Great Britain. But the independence of Korea has +now vanished. Korea could not fight for herself, and nobody was going to +fight for a nation which could not fight for herself. The independence +of Switzerland is maintained because Switzerland would be a very thorny +problem for any Power in search of territory to tackle. In case of an +attack on Switzerland, that country would be able to help herself and +her friends. + +On the opposite side of the argument, we see the Balkan League entering +upon a desperate war, warned that they would be allowed no territorial +advantage from that war, but engaging upon it because they recognised +that a victorious army makes its own laws. + +It was of wonderful value to the Bulgarian generals entering upon this +war that the whole Bulgarian nation was filled with the martial +spirit--was, in a sense, wrapped up in the colours. Every male Bulgarian +citizen was trained to the use of arms. Every Bulgarian citizen of +fighting age was engaged either at the front or on the lines of +communication. Before the war, every Bulgarian man, being a soldier, was +under a soldier's honour; and the preliminaries of the war, the +preparations for mobilisation in particular, were carried out with a +degree of secrecy that, I think, astonished every Court and every +Military Department in Europe. The secret was so well kept that one of +the diplomatists in Roumania left for a holiday three days before the +declaration of war, feeling certain that there was to be no war. +Bulgaria is not governed altogether autocratically, but is a very free +democracy in some respects. It has a newspaper Press that, on ordinary +matters, for delightful irresponsibility, might be matched in London. +Yet not a single whisper of what the nation was designing and planning +leaked abroad. Because the whole nation was a soldier, and the whole +nation was under a soldier's honour, secrecy could be kept. No one +abroad knew anything, either from the babbling of "Pro-Turks," or from +the newspapers, that a great campaign was being designed. + +[Illustration: _Topical Press_ + +BULGARIAN TROOPS LEAVING SOFIA] + +The Secret Service of Bulgaria before the war evidently had been +excellent. They seemed to know all that was necessary to know about the +country in which they were going to fight. This very complete knowledge +of theirs was in part responsible for the arrangements which were made +between the Balkan Allies for carrying on the war. The Bulgarian people +had made up their minds to do the lion's share of the work, and to have +the lion's share of the spoils. They knew quite definitely the state of +corruption to which the Turkish nation had come. When I reached Sofia, +the Bulgarians told me they were going to be in Constantinople three +weeks after the declaration of war. That was the view that they took of +the possibilities of the campaign. And they kept their programme as far +as Chatalja fairly closely. + +The view of the Bulgarians as to the ultimate result of the war, and +what they had designed should be the division of spoil after the war, I +gathered from various classes in Bulgaria, speaking not only with +politicians but with bankers, trading people, and others. They concluded +that the Turk was going to be driven out of Europe, at any rate, as far +as Constantinople. They considered that Constantinople was too great a +prize for the Bulgarian nation, or for the Balkan States, and that +Constantinople would be left as an international city, to be governed by +a commission of the Great Powers. Bulgaria was, then, to have +practically all Turkey-in-Europe--the province of Thrace, and a large +part of Macedonia as far as the city of Salonica. Constantinople was to +be left, with a small territory, as an international city, and the +Bulgarian boundary was to stretch as far as Salonica. Salonica, they +admitted, was desired very much by the Bulgarians, and also very much by +the Greeks; and the Bulgarian idea in regard to Salonica before the war +was that it would be best to make it a free Balkan city, governed by all +the Balkan States in common, and a free port for all the Balkan States. +Then the frontier of Greece was to extend very much to the north, and +Greece was to be allowed all the Aegean Islands. The Serbian frontier +was to extend to the eastward and the southward, and what is now the +autonomous province of Albania (the creation of which has been insisted +on by the Powers) was to be divided between Montenegro and Servia. + +That division would have left the Bulgarians with the greatest spoil of +the war. They would have had entry on to the Sea of Marmora; they would +have controlled, perhaps, one side of the Dardanelles (but I believe +they thought that the Dardanelles might also be left to a commission of +the Powers). It needed great confidence and exact knowledge as to the +state of the Turkish Army to allow plans of that sort to have been not +only formed, but to be generally talked about. + +It must be tragical now for a patriotic Bulgarian to compare these high +anticipations with the actual results of the war, and to reflect that at +one time he had three-fourths of his hopes secure and then sacrificed +all by straining after the remainder. + +The Bulgarian mobilisation--effected after lengthy preparation with +perfect success and complete secrecy--was a triumph of military +achievement. It emphasises a point often urged, that when a whole nation +is wrapt up in the colours, when every citizen is a soldier and taught +the code of patriotic honour of the soldier--then at a time of crisis, +spies, grumblers, critics are impossible. Bulgaria, as I have said, is +very democratic. Unlike Roumania, where a landed aristocracy survived +Turkish rule, the whole nation is of peasants or the sons and grandsons +of peasants. The nobles, the wealthy, the intellectuals were +exterminated by the Turk. Yet the strategy of the war suffered nothing +from the democracy of the people. They acted with a unity, a secrecy, +and a loyalty to the flag that no despotism could rival. + +The mobilisation was effected on very slender resources. Official +statistics--perhaps for a reason--are silent regarding the growth of +railway material since 1909. But in that year there were only 155 +locomotives in the country. As soon as war was anticipated these +provident and determined people set to amassing railway material, and +one railway official, without giving exact figures, talked of +locomotives being added by "fifties" at a time. I doubt that. But +perhaps there were between 200 and 225 locomotives in Bulgaria in +October 1912, though one military attache gave me the figure at 193. It +was a slender stock, in any case, on which to move 350,000 men and to +keep them in supplies. But the people contributed all their horses, +mules, and oxen to the war fund. Soldiers were willing and able to walk +great distances, and within a few days all the armies were over the +frontier. + +The Bulgarians, by the way, began the war with a _moratorium_. (The week +of the declaration of hostilities, meeting some personages notable in +European finance, they ridiculed for this reason the idea of the war +being anything but a dismal failure from the point of view of the Balkan +States.) It was necessary to win in a hurry if they were to win at all. +They could take the field only because of the magnificent spirit of +their population. They could not keep the field indefinitely under any +circumstances. + +The main line of communication was through Yamboli, and here the chief +force was massed whilst exploratory work was carried on towards +Adrianople and Kirk Kilisse. I believe that originally the capture of +Adrianople was the first grand object of the campaign, and that a +modification was made later either for political or military reasons, or +for a mixture of both. Up to the point at which Adrianople was invested +from the north, Kirk Kilisse captured, and the cavalry sent raiding +south-west to attack the Turk's lines of communication and to feel for +his field army, an excellent plan of campaign was followed. If the main +Bulgarian army had then swung over from Kirk Kilisse and had made a +resolute--and, under the circumstances, almost certainly +victorious--effort to rush Adrianople the natural course, from a +military point of view, would have been followed. The one risk involved +was that the Turkish field army would come up from the south and force a +battle under the walls of Adrianople, aided by a sortie from the +garrison. But the experience of Kirk Kilisse and the following battles +argued against this. There would have been, one may judge, ample time +allowed to subdue Adrianople with an army flushed by its success at Kirk +Kilisse, operating against a garrison thoroughly despondent at the +moment. + +Kirk Kilisse, it must be noted in passing, was a vastly overrated +fortress. The Turks, I believe, valued it highly. The Bulgarians +triumphantly quoted a German opinion that it could withstand a German +army for three months. As a matter of fact, whilst it was a valuable +base for an enterprising field army, surrounded as it was by natural +features of great strength, it was not a real fortress at all. Still, +the moral effect of its capture was great, and on the flood of that +success the Bulgarian army could have entered Adrianople if it had been +willing to make the necessary great sacrifice of infantry. + +A second sound--and more enterprising, and therefore probably better +course--was that which I thought at the time was being followed, to +pursue the Turks fleeing from Kirk Kilisse, to search out their field +army, give it a thrashing, and then swing back to subdue Adrianople. But +neither of these courses was followed. Kirk Kilisse was not followed up +vigorously in the first instance. After its capture the Bulgarian army +rested three days. During that time the fleeing Turks had won back some +of their courage, had come back in their tracks, recovered many of the +guns they had abandoned, and the battles of Ivankeui and Yanina--battles +in which the Bulgarian losses were very heavy--were necessary to do over +again work which had been already once accomplished. This criticism must +be read in the light of the fact that I am totally ignorant of the +transport position in the Bulgarian Third Army at the time. General +Demetrieff had made a wonderful dash over the wild country between +Yamboli and Kirk Kilisse, carrying an army over a track which took a +military attache six days to traverse on horseback, and a hospital train +seven days to traverse by ox wagon. He might at the time have been +seriously short of ammunition, though Kirk Kilisse renewed his food and +forage supplies. + +After three days the Bulgarians moved on. Ivankeui and Yanina were won, +and the pursuit continued until Lule Burgas, where the Turkish army in +the field was decisively defeated and driven with great slaughter +towards Chorlu, where its second stand was expected. That expectation +was not realised. The flight continued to Chatalja. This was the +turning-point of the campaign. Up to now the Bulgarian success had been +complete. If now Adrianople had been made the main objective, with a +small "holding" force left at Chorlu, the entry into Constantinople +would possibly have been realised. But the decision was made to "mask" +Adrianople and to push on with all available force towards +Constantinople. + +In considering this decision it is easy to be misled by giving +Adrianople merely the value of a fortress in the rear, holding a +garrison capable of some offensive, necessitating the detachment of a +large holding force. But that was not the position. Actually Adrianople +straddled the only practical line of communication for effective +operations against the enemy's capital. The railway from Bulgaria to +Constantinople passed through Adrianople. Excepting that line of +railway, there was no other railroad, and there was no other carriage +road, one might say, for the Turk did not build roads. Once across the +Turkish frontier there were tracks, not roads. + +[Illustration: GENERAL DEMETRIEFF, THE CONQUEROR AT LULE BURGAS] + +The effect of leaving Adrianople in the hands of the enemy was that +supplies for the army in the field coming from Bulgaria could travel by +one of two routes. They could come through Yamboli to Kirk Kilisse, or +they could come through Novi Zagora to Mustapha Pasha by railway, and +then to Kirk Kilisse around Adrianople. From Kirk Kilisse to the +rail-head at Seleniki, close to Chatalja, they could come not by +railway, but by a tramway, a very limited railway. If Adrianople had +fallen, the railway would have been open. The Bulgarian railway services +had, I think, something over 100 powerful locomotives at the outset of +the war, and whilst it was a single line in places, it was an effective +line right down to as near Constantinople as they could get. + +But, Adrianople being in the hands of the enemy, supplies coming from +Yamboli had to travel to Kirk Kilisse by track, mostly by bullock wagon, +and that journey took five, six, or seven days. The British Army Medical +Detachment, travelling over that road, took seven days. If one took the +other road you got to Mustapha Pasha comfortably by railway. And then it +was necessary to use bullock or horse transport from Mustapha Pasha to +Kirk Kilisse. That journey I took twice; once with an ox wagon, and +afterwards with a set of fast horses, and the least period for that +journey was five days. From Kirk Kilisse there was a line of light +railway joining the main line. But on that line the Bulgarians had only +six engines, and, I think, thirty-two carriages; so that, for practical +purposes, the railway was of very little use indeed past Mustapha Pasha. +Whilst Adrianople was in the hands of the enemy, the Bulgarians had +practically no line of communication. + +My reason for believing that it was not the original plan of the +generals to leave Adrianople "masked" is, that in the first instance I +have a high opinion of the generals, and I do not think they could have +designed that; but think rather it was forced upon them by the +politicians saying, "We must hurry through, we must attempt something, +no matter how desperate it is, something decisive." In the second +instance, after Adrianople had been attacked in a very half-hearted way, +and after the main Bulgarian army had pushed on to the lines of +Chatalja, the Bulgarians called in the aid of a Serbian division to help +them against Adrianople. I am sure they would not have done that if it +had not been their wish to subdue Adrianople. To be forced to invoke +Serbian aid was a serious wound to their vanity. + +The position of the Bulgarian army on the lines of Chatalja, with +Adrianople in the hands of the enemy, was this: that it took practically +their whole transport facilities to keep the army supplied with food, +and there was no possibility of keeping the army properly supplied with +ammunition. So if the Bulgarian generals had really designed to carry +the lines of Chatalja without first attacking Adrianople, they +miscalculated seriously. But I do not think they did; I think it was a +plan forced upon them by political authority, feeling that the war must +be pushed to a conclusion somehow. Why the Bulgarians did not take +Adrianople quickly in the first place is to be explained simply by the +fact that they could not. But if their train of sappers had been of the +same kind of stuff as their field artillery, they could have taken +Adrianople in the first week of the war. The Bulgarians, however, had no +effective siege train. A Press photographer at Mustapha Pasha was very +much annoyed because photographs he had taken of guns passing through +the town were not allowed to be sent through to his paper. He sent a +humorous message to his editor, that he could not send photographs of +guns, "it being a military secret that the Bulgarians had any guns." But +the reason the Bulgarians did not want photographs taken was that these +guns were practically useless for the purpose for which they were +intended. + +In short, whilst Adrianople stood it was impossible to keep 250,000 men +in the field at Chatalja with the guns and ammunition necessary for +their work. Therefore the taking of Adrianople should have followed the +Battle of Lule Burgas. + +A reservation is perhaps necessary. If after Lule Burgas the victorious +Bulgarians had been able to push on at once, the fleeing Turks might +have been followed to the very walls of Constantinople. If even the +flower of the force to the extent of 50,000 men had gone on with all the +guns, ammunition, and food possible, the enterprise would probably have +succeeded. But one may judge that that too was impossible, in view of +the transport position. There was a long pause. Then an attempt was made +to do deliberately against an entrenched army what it was thought +impossible to do against a fleeing rabble. Reasons of humanity were +given to me to explain the hesitation to assault Adrianople. The +Bulgarians shrank from the great expenditure of men necessary, from the +sacrifice of the Christian population involved. Such reasons would be +admirable if truthful; but they are not war. + +When the action against the lines of Chatalja was at last opened the +Turks had had time to entrench strongly, to recover their wind, to +recognise that they had come to the last ditch. On November 17, after +the artillery reconnaissance of the position by the Bulgarians, I had +slight hope that success would be possible; it looked as if they were +short of ammunition, and not well supplied with food. Shells were used +very sparingly. When a storm was necessary there was a shower. Even on +that day infantrymen were asked to do the work of shrapnel, and valuable +lives paid for very slight information. Still, the Turkish artillery +work was so poor; their sticking to their trenches was so persistent, +that I half anticipated that the night would see a big Bulgarian +success on the left flank, making an effective attack on the centre +possible with the morning. But by next morning little had been done. +That day was spent in a heroic display of infantry courage. Men rushed +out from trenches against forts the strength of which was unknown, with +practically no artillery backing. Certainly the day was misty, and +artillery work could not have been properly effective. If the position +was--as I guess it was--that there was no adequate supply of ammunition, +the choice of the day was good. If it were possible to succeed with +infantry alone it would have been possible on that day and with those +men. But it was impossible. That night operations were suspended, and +negotiations for peace followed. + +Meanwhile in other quarters of the theatre of war the Balkan Allies had +been doing as well or even better. True, the Montenegrins were not very +successful against Scutari (it did not fall until the second phase of +the war), and the Greeks had been held up at Janina. But the Serbians +had swept the Turks from Old Serbia and from Northern Macedonia in fine +style, and had carried through an expedition of great gallantry over the +mountains to the Adriatic. As the Bulgarians and Turks stood at bay on +opposite ranges of hills within 25 miles of Constantinople, all that was +left of Turkish territory in Europe was the little peninsula on which +Constantinople stood, the peninsula of Gallipoli, and the towns of +Adrianople, Scutari, and Janina. It was certainly high time for the Turk +to talk of peace. + +War was now interrupted for a time to allow the Balkan Allies who had +shown themselves so gallant in war to show their mettle as statesmen and +negotiators. It is one of the established facts of history that warlike +prowess alone has never made a nation securely great. Within the Balkan +Peninsula that was made plain during the invasions of the Goths and the +Huns. There was now to be a melancholy modern proof. At the end of 1912 +the Balkan States, united and victorious, were in the position to take +the Balkan Peninsula for themselves and keep out European interference +for the future. They had soon dissipated all this advantage with mutual +jealousies and blundering negotiations. Already, before the Peace +Conference had actually begun its work, charges and counter-charges of +atrocities were bandied about between Bulgar and Greek. A Greek +official account set forth the following accusations: + + The detailed inquiry with regard to excesses and crimes committed + by the Bulgarian army shows that they constitute a cause for the + disturbances reported during the first days after the surrender of + Salonica. According to this inquiry, the excesses of the Bulgarians + can be divided into three categories: (1) damage to property; (2) + crimes against the life and honour of private persons, especially + Turks; and (3) offences--and these were the less frequent--due to + misconceived political interest. In the majority of cases Bulgarian + soldiers and peasants gave themselves up to pillaging. At + Vassilika, Agiaparaskevi, Apostola, Alihatzilar, Serres, Langada, + Asvestohori, Baroritza, Tohanli, Karaburnu, Vardar, Doiran, and + Salonica pillaging and thefts of all kinds were committed, the + stolen articles including horses, goats, sheep, barley, hay, + jewels, and other articles of value, large sums of money, carpets, + furniture, clothes, and arms. Attacks were made on Austrian + subjects, and the Austrian Consulate in consequence, lodged an + energetic protest. Unspeakable outrages were committed at Serres + and at the other towns and villages mentioned above. At Doiran, + despite the protests of the municipality, the Bulgarians seized and + imprisoned the rich Turkish residents, who after having secured + their liberty by the payment of enormous ransoms, were ambushed by + the Bulgarians and massacred, sixty of them being killed. + + The political crimes were of little importance, as the greater + number of the Bulgarians ardently desire the maintenance of the + Balkan Alliance, especially a Greco-Bulgarian _entente_, + safeguarding their political interests. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +ADRIANOPLE + +A general view, showing the Mosque of Sultan Selim on the left and the +Old Mosque on the right] + +On the Bulgarian side just as positive charges against the Greeks were +made. It is not my province to attempt to judge as to the truth of the +Salonica events, but I quote this official charge as illustrative of the +spirit which had come over the Balkan League before the close of 1912. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A CHAPTER IN BALKAN DIPLOMACY + + +Watching through many exciting weeks the course of a Balkan Peace +Conference, I had the opportunity of seeing another phase of the Near +Eastern character in its various sub-divisions--the Turkish, the +Grecian, the Roumanian, the Bulgarian, and the Serbian. It was in +certain general characteristics the same character with certain points +of difference, ranging from almost purely Oriental through various +grades until it reached to a phase which was rather more than half +European. In various aspects it was naive, wily, deceitful, +vainglorious, truculent, servile, stubborn, supple. At times it was very +trying. Usually it was distinctly amusing. There were some exceptions +among the Balkan statesmen, but as a rule they were men of very ordinary +ability and very extraordinary conceit. Close association with them +dissipated for a time the extremely good impression that Bulgarian, +Serbian, Grecian, and Roumanian peasants and officials and traders had +made on me, meeting them as soldiers or as wayside hosts. + +When the Bulgarian progress towards Constantinople was stopped at +Chatalja, the Bulgarian authorities favoured negotiations for peace. To +this Greece very strenuously, and Serbia more gently, objected. They +offered as an alternative suggestion to send aid to the Chatalja lines +to help Bulgaria to force things to a conclusion there. But by this time +the Balkan Allies were at least as much suspicious of one another as +they were hostile to the Turk. The troubles after the fall of Salonica +had given a picturesque illustration of the hollowness of the Balkan +League. Greece and Bulgaria had raced armies down for the capture of +that city, and the Greeks had won in the race by bribing the Turkish +commander to surrender to them--the Bulgarians said sourly (an absurd +accusation!). Now Bulgarian and Greek were at the point of open war in +Salonica, and were doing a little odd killing of one another to keep +their hands in practice. Around Adrianople Bulgarian and Serbian were +growling at one another, the Bulgarians treating their friends rather +badly, so far as I could judge. Both racial sections of the army of +siege were inclined to do very little, because each was waiting for the +other to begin. Bulgaria, too, was extremely anxious to have no more +friendly allied troops in the areas which she had marked out for +herself. She was aware that the Greek population of Thrace was agitating +for an autonomous Thrace instead of a Bulgarian annexation, and feared +that the presence of a Greek army in the province would strengthen this +movement. + +In the upshot Serbia and Montenegro supported Bulgaria in the signing of +an armistice. Greece refused to sign an armistice, but joined in the +negotiations for a final peace which opened at the Conference of St. +James's, London, in December 1912. This Conference quickly resolved +itself into a wonderful acrobatic display of ground and lofty fiction, +of strange childish "bluffs," of complicated efforts at mystery which +would not deceive a Punch-and-Judy show audience. + +In the East and the Near East, the man who wants to buy a horse goes to +the market-place in the first instance, and curses publicly all horses +and thoughts of horses. He proclaims that he will see his father's tomb +defiled before he will ever touch a horse again. Hearing of this, a man +who wishes to sell a horse appears in public, and proclaims that the +horse he has in his stall is the sun and the moon and the stars of his +life: that sooner than part with it he would eat filth and become as a +dog. At this stage the negotiations for a bargain are in fair progress. +After some days--the East and the Near East is not very thrifty with +time--a satisfactory bargain is struck. + +The Balkan Peace Conference was carried on very much on those lines. In +a London winter atmosphere, among the unimaginative and matter-of-fact +London population, the effect was strangely fantastic. In an early stage +of the negotiations the Turkish delegates (who were out to gain time in +the desperate hope that something would turn up) said one day that they +must ask for instructions on some point, about which they were as fully +instructed as it was possible to be: said the next sitting day that +unfortunately their instructions had not arrived: and the next sitting +day that their instructions had arrived but unfortunately they could +not decipher some of the words, and must refer to Constantinople again! +With all this it was difficult to believe that we lived in a civilised +age of telegraphs and newspapers and railway trains. The mind was +transported back insensibly to the times of the great Caliph of Bagdad. + +Whilst the Turks dallied in the hope that something would turn up, and +devoted a painstaking but painfully obvious industry to the task of +trying to sow dissensions among the Balkan Allies, these Balkan Allies +engaged among themselves in a vigorous Press campaign of mutual abuse +and insinuation. The seeds of dissension which the Turk was scattering +refused to germinate, because already the field which was sown had a +full-grown crop. But the Balkan Allies had one point of elementary +common sense. They were resolved to take from the Turk all that was +possible before they fell out among themselves as to the division of the +spoil. (As it happened, they forgot to take into account the contingency +that after the division it would still be within the power of the Turk +to seek some revenge if they abandoned their League of Alliance, which +alone had made the humiliation of the Turkish Empire possible.) + +The first squabble between the Allies was over the appointment of a +leader or chief spokesman of the Balkan delegates. If there had been a +touch of imagination and real friendliness between them they would have +selected the senior Montenegrin delegate in acknowledgment of the +gallantry which had kept Montenegro during all the centuries unsubdued +by the Turkish invader. Or there were reasons why the chief Greek +delegate should have been chosen, as he was Prime Minister in his own +country, and therefore the senior delegate in official position. But +there was not enough good feeling among the Allies to allow of any such +settlement. The delegation was left without an official spokesman and +there had to be a roster of Presidents in alphabetical order as the only +way to soothe the embittered jealousies of rival allies. That was the +first of a series of childish incidents. + +Some of the delegates talked with the utmost freedom to the Press: and +if what they told was not always accurate it was nearly always +interesting. The loathsome wiles of the other Balkan fellow and his +black treachery were explained at length. It seemed seriously to be +thought that British and European opinion would be influenced by this +sort of fulmination in the more irresponsible Press. + +Diplomacy under these conditions was bound to fail. The Turkish position +was at the time plainly desperate if only military considerations were +taken into account. A united front on the part of the Balkan delegates, +combining firmness with some suavity, would have convinced even the +procrastinating Turkish mind that the game was up and the only thing to +do was to make a peace on lines of "cutting the loss." But the constant +quarrels of the Balkan States' representatives between themselves +encouraged the Turks day by day to think that a definite split must come +between the Allies, and with a split the chance for Turkey to find a way +out of her desperate position. As it happened, Turkey played that game +too long: and the war was resumed and further heavy bloodshed caused. +Then the Peace Conference resumed with Turkey and Bulgaria, apparently +very anxious for peace on terms dictated by the Powers: and Greece and +Serbia anxious now for delays because they had made up their minds that +it was necessary to defend themselves against Bulgaria, and they wished +time for their preparations. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +ROUMANIAN SOLDIERS IN BUCHAREST] + +Throughout both Conferences Roumania hovered about in the offing waiting +confidently for an opportunity for pickings. Roumania had learned well +the lesson taught her by European diplomacy after the War of Liberation. +Then she had done great work, made enormous sacrifices, and won not +rewards but robberies. In the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 she stood apart, +risking nothing, and waiting for the exhaustion of the combatants to put +in her claims. + +The second session of the Balkan Peace Conference came to an abrupt end +through practically an ultimatum from the British Foreign Secretary, Sir +Edward Grey, that peace with Turkey on the lines determined by the +Powers must be signed at once. The Grecian and Serbian delegates saw +then that the game of delay could no longer be played, signed the Peace +of London, and hurried away to their homes expecting an attack from +Bulgaria. + +Some strange infatuation drove the Bulgarian leaders at that time to a +fit of madness. They had just wrung the last atom of concession from +Turkey, and had an enormous undisputed access of territory in Thrace and +in eastern Macedonia, with a good coastal frontage on the Aegean. True, +they were faced with a demand for a small territorial concession by +Roumania, and Greece disputed the right of Bulgaria to an area of +northern Macedonia, and Serbia disputed with her over her Macedonian +area. It would have been quite within the rules of Balkan diplomacy for +Bulgaria to have sought the help of one of her neighbours, so that she +might withstand the others. With proper adroitness she might have robbed +each in turn with the help of the others. But Bulgaria elected to fight +all of them at once. To Roumania she was rude, to Serbia stiff, to +Greece provocative. By joining hands with Serbia, which had helped her +very gallantly at Adrianople, and was now much injured by the decision +of the Powers that she was not to keep the Adriatic territory which she +had won in the war, Bulgaria might have coerced Greece and Turkey at +least, and perhaps have struck a better bargain with Roumania. But she +had conciliation for none. + +The events that followed are as tragical as any that I can recall in +history. Bulgaria had within a few weeks raised herself to a position +which promised her headship of a Balkan Confederation. She might have +been the Prussia of a new Empire. Within a few days her blunders, her +intolerance, and her bad faith had humbled her to the dust. As soon as +she attacked Greece and Serbia--to attack such a combination was +absurd--Roumania moved down upon her northern frontier, and the Turk +moved up from the south. Neither Roumanian nor Turk were opposed. The +whole Bulgarian strength was kept for her late Allies: and yet the +Bulgarian forces were decisively routed by both Serbians and Greeks. + +Of the dark incidents of that fratricidal war no history will ever tell +the truth. No war correspondents nor military _attaches_ accompanied the +forces. From the accusations and counter-accusations of the combatants, +from the eloquent absence of prisoners, from the ghastly gaps in the +ranks of the armies when they returned from the field, it is clear that +the war was carried on as a rule without mercy and without chivalry. +There was no very plentiful supply of ammunition on either side. That +fact enabled the combatants to approach one another more closely and to +inflict more savage slaughter. During the course of the war with Turkey +the Balkan Allies lost 75,000 slain. During the war between themselves, +though it lasted only a few days, it is said that this number was +exceeded. + +Roumania, whose army though invading Bulgaria engaged in no battle, +finally dictated terms of peace. The Peace of Bucharest supplanted the +Peace of London. Bulgaria, beaten to the ground, had to give up all that +Roumania demanded, and practically all that Greece and Serbia demanded. +It was a characteristic incident of Balkan diplomacy that the unhappy +Bulgarians, having the idea of conciliating Roumania, conveyed the +territory to that state with expressions of joy and gratitude, to which +expressions the wily Roumanians gave exactly their true value. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +ADRIANOPLE + +View looking across the Great Bridge] + +Turkey, meanwhile, had taken full advantage of the opportunity given to +her by Bulgaria. Beaten decisively she had had to agree to give up all +her European possessions with the exception of those beyond a line drawn +from Enos on the Black Sea to Midia on the Aegean. She saw now Bulgaria +powerless and calmly marched back, and seized again practically all +Thrace, including Adrianople, over which had been fought such great +battles, and Kirk Kilisse. The Bulgarians protested, appealed to Europe, +to Roumania in vain, then accepted the situation and professed a warm +friendship for Turkey. There seemed to be a movement for a joint +Turkish-Bulgarian attack upon Greece, which would have put the last +touch upon this tragic comedy of the Balkans. But the Powers vetoed this +enterprise if ever it were contemplated, and the Balkans for a while, +except for a little massacring in Macedonia and Albania, enjoyed an +unquiet peace. But the forces of hate and revenge waited latent. + +The city which figured most prominently in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 +and the intervening diplomacy was Adrianople, the city founded by the +Emperor Adrian. It has seen more bloodshed probably than any other city +of the world. It was before Adrianople that the Roman Emperor Valerius +and his army were destroyed by the Goths, and the fate of the Roman +Empire sealed (a.d. 378). It was Adrianople that was first captured by +the Turkish invaders of the Balkans to serve as their capital until they +could at a later date capture Constantinople. Many sieges and battles it +saw until 1912, when the Bulgarians and Serbians gathered around its +marshy plains, and after several months of siege finally carried it by +assault. Finally it was re-captured by a mere cavalry patrol of the +Turks. + +Adrianople has its beauties seen from afar. The great mosque with four +slender minarets shines out from the midst of gardens and picturesque +villas over the wide plain which marks the confluence of the Maritza and +the Tchundra Rivers. But on nearer examination Adrianople, like all +other Turkish towns, is dirty, unkempt, squalid. Most Turkish towns in +the Balkans--Mustapha Pasha on the Maritza was an exception, looking +dirty and unattractive from any point of view--have a certain +enchantment when they first catch the eye of the traveller. It is the +custom of the richer Turks to build their villas on the high ground +around a town if there is any, and to surround them with gardens. These +embowered houses and the slender fingers pointing skyward of the +minarets, give a first impression of ample space, of delicacy in +architecture. Closer knowledge discloses the town as a herd of hovels, +irregularly set in a sea of mud (in dry weather a dirty heap of dust), +with the hilly outskirts alone tolerable. + +I regret the wild Balkan diplomacy which doomed that Adrianople should +go back to the Turks. The Bulgarians would have made a fine clean city +of it: and had a project to canalise the Maritza and bring to the old +city of Adrian all the advantages of a seaport. Possibly, that will come +in the near future if, in renewing their strength, the Bulgarian nation +learn also some sense of diplomacy and moderation in using it. + +Now the position is that for the first time for very many years the old +principle has been broken that the Turkish tide may retreat but must +never advance in Europe. During the negotiations of the first session of +the Balkan Peace Conference, the Balkan Committee--a London organisation +which exists to befriend the Balkan States--urged: + + Any district which should be restored to Turkish rule would be not + only beyond the possibility of rehabilitation, but would suffer the + second scourge of vengeance.... It would be intolerable that any + such districts should meet the fate meted out to Macedonia in 1878. + There is no ground for such restoration except the claim arising + from the continued Turkish possessions of Adrianople. But + compensation for the brief period during which Adrianople may still + be defended would be represented by a district adjoining Chatalja, + not exceeding, at all events, the vilayet of Constantinople.... + + It is clearly our duty to call attention to the governing principle + laid down by Lord Salisbury that any district liberated from + Turkish rule should not be restored to misgovernment.... The + ostensible ground for the action of Europe, and particularly of + England in 1878, was that the Powers themselves undertook the + reform of Turkish government in the restored provinces. They have + since that day persistently restrained the small States from + undertaking reform or liberation, while notoriously neglecting the + task themselves. The promise to undertake reform was regarded in + 1878 in many quarters as sincere. But renewed restoration of + Christian districts to Turkey to-day would, after the experiences + of the past, be devoid of any shred of sincerity.... + + The restoration of European and civilised populations to Turkish + rule would be resented now, not merely by those who have + sympathised with the Balkan Committee, but by the entire public, + which recognises that the Allies have achieved a feat of arms of + which even the greatest Power would be proud. + +In 1914 no more was heard of "Lord Salisbury's principle," and in public +repute the Balkan States were in a position worse than any they had +occupied for half a century. Coming after a successful war such a result +condemns most strongly Balkan statesmen and diplomats. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +GENERAL VIEW OF STARA ZAGORA, BULGARIA] + +Roumanian diplomacy during 1912-13 was subtle, wily, and unscrupulous, +enough to delight a Machiavelli. With all its ethical wickedness it was +the most stable element in the wild disorders of 1913; was efficacious +in insisting upon peace: and imposed a sort of rough justice on all +parties. Grecian diplomacy was of the same character as the Roumanian, +but not so supremely able. The difference, it appeared to me, was that +the Roumanian sought a grand advantage with a humble air: the Greek +would seek an advantage, even a humble one, with a grand air. A lofty +dignity sits well on the diplomacy which is backed by great force: there +should be something more humble in the bearing of the diplomat relying +upon subtle wiles. The Greek is a little too conscious of his heroic +past not to spoil a little the working of his otherwise very pliant +diplomacy. The Serbian in diplomacy was not so childish as the Bulgarian +and a great deal more amiable and modest. Europe has long given the +Serbian a bad reputation for bounce and bluster. In the events of +1912-13 he did nothing to earn such ill-repute. His work in the field +was done excellently and with little _reclame_. In Conference he was not +aggressive, but moderate, and, in my experience, more truthful than +other Balkan types. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE TROUBLES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT IN THE BALKANS + + +Being a war correspondent with the Bulgarian army gave one far better +opportunities of studying Balkan scenery and natural characteristics +than war operations. After getting through to Staff headquarters at +Stara Zagora and to Mustapha Pasha, which was about twelve miles from +the operations against Adrianople, I found myself a kind of prisoner of +the censor, and recall putting my complaint into writing on November 7: + + It is the dullest of posts, this, at the tail of an army which is + moving forward and doing brave deeds whilst we are cooped up by the + censor, thirsting for news, and given an occasional bulletin which + tells us just what it is thought that we should be told. True, we + are not prisoners exactly. We may go out within a mile radius. That + is the rule which must be faithfully kept under pain of being sent + back to headquarters. Perhaps, now and again, a desperate + correspondent, thinking that it would not be such a sad thing + after all to be sent back to headquarters, takes a generous view of + what a mile is. (Perhaps he has been used to Irish miles, which are + of the elastic kind; short when you pay a car fare, long, very + long, at other times.) But, supposing, with great energy and at + dread risk of being sent back to headquarters a correspondent _has_ + walked one mile and one yard; or his horse, which cannot read + notices, has unwittingly carried him on; and supposing that he has + made all kinds of brilliant observations, analysing a speck of + shining metal showing there, a puff of smoke elsewhere, a flash, or + a scar on the earth, still there remains the censor. A courteous + gentleman is the censor, with a manner even deferential. He cuts + off the head of your news with the most malignant courtesy. "I am + sorry, my dear sir, but that refers to movements of troops; it is + forbidden. And that might be useful to the enemy. Ah, that + observation is excellent; but it cannot go." + + Afterwards, there remains in your mind an impression of your + wickedness in having troubled so amiable a gentleman, and on your + telegraph form nothing, just nothing. Of course, if you like, you + can pass along the camp chatter, the stories brought in by Greeks + anxious to curry favour, the descriptions of the capture of + Constantinople by peasants whose first cousins were staying at the + Pera Hotel the day it happened. The censor is too wise a gentleman + to interfere with the harmless amusement of sending that on. It + does not harm; it may entertain somebody. + + So at the rear of the army, which is making the Christian arm more + respected than it has been for some time in this Balkan Peninsula, + we sit and growl. Those of us who are convinced that we possess + that supreme capacity of a general "to see what is going on behind + the next hill" are particularly sad. There are so many precious + observations being wasted, theories which cannot be expressed, + sagacious "I told you so's" which are smothered. We are at the rear + of an army, and endless trains of transport move on; and if we can + by chance catch the sound of a distant gun we are happy for a day, + since it suggests the real thing. Some of us are optimists, and + feel sure that we shall go forward in a day or two; that we shall + be allowed to see the bombardment of Adrianople; if not that, then + its capture; if not that, then something. Others are pessimists, + and have gone home. + + It is easy to understand the anxiety of the Bulgarians. They are + engaged in a big war. They know that some of the Great Powers are + watching its progress with something more than interest and + something less than sympathy. It is their impression that they can + beat the Turks; but that afterwards they may have to meet an + attempt to neutralise their victory. So they are anxious to mask + every detail of their organisation. Secrecy applies to the past as + well as to the present and the future. But it is very irritating; + and one goes home, or holds on in the hope that something better + will come after a time. + + Meanwhile one may learn a little of the country and its + people--this country which has been riven by many wars. The + map--with its names in several languages--gives indications of the + wounds they inflicted. In Bulgaria, too, it shows how determined is + the nationality of the people who have within a generation + reasserted their right to be a nation. They permit no Turkish names + to remain on their maps. Not only do the Arabic characters go, but + also the Turkish names. Eski Sagrah, for example, gives place to + the title it has on the best English maps. "Sagrah" means in + Turkish a "dell," a place sheltered by a wood. "Eski" means "old." + The Bulgarian has changed that to Stara Zagora, Bulgarian words + with exactly the same significance. He wishes to wipe away all + traces of the defiling hand of the Turk from his country, though + tolerant of his Turkish fellow-subjects. + + Almost completely he succeeds, but not quite completely. The + Turkish sweetmeats, the Turkish coffee keep their hold on the taste + of the people, and away from the towns, among the peasants who till + rich fields with wooden ploughs, there remain traces of the Eastern + disregard for time. But even in the country the people are waking + up to modern ideas, aroused in part by the American "drummer" + selling agricultural machinery. But in his city of Sofia, "the + little Paris," as he likes to hear it called, and in his towns the + Bulgarian has become keen and bustling. He rather aspires to be + thought Parisian in manner. A "middle class" begins to grow up. The + Bulgarian prospers mightily as a trader, and when he makes money he + devotes his son to a profession, to the staff of the army, the law, + to public life. Also the Bulgarian is keen to add manufacturing + industries to his agricultural resources, and there are cotton + mills and other factories springing up in different places. The + Bulgarian has a great faith in himself. Thinking over what he has + done within forty years, it is easy to share that belief and to + think of him one day with a great seaport on the Mediterranean + aspiring to a place in the family council of Europe. + +Afterwards, when by dint of hard begging, hard travelling, hard living, +and some hard swearing, I had forced my way through to the front, I +concluded that with the exception of Mustapha Pasha--where the Second +Army had failed at its task and was set to work on a dull siege, and was +consequently very bad-tempered--the famous censorship of the Bulgarian +Army was not so vexatious to the correspondents as to their editors. The +censors were usually polite, and tried to make a difficult position +agreeable. + +When the correspondents were despatched it was thought that the Balkan +States, needing a "good Press," would be fairly kind. The expectation +was realised in the case of the Montenegrins and the Greeks. The +Serbians allowed the correspondents to see nothing. The Bulgarian idea +was to allow nothing to be seen and nothing to be despatched except the +"Te Deums." It was an aggravation of the Japanese censorship, and if it +is accepted as a model for future combatant States the "war +correspondent" will become extinct. I am not disposed to claim that an +army in the field should carry on its operations under the eyes of +newspaper correspondents; and there were special circumstances in regard +to the campaign of the Bulgarian army (which was a desperate rush +against a big people of a little people operating with the slenderest of +resources) that made a severe censorship absolutely necessary. But, that +allowed, there are still some points of criticism justified. + +One correspondent, and one only, was exempted from censorship, and he +was not at the front but at Sofia. His special position as an informal +member of the Cabinet led to a concession which, to a man of honour, was +more of a responsibility than a privilege. At the outset the Russian and +French correspondents were highly favoured, and two English +correspondents--who were working jointly--were granted passes of credit +to all the armies. That privilege was afterwards granted to me towards +the end of the war. It should have been granted to all or none. A +censorship which is harsh but has no favouritism may be criticised, but +it cannot be held suspect. Throughout the campaign there was some +favouritism, the Russians having first place, the French next, the +English and Americans next, the Italians, Germans, Austrians, and others +coming last. The differentiation between nations was comprehensible +enough, in view of the political situation in Europe, but +differentiations between different papers of equal standing of the same +country cannot be defended. As I ended the campaign one of the three +favoured English correspondents, I speak on this point without +bitterness. Indeed, I found no valid grounds for abusing the censorship +until just as I was leaving Sofia, when I found that some of my messages +from Kirk Kilisse to the _Morning Post_ had been seriously (and, it +would seem, deliberately) mutilated _after_ they had passed the censor. +They were of some importance as sent--one the first account from the +Bulgarian side of the battle of Chatalja, the other a frank statement of +the position following that battle, which I did not submit to the censor +until after close consultation with high authority, and which was passed +then with some modifications, and, after being passed, was mutilated +until it had little or no meaning. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +SOFIA + +Commercial Road from Commercial Square] + +In lighter vein I may record some of the humours of the censorship, +mostly from Mustapha Pasha, where the Second Army was held up and +everybody was in the worst of tempers. Mustapha Pasha would not allow ox +wagons to be mentioned, would not allow photographs of reservists to be +sent forward because they were not in full uniform, would not allow the +fact that Serbian troops were before Adrianople to be recorded. Indeed, +the censorship there was full of strange prohibitions. Going down to +Mustapha Pasha I noticed aeroplane equipment. The censor objected to +that being recorded then, though two days after the official bulletin +trumpeted the fact. + +At Mustapha Pasha the custom was after the war correspondent had written +a despatch to bring it to the censor, who held his court in a room +surrounded by a crowd of correspondents. The censor insisted that the +correspondent should read the despatch aloud to him. Then the censor +read it over again aloud to him to make sure that all heard. Thus we all +learned how the other man's imagination was working, and telegraphing +was reduced to a complete farce. Private letters had to pass through the +same ordeal, and one correspondent, with a turn of humour, wrote an +imaginary private letter full of the most fervent love messages, which +was read out to a furiously blushing censor and to a batch of +journalists, who at first did not see the joke and tried to look as if +they were not listening. I have described the early days of Mustapha +Pasha. Later, when most of the men had gone away, conditions improved. + +The "second censorship"--the most disingenuous and condemnable part of +the Bulgarian system--was applied with full force to Mustapha Pasha. +After correspondents, who were forbidden to go a mile out of the town +and forbidden to talk with soldiers, had passed their pitiful little +messages through the censor, those messages were not telegraphed, but +posted on to the Staff headquarters and then censored again, sometimes +stopped. Certes, the treasures of strategical observation and vivid +description thus lost were not very great, but the whole proceeding was +unfair and underhand. The censor's seal once affixed a message should go +unchanged. Otherwise it might be twisted into actual false information. + +In almost all cases the individual censors were gentlemen, and +personally I never had trouble with any of them; but the system was +faulty at the outset, inasmuch as it was not frank, and was made worse +when it became necessary to change the plan of campaign and abandon the +idea of capturing Adrianople. Then the Press correspondents who had been +allowed down to Mustapha Pasha in the expectation that after two days +they would be permitted to follow the victorious army into Adrianople, +had to be kept in that town, and had to be prevented from knowing +anything of what was going on. The courageous course would have been to +have put them under a definite embargo for a period. That was not +followed, and the same end was sought by a series of irritating tricks +and evasions. The facts argue against the continuance of the war +correspondent. An army really can never be sure of its victory until the +battle is over. If it allows the journalists to come forward to see an +expected victory and the victory does not come, then awkward facts are +necessarily disclosed, and the moving back of those correspondents is +tantamount to a confession of a movement of retreat. If I were a general +in the field I should allow no war correspondents with the troops except +reliable men, who would agree to see the war out, to send no despatches +until the conclusion of an operation, and to observe any interdiction +which might be necessary then. Under these circumstances there would be +very few correspondents, but there would be no deceit and no +ill-feeling. + +The holding up of practically all private telegraphic messages by the +authorities at the front was a real grievance. It was impossible to +communicate with one's office to get instructions. One correspondent, +arriving at Sofia at the end of the campaign, found that he had been +recalled a full month before. The unnecessary mystery about the locality +of Staff headquarters added to the difficulty of keeping in touch with +one's office. + +The Bulgarian people made some "bad friends" on the Press because of the +censorship; but the sore feeling was not always justifiable. The worst +that can be said is that the military authorities did in rather a weak +and disingenuous way what they should have had the moral courage to do +in a firm way at the outset. The Bulgarian enterprise against the Turks +was so audacious, the need of secrecy in regard to equipment was so +pressing, that there was no place for the journalist. Under the +circumstances a nation with more experience of affairs and more +confidence in herself would have accredited no correspondents. Bulgaria +sought the same end as that which would have served secrecy by an +evasive way. Englishmen, with centuries of greatness to give moral +courage, may not complain too harshly when the circumstances of this +new-come nation are considered. + +When the army of Press correspondents were gathered, it was seen that +there were several Austrians and Roumanians, and these countries were at +the time threatening mobilisation against the Balkan States. It was +impossible to expect that the Bulgarian forces should allow Roumanian +journalists and Austrian journalists to see anything of their operations +which might be useful to Austria or Roumania in a future campaign. Yet +it would not have been proper to have allowed correspondents other than +the Austrians and Roumanians to go to the front, because that would +perhaps have created a diplomatic question, which would have increased +the tension. It certainly would have given offence to Austria and to +Roumania. It would have been said that there was an idea that war was +intended against those nations; and diplomacy was anxious to avoid +giving expression to any such idea. The military attaches were in +exactly the same position. + +There were the Austrian attache and the Roumanian attache, and their +duty was to report to their Governments all they could find out that +would be to the advantage of the military forces of their Governments. +The Bulgarians naturally would not allow the Roumanian nor the Austrian +attache to see anything of what went on. The attaches were even worse +treated than the correspondents, because, as the campaign developed, the +Bulgarians got to understand that some of us were trustworthy, and we +were given certain facilities for seeing. But we were still without +facilities for the despatch of what we had seen. But the military +attaches were kept right in the rear all the time. They were taken over +the battle-fields after the battles had been fought, so that they might +see what victories had been gained by the Bulgarians. + +The Bulgarians were much strengthened in their attitude towards the war +correspondents by the fact that they admitted receiving much help in +their operations from the news published in London and in French +newspapers from the Turkish side. The Turkish army, when the period of +rout began, was in the position that it was able to exercise little +check on its war correspondents; and the Bulgarians had everything which +was recorded as being done in the Turkish army sent on to them. They +said it was a great help to them. I think the outlook for war +correspondents in the future is a gloomy one, and the outlook for the +military attache also. In the future, no army carrying on anything +except minor operations with savage nations, no army whose interests +might be vitally affected by information leaking out, is likely to allow +military attaches or war correspondents to see anything at all. + +The Balkan War probably will close the book of the war correspondent. It +was in the wars of the "Near East" that that book was first opened in +the modern sense. Some of the greatest achievements of the craft were in +the Crimean War, the various Turco-Russian wars, and the Greco-Turkish +struggle. It is an incidental proof of the popularity of the Balkan +Peninsula as a war theatre that the history of the profession of the war +correspondent would be a record almost wholly of wars in the Near East. + +Certainly if the "war correspondent" is to survive he will need to be of +a new type. I came to that conclusion when I returned to Kirk Kilisse +from the Bulgarian lines at Chatalja, and had amused myself in an odd +hour with burrowing among a great pile of newspapers in the censor's +office, and reading here and there the war news from English, French, +and Belgian papers. + +Dazed, dismayed, I recognised that I had altogether mistaken the duties +of a war correspondent. For some six weeks I had been following an army +in breathless anxious chase of facts: wheedling censors to get some few +of those facts into a telegraph office; learning then, perhaps, that the +custom at that particular telegraph office was to forward telegrams to +Sofia, a ten days' journey, by bullock wagon and railway, to give them +time to mature. Now here, piping hot, were the stories of the war. There +was the touching prose poem about King Ferdinand following his troops to +the front in a military train, which was his temporary palace. One part +of the carriage, serving as his bed-chamber, was taken up with a +portrait of his mother, and to that picture he looked ever for +encouragement, for advice, for praise. Had there been that day a "Te +Deum" for a great victory? He looked at the picture and added, "Te +Matrem." + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +BUCHAREST + +The Roumanian House of Representatives] + +It was a beautiful story, and why should any one let loose a brutal +bulldog of a fact and point out that King Ferdinand during the +campaign lived in temporary palaces at Stara Zagora and Kirk Kilisse, +and when he travelled on a visit to some point near the front it was +usually by motor-car? + +In a paper of another nationality there was a vivid story of the battle +of Chatalja. This story started the battle seven days too soon; had the +positions and the armies all wrong; the result all wrong; and the +picturesque details were in harmony. But for the purposes of the public +it was a very good story of a battle. Those men who, after great +hardships, were enabled to see the actual battle found that the poor +messages which the censor permitted them to send took ten days or more +in transmission to London. Why have taken all the trouble and expense of +going to the front? Buda-Pest, on the way there, is a lovely city; +Bucharest also; and charming Vienna was not at all too far away if you +had a good staff map and a lively military imagination. + +In yet another paper there was a vivid picture--scenery, date, Greenwich +time, and all to give an air of artistic verisimilitude--of the signing +of the Peace armistice. The armistice had not been signed at the time, +was not signed for some days after. But it would have been absurd to +have waited, since "our special correspondent" had seen it all in +advance, right down to the embrace of the Turkish delegate and the +Bulgarian delegate, and knew that some of the conditions were that the +Turkish commissariat was to feed the Bulgarian troops at Chatalja and +the Bulgarian commissariat the Turkish troops in Adrianople. If his +paper had waited for the truth that most charming story would never have +seen the light. + +So, in a little book I shall one day bring out in the "Attractive +Occupations" series on "How to be a War Correspondent," I shall give +this general advice: + +1. Before operations begin, visit the army to which you are accredited, +and take notes of the general appearance of officers and men. Also learn +a few military phrases of their language. Ascertain all possible +particulars of a personal character concerning the generals and chief +officers. + +2. Return then to a base outside the country. It must have good +telegraph communication with your newspaper. For the rest you may +decide its locality by the quality of the wine, or the beer, or the +cooking. + +3. Secure a set of good maps of the scene of operations. It will be +handy also to have any books which have been published describing +campaigns over the same _terrain_. + +4. Keep in touch with the official bulletins issued by the military +authorities from the scene of operations. But be on guard not to become +enslaved by them. If, for instance, you wait for official notices of +battles, you will be much hampered in your picturesque work. Fight +battles when they ought to be fought and how they ought to be fought. +The story's the thing. + +5. A little sprinkling of personal experience is wise: for example, a +bivouac on the battle-field, toasting your bacon at a fire made of a +broken-down gun carriage with a bayonet taken from a dead soldier. +Mention the nationality of the bacon. You cannot be too precise in +details. + +Ko-Ko's account of the execution of Nankipoo is, in short, the model for +the future war correspondent. The other sort of war correspondent, who +patiently studied and recorded operations, seems to be doomed. In the +nature of things it must be so. The more competent and the more +accurate he is, the greater the danger he is to the army which he +accompanies. His despatches, published in his newspaper and telegraphed +promptly to the other side, give to them at a cheap cost that +information of what is going on _behind_ their enemy's screen of scouts +which is so vital to tactical, and sometimes to strategical, +dispositions. To try to obtain that information an army pours out much +blood and treasure; to guard that information an army will consume a +full third of its energies in an elaborate system of mystification. A +modern army must either banish the war correspondent altogether or +subject him to such restrictions of censorship as to veto honest, +accurate, and prompt criticism or record of operations. + +Some of the correspondents--one in particular--overcame a secretive +military system and a harsh censorship by the use of a skilled +imagination, and of a friendly telegraph line outside the area of +censorship. At the Staff headquarters at Stara Zagora during the early +days of the campaign, when we were all straining at the leash to get to +the front, waiting and fussing, he was working, reconstructing the +operations with maps and a fine imagination, and never allowing his +paper to want for news. I think that he was quite prepared to have taken +pupils for his new school of war correspondents. Often he would come to +me for a yarn--in halting French on both sides--and would explain the +campaign as it was being carried on. One eloquent gesture he habitually +had--a sweeping motion which brought his arms together as though they +were gathering up a bundle of spears, then the hands would meet in an +expressive squeeze. "It is that," he said, "it is Napoleonic." + +Probably the censor at this stage did not interfere much with his +activities, content enough to allow fanciful descriptions of Napoleonic +strategy to go to the outer world. But, in my experience, facts, if one +ascertained something independently, were not treated kindly. + +"Why not?" I asked the censor vexedly about one message he had stopped. +"It is true." + +"Yes, that is the trouble," he said,--the nearest approach to a joke I +ever got out of a Bulgarian, for they are a sober, God-fearing, and +humour-fearing race. + +The idea of the Bulgarian censorship in regard to the privileges and +duties of the war correspondent was further illustrated to me on +another occasion when a harmless map of a past phase of the campaign was +stopped. + +"Then what am I to send?" I asked. + +"There are the bulletins," he said. + +"Yes, the bulletins which are just your bald official account of +week-old happenings which are sent to every news agency in Europe before +we see them!" + +"But you are a war correspondent. You can add to them in your own +language." + +Remembering that conversation, I suspect that at first the Bulgarian +censorship did not object to fairy tales passing over the wires, though +the way was blocked for exact observation. An enterprising story-maker +had not very serious difficulties at the outset. Afterwards there was a +change, and even the writer of fairy stories had to work outside the +range of the censor. + +The Mustapha Pasha censorship would not allow ox wagons, reservists, or +Serbians to be mentioned, nor officers' names. The censorship objected, +too, for a long time to any mention of the all-pervading mud which was +the chief item of interest in the town's life. Yet you might have lost +an army division in some of the puddles. (But stop, I am lapsing into +the picturesque ways of the new school of correspondents. Actually you +could not have lost more than a regiment in the largest mud puddle.) + +Let the position be frankly faced that if one is with an army in modern +warfare, common sense prohibits the authorities from allowing you to see +anything, and suggests the further precautions of a strict censorship +and a general hold-up of wires until their military value (and therefore +their "news" value) has passed. If your paper wants picturesque stories +hot off the grill it is much better not to be with the army (which means +in effect in the rear of the army), but to write about its deeds from +outside the radius of the censorship. + +Perhaps, though, your paper has old-fashioned prejudices in favour of +veracity, and will be annoyed if your imagination leads you too palpably +astray? In that case do not venture to be a war correspondent at all. If +you do not invent, you will send nothing of value. If you invent you +will be reprimanded. + +Here is my personal record of "getting to the front" and the net result +of the trouble and the expense. I went down to Mustapha Pasha with the +great body of war correspondents and soon recognised that there was no +hope of useful work there. The attacking army was at a stand-still, and +a long, wearisome siege--its operations strictly guarded from +inspection--was in prospect. I decided to get back to Staff headquarters +(then at Stara Zagora) and just managed to catch the Staff before it +moved on to Kirk Kilisse. By threatening to return to London at once I +got a promise of leave to join the Third Army and to "see some +fighting." + +The promise anticipated the actual granting of leave by two days. It +would be tedious to record all the little and big difficulties that were +then encountered through the reluctance of the military authorities to +allow one to get transport or help of any kind. But four days later I +was marching out of Mustapha Pasha on the way to Kirk Kilisse by way of +Adrianople, a bullock wagon carrying my baggage, an interpreter +trundling my bicycle, I riding a small pony. The interpreter was gloomy +and disinclined to face the hardships and dangers (mostly fancied) of +the journey. Beside the driver (a Macedonian) marched a soldier with +fixed bayonet. Persuasion was necessary to force the driver to +undertake the journey and a friendly transport officer had, with more +or less legality, put at my command this means of argument. A mile +outside Mustapha Pasha the soldier turned back and I was left to coax my +unwilling helpers on a four days' journey across a war-stricken +countryside, swept of all supplies, infested with savage dogs +(fortunately well-fed by the harvest of the battle-fields), liable to +ravage by roving bands. + +[Illustration: GENERAL SAVOFF] + +That night I gave the Macedonian driver some jam and some meat to eke +out his bread and cheese. + +"That is better than having a bayonet poked into your inside," I said, +by pantomime. He understood, grinned, and gave no great trouble +thereafter, though he was always in a state of pitiable funk when I left +the wagon to take a trip within the lines of the besieging forces. + +So to Kirk Kilisse. There I got to General Savoff himself and won not +only leave, but a letter of aid to go down to the Third Army at the +lines of Chatalja. But by then what must be the final battle of the war +was imminent. Every hour of delay was dangerous. To go by cart meant a +journey of several days. A military train was available part of the way +if I were content to drop interpreter, horse, and baggage, and travel +with a soldier's load. + +That decision was easy enough at the moment--though I sometimes +regretted it afterwards when the only pair of riding breeches I had with +me gave out at the knees and I had to walk the earth ragged--and by +train I got to Chorlu. There a friendly artillery officer helped me to +get a cart (springless) and two fast horses. He insisted also on giving +me a patrol, a single Bulgarian soldier, with 200 rounds of ammunition, +as Bashi-Bazouks were ranging the country. + +It was an unnecessary precaution, though the presence of the soldier was +comforting as we entered Silviri at night, the outskirts of the town +deserted, the chattering of the driver's teeth audible over the clamour +of the cart, the gutted houses ideal refuges for prowling bands. From +Silviri to Chatalja there was again no appearance of Bashi-Bazouks. But +thought of another danger obtruded as we came near the lines and +encountered men from the Bulgarian army suffering from the choleraic +dysentery which had then begun its ravages. To one dying soldier by the +roadside I gave brandy; and then had to leave him with his mates, who +were trying to get him to a hospital. They were sorely puzzled by his +cries, his pitiful grimaces. Wounds they knew and the pain of them they +despised. They could not comprehend this disease which took away all the +manhood of a stoic peasant and made him weak in spirit as an ailing +child. + +From Chatalja, the right flank of the Bulgarian position, I passed along +the front to Ermenikioi ("the village of Armenians"), passing the night +at Arjenli, near the centre and the headquarters of the ammunition park. +That night at Arjenli seemed to make a rough and sometimes perilous +journey, which had extended over seven days, worth while. The Commander, +an artillery officer, welcomed me to a little mess which the Bulgarian +officers and non-commissioned officers (six in all) had set up in a +clean room of a village house. We had dinner, "Turkish fashion," +squatting round a dish of stewed goat and rice, and then smoked +excellent cigarettes through the evening hours as we looked out on the +Chatalja lines. + +Arjenli is perched on a high hill, to the west of Ermenikioi. It gave a +view of all the Chatalja position--the range of hills stretching from +the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmora, along which the Bulgarians were +entrenched, and, beyond the invisible valley, the second range which +held the Turkish defence. Over the Turkish lines, like a standard, shone +in the clear sky a crescent moon, within its tip a bright star. It +seemed an omen, an omen of good to the Turks. My Australian eye +instinctively sought for the Southern Cross ranged against it in the sky +in sign that the Christian standard held the Heavens too. I sought in +vain in those northern latitudes, shivered a little and, as though +arguing against a superstitious thought, said to myself: "But there is +the Great Bear." + +Now there had been "good copy" in the journey. At Arjenli I happened to +be the witness of a vivid dramatic scene (more stirring than any battle +incident). It was a splendid incident, showing the high courage and +_moral_ of these peasant soldiers at an anxious time. To have witnessed +it, participated in it, was personal reward sufficient for a week of +toil and anxiety. To my paper, too, the reader might say, it was of some +value, if properly told and given to the London reader the next morning, +the day before the battle of Chatalja. + +Yes. But it was the next afternoon before I could get to a telegraph +office within the Bulgarian lines. Then the censor said any long message +was hopeless. I was allowed to send a bare 100 words. They reached +London eight days later, a week after the battle had been fought, when +London was interested no longer in anything but the armistice +negotiations. The reason was that the single telegraph line was +monopolised for military business. My account of the battle of Chatalja +reached London a full fortnight after the event, though I had the +advantage of the highest influence to expedite the message. + +Thus from a daily-newspaper point of view all the expense, toil, danger +were wasted. + +Summing up, an accurate and prompt Press service as war correspondent +with the Bulgarian army was impossible, because-- + +1. The Bulgarian authorities were keen that correspondents should see +nothing. + +2. A rigid first censorship checked a full record of what little was +seen. + +3. The first censorship being passed, despatches often had still to pass +a second censorship at Staff headquarters, a third censorship at Sofia. + +4. Despatches passing through Roumania underwent another censorship +there, and yet another in Austria, possibly yet others in other European +countries. + +5. In addition to these censorship delays the Bulgarian authorities made +newspaper messages yield precedence to military messages, and at the +front this meant that Press messages were sent on by mail (ox transport +most of the way) to the Staff headquarters or the capital. + +6. In the meanwhile the imaginative accounts written nearer Fleet Street +had been published, and the accurate news was "dead" from a point of +public interest. + +Most of these conditions will rule over all future wars. Therefore I +conclude that the day of the war correspondent--in the sense of a +truthful observer of a campaign--has gone, and he died with the Balkan +War. He can only survive if newspapers are willing to incur the very +great expense of sending out war correspondents not for the news, day by +day, but for what observation and criticism they could supply after the +campaign was over. To a daily newspaper such matter is almost valueless, +especially as during the progress of the campaign the correspondents of +the "new" school would be at work with their many inventions, raising +the hair of the public and the circulation of their journals with bright +feats of imagination. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOTTINGS FROM MY BALKAN TRAVEL BOOK + + +These observations I will quote from my diary during 1912 in +illustration of phases of Balkan character, dating them at the time and +place that they were made. + +Belgrade, _October 21_.--The declaration of war has not set the Serbians +singing in the streets. In the chief cafe there is displayed a great war +map. Young soldiers not yet sent to the front lounge about in all the +cafes and are lionised by the older men. They are the only signs of war. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +BULGARIAN INFANTRY] + +The patriotic Serbian illustrates his case against the Turk by taking +you for a ramble around his capital. The old Turkish quarters of the +town are made up of narrow unpaved muddy lanes lined with low hovels. +The modern Serbian town has handsome buildings markedly Russian in +architecture, electric trams, and wood-blocked pavements. Near the +railway station one side of a street is as the Turks left it and shows a +row of hovels: the other side is occupied by a great school. The shops, +because it is war-time and business is largely suspended, are mostly +closed. But a few remain open with reduced staffs. The goods displayed +are as a rule woefully expensive when they are not of local origin. +Landlocked Serbia, surrounded by commercially hostile countries, finds +imports expensive. British goods are very much favoured, but are hard to +obtain. + +The Serbians speak bitterly of the efforts of Austria "to strangle them +commercially." "Whenever they wish to put diplomatic pressure upon us," +said one Serbian to me, "they discover that swine fever has broken out +in our country and stop our exports of pigs and bacon--our chief lines +of export. What can we do? Once, in retaliation, we found that we +suspected a consignment of Austrian linen goods of carrying swine fever +and stopped it on the frontier. It almost caused war." + +Nish (Serbia), _October 22_.--A military train carrying some members of +the army and Staff has brought also a band of war correspondents this +far. We were a merry but rather a hungry lot. The train has been sixteen +hours on the journey, and as we started at 6 a.m. most of us did not +bring any stores of food except such as were packed away and +inaccessible in the big baggage. The wayside refreshment rooms are swept +clean of all food. Finally we manage to obtain some bread, and five +hungry correspondents in one carriage eat at it without enthusiasm, +whilst in a corner sits a Serbian officer having a good meal of sausage +and onions and bread. We make remarks, a little envious, a little +jocose, in English, on his selfishness. "He is a greedy pig, anyhow," +said one, putting the final cap on our grumbles. The Serbian officer had +not betrayed by a smile or a frown that he understood but now in good +English he remarked: "Perhaps you gentlemen will be so kind as to share +this with me." We all laughed and he laughed then: and we took a little +of the sausage, and liked that Serbian rather well: and no reference was +made to what had gone before. At nightfall we stop at Nish and all my +Press comrades leave the train to go on in the rear of the Serbian army. +I push on to Sofia. Clearly these Balkan peoples are not quite so +savage as I had thought once. + +Sofia, _October 24_.--The position of the Bulgarian nation towards its +Government on the outbreak of the war is, I think, extremely interesting +as a lesson in patriotism. Every man has gone to fight who could fight. +But further, every family has put its surplus of goods into the +war-chest. The men marched away to the front; and the women of the house +loaded up the surplus goods which they had in the house, and brought +them for the use of the military authorities on the ox wagons, which +also went to the military authorities to be used on requisition. A +Bulgarian law, not one which was passed on the outbreak of the war--they +were far too clever for that,--but a law which was part of the organic +law of the country, allowed the military authorities to requisition all +surplus food and all surplus goods which could be of value to the army +on the outbreak of hostilities. + +The whole machinery for that had been provided beforehand. But so great +was the voluntary patriotism of the people that this machinery +practically has not had to be used in any compulsory form. Goods were +brought in voluntarily, wagons, cart-horses and oxen, and all the +surplus flour and wheat, and--I have the official figures from the +Bulgarian Treasurer--those goods which were obtained in this way +totalled in value some six million pounds. That represented the surplus +goods, beyond those necessary for consumption by the Bulgarian people, +at the outset of the war. The numbers of the Bulgarian people represent +half the population of London. The peasant population is very poor. +Their national existence dates back only half a century. But they are +very frugal and saving; that six millions which the Government signed +for represented practically all the savings which the Bulgarian people +had at the outbreak of the war. I am told that the gold supply in the +Bulgarian Treasury at the declaration of war was only three million +pounds. So that there was an army of 350,000 men put into the field, and +only three million pounds as the gold supply. + +Kirk Kilisse, _November 7_.--The extraordinary simplicity of the +commissariat has helped the Bulgarian generals a great deal. The men +have had bread and cheese, sometimes even bread alone; and that was +accounted a satisfactory ration. When meat and other things could be +obtained, they were obtained; but there were long periods when the +Bulgarian soldier had nothing but bread and water. The water, +unfortunately, he took wherever he could get it, by the side of the +route at any stream he could find. There was no attempt to ensure a pure +water supply for the army. I do not think that, without that simplicity +of commissariat, it would have been possible for the Bulgarian forces to +have got as far as they did. There was an entire absence of tinned +foods. As I travelled in the trail of the Bulgarian army, I found it +impossible to imagine that an army had passed that way, because there +was none of the litter which is usually left by an army. It was not that +they cleared away their rubbish with them; it simply did not exist. +Their bread and cheese seems to be a good fighting diet. + +Seleniki, _November 13_.--The transport was, naturally, the great +problem which faced the generals. I have seen here (Seleniki, which is +the point at which the rail-head is), within 30 miles of Constantinople +as the crow flies, ox wagons which have come from the Shipka Pass in the +north of Bulgaria. I asked one driver how long it had been on the road; +he told me three weeks. He was carrying food down to the front. The way +the ox wagons were used for transport was a marvel of organisation. A +transport officer at Mustapha Pasha, with whom I became very friendly, +was lyrical in his praise of the ox wagon. It was, he said, the only +thing that stuck to him during the war. The railway got choked, and even +the horse failed, but the ox never failed. There were thousands of ox +wagons crawling across the country. They do not walk, they crawl, like +an insect, with an irresistible crawl. It reminds you of those armies of +soldier ants which move across Africa, eating everything which they come +across, and stopping at nothing. I had an ox wagon coming from Mustapha +Pasha to Kirk Kilisse, and we went over the hills and down through the +valleys, and stopped for nothing--we never had to unload once. And one +could sleep in those ox wagons. There is no jolting and pulling at the +traces, such as you get with a harnessed horse. The ox wagon moved +slowly; but it always moved. If the ox transport had not been as +perfectly organised, and if the oxen had not been as patiently enduring +as they proved to be, the Bulgarian army must have perished by +starvation. And yet, at Mustapha Pasha, a censor would not allow us to +send anything about the ox wagons. That officer thought the ox cart was +derogatory to the dignity of the army. If we had been able to say that +they had such things as motor transport or steam wagons, he would have +cheerfully allowed us to send it. + +But after Lule Burgas, the ox transport has had to do the impossible. It +is impossible for it to maintain the food and the ammunition supply of +the army at the front, which I suppose must number 250,000 to 300,000 +men. That army has got right away from its base, with the one line of +railway straddled by the enemy, and with the ox as practically the only +means of transport. + +Arjenli (Turkey), _November 15, 1912_.--It is Friday, and we expect +to-morrow the Battle of Chatalja. In the little Turkish village of +Arjenli, situated on a high hill a little to the rear of the Bulgarian +lines, is the ammunition park of the artillery, guarded by a small body +of troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Tchobanoff. Coming towards the front +from Chorlu, the fall of night and the weariness of my horses have +compelled me to halt at Arjenli, and this officer and Dr. Neytchef give +me a warm welcome to their little mess. There are six members, and for +all, to sleep and to eat, one room. Three are officers, three have no +commissions. With this nation in arms that is not an objection to a +common table. Discipline is strict, but officers and soldiers are men +and brothers when out of the ranks. Social position does not govern +military position. I found sometimes the University professor and the +bank manager without commissions, the peasant proprietor an officer. The +whole nation has poured out its manhood for the war, from farm, field, +factory, shop, bank, university, and consulting-room. + +Here, at Arjenli, on the eve of the decisive battle, I think over early +incidents of the campaign. It is a curious fact that in all Bulgaria I +have met but one man who was young enough and well enough to fight and +who had not enlisted. He had become an American subject, I believe, and +so could not be compelled to serve. In America he had learned to be an +"International Socialist," and so he did not volunteer. I believe he was +unique. With half the population of London, Bulgaria had put 350,000 +trained men under arms. But there was in the nation one good Socialist +who knew that war was an evil thing, and that it was better to sit +down meekly under tyranny than to take up arms. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +OX TRANSPORT IN THE BALKANS] + +I followed in the track of the victorious Third Army as it came down +through the border mountains on to Kirk Kilisse, then to Lule Burgas, +then past Chorlu to the Chatalja lines. At Arjenli I had overtaken them +in time to see the final battle, and now sat looking out on the +entrenched armies, talking over the position with a serene and cheerful +artillery officer. The past week had been one of hardship and horrors. +From Chorlu the road was lined with the bodies of the Turkish dead, +still awaiting burial. Entering the Bulgarian lines on their right flank +that morning, I had tried in vain to succour a soldier dying of the +choleraic dysentery which had begun its ravages. But here in the middle +of the battle line the atmosphere of noble confidence is inspiriting. +The horrors of war vanish; only its glory shows. The men around me feel +that they are engaged in a just war. They know that everything that man +can do has been done. Proudly, cheerfully, they await the issue. + +During the evening, a Turk suspected of being a spy is brought in for +trial. He had attempted to rush past one of the sentries guarding the +ammunition wagons. He is given a patient hearing, is able to establish +his innocence, and is allowed to go. There is no feeling of panic or +injustice among these Bulgarians. I see the trial and its end (having +been asked to act as friend of the accused). + +It is to-day forty days since the mobilisation. At the call this trained +nation was in arms in a day. The citizen soldiers hurried to the depots +for their arms and uniforms. In one district the rumour that +mobilisation had been authorised was bruited abroad a day before the +actual issue of the orders, and the depot was besieged by the peasants +who had rushed in from their farms. The officer in charge could not give +out the rifles, so the men lit fires, got food from the neighbours, and +camped around the depot until they were armed. Some navvies received +their mobilisation orders on returning to their camp after ten hours' +work at railway-building. They had supper and marched through the night +to their respective headquarters. For one soldier the march was +twenty-four miles. The railway carriages were not adequate to bring all +the men to their assigned centres. Some rode on the steps, on the roofs +of carriages, on the buffers even. + +At Stara Zagora, early in November, I noted a mother of the people who +had come to see some Turkish prisoners just brought in from Mustapha +Pasha. To one she gave a cake. "They are hungry," she said. This woman +had five men at the war--her four sons in the fighting line, her husband +under arms guarding a line of communication. She had sent them proudly. +It was the boast of the Bulgarian women that not a tear was shed at the +going away of the soldiers. + +Later, at a little village outside Kirk Kilisse, a young civil servant, +an official of the Foreign Office, spoke of the war whilst we ate a dish +of cheese and eggs. "It is a war," he said, "of the peasants and the +intellectuals. It is not a war made by the politicians or the soldiers +of the Staff. That would be impossible. In our nation every soldier is a +citizen and every citizen a soldier. There could not be a war unless it +were a war desired by the people. In my office it was with rage that +some of the clerks heard that they must stay at Sofia, and not go to the +front. We were all eager to take arms." + +At Nova Zagora, travelling by a troop train carrying reserves to the +front, I crossed a train bringing wounded from the battle-fields. For +some hours both trains were delayed. The men going to the front were +decorated with flowers as though going to a feast. They filled the +waiting time by dancing to the music of the national bagpipes, and there +joined in the dance such of the wounded as could stand on their feet. +There was no daunting these trained patriots. + +These and a score of other pictures pass through my mind and explain +Kirk Kilisse and Lule Burgas, and give confidence for the battle to +come. Here was a people ranged for battle with the steady nerves and the +stolid courage that come from tilling the soil, with the skill and the +discipline that come from adequate training, with the fervent faith of a +great patriotism. I have talked with Turkish prisoners and found +infantrymen who had been sent to the front after two days' training, +gunners who had been drafted into a battery after ten days' drill. Such +soldiers can only march to defeat. + +[Illustration: A BALKAN PEASANT WOMAN] + +Ermenikioi (Headquarters of the Third Bulgarian Army), _November 17 +(Sunday)_.--The Battle of Chatalja has been opened. To-day, General +Demetrieff rode out with his Staff to the battle-field whilst the bells +of a Christian church in this little village rang. The day was spent +in artillery reconnaissance, the Bulgarian guns searching the Turkish +entrenchments to discover their real strength. Only once during the day +was the infantry employed; and then it was rather to take the place of +artillery than to complete work begun by artillery. It seems to me that +the Bulgarian forces have not enough big gun ammunition at the front. +They are ten days from their base, and shells must come up by ox wagon +the greater part of the way. + +Ermenikioi, _November 18_.--This was a wild day on the Chatalja hills. +Driving rain and mist swept over from the Black Sea, and at times +obscured all the valley across which the battle raged. With but slight +support from the artillery, the Bulgarian infantry was sent again and +again up to the Turkish entrenchments. Once a fort was taken but had to +be abandoned again. The result of the day's fighting is indecisive. The +Bulgarian forces have driven in the Turkish right flank a little, but +have effected nothing against the central positions which bar the road +to Constantinople. It is clear that the artillery is not well enough +supplied with ammunition. There is a sprinkle of shells when there +should be a flood. Gallant as is the infantry, it cannot win much +ground faced by conditions such as the Light Brigade met at Balaclava. + +Ermenikioi, _November 19_.--Operations have been suspended. Yesterday's +cold and bitter weather has fanned to an epidemic the choleraic +dysentery which had been creeping through the trenches. The casualties +in the fighting had been heavy. "But for every wounded man who comes to +the hospitals," Colonel Jostoff, the Chief of the Staff, tells me, +"there are ten who say 'I am ill.'" The Bulgarians recognise bitterly +that in their otherwise fine organisation there has been one flaw, the +medical service. Among this nation of peasant proprietors--sturdy, +abstemious, moral, living in the main on whole-meal bread and +water--illness was so rare that the medical service was but little +regarded. Up to Chatalja confidence in the rude health of the peasants +was justified. They passed through cold, hunger, fatigue, and kept +healthy. But ignorant of sanitary discipline, camped among the filthy +Turkish villages, the choleraic dysentery passed from the Turkish +trenches to theirs. There are 30,000 cases of illness, and the healthy +for the first time feel fear as they see the torments of the sick. The +Bulgarians recognise that there must be a pause in the fighting whilst +the hospital and sanitary service is reorganised. + +Kirk Kilisse, _December 1_.--It seems certain now that peace must be +declared, and that the dream of driving the Turk right out of Europe +must be abandoned. These peasant peoples of the Balkans have done +wonderful things, but they have stumbled on one point--the want of +knowledge of sanitary science. I have seen only one attempt at a clean +camp since I have been in the field, and that was a Serbian camp, north +of Adrianople. + +With the Bulgarian army there was not, at any stage of the campaign up +to the Battle of Chatalja--that is, until after the outbreak of +cholera--any precaution, to my knowledge, taken to secure a clean water +supply, or clean camping-grounds, or to take the most elementary +precautions against the outbreak of disease in the army. The medical +service was almost as bad. I have seen much of the hospital work at Kirk +Kilisse after the armistice; and it has been deplorable to see the fine +fellows whose lives were sacrificed, or whose limbs were sacrificed, +through neglect of medical knowledge. I am sure the Bulgarians would +have saved many hundreds of lives if there had been anything like a +proper medical service at the front. + +At Chatalja the chief reason given for the stoppage of operations was +the ravages of disease in the Bulgarian lines. The illness was of a +choleraic type; it had, as usual, a profound moral as well as physical +effect. The courage of the men broke down before this visitation. The +victims howled with pain and terror, though the same men would withstand +serious wounds without a complaint or a wincing. + +The Turks are blamed for the outbreak in the Bulgarian lines. It is more +than probable that their villages, inexpressibly filthy; the prisoners +taken from their ranks; the infection of the soil abandoned by them, +were contributing causes. + +[Illustration: A BAGPIPER] + +But it must be stated frankly that the almost complete absence of any +sanitary discipline or precaution in the Bulgarian lines at this place +earned for them all the diseases that afflict mankind. So far as I can +ascertain after careful investigation, there were no sanitary police; no +attempts to secure and safeguard a pure water supply; no latrine +regulations. I have seen the Bulgarian soldiers drinking from streams +running through battle-fields, though a few feet away were swollen +carcases. I have seen no attempt in the field at a proper latrine +service. Some hundreds of thousands of peasant soldiers, accustomed to +the simplest life on their own farms, were collected together and left +practically without sanitary discipline. The details can be filled in +without my setting them forth in print. There is one fact, however, to +be recorded of a pleasant character. In all investigations of the +hospital services I never found a case of any malady arising from vice. +There was also a complete absence of drunkenness. This might be ascribed +to the want of means to obtain alcohol. But in Turkey there was an +abundance of wines and spirits, and some beer in the captured villages +and towns; it led, however, to no orgies. + +Naturally, the Bulgarian peasant is wonderfully healthy. His food is +rough whole-meal bread and cheese; his occasional luxuries, a dish of +the sour milk which is so well known in London, a little alcohol on +Sunday, some sweet stuff, and, rarely, grilled meat or meat soup with +vegetables. It is possible to judge that his alimentary tract differs +widely from that of the Western European. I should say he was almost +immune from enteric, unless attacked by a very virulent infection. He +can live on bread and water alone without serious inconvenience for +lengthy periods. His blood is very pure, and ordinarily heals in a way +that astonished the British surgeons. + +Here, then, was the best of material from an army medical point of view. +Given the roughest food, the simplest sanitary precautions, and +ordinarily good field dressing, and the army would have marched without +disease and the wounded would have dropped out of the firing line for a +few days only. But there were no sanitary precautions; hence disease. +The hospital service as regards the first aid in the field was pitiably +deficient; hence serious and unnecessary losses of wounded. Without +seeking to pile up a record of horrors, I cite a few individual +instances to illustrate bad methods. At the front, punctured bayonet +wounds were closely bandaged--in some cases stitched up--without +provision for irrigation, without even proper cleansing. This led to +gangrene and often caused the sacrifice of a life or of a limb (which, +to these peasants, was almost as great a loss as that of life: their +feeling against amputations was very strong, and if they understood +that amputation was intended, they sometimes begged to be "killed +instead"). Bullet wounds also were often plugged up on the field. When +proper treatment was at last available, it was sometimes too late to +avoid death or amputation. No treatment at all on the field would have +been preferable to this well-intentioned but shocking ignorance. + +Of the purely Bulgarian hospitals those at Kirk Kilisse are very +deficient: at Philippopolis, however, there were excellent Bulgarian +hospitals, and also at Sofia. The Russian hospital at Kirk Kilisse is +very good. The British Red Cross Hospital, under Major E. T. F. Birrell, +of the R.A.M.C., is excellently organised, has the fullest possible +equipment, and tries to specialise in serious cases. It is subjected +locally (as is the Russian hospital) to the criticism that by insisting +on perfection of system it unduly restricts its salvage work: that, in +short, it could deal with far more patients if it consented to more +"rough-and-ready" methods. I record this criticism, and acknowledge that +it is based on facts. Yet it may be urged on the other side that it was +ultimately far more useful to have a model hospital to show how things +should be done than to sacrifice that valuable lesson for the sake of +striving to cope in rough-and-ready fashion with the flood of wounded. +This hospital gives interesting proof that Great Britain is an Empire, +not an island nation. I first encountered three of its doctors in a +cafe. One was from the Mother Country, one from the West Indies, one an +Australian friend, who set at once to talking of gum trees and of +Melbourne University. Then a non-commissioned officer attached to the +hospital--most of its Staff are army men--is a Canadian, who had had war +experience in South Africa. His comments on the Bulgarian wounded are +full of sympathy. "These chaps," he said, "take their gruel better even +than the Tommies. The Tommy takes his all right, but he 'grouses' about +it. These chaps never grumble. One of them had to have a very painful +dressing. He winced a little. A comrade at once laughed at him. 'Ah,' he +said, 'you learn new kinds of dancing here.'" Nurses endorse this +evidence about the Bulgarian soldiers' patience, though one stated that +she found the officers sometimes to be rather neurasthenic. + +On the whole, the Bulgarian army is not strong on science. In spade +work it was not good. I saw no perfect trenches--never a drained trench. +Undrained trenches caused some increase of mortality and of sickness. It +is uncomfortable to stay for days, or even hours, in a trench which the +rain has partly filled with water. In no case that I saw were there +trenches with overhead protection against howitzer fire. Except at the +Chatalja lines and around Adrianople the trenches were, of course, +intended to be of a very temporary use, and would naturally not be +elaborate. Gun-pits and emplacements were usually fairly good. It was +the custom to dig a pit, or to put up a little sod wall for the +gun-limber (most of the artillery work was from concealed and prepared +positions). At Chatalja the trenches were masked with the stalks of the +Turkish tobacco plants--about the only instance I saw of masking. It was +rare to see a trench zigzagged as a precaution against enfilading fire. +The Turkish trenches I saw were hopelessly bad. + +Sofia, _December 6, 1912_.--Sofia, in spite of the great victories which +have been won, is neither joyous nor contented. The failure of the siege +of Adrianople seems to rest heavy upon the people: and there are gloomy +stories of the extent of the losses of the nation's manhood. So far no +lists of killed and wounded have been published. "The Mass at St. +Sofia," which was the battle-cry of the first days of the war, is +clearly not a possibility now. Some mystery attaches to the movements of +the king. It is said that he had made a vow that he would not return to +Sofia until a victorious peace was signed. The embittered relations with +the Greeks, the signs of disagreement with the Serbians, suggest gloomy +possibilities of future troubles. + +Belgrade, _December 8, 1912_.--With the exception of the army before +Adrianople, the Serbians have finished their share of the war with +Turkey. Belgrade is satisfied, but not over-elated. Across the Danube, a +broad gloomy waste of dun waters under the winter mists, a division of +the Austrian army is mobilised. There is a fear, almost an expectation, +that Austria will make war. But there seems neither panic nor war-fever +in the city. + +Business is creeping back to the normal state. At the Ministry for War +there are to be seen pathetic scenes as parents and other relatives seek +tidings of the soldiers. An old father, himself a captain of reserves, +hears that his only son, a lieutenant, has been killed, and bursts into +tears and tells to all around his sorrow. But generally tragic news is +received stoically. Amid the congratulations on the results of the +Allies' efforts there is an under-current of resolution to make a better +bargain with Bulgaria than the _ante bellum_ partition treaty proposed. +Reports of envious and rude treatment of the Serbian army before +Adrianople are current in the street: and there is some talk of +recalling the men. This is the irresponsible talk of men in the street +only: the authorities are very correct in their attitude towards "our +friend and ally," and express themselves as confident that Bulgaria of +her own volition will suggest better terms for her partner in the war. + +A Serbian politician, who patiently endures my bad French or makes a +brave effort to talk in English, a tongue which he is learning to speak +and can read quite well, politely excuses the English for being such bad +linguists. "For you English who have all the poetry, all the romance, +all the science, all the philosophy a man may want in your own language, +it is not necessary to learn any other. For us in the Balkans, we must +learn other languages or remain ignorant of much that goes on in the +world." + +In truth the Balkan peoples are astonishing linguists. It is not at all +a rare thing to find that a man can speak Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, +Turkish, and French. Often he adds either English or German to this +list. Bulgarian and Serbian, of course, are but differing dialects of +Russian--a Russian can make himself understood in both tongues though he +knows only Russian. But the grammar of one differs from that of the +other, and many of the words are different. The Balkan people who know +Turkish know it usually in its colloquial and spoken form and not the +literary language, which is very difficult to understand thoroughly +because it is really a blending of three languages. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +SOME SERBIAN PEASANTS] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PICTURESQUE BALKANS + + +It is difficult to dissociate the Balkans with bloodshed and disorder. +Insensibly the mind is tempted at every turn to direct attention to the +last battle or the future campaign which can be seen threatening. But if +the storm-racked peninsula could be granted a term of peaceful +development, there is no doubt at all but that it would be much favoured +by voyagers seeking picturesque beauty and wishing to go over the fields +which have been the scenes of some of the greatest events in history. +Mountain resorts to rival those of Switzerland, spas to match those of +Germany and Austria, autumn and winter seaside beaches of great beauty +and fine sunny climate--all these exist in the Balkan Peninsula, and +need only to be known, and to be known as peaceful, to attract +tourists. + +The Adriatic coast has charms of rugged coast-lines and bright waters; +the Black Sea littoral, though flat and sandy, has a warm sunny summer +or autumn climate; the Aegean is a sea of brilliant purples and rosy +mists, in which air, rock, and water mingle to greet the eye with a +great opal jewel. A November sunset on the Sea of Marmora gave to my +eyes such a feast of suffused colour as I had not seen since I left the +shores of the southern Pacific. The rocky hills had the rich red of the +Jersey cliffs, but the sea and sky were incomparably warmer and deeper +in tone. Across the sea the shores of distant Asia shone dimly through +two veils of mist, one of the tenderest rose, the other of the palest +gold. The greater part of the Greek coast has the same deliciousness of +colour in autumn and in summer. + +A few travellers bolder than the ordinary search out nowadays the shores +of the Adriatic, the beautiful coast of Greece, and even the margin of +the Sea of Marmora in quest of beauty and relief from the tedium of +civilisation. But they must face poor means of communication (though to +Constantinople and to Trieste there is an excellent train service) and +scanty accommodation of any kind--almost none of good quality. Within a +very few years, if the Balkans could settle down to peace and the +legalised plunder of foreign visitors--a pursuit which is as profitable +as brigandage and far more comfortable,--the seaside resorts that would +spring up within Balkan territories would of themselves provide a +handsome revenue. The shores of the Aegean and of the Sea of Marmora in +particular would attract tourists wearied of the air of hackneyed +sameness which comes after a while to pervade seaside haunts in Italy +and France. + +From another attraction the Balkan States could hope for a great tourist +traffic. I have caught but fleeting glimpses of the Balkan range and of +the Rhodopes and the Serbian mountains, but have seen enough to know +that they offer boundless delights to the climber, to the seeker after +winter sports, and to the lover of the picturesque; and the Swiss Alps +in these days are overcrowded, and the Tyrolean mountains and the +Carpathians begin to receive a big overflow of people who have a taste +for heights that are not covered with hotels and funicular railways. But +the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula offer prospects, I believe, of +greater beauty, certainly of greater wildness, than any other ranges of +Europe. Of the Rhodope mountains, in particular, one gets the most +alluring accounts from the rare travellers who have explored them. Seen +by the passing voyager as they stand guard with their farthest spurs +over Philippopolis, they suggest that no account of their charm could be +too glowing. I have promised myself one autumn or summer a month in this +range, exploring its flower-filled valleys and its wild cliffs, shining +through an air which seems now of rose and now of violet. + +For winter sports the Serbian, Montenegrin, and Albanian mountains, as +well as the chief Balkan range, promise well. I believe that it was part +of the plan of Bulgarian reorganisation after the war, which King +Ferdinand had in his mind, to set up great winter hotels in the +mountains of his kingdom. The other Balkan States could with advantage +give hospitality to similar plans. Provided that security is +assured--and the Balkan peasant is in my experience the +gentlest-mannered kind who ever cut throats in a wholesale way at the +call of a mischief-maker--visitors to the mountains of the Balkan +Peninsula would find the wildness, the uncouthness of the surrounding +national life, very attractive. The picturesque national costumes, the +national music, wild and uncanny, the strange national dances, all add +to the fascination of the savage scenery. In an age when a fog of dreary +sameness comes over all the civilised world, the Balkans have a great +asset in their primitivism. Theirs is not a wholly European +civilisation; indeed, except in the capital cities, it is not chiefly a +European civilisation. Everywhere there is a touch of the mystery, the +fatalism, the desert-bred wildness of the Asiatic steppes. For centuries +the hand of the Turk has been heavy on the land, and a strong stream of +his blood courses still through the veins of most of the Balkan peoples. +It is not the East this Balkan Peninsula, but it is not the West, nor +will be for some generations. + +There is yet another possible means of attracting great streams of +visitors to the Balkan regions. Throughout the mountains there are +numberless medicinal springs. In Serbia and Bulgaria the water of two +springs is being exploited for table use, and in Bulgaria the warm +medicinal springs are being developed for bathing resorts. At Sofia +there are now in course of erection great public baths which will be +equal to any in Europe when they are completed. In the mountains above +Sofia warm springs are being utilised, and quite a large spa village has +grown up. King Ferdinand, who has a fine commercial instinct whatever +the failures of his war diplomacy, has done good service to his kingdom +by developing its baths and springs. + +The plain country of the Balkan Peninsula is but little attractive. +Under the Turkish rule nearly all plantations of trees were destroyed, +and a general air of desolation was maintained. Since the Turk left, +cultivation and development have been on strictly utilitarian lines, and +there has been little chance for gardens or woods. The eye of the +voyager misses them, and misses also the sight of castles, churches, or +great buildings. The dreariness of the plain is unrelieved by forests. +The rivers flow sullenly along without a bordering of trees. The +Thracian plain--the greater part of which has now gone back to Turkey +and thus lost hope of a redemption of its really fertile soil--is in +particular desolate and forbidding. But even there, and more frequently +in the plain country of Bulgaria and Serbia, there is now and again a +charming village in some dell with adornment of trees and gardens. The +average village, however, is a collection of hovels, their roofs lying +so close to the ground that they seem to be rather burrows than huts, +their aspect suggesting that they are hiding themselves and their +inhabitants from the eye of a possible ravager. + +Desolate as this plain country is, it has its attractions at dawn and +sunset in the clear colourfull air of the Balkan Peninsula; and where +the hill slopes, denuded of their forests, have been covered over by a +dense oak scrub the autumn aspect of the plain at sunset is incomparably +lovely. The scrub, when the first of the autumn frosts come, blazes out +in such scarlet and gold as cannot be imagined in the moist and soft +climate of England. With the setting of the sun and the coming of the +violet night the earth's carpet seems to be here smouldering, there +burning, a sea of lambent fire so bright that you look to see its +burgeoning reflected in the sky. + +I should advise the tourist wishing to see the Balkan Peninsula at its +best to choose the fall of the year for a visit. In the summer there is +great heat and dust and plague of flies. In the winter travel is +impossible with any comfort except along the railway lines, and the +whole Peninsula is frost-bound. The spring is a beautiful season at its +later end, but not at the time of the thaw. + +As to the route for a voyage there are several alternatives. One may +take the Oriental Express through to Constantinople and work a way up +the Balkan Peninsula from there: or take train to Trieste and approach +the Balkans by the Adriatic side: or, taking the Oriental Express, leave +it at Bucharest and journey from there to Sofia: or, taking the Oriental +Express, leave it at Belgrade, making that the starting-point for a +riding trip. Certainly to enjoy the country one must leave the railways +and journey on horseback or by cart over the wilder tracks. An +interpreter who speaks English can be engaged in any one of the +capitals. The hire of horses, oxen, and carts is very cheap, if you are +properly advised by your interpreter and pay the local rates only. +Forage, too, is cheap: and so is "the food of the country," i.e. bread, +cheese, bacon, and goat and sheep flesh. Most civilised luxuries of food +can be obtained in the capitals and bigger towns, but they are dear. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +SOFIA + +General view, looking towards the Djumala Pass (45 miles away). Taken +from the front of Parliament House, showing monument of Alexander II, +known in Bulgaria as the "Tsar Liberator"] + +Let me suggest a few typical Balkan tours. + +Take train to Belgrade: then go by Danube steamer to Widdin. From Widdin +to Sofia go by rail, and then back to Belgrade on horseback, sending +on heavy luggage by rail, but making at Nish on the way a depot of +provisions and linen. + +Take train to Bucharest. Go from there to Stara Zagora on horseback, +crossing the Roumanian frontier at Roustchouk, going over the trail of +the Russian Army of Liberation and seeing the Balkan mountain passes. + +Take train to Sofia, and from there to Yamboli. At Yamboli go on +horseback (in the track of the Bulgarian Third Army of 1912) to Kirk +Kilisse, Lule Burgas, Chorlu, Silivri (on the Sea of Marmora), and +Constantinople. A somewhat wild trip this would be, but quite +practicable. The most comfortable way to travel would be to take ox +wagons for the luggage and the camping outfit. That would restrict the +day's march to twenty miles. The horses--(diverging to look at scenery +and battle-fields)--would do about thirty miles a day. + +Take train to Constantinople, and from there boat to Salonica. Go on +horseback from Salonica to Belgrade. This would show the most disturbed +part of the Balkan Peninsula and some of its wildest scenery. + +Take train to Philippopolis, and from there go on horseback and with ox +wagons for a tour of the Rhodope mountains. + +Of course it is possible to take much tamer tours of the Balkans. +Practically all the big towns are connected with the European railway +systems. But you would see, thus, towns and not the country. The Balkan +towns are to my eye very dreary. There are practically no fine old +buildings, for in the Turkish occupation the greater number of these +were destroyed. The modern buildings have rarely any character. The +churches, usually of the Slav school of architecture, alone relieve the +monotony of economical imitations of French and British buildings. In +Belgrade, it is true, there has been an effort to carry the Slav note +farther, and some of the commercial and public buildings show a Moscow +influence. + +Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., that most enthusiastic admirer of the Bulgarians, +can carry his enthusiasm so far as to admire Sofia. He wrote recently +(_With the Bulgarian Staff_): + + Few sights can be more inspiring to the lover of liberty and + national progress than a view of Sofia from the hill where the + great seminary of the national church overlooks the plain. There at + your feet is spread out the unpretentious seat of a government + which stands for the advance of European order in lands long + blighted with barbarism. Here resides, and is centred, the virile + force of a people which has advanced the bounds of liberty. From + here, symbolised by the rivers and roads running down on each side, + has extended, and will further extend, the power of modern + education, of unhampered ideas, of science, and of humanity. From + this magnificent view-point Sofia stretches along the low hill with + the dark background of the Balkan beyond. Against that background + now stands out the new embodiment of Bulgarian and Slavonic energy, + genius, and freedom of mind, the great cathedral, with its vast + golden domes brilliantly standing out from the shade behind them. + In no other capital is a great church shown to such effect, viewed + from one range of hills against the mountainous slopes of another. + It is a building which, with its marvellous mural paintings, would + in any capital form an object of world interest, but which, in the + capital of a tiny peasant State, supremely embodies that breadth of + mind which + + ... rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less or more. + +But I think that that is a too kindly view. What makes the Balkan +capitals additionally dreary is that there is no "society" in the +European sense. The Turkish idea of keeping the womenfolk in the harem +survives to the extent that woman is not supposed to frequent places of +entertainment, to receive or to pay visits. In Bulgaria the women are +secluded with an almost Turkish strictness: in Serbia, not quite so +strictly, but still strictly. + +Bucharest is quite another story; but Bucharest would rather resent +being called a Balkan city. There is no seclusion of the very charming +Roumanian women, and the atmosphere of the city is a little more than +gay. Plant a section of Paris, a section including Montmartre, into the +middle of an enlargement of the old quarter of Belgrade, and that is +Bucharest. It is the one Balkan city which has a luxurious and to an +extent polished aristocracy. + +Some of the smaller towns are slightly more interesting--Philippopolis, +for instance, in a position of great natural beauty--but the average +Balkan town must be set down as squalid. Its centres of social interest +are the cafes, where men who have the leisure assemble to drink coffee +made in the Turkish fashion, tea made in the Russian fashion, and +occasionally _vodka_, which is the usual alcoholic stimulant. Tobacco is +smoked mostly in the form of cigarettes. Excellent (and cheap) +cigarettes are supplied by the government _Regies_ in Serbia and +Bulgaria. + +[Illustration: _Exclusive News Agency_ + +BUCHAREST] + +The wise tourist will keep clear of the Balkan towns apart from the +actual capitals, and will carry his food and lodging with him. Under +these circumstances a good standard of ease can be maintained if a train +of ox wagons sufficient to the size of the party is enlisted. Ladies can +travel with fair comfort in an ox wagon. As regards the danger of Balkan +travel, in my experience--and that was during war-time--there is none. +Serbian peasant, Bulgarian peasant, Greek peasant, Turkish peasant, +alike are amiable and obliging fellows, if they do not feel in duty +bound to cut your throat on some theological or political point. Being +strangers, tourists would have no theology and no politics. So much for +the inhabitants. The officials, provided passports are clear and the +precaution is taken of getting letters at the capital from the +authorities of the country you are travelling through, will be helpful. +The one district that might be a little dangerous is that corner of +Macedonia where Greek and Bulgar are always playing against one another +the old game of massacre. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BALKAN PEOPLES IN ART AND INDUSTRY + + +The five centuries of Turkish domination, during which all the arts and +most of the crafts were neglected in the Balkan Peninsula, killed nearly +completely the ancient civilisations of the Greeks, the Serbs, and the +Bulgars. But a few traces of the old culture survive to this day as +mournful and tattered relics of the greatness of those departed Empires. +The old Bulgarian Empire, combining a Slav with a Turconian element; the +old Serbian Empire, almost purely Slav but influenced a little by +Italian and Grecian influence, evolved in the days of its greatness the +beginnings of a national literature and national architecture. In Serbia +particularly was there a strong and promising growth of humane culture, +and the greatest of the Serbian rulers, Stephen Dushan (14th century), +whose death before the walls of Constantinople at the beginning of the +Turkish invasions gave up the Balkan Peninsula to the Crescent, left as +one monument to his name a well-reasoned code of laws. He was throughout +his reign a sincere friend of learning. In Bulgaria during the 10th +century, under the Czar Simeon, there was a brief efflorescence of +learning. Montenegro, which alone of the Balkan States kept its head +unbowed before the Turk, was a busy centre of literary effort in the +16th century. Under the stress of constant war, however, the arts of +peace died down almost completely in the Balkans until the Liberation of +the peoples in the 19th century. During the interval, however, the +peasants in their homes kept up some little knowledge of the traditions +of their forefathers' greatness. Legends were passed down from father to +son in chants set to a rough music. In these chants, too, were recorded +the deeds of heroism which marked the ever-recurring revolts against the +Turk. + +What survives to-day from this period of oppression is a very +characteristic national music, melancholy usually, as might be expected, +but of arresting sweetness; and an art of peasant-applied decoration, +which recalls the earlier and more primitive forms of Byzantine Art. +Balkan tapestries, Balkan carpets, Balkan embroideries, woven or +stitched by the peasant women, have a note of barbaric boldness in +design and colour which distinguishes them at once from the peasant work +of other countries. + +This applied art in decoration is wisely fostered by the various +governments, and there is liberal encouragement also given to modern +art. Especially is this the case in Bulgaria. The impression I have got +from seeing picture collections in the Balkans is that the local artists +have learned foreign methods without adding any national bent of their +own, and contrive to give a native character to their pictures only when +they make the choice of some particularly horrible subject. Yet there +should come a vigorous art as well as a vigorous literature one day from +these Balkan States. There the mysticism, the melancholy, the +transcendentalism of the Slav is mixed with the fatalism of the Turk, +and the vivacity of the Greek and the Roumanian in the national types. +Byzantine traditions, Slav traditions, classic Greek traditions, Roman +traditions mingle to influence this composite character, the two former +predominating, but the two latter having a very definite power. It +should be rich soil for talent, even for genius. + +Interesting opportunities were given in the Southern Slav Art +Exhibitions of 1904 and 1906 (the first at Belgrade, the second at +Sofia) to note the trend of art in the Balkans. At those Exhibitions +Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Slavonian arts were represented. The +Croatian pictures--I follow a trustworthy guide in stating this--showed +a high degree of technical skill, not distinguishable from Austrian art +in character: the Slavonian pictures were also technically good, but of +a more impressionist character: the Serbian pictures imitated in +technique the Old Masters, but took their subjects almost exclusively +from Serbian history: the Bulgarian pictures had no national +characteristic in style, but usually sought to be transcriptions of some +form of Bulgarian life of the day. + +Summing up the art position in the Balkans, it can be fairly said that +before the outbreak of the last great war very good progress had been +made for the few years since the Liberation from the Turks. A wise +policy for the future would be to encourage as much as possible the +peasant arts and crafts which are distinctive, and not to seek to +impose too much of modern art education, which may stifle national +influences and inflict a sterile sameness. + +Balkan industry varies greatly with the height of the country, as well +as with the racial type. The mountaineers are usually lacking in steady +industry: the peoples of the plain are usually exceptionally hard +workers. Very many emigrants from the Balkans go to the United States to +work there in the mines, and on works of railway construction, for a +term of years. The Bulgarian will come back from the United States with +L300 saved up, and settle down in his native village as farmer or +trader. The Serbian will come back with L200 saved up, but with a wider +knowledge of United States life, and he will settle down as pastoralist +or farmer, but not as trader. The Albanian or Montenegrin will come back +with little or no money, but with a wonderful armoury of silver-adorned +weapons and much other personal decoration. So graced, the mountaineer +will have no difficulty in marrying the girl of his choice, and she will +do most of the work that is needed thereafter, whilst he attends to the +hunting and the fighting. The Greek and the Roumanian go abroad, +preferably as traders, and afterwards elect to stay abroad, though it +is to be recorded in proof of modern Greek patriotism that in 1912 there +was a steady flow of Greeks from all parts of the world coming back to +their native land to fight in the army. + +[Illustration: A BULGARIAN FARM] + +Considered industrially the Bulgarian is the best type in the Balkans. +He is a steady, tireless worker on the soil; takes to factory life +amiably; and has in a very strongly marked degree "the road-making +talent." + +A very valuable index to national character is provided by a people's +roads. The most successful Imperial governors, the Romans, were also +builders of the finest roads the world has known. The British people +have been good road-builders as well as good Empire-makers; the French +people, too, and every other people who at any time have done big +enduring work in the government of the world. If a nation is not a good +road-building nation it will not go far: and the converse is probably +true. On this road-building test the Bulgarians have a prosperous future +indicated, for they are very pertinacious and skilful road-builders. +During the 1912 war I noticed that despite all other pre-occupations +they were pushing roads forward at every possible opportunity. The +Turks going back to Adrianople and Kirk Kilisse found a great number of +roads built or building--the first serious efforts in that direction +since the downfall of the Roman Empire. + +The Bulgarian's chief occupation is agriculture. The system of land +tenures is that of peasant ownership. There are no large estates and +very few non-occupying landlords. The chief crops are wheat, barley, +maize, rice (around Philippopolis), tobacco, and roses. The tobacco is +of as good quality, almost, as that of Turkey. The Bulgarian Government +encourages the culture of tobacco by distributing seed, free of cost, +among the planters, by setting a bounty on the export tariff, and by +authorising the Bulgarian National Bank to consent to loans on the +surety of certificates granted to the planters until they are able to +dispose of their crops advantageously. + +Tobacco culture is carried on chiefly in the south and in the provinces +of Silistria and Kustendil. The area of the plantations is estimated at +3000 hectares. The province of Haskovo has the greatest yield; then +follows Philippopolis, with 300,000 kilograms; Kustendil and Silistria, +210,000 kilograms. According to approximate calculations based on +various statistics, three-fourths of the tobacco crop of Bulgaria is +consumed by the inhabitants and only a quarter is exported. + +The rose crop is next in importance after tobacco. The roses are used +exclusively for the distilling of attar of roses. The rose gardens are +limited to 148 parishes of the provinces of Philippopolis and Stara +Zagora, and occupy a total area of 5094 hectares. The quantity and +quality of the attar depend very much on the weather at the time of +bloom and gathering. The roses most cultivated in Bulgaria are the red +rose (_Rosa damascena_) and the white rose (_Rosa alba_). The best +gardens are at Kazanlik, Karlovo, Klissoura, and Stara Zagora. The +distilling of the attar is now a Government monopoly. The cultivation of +beetroot has been introduced recently and is confined to the province of +Sofia. The sugar refinery near Sofia utilises the whole crop for local +consumption. + +It is interesting to note in connection with Balkan agriculture that as +far back as 1863 the much-abused Turk had actually adopted the very +modern idea of an agricultural _Credit Foncier_ system in the Balkans! +In that year Midhat Pasha, Governor of the Danubian Vilayet, prepared a +scheme for the creation of banks, to assist the rural population. The +scheme having been approved by the Turkish Government, several of these +banks were established. The peasants were allowed to repay in kind the +loans which were advanced to them, the banks themselves selling the +agricultural products. With the object of increasing the capital of the +banks, a special tax was introduced obliging the farmers to hand every +year to these institutions part of their produce in kind. + +When it was realised that these banks were of great service to the rural +population, to which they advanced money at 12 per cent +interest--instead of 30-100 per cent, as the usurers generally did--the +Turkish Government extended the reform to the whole Turkish Empire, and +obliged the peasants to create similar banks in all the district +centres. According to their statutes one-third of the net profits of +these banks was destined for works of public utility, such as bridges, +roads, fountains, schools, etc., while the remaining two-thirds went to +increase the capital of the banks. + +During the Russo-Turkish war several of these banks lost their funds, +the functionaries of the Turkish Government having carried away all the +cash, as well as the securities and other property belonging to the +banks' clients. After the war the debtors refused to pay, and only part +of the property of the banks was restored, by means of the issue of new +bonds. For that unfortunate end the war is rather to be blamed than the +Turk. This _Credit Foncier_ system is pretty clear proof that the +Turkish power was not always cruel and rapacious, since so sensible a +reform was set on foot in one of the Christian provinces under the +Sublime Porte. + +Apart from the industries of the soil, Bulgaria has a small mining +population and an increasing factory population. The Protective tariff +is used freely to encourage young industries, and there is an effort +just now to set up cotton-spinning as a national enterprise. + +Serbia had a mixed pastoral and agricultural population up to the +outbreak of the war of 1912, with pig-raising as the greatest of the +national industries. By the Treaty of Bucharest she has, however, +acquired much new territory, and is now probably predominantly an +agricultural country. She has, too, great mineral resources at present, +but they are little developed, and fine forests which only need an +improvement of the means of communication to be commercially a big +asset. The Serbian is not so steadily devoted to his work as the +Bulgarian: his is the pastoral as opposed to the agricultural character. +Nevertheless he has a reasonable faculty of industry. As is the case in +Bulgaria the bulk of the land is held by peasant proprietors. These are +organised into communes very much on the Russian system. It is an +interesting fact that though in Serbia there is almost the same degree +as in Bulgaria of seclusion of the women of the nation, a Serbian woman +may be the head of the village commune, and, as such, exercise a very +real authority. + +Both in Bulgaria and Serbia the rights of the commune are very jealously +safeguarded. The central government must take no part in the +administration of the communes, or maintain any agents of its own to +interfere with their affairs. The commune forms the basis of the State +fabric and enjoys a complete autonomy. It is the smallest unit in the +administrative organisation of the country. Every district is subdivided +into communes, which are either urban or rural. The commune is a +corporation. Every subject must belong to a commune and figure in its +registers, the laws not tolerating the state of vagrancy. The members of +the Commune Council are elected by universal suffrage, in the same way +and subject to the same precautions as the members of the National +Assembly. In passing it may be observed that theoretically the +governments of the Balkan States are free democracies. Practically they +are oligarchies tempered by assassination, which is still a favoured +political weapon. + +The Serbian has not much of the commercial faculty: and people of other +nations manage very many of the businesses in Serbia. + +The Montenegrin is willing to be a worker if it does not interfere with +his manly amusements of warfare. His occupations are pastoral and +agricultural pursuits and the chase. The Albanian is not content to be a +worker at all under any conditions. His occupations are dancing and +swaggering whilst his womenfolk carry on the bulk of the primitive +pastoral and agricultural work. + +It is not possible to hope for much industrial or commercial progress in +Albania. But in Serbia and Bulgaria there are rich opportunities for +enterprise and capital provided that an era of peace could be reckoned +upon. It is the uncertainty on that point that will stand in the way of +future Balkan development. When after the Treaty of London the Balkan +League fell to pieces there was incurred, in addition to other +sacrifices, a serious loss of confidence on the part of European +capital. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE FUTURE OF THE BALKANS + + +We have seen that a blood-mist has hung over the Balkans during all the +centuries that history knows. Nature set up there lists for the great +contests of races--on the path from the cold north of Europe to the warm +south; on the path from Asia to Europe; and each great campaign left +behind it shreds of devastated peoples. These shreds of peoples dwelling +in the Balkans to-day have a blood-thirst as an inescapable heritage. +Turk, Bulgar, Serb, Roumanian, Greek--they may hold the peace for a +time, and some may try to think that they are friends with others; but +all have something of hate or fear or contempt for the others, and all +prepare in peace for the next fight. + +The Fates making the Balkan Peninsula the battle-ground of empires and +races, the field of last stands, the refuge of residual fragments of +peoples, imposed upon it its bloody tradition. Under other conditions, +Serb or Bulgar or Greek or Turk or Roumanian left to themselves might +have made happier history. For all these races can be human, reasonable, +companionable. I have seen something of all of them in following a +Balkan campaign as a war correspondent (not following always as the +sheltered guest of an army, but forcing a solitary path through the +peasant population), and in watching the wonderful acrobatic lying of a +Balkan Peace Conference have seen thus the best and the worst of them. I +have been an unofficial member of a Bulgarian court-martial; the guest +of a dozen and more Bulgarian and Serbian army outposts, dependent often +for food and shelter on the kindness of peasant soldiers; for days have +held at the mercy of Balkan peasants my life and my property; have been +mistaken for a wandering Turk twice, and have never suffered violence, +rudeness, or the loss of a pennyworth. For the peasants, the commonfolk +of all the Balkan peoples, I have come thus to a hearty liking; their +priests and politicians (with a few exceptions), a different feeling. +Knowing that the massacre is the national sport in many districts of +the Balkans; that at the outbreak of the 1912 war the death-rate by +violence actually decreased in some quarters because the killing was +systematised a little and put under a sort of regulation; that always +Turks and Exarchate Christians and Patriarchate Christians are plotting +against one another new raids and murders, still I maintain that, if +left to themselves, if freed from the prompting of priests and +politicians the Balkan peasants of any race are quite decent folk. So I +wish heartily that there was fair reason to hope for peace and happiness +for them. Is there fair reason? To that question a study of the races +and the personalities can give clues for an answer. + +[Illustration: _Underwood & Underwood_ + +ALBANIAN TRIBESMEN] + +The Bulgarian is dour, dull, a little greedy, honest, very industrious. +He is almost as much a Turk as a Slav. (I was told that during the +Turkish occupation a Bulgarian mother finding herself with child after +violence by a Turk brought up the child with her family, whilst a +Serbian mother under the same circumstances killed the infant at birth.) +The Bulgarian is very moral, marrying at an early age. + +The Bulgarian peasant soldiers were very honest and loyal. At Mustapha +Pasha one night, being short of food, I tried to get bread at the +military bakery (all bread and flour having been requisitioned for the +army). I offered a soldier up to five francs for a loaf without tempting +him to sell it. Finally I had to get bread as a charity by declaring +that I was actually in want of it for food. Later, travelling between +Silivri and Chatalja, I encountered four Bulgarian foot soldiers who had +become separated from their regiment and were starving. They asked for +food and I gave them all I could spare, enough for two meals. One of the +men produced a purse and took out some coppers wishing to pay. + +Travelling across Thrace (then in Bulgarian occupation), I often put up +at some military post, being invited to become a member of the little +mess--usually an official or two and four or five non-commissioned +officers. Nearly always I had the same experience, that I was made free +of the stewed goat and rice, or the dish of eggs and flour, or the bread +and cheese of the Bulgarians, and when I wished to add from my stores +chocolate and biscuits and dates, just a scrap or two would be taken. I +could see the men's eyes hungering for the delicacies, but nothing would +induce them to take anything material from my stores. + +The Bulgarian peasant soldier and officer I found, in short, to be a +gentleman. Yet nationally Bulgaria is not "a gentleman," and has come to +its present sorry state, I believe, largely on that account. The old +Bulgarian aristocracy was exterminated by the Turks. The surviving +Bulgarian peasantry has not yet been able to produce another +aristocracy. It is the more cunning rather than the more worthy son of +the peasant who wins to a sort of an education--often abroad--and +becomes the lawyer, politician, official. In very many cases he carries +with him into a higher stratum of society few of his peasant virtues and +all of his peasant faults. He gets an overweening pride in his own +acuteness. He becomes arrogant, "too-clever-by-half," and intrigue +teaches him cruelty. I can contrast vividly two Bulgarian types in a +noted diplomat, who fancied himself a Bismarck and had about the wits of +an office boy, and an old peasant captain with whom I travelled from +Kirk Kilisse to Chorlu. Generalising, the "leading men" in Bulgaria are +of a poor type (there are exceptions), the leading priests of a still +poorer type; the people themselves are a sound people, and when the +ambitious among them contrive to preserve their peasant virtues through +the ordeal of education they will become a great people. + +The Bulgarian did not seem to me naturally cruel. All the time that I +was with the main army I saw no trace of outrage or cruelty. I did see +several instances of curt and merciful justice. + +I arrived one night at the Tchundra River alone, having gone forward +from my ox cart because the miserable Macedonian driver and the still +more miserable Bulgarian servant I had (I suspect he was in training for +the diplomatic service) could not be induced to do a fair day's march. A +vedette outpost of five men held the bridge. They took me--as I judged +from their gestures rather than from their language, of which I +understood only one word, "Turc"--for a Turk. But they let me stay +unmolested at their camp fire for an hour until an officer who spoke +French appeared. I could give several similar instances. Never did I +feel nervous in the least when making my way alone through the country +in Bulgarian occupation (most of the time I was alone, for after a while +I dropped my Macedonian and my Bulgarian servant). + +[Illustration: _See page_ 190 + +GREEK INFANTRY] + +The Turk I found disappointing. I had pictured a romantic individual +with a Circassian harem, a stable of Arab steeds, and a fierce and +warlike manner. I found the Turk to be rather a shabby individual; +monogamous usually (but with the free and easy ideas as to his rights +over Christian women which are almost consequent upon his philosophy of +life, and cause most of the trouble when the Turk lives by the side of a +Christian population); much addicted to sweetmeats--his shops were full +of Scotch lollies and English biscuits. Certainly most of the Turks I +have encountered were prisoners or dwelling in conquered country. But, +making all allowance for that, the traditional fiery Turk of martial +fame no longer exists, I should say, in European Turkey. The Turkish +prisoners in the hands of the Bulgarians seemed to be glad to have +arrived at a fate which meant regular food. In old Bulgaria I found +Turks living quite contentedly under Christian rule, and in many cases +following menial occupations. The boot-blacks in the streets were Turks, +the porters were Turks. + +I had a Turkish driver for five days once from Kirk Kilisse to Mustapha +Pasha. The first hour of our acquaintance he won my heart by telling me +(through an interpreter) that since his horses had been requisitioned by +the Bulgarians, he had not been able to get proper food for them, and he +embraced his ponies, which were really in rather good condition. I +applauded the noble Turk and his love for horses, and bought tobacco for +him which he welcomed with tears of joy, as he had been without it for +long. The horses carried the cart a gallant thirty miles that day, and +we camped at a burned-out village. Mr. Turk set himself to enjoy a smoke +over the fire. My own supper I prepared, and gave him some to eke out +his bread and cheese, and then told him to water and feed the horses. +Because the well was 400 yards away and the tobacco was sweet and the +fire comforting, the Turk had no wish to do this, but was ready to let +them go through the night without food or water. I had to threaten to +flog him (and to start to do it) before he would attend to the horses. +Yet after that incident I slept in the cart without a thought that the +Turk would consider himself offended and cut my throat. As a matter of +fact the touch of the whip did not rankle with him, and at Mustapha +Pasha when, the journey ended, I gave him a little money for himself, +Mr. Turk prostrated himself in gratitude. + +I believe that the warlike virtues have died out of the Turk in Europe. +Of other nation-making and nation-maintaining qualities he has none. In +all Turkey from the borders of Bulgaria to the lines of Chatalja, I +found no roads, no street lamps, no drainage, no water supply (I was not +in Adrianople). Except for a few agricultural peasants I found nowhere +the Turk doing any useful work. In a characteristic Turkish town the +shops were kept by Greeks, the industries carried on by Greeks, +Macedonians, and Bulgarians. The Turk was the tax-collector, the +official, the soldier, and did none of these things well. That acute +observer of the Turkish character, Mr. L. March Phillips, in his book +_In the Desert_ upholds that the Turk is impossible as a civilising +force: + + Or, for a third example, come to the craggy hills of Southern + Albania, and mix, if but for half an hour, with the armed + shepherds, as wild and intractable as their own crags, or as the + gaunt dogs which guard their flocks from the wolves, and whose + attentions to strangers you are apt to find such a nuisance. You + will understand from the first glance at the men more of the + interminable Balkan difficulty than newspapers and books can ever + teach you. These are the fellows who swoop down from their peaks on + the mixed races of the plains and carry fire and slaughter through + village and valley. Their natural aptitude for fighting and + foraging, for bearing things with a strong hand, for cowing the + weak and feeble, for vindicating the old "might is right" theory, + is written all over them. You see it in their gait, glance, walk, + and manner, you hear it in every accent of their voice, you feel it + in their individuality and presence. + + These are specimens of the Moslem type, the type that stops short + at the virile virtues, that makes the best host and worst neighbour + in the world, that has many splendid qualities to recommend it, but + to which all that makes life profound and inexhaustible is a dead + letter. It is the most strongly marked and salient type I have ever + met with. There is the Moslem walk, the Moslem scowl, the Moslem + courtesy, the Moslem dignity, the Moslem carriage and attitudes and + features, the Moslem composure, and the Moslem fury. All these + traits and characteristics, inspired by the same temper, expressing + the same ideal, conspire to depict a figure so notable that you + must be a dull observer indeed if you cannot pick him out from a + mixed crowd as you would pick out a Chinaman in the London streets. + + Some people say it is the religion that creates the type. "There," + they say of Mohammedanism, "is a religion that breeds men." It + would be truer, I think, to say that Mohammedanism recommends + itself to men at a certain stage of their development, and has for + that stage a natural affinity. Every race goes through a time when + the virile estimate of life and the splendour of self-assertion + seem the finest things possible. It is at this time it is open to + the attack of El Islam. The Moslem religion answers all its needs + at this stage, and lays good hold of it, and having once laid hold + of it, it sanctifies the ideas belonging to this stage, and so + tends to restrict the race to it. There is no instance on record of + a people having embraced Mohammedanism and afterwards achieving a + complete, or what gives promise of ever becoming a complete, + civilisation. + +During my stay in the Balkans I found no certain evidence of Turkish +cruelty. There was plenty of evidence offered by the Bulgarians, but it +usually smelt of the lamp of some patriotic journalist of Sofia. Once +near Mustapha Pasha--when all the war correspondents were cooped up +under strict censorship, prevented from seeing any of the operations +around Adrianople--the Bulgarians found it necessary to burn a village +for strategic reasons. The chance was offered to the Press photographers +of seeing this, if it were represented in their pictures as the +atrocious burning of a village by the Turks. I believe that the offer +was accepted by some. The "atrocities" by Turks, regularly recorded by +the Bulgarian Press Bureau were, as far as the main theatre of +operations was concerned, founded on similar evidence. During its first +phase I believe that the war was very humanely conducted on all sides. +In Macedonia, of course, there were some deplorable atrocities, but I +believe the normal massacre conditions there were rather bettered than +otherwise by the outbreak of war. + +To sum up the Turk, I do not think he will survive for long in Europe. +As a matter of hard fact there really are not many real Turks left in +Europe. + +The Serbian, with his highlander the Montenegrin, is a far more engaging +personality than the Bulgarian. He lacks the stubborn, dour courage of +his neighbour, but he has more _elan_. In military life the Bulgarian +would supply incomparable infantry, the Serbians be superior in +artillery and cavalry. In social life the Serbian is convivial and +hospitable. Whilst the Bulgarian wishes to go to bed early that he may +get up early and push the road he is making along a little farther, the +Serbian will keep you at his dinner-table drinking and singing until far +into the morning. He is not troubling about a road. + +When the Serbian army came to help the Bulgarians in the siege of +Adrianople, the contrast between the two armies and the two camps was +great. The Serbian men were smarter, better equipped, their quarters +cleaner, and from their mess tents would come by night the sound of +revelry. One might imagine Roundheads and Cavaliers camping side by +side. + +The Allies did not fraternise. For that I blamed the Bulgarians. The +positions in regard to the Serbian aid at Adrianople, as I understood +it, was this: that originally the Bulgarians engaged to help the +Serbians in their campaign, but this was found not to be necessary: that +the Bulgarians, later, asked for aid against Adrianople, and it was +promptly given without any conditions being imposed, though there then +already existed in the Serbian mind a desire to modify the territorial +partition arrangement they had with Bulgaria and this request for aid +might have been taken as a good opportunity for raising that question. I +believe those to be the facts, but since in Balkan diplomacy it is +always a matter of finding out the truth of comparing and weighing and +deducing from a series of lies, I cannot state them with absolute +certainty. If they are true, the Serbians behaved like gentlemen in not +raising against an ally an awkward question at a time when help was +asked. Quite certainly the Bulgarian authorities behaved like boors to +their Serbian friends. Things were made as unpleasant as was reasonably +possible for them in all kinds of niggling ways around Adrianople. The +Serbians behaved well under great provocation. + +During the first sessions of the Balkan Peace Conference I had +opportunities of observing the same good behaviour on the part of the +Serbians. Bulgarian diplomacy was, as usual, very exasperating. It was +not only that Bulgaria was insisting on having the hide, horn, and hoofs +of Turkey, but also on rubbing salt into her bare carcase. The Turkish +delegates approached the Serbians--whose territorial demands as far as +Turkey was concerned were satisfied, but who had a pending controversy +with the Bulgarians--hoping to get some moral support against Bulgaria +and being prepared to offer something in return. The Serbian attitude +was sharply loyal, to stand by Bulgaria absolutely in regard to the +Turkish frontier. Serbians have not been always popular in Great +Britain, I know; but I am not alone among those who have come into +recent contact with Balkan affairs who found them to be the best of the +Balkan peoples. + +[Illustration: _See page_ 194 + +PODGORICA, UPON THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER] + +The Greek is even more engaging and hospitable than the Serbian; but his +fluent, flexible, subtle nature does not inspire full confidence. At +the outset of the last Balkan war there was one thing that all were sure +of: that the Greeks would not fight. All were wrong. The Greeks did +exceedingly well in the field, even allowing that they sometimes shaped +their campaign quite as much by considerations of jealousy of their +allies as of hostility to the common enemy. But it is a fact that the +Greek has usually more stomach for politics than for fighting, and that +his subtle nature allows him to live comfortably in a state of +subjection, which would irk a more robust mind. He is by instinct a +trader: and a trader is not an uncompromising patriot as a rule. + +The Greeks live side by side with the Turks in Turkey with fair comfort. +At Kirk Kilisse, after the Bulgarian occupation, a deputation came to me +from the Greeks to assure me that they would much prefer to live under +the Turk than under the Bulgar: and asking that England should be urged +to support autonomy for Thrace. Well, the Turks are back at Kirk +Kilisse, and I suppose my Greek friends are happy. Eloquent, courteous, +kind folk they were. I stayed in the house of one for some days, and +will remember always the gracious kindness of the man and his wife. I +had to leave one morning at four to catch a troop train which would +carry me a few miles towards the front. The couple were up and had a +fire and tea ready for me. As I had a fever at the time, and a long +laborious journey ahead, the whole Greek race seemed good that morning. + +Later at Chorlu after I had got permission from the military commandant +to go forward to Chatalja, and he had helped me to hire a cart and +horses and to stock up my provisions, the permission was withdrawn +because Bashi-Bazouks were raiding along the line of communication. I +might go later, he said, when a body of troops was moving. I objected +that time was precious; and I had my revolver, and there was the driver. + +"Ah," he said sweetly, "he is a Greek. He will run away." + +After that manner the Bulgarians always spoke of the Greeks. In this +case the Bulgarian was possibly right. I finally coaxed permission to go +forward, on condition that I took a patrol of one Bulgarian soldier, and +I was allowed to borrow a rifle and some ammunition. We met no +Bashi-Bazouks: but whilst the Bulgarian palpably was quite content to +enter into a plan to give the Bashi-Bazouks a chance of showing +themselves at nightfall, the Greek liked the adventure not at all. +(Perhaps on the whole he was justified. But I was desperately eager for +a "story," and with the Turkish regulars running away so consistently, +to encounter irregulars suggested no real danger.) + +On that journey, at a little village which I cannot name between Silivri +and Chatalja, the population was largely Greek. Some of the Greeks, +after the Turks had fled before the Bulgarians, had discarded the fez +and were wearing Bulgarian caps. Others held to the fez, but had marked +on it with white chalk a cross. I formed the opinion that if by the +fortune of war the Turks came back, those crosses would be rubbed out. +The Greek can be very pliant undoubtedly, when he is in contact with a +dominant people. The other side to his character--that of a hot-headed, +argumentative, boisterous Donnybrook Fair patriotism--is developed in +his own country where it is fed with memories of the historic greatness +of his race. + +The Roumanian--the fourth national type in the Balkans to which I shall +refer--very closely resembles the Greek in most respects. Like the +Greeks the Roumanians are subtle, flexible, engaging. They are a +singularly good-looking race, and Roumanian girls are sought after in +marriage a great deal. A Serbian politician explaining to me what he +called "a nice national balance," pointed out that the Serbians rather +despised trade and finance. The Roumanian, therefore, came into Serbia +to make money as shopkeeper and financier. Then the young Serbian man +married the rich Roumanian's daughter and thus the Serbian money was +still kept in the country. + +The instinct for trade has a very marked effect on the politics of the +Balkans. The Serbian has no love for trade: the Montenegrin despises it +quite. The Greek and the Roumanian are very keen traders with an +inclination to escape from manual work as soon as they can. The +Bulgarian is a trader and also fond of productive industry. So "as two +of a trade never agree," neither Greek nor Roumanian can get on as well +with the Bulgarian as with the Serbian. + +The Roumanian national polity differs greatly from the Greek, though the +two racial types are very similar. Whilst Greece has a stormy and +disorderly democracy, Roumania is ruled practically by an oligarchy--an +oligarchy which during the past twelve months has won to an achievement +which would have delighted the old Florentine Republic. Without losing a +soldier, almost without spending a crown, Roumania has won a great tract +of territory and established herself as the paramount power of the +Balkans. It was a victory of unscrupulous and patient resoluteness which +is a classic of its kind, and it was made possible by the oligarchic +system of Roumania. The Montenegrin does not need to be considered +separately: he is the "Highlander" of the Serbian and shares Serbian +language, customs, and character with such modifications as the +conditions of his mountain life impose. But the Albanian, the largely +Mohammedan mountain type to which the jealousies of Europe have agreed +to give a separate nationality and a separate kingdom, calls for some +attention. The Albanian is the wildest of the Balkan types, and his +country the most primitive. It has had no period of civilisation, and +can hardly be said to promise to have. Its existence as a nation in 1914 +was due to the fact that the German Powers wished to have a footing in +the Balkans for intrigue. "The creation of Albania dealt a death-blow +to the Balkan League," said a cynical Austrian diplomatist recently. He +was right: and the creation of Albania undertaken at the instance of +Austria had no other purpose from the first, though it was disguised +under the plea of anxiety for the national rights of the Albanians, wild +catamarans of the hills, odd specimens of whom one may encounter in many +parts of the Balkans acting as dragomans. The Albanian has many savage +virtues. He is a picturesque fellow as he swaggers about with a +silver-decorated armoury stuck in his waist-belt: and he is truly +faithful to a master. But he has not the barest elements of a national +organisation; and the Austrian Prince of Albania did not find a single +house within all his dominion which would satisfy the housing needs of a +respectable London clerk. + +Describing the march across Albania to the Adriatic coast during the +recent war a Serbian officer wrote: + + It is only by travelling as we did that real facts can be learned. + We who had only known the Turks by hearsay had a certain respect + for them. At present I feel but contempt and disgust. To think that + they should have held these lands for five hundred years, and kept + them absolutely wild and uncultivated! Prishtina, Jakovitsa, and + Prizrend are in every respect behind Mirigevo [a village some + miles outside Belgrade]. There are neither bridges nor roads, nor + decent dwellings to be met with in the Sanjak. Of the dirt I cannot + trust myself to speak. The "Ujumat" (Prefecture) of Prizrend, + residence of the Mutessarif, is in such a filthy condition that I + could not sit there for more than five minutes together. All around + the sofras (tables) were rags, remnants of food, tufts of dogs' + hair, etc., for these ate and slept with their masters.... + + The people are humble, cowed, moving out-of-doors rarely, and then + huddled together like a herd of cattle.... The peasants run to kiss + our hands, and bow down to the ground, but they are too frightened + to give a sensible answer to a plain question. They speak Serbian, + it is true, and cross themselves as Christians, but otherwise bear + little resemblance to our peasant folk. They have lived no better + than their masters, for themselves and their pigs share the same + apartment! If the pigs were let loose the Turks were sure to kill + them, so they were hidden indoors. The first use they made of the + liberty we gave them was to hunt the pigs into the open air, and + how the poor beasts enjoyed it! One could not help laughing at + their antics as they chased each other, while the children ran to + keep them from escaping to the woods. But the cows and oxen defy + description. They are like our calves, only the shape is queer. I + saw no vegetables anywhere. The staple diet is maize. From our + frontier to the sea it is the same tale of misery, helplessness, + and dirt. In Prizrend, after every rainfall, the people drink muddy + water in which none of our soldiers would care to wash. When we + boiled it a thick scum came on the top, which we skimmed off! This + is the water used by a town of 40,000 citizens; and really one felt + that authorities like the Turks should not be allowed to live any + longer. Now we feel that it is a disgrace to us to have delayed so + long in coming to the deliverance of our brothers in bondage just + outside our doors. Better late than never. + + As for the independence of Albania, it would be a comical, if it + were not a sinister, idea. Whoever speaks of a national sense in + these savage hordes is either untruthful or ignorant. The Serbians + of this region make no distinction, as we do, between the Turks and + the Mohammedan Albanians. I could not get them to understand that + the latter were in reality brethren of the Christian Albanians with + whom they live in amity. I pointed out that these Mohammedans could + not speak a word of Turkish, but that did not help. The Serbians + insist that they are Turks all the same. And for all practical + purposes they are right. The Christian Albanians are called by + their race brethren "Catholics," and are hated and persecuted by + them just as the Serbians are hated and persecuted. The "Catholics" + loathe the Mohammedans and deny that they are of the same + nationality. But the fact remains that they speak the same + language. The Catholics welcomed us with joy, rendered us every + possible service, and often refused to accept payment. They are + eager to assist in our operations, acted as scouts for us, and + brought us precious information. Sometimes they acted on their own + initiative, captured, and killed their Mohammedan co-nationalists + without first consulting us.... The priests are the most + embittered. These jealous "fratres" told us they longed for a + Christian Government, and that the project of a united Albania was + insensate.... Ismail Kemal's proclamation has irritated the priests + about here. They will not for a moment consider a union with the + Mohammedan tribes or submission to a Moslem leader like Ismail. On + the other hand, if we evacuate this country, a terrible fate awaits + the Catholics.... + + Here I have made acquaintance with the Montenegrin troops, rather + different from ours! They get leave to go home and see after their + wives and children whenever they ask it, and lax discipline does + not seem to affect their heroism. They fight like lions, but do + nothing else except shoot birds and fish in the interval. Every + ship that touches here is greeted with a volley, though ammunition + is sometimes scarce, but the Montenegrin can better spare bread + than shot. He will do nothing but fight, and ships often remain + unladen here for days, because there are few Albanians in the place + to do the work. My soldiers carry sacks and burdens of all kinds to + and from the ships, and the Montenegrins laugh at them and say: "Is + that how you fight, Brother Shumadinats?" [Shumadia is a forest in + the centre of the Kingdom of Serbia.] They are amused to see our + men one day unshaven; they are most particular themselves to shave + each day whatever happens. The priests alone wear a beard, for they + are not supposed to fight.... The Montenegrin soldiers' wives come + once a week to look after their husbands, wash the linen, and help + to clean up.... + +There is, of course, a certain amount of Serb intolerance in that +letter, but it represents on the whole the truth. + +So much for the different nations of the Balkans. The personalities of +the Peninsula might provide a happy solution for the problems which the +conflict of these mutually antipathetic racial elements create: for +there is no fact more clear than that the general interest of the +countries could best be served by a wise policy of compromise and +co-operation, bringing its different elements together as the Swiss were +brought together by a geographical rather than a racial reason. But +unfortunately there are no personalities alike honest in outlook and +great in power. + +Four able and far-seeing men I have met in the Balkans: M. Nikolitch, +President of the Serbian Parliament; General Demetrieff, Commander of +the Third Army (which won the most notable Bulgarian victories), now +commanding a Russian army; M. Venizuelos, Prime Minister of Greece; M. +Take Jonescu, of the Roumanian Cabinet. All men of power, none seemingly +has sufficient strength to impose his will not alone on his own country, +but on the other Balkan States, and weld them into a Confederation which +would be held together by a sense of common interests and common +dangers. + +King Ferdinand of Bulgaria has kept for years the centre of the Balkan +stage to the European onlooker; and is still a great enough figure to +give pause to those Bulgarian Nationalists who would exact from him +reprisal for the terrible misfortunes of their country. But he is a man +of audacity rather than of courage, and his ambition has been always +more personal than national--to be Czar of the Balkans rather than to be +the maker of a Balkan nation. Gifted with a great deal of diplomatic +ability and with a soaring imagination, King Ferdinand has a serious +obstacle in his personal timidity. To play a gambler's game one must be +prepared at times to take the great risk. But King Ferdinand has many +fears. He fears, for instance, infectious diseases morbidly, and the +thought of a germ in the track could turn him from the highest of +enterprises. Perhaps it was the fear of disease rather than of wounds +that kept him so much in the rear of his army during the 1912 campaign +against Turkey. But whatever the cause, his absence from the front +showed a serious weakness of character in a man who aspired to carve out +an empire for himself. The Bulgarian authorities, deceiving the Press +almost as assiduously for the purpose as for the false representation +that all the destruction of the Turkish forces was ascribable to the +Bulgarian arms, gave to Europe inspiriting pictures of His Majesty +following close on the heels of his soldiers in a military train which +served him as a palace. The fact was that the ambitious but timid king +kept very well to the rear, at Stara Zagora first and afterwards at Kirk +Kilisse, with a great entourage of secret police. And when armistice +negotiations were in progress he kept separate from his Cabinet as well +as from his army. Affable in manner, industrious, pertinacious, well +aware of the advantage of advertisement (my first meeting with His +Majesty was due to the fact that he mistook my map case for a camera, +and sent for me to photograph him while he stood on the bridge over the +Maritza at Mustapha Pasha), of high ability, King Ferdinand did great +things for his adopted country, but showed a fatal weakness of character +when he had drunk deep of the wine of success. It is the fashion to +blame him wholly now for the wild attack on Serbia and Greece. He may +have been in part the victim of his advisers' folly in that. But without +much doubt he could have vetoed the fatal move, if he had known his army +from personal observation, if he had been down to the lines at Chatalja, +and had looked closely into the besieging forces around Adrianople. +Common sense would have told him that the attack on his allies was +hopeless, if strength of character had not told him that it was wicked. +But he neither knew the facts nor understood the ethics of the position. + +General Demetrieff, Commander of the Third Bulgarian Army, the victor of +Kirk Kilisse and of Lule Burgas, the reluctant attacker at Chatalja, +impressed me as a man of fine character. For some few days I was a +member of the officers' mess at Erminekioi, which was the headquarters +of the Staff before the lines of Chatalja, and had the chance of seeing +much of the general. He struck one as a frank, courageous man. He +answered questions truthfully or not at all, and was notably kind to the +very small group of correspondents who had got through to the front. His +personal staff worshipped him, and told with pride that most of the +staff work with him on the battle-field was under fire. When it was +clear that the attack at Chatalja had failed, General Demetrieff neither +attempted to tell falsehoods nor shut himself off from visitors. He +ascribed the cessation of the attack to the outbreak of cholera in the +Bulgarian lines (and the statement was probably in his mind not only the +truth but all the truth: in any case one could not expect him to +disclose the shortage of big gun ammunition): was avowedly disconsolate +but not in the least discouraged. I cannot imagine General Demetrieff +having any hand in the making of the second Balkan war against the +Serbians and Greeks, and think that the Bulgarians had in him a man of +honesty and courage as well as of great military skill. No other general +of the Bulgarian Army impressed me in the same way, certainly not +General Savoff. + +Of the Bulgarian politicians, M. Gueshoff, Prime Minister at the +outbreak of the first war, and M. Daneff, chief Bulgarian delegate at +the Peace Conference and Prime Minister at the outbreak of the second +war, had the chief parts in the glories and tragedies of 1912-13. M. +Gueshoff seemed a well-meaning but weak man. He was fond of insisting +upon his English education and of advancing that as a proof of his +complete candour. I imagine that he played no directing part in the +drama of his country's sudden rise to power and more sudden fall, but +did just as his king directed, sometimes probably under protest. M. +Daneff was a more virile man, and his force of character, with little +guidance from experience, of liberal education, or from wise purpose, +had much to do with the downfall of Bulgaria. Of the Balkan Peace +Conference which met first in London in December 1912, M. Daneff +attempted from the outset to be dictator. He never lost a chance of +being rude to an opponent or fulsome to a supporter. He diplomatised by +pronunciamento and made a vigorous use of the minor newspaper Press with +the idea of overawing the chancelleries of Europe. I am sure that the +British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had nearly as much amusement +as chagrin from the incidents of the Conference. Just when the Turkish +delegates were being gently coaxed up to drink the hemlock, Bulgaria +would publicly dance a wild triumph of joy, and announce that the very +last drop had to be absorbed or Bulgaria would not be satisfied. When +the Turkish delegates were thus startled away and all the pressure of +European diplomacy was being brought to bear upon the Turkish Government +to bring them back to the point, Bulgaria threatened publicly to break +up the Conference and resume the war. Europe was given a short +time-limit in which to act. + +M. Venizuelos, Prime Minister of Greece, has proved in his own country a +great capacity for good government and wise diplomacy. There was a +strong movement made at the outset of the Balkan Peace Conference to +have him appointed head of the Balkan delegation. Success in that would +have made the chances of peace better; and probably he had an +expectation of being chosen as being the senior in official rank of all +those present. But the jealousy and distrust of Greece was great: and M. +Venizuelos did not prove himself the man of genius who could overcome +the handicap which his nationality imposed. True, the task was almost +impossible. But still nearer to the impossible would it be now to unite +again the warring factions in the Balkans. M. Venizuelos, of the highest +talent though he be, will not be the maker of a Balkan Confederation. + +M. Nikolitch, President of the Serbian Parliament, is an amiable and +clever man with far more culture than is usual in the Balkans. He has +translated English classics into the Serbian tongue, and is an +industrious student of social and political philosophy. But he has +nothing of the brute force that is needed to control the warring +passions of the Balkan States. As the Minister of a Balkan Union to a +great Power he would be admirable, for he has tact and wit, and a +knowledge of the value of truth. When it was made plain that Austria was +to have her way and Serbia no territory on the Adriatic, the +disappointment of Serbia was bitter: and there was some special blame of +Great Britain that she "had not considered her obvious interests," and +brought this friendly little state to the sea. M. Nikolitch had the +diplomat's faculty of taking a defeat smilingly. "The most unhappy thing +about it," he said to me, "is that now Serbia will not have England on +her frontier." It was a neat touch to speak of the sea as British +territory. + +There remains to be considered M. Take Jonescu, who is credited with the +chief share in the unscrupulous diplomacy which has made Roumania for +the while paramount in the Balkans. It was certainly a masterpiece of +Machiavellianism, applying the tenets of "The Prince" with cold +precision, and marks its author as the master mind of the Balkans +to-day. Give such a man a good soldier people to follow him and an +honest purpose, and a Balkan Confederation might be achieved, with some +further blood-letting perhaps. But it is not possible to believe that +the Roumanians, frivolous, pleasure-loving, untenacious, could impose +their will for long upon the coarser-fibred but more virile Slavs of the +Peninsula. + +No, there is not a personality in the Balkans to-day at once forceful +enough, honest enough, and skilful enough to give the Peninsula a union +which would enable it by means of a bold decision now to ensure internal +peace and freedom from outside interference. A great man could build up +a greater Switzerland, perhaps, of the Slavs, the Greeks, and the +Roumanians in the Balkan Peninsula with Great Britain, Russia, and +France as joint sponsors for the freedom of the new Federation. But one +hardly dares to hope for such a happy ending to the long miserable story +of the Balkans. + + + + +INDEX + +Adrian, Emperor, 89 + +Adrianople, 14, 65, 68 + description of, 90 + Turkish occupation of, 26 + +Adriatic coast, 150 + Sea, 45 + +Aegean Islands, 62 + Sea, 45 + +Alani, the, 10 + +Albania, 14, 17, 62 + condition of, 194 + +Albanian character, 173, 193 + massacres, 89 + mountains, 152 + +Alexander of Battenberg. _See_ Alexander of Bulgaria + +Alexander, King of Bulgaria, 47 + abdication of, 48 + +Alexander the Great, 6 + +American war correspondents, 99 + +Amurath I., Sultan of Turkey, 27 + +Amurath II., Sultan of Turkey, 27 + +Architecture, 158 + +Arjenli, 131 + +Armenia, 6 + +Art, applied, 163, 164 + modern, 164, 165 + +Arts and crafts, 162 + +Asia Minor, invasion of, 17 + +Asiatic invasions, 11, 12 + +Assyria, 6 + +Astrakhan, 9 + +Austria, 28 + and Serbia's trade, 125 + +Austrian ambitions in the Balkans, 45, 46, 49 + war correspondents, 99, 105 + +Autonomy of the Christian Provinces, 57 + + +Bajayet, Sultan of Turkey, 27 + +Balkan Alliance, 18, 21, 45, 53, 55, 57, 59, 74, 174, 194 + possibilities of, 82 + +Balkan casualties in the war, 87, 88 + character, 124 + Committee, the, 91 + development, 174 + diplomacy, 56, 57 + disunion, 75-77, 79 + mountains, 3, 151 + +Balkan Peace Conference, 1912, 75, 78, 80, 81, 176, 188 + second phase, 84, 85 + spokesman, 83 + +Balkan peasants, 176 + peoples as linguists, 148 + politicians, 176 + priests, 176 + statesmen, 78, 92 + War of 1912, 46, 54, 107 + War resumed, 84 + women, 159 + +Baltic Sea, 4, 6 + +Banking, 168, 170 + +Bashi-Bazouks, 26, 39, 43, 190 + +Basil, the Bulgar-slayer, 14 + +Beetroot cultivation, 169 + +Belgrade, 16, 124, 146 + siege of, 27 + +Bessarabia, 32 + +Birrell, Major E. T. F., R.A.M.C., 143 + +Bishop Babylas of Montenegro, 36 + +Black Sea, 3, 5, 120 + littoral, 150 + +Blood-mist, the, 175 + +Bosnia, 39, 49 + +British Army Medical Detachment, 69 + opinion, 83 + Red Cross Hospital, 143 + surgeons, 142 + +Bucharest, 30, 109 + +Buda-Pest, 109 + +Bulgaria, 13, 22, 37 + an autonomous principality, 44 + beaten, 88 + boundaries of (1830), 44 + foreign influences in, 97 + government of, 40 + liberation of, 30 + under Serbian rule, 17 + a Turkish province, 22, 25 + and universal suffrage, 40 + at war, 127, 128 + +_Bulgaria of To-day_, extract from, 23 + +Bulgarian ambitions, 61 + aristocracy, 179 + army of 1912, 41 + atrocities, 43 + atrocities in Macedonia, 51 + autonomy, 40 + blunders, 86, 87 + censorship. _See_ Censorship + character, 177-180 + church, 26 + commissariat, 69-73, 128 + crops, 168 + diplomacy, 85-87, 188 + diplomatic intrigues, 49 + Exarchates, 52 + finance, 64, 168 + generals, 59 + hegemony, 48 + hospitals, 143 + industry, 167 + medical service, 138, 139 + military tactics, 66-71 + mobilisation, 59, 63, 134 + peace negotiations, 79 + peasants, 141 + preparedness for war, 55, 127 + Press Bureau, 185 + revolt of 1875, 39, 47 + Secret Service, 60 + system of land tenures, 168 + War of Liberation, 42 + women, 135 + +Bulgars, 3, 4, 9, 11, 13 + +Buxton, Mr. Noel, M.P., 158 + +Byzantine art, 164 + traditions, 164 + + +Cafes, 160 + +Carpets, 164 + +Caucasus, the, 9 + +Censorship, the, 94, 98, 100, 101, 115, 121 + humours of the, 100 + the second, 102 + +Cettinje, 35 + +Charles, King of Roumania, 39, 41 + +Chatalja, 61, 68, 117 + +Cherson, 5 + +Chersonesos, 5 + +Choleraic dysentery, 133, 138 + +Chorlu, 68 + +Churches. _See_ Architecture + +Congress of Berlin, 44, 45 + +Constantinople, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 20, 26, 43, 61, 62, 137 + fall of, 27, 89, 90 + +Cotton-spinning, 171 + +_Credit Foncier_ system, 169, 171 + +Cretan excavations, 4 + +Crimean War, 32, 38, 107 + +Crusaders, the, 20 + +Cyrillic characters, 35 + + +Dacians, 6, 7 + +Daneff, M., 202 + +Danilo I., King of Montenegro, 33 + +Danube, 2, 3, 7, 28, 146 + +Dardanelles, the, 62 + +Decius the elder, 8 + +Decius the younger, 8 + +Demetrieff, General, 67, 136, 198, 201 + +Disease, ravages of, 140 + +Dnieper River, 5 + +Dniester River, 5 + +Don Cossacks, 15 + +Don River, 3 + +Dual Monarchy, problems of, 28 + +Dulcigno, 46 + +Durazzo, 14 + + +Eastern Church, 16 + +Eastern Rumelia, 48 + +Egyptian influences, 4 + +Embroideries, 164 + +Emigration, 166 + +English war correspondents, 99 + +Enos, 88 + +Ermenikioi, 136, 138, 201 + +Eski Sagrah, 96, 97 + +Eski Zagora, 20 + +European capital, 174 + diplomacy, 39, 40 + diplomacy and Roumania, 85 + finance, 64 + policy, 50, 55 + policy in 1912-13, 45 + Powers, interest of, 96 + Powers, intervention of, 58 + +Euxine, 6 + +Exarchate Christians, 177 + + +Ferdinand, Czar of Bulgaria, 47, 49, 50, 108, 152, 154 + his character, 198-201 + +Ferdinand of Coburg. _See_ Ferdinand of Bulgaria + +Filimer, King of the Goths, 9 + +Finno-ugric tribe, 3 + +Forty Holy Martyrs of Bulgaria, 14 + +Fratricidal war, 87 + +Frederick Barbarossa, 16 + +French war correspondents, 99 + + +Gallipoli, Peninsula of, 75 + +Geographical position, 1 + +Gepidae, 11 + +German Powers, 193 + +German war correspondents, 99 + +Getae. _See_ Dacians + +Goths, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 20 + invasions of, 75 + +Greco-Bulgarian disunion, 79 + _entente_, 76 + +Greco-Turkish wars, 107 + +Greece, 37 + +Greek atrocities in Macedonia, 51 + character, 188-191 + church, 22 + civilisation, 4 + coast, 150 + diplomacy, 93 + Empire, 2, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20 + Empire, fall of, 21 + governors in Roumania, 31 + official report, 76 + Patriarchates, 52 + patriotism, 167 + Prime Minister. _See_ Venizuelos + traditions, 164 + war of independence, 82 + +Greeks, 3 + +Grey, Sir Edward, 85, 203 + +Grivica Redoubt, 41 + +Gueshoff, M., 202 + +Guttones. _See_ Goths + + +Haskovo, province of, 168 + +Health resorts, 153 + +Herodotus, 5 + +Herzegovina, 39, 49 + +History, Early, 3, 4 + +Hodgkin, Mr. T., 5 + +Hospital services, 141, 142 + +Hungarians, 11, 13, 28 + +Huns, 4, 7, 11, 13 + invasions of, 9, 75 + origin of, 9, 10 + + +"International Socialist," 132 + +Ionian letter-forms, 5 + +Istros, 5 + +Italian Peninsula, 1 + war correspondents, 99 + +Ivan the Black, of Montenegro, 35 + +Ivankeui, battle of, 67 + + +Janina, 75 + +Japanese censorship, 98 + +Jirecek, 2 + +John Asen, Czar of Bulgaria, 14 + +John Hunyad, 27 + +John Paleologos, Emperor of Greece, 21 + +Jonescu, M. Take, 198, 205 + +Jostoff, Colonel, 138 + +Journalism, 108-110 + + +"Kara George." _See_ Petrovic + +Kirk Kilisse, 42, 65, 139 + +Korea, 58 + +Kossova, 21 + battle of, 27, 33 + +Kustendil, 168 + +Kustendjix, 5 + + +Lazar, King of Serbia, 27 + +Levant, the, 4, 5 + +Liberation, progress since the, 165 + +Lithuania, 5 + +Lombards, 8, 11 + +London Morning Post, 54, 100 + +"Lord Salisbury's principle," 93 + +Lule Burgas, 68 + battle of, 72 + + +Macedonia, 44, 74 + atrocities in, 51, 52, 53 + Empire of, 6 + massacres in, 51, 89 + +Marcianople. _See_ Schumla + +Mariano Bolizza, 36 + +Maritza River, 90 + +Marmora, Sea of, 62, 120, 150 + +"Mass at St. Sofia," 146 + +Massacre, the national sport, 177 + +Medicinal springs, 153 + +Mediterranean littoral, 2 + Sea, 4 + +Michael, Czar of Bulgaria, 15 + +Michael the Brave, of Roumania, 30 + +Midhat Pasha, 169, 170 + +Midia, 88 + +Military attaches, 105, 107 + +Milosh Obrenovic of Serbia, 38 + +Mineral resources in Serbia, 172 + +Minoan civilisation, 2 + +Moesia, 3 + +Mohammedanism, 24 + +Moldavia, 13, 29, 38 + +Montenegrin character, 173, 193 + printing press, 35, 36 + resistance of Turks, 34, 35 + war with Austria, 35 + war with Turkey, 35 + +Montenegro, 17, 28, 32, 33, 37, 46 + +Montenegro, government of, 33 + +_Morning Post_, the. _See_ London + +Mount Athos, monastery of, 16 + +Music, national, 163 + + +Napoleon, 17, 34 + +Napoleonic strategy, 113 + wars, 32 + +Near East, the, 107 + +Near Eastern character, 78 + +Neytchef, Dr., 131 + +Nicolaieff, General, 42 + +Niemen River, 5 + +Nikolitch, M., 198, 204 + +Nish, 43, 125, 126 + +Nordic tribes, 4 + +Norman knights, 13 + +Normans, 4 + +Northern invasions, 13 + peoples, 2 + +North Sea, 4 + +Nova Sagora, 135 + +Novi-Bazar, 46 + + +Odessa, 5 + +Odessos, 5 + +Olbia, 5 + +Old Serbia, 74 + +Oriental Express, 156 + +Ostrogoths, 7 + +Ottoman. _See_ Turks + +Ox wagons, 130, 131 + + +Patriarchate Christians, 177 + +Peace Conference. _See under_ Balkan + +Peace of Bucharest, 88 + +Peace of London, 85, 88 + +Persians, 11 + +Peter the Great of Russia, 34 + +Petrovic, George, 29, 37 + +Philip of Macedon, 6 + +Philippopolis, 8, 44 + capture of, 20 + +Phillip, Roman Emperor, 8 + +Pig-raising, 171 + +Pirot, 43 + +Plevna, 41, 46 + +Pomaks, 22 + +Prehistoric state, 2 + +Press influence, 83, 84 + +Protective tariff, 171 + +_Punch_ cartoon, 54 + + +Religious proselytising, 30 + +Rhodopes, the, 151, 152, 158 + +Roads, 167 + +Roman Church, 16 + civilisation, 8 + Empire, 1, 2, 89, 168 + +Roman Empire, decline of, 7 + fall of, 8 + traditions, 164 + +Romans, 4, 7 + +Rose cultivation, 169 + +Roumania, 7, 13, 22, 29, 37 + Greek governors in, 31 + an independent principality, 32 + King of, 48, 49 + liberation of, 30, 31 + Russian garrison in, 32 + subjugation of, 2 + a Turkish province, 29 + +Roumanian character, 191, 192 + diplomacy, 92 + independence, 38 + war correspondents, 105 + women, 160 + +Roumanians, 3 + +Runes, 5 + +Russian ambitions in the Balkans, 44, 45, 49 + garrison in Roumania, 32 + hospital at Kirk Kilisse, 143 + intrigue in Bulgaria, 48 + liberators of Bulgaria, 25 + Power, 31 + war correspondents, 99 + +Russo-Japanese War, effect of, 50 + +Russo-Roumanian alliance, 31 + +Russo-Turkish War of 1828, 32 + of 1877, 41, 43, 170 + + +Salonica, 46, 62, 76, 79 + +Sanitary arrangements, absence of, 140, 141, 142 + +Saracens, 4, 12, 20 + +Savoff, General, 117, 202 + +Schumla, 8 + +Scutari, 74, 75 + +Scythia, 5, 8, 9 + +Seaside resorts, 150, 151 + +Sebastopol, 5 + +Seleniki, 129 + +Semitic invasions, 4 + +Serbia, 15, 17, 26, 37 + as a European Power, 16 + local government in, 172 + Turkish garrisons withdrawn, 38 + a Turkish province, 27 + +Serbian character, 186-188 + contest for liberty, 38 + diplomacy, 93 + emigration to Austria, 28 + Empire, 33 + Empire, fall of, 27 + forests, 172 + Highlanders, 33 + increase of territory, 46 + liberation, 37 + mineral resources, 172 + mountains, 151 + trade, Austria and, 125 + women, 172 + +Serbians, 3, 4, 9 + +Serbo-Hungarian Alliance, 27 + +Servians. _See_ Serbians + +Shipka Pass, 42, 129 + +Silistria, 168 + +Simeon of Bulgaria, 163 + +Slav traditions, 164 + +Slavs, 3, 4 + +Slivnitza, battle of, 48 + +Sofia, 61, 145 + the Military College, 42 + +Southern Slav Art Exhibition, 165 + +Stambouloff, 48 + assassination of, 49 + +Stara Zagora, 42 + +Stephen Dushan, King of Serbia, 16, 17, 26, 162 + +Stephen the Great, of Moldavia, 30 + +Sweden, 6, 9 + +Switzerland, 58 + + +Tapestries, 164 + +Tartars, 4, 11, 13 + +Tchobanoff, Lieutenant-Colonel, 131 + +Tchorlu, 42 + +Tchundra River, 90 + +Teutonic knights, 13 + +Theodore Komnenus, Czar of Greece, 14 + +Thessaly, 2 + +Thrace, 2, 8, 44, 51 + an autonomous, 80 + +Thracian campaign, 54 + plain, 154 + +Thraco-Dacians, 3 + +Thraco-Illyrians, 3 + +Thraco-Macedonians, 3 + +Tirnova, 44 + Church of the Forty Martyrs, 14 + +Tobacco cultivation, 168 + +Tourist possibilities, 151, 152 + +Trade, Early, 5 + +Trajan, 7 + +Transylvania, 30 + +Travel facilities, 155-158 + risks, 161 + +Treaty of Adrianople (1830), 44 + +Treaty of Berlin, 38, 45, 46 + +Treaty of Bucharest (1913), 17, 171 + +Treaty of London, 174 + +Treaty of Paris (1856), 32, 38, 39 + +Treaty of San Stefano, 43, 44, 46, 47, 50 + +Trenches, 145 + +Triple Alliance, the, 50 + +Turco-Russian wars, 107 + +Turkey-in-Europe, 61 + +Turkish Army, 106 + atrocities, 19, 26, 29, 31, 52 + character, 181-186 + corruption, 61 + cruelty, 185 + delegates at the Conference, 188 + domination in Bulgaria, 23, 24, 25 + entrenchments, 137 + invasion, first, 15 + occupation, 17, 20, 158 + offer of reform, 56 + Power in Europe, decline of, 45 + prisoners, 136 + procrastination at the Peace Conference, 81, 84 + rally, 88 + rule in Bulgaria, end of, 26 + rule in Serbia, 28 + spy incident, 133 + tyranny, 24 + villages, 138 + +Turks, 3, 4, 13 + before Vienna, 21 + +Turnu-Severin, 7 + +Tyras, 5 + + +Unity of Balkans. _See_ Balkan Alliance + + +Valerius, Emperor, 89 + +Vandals, 7 + +Varna, 5 + +Venetians, 16 + +Venice 34 + +Venizuelos, M., 83, 198, 203, 204 + +Vienna, 109 + siege of, 21 + +Villages, the, 154 + +Visigoths, 7 + +Vistula River, 5 + +Vlad the Impaler, of Wallachia, 30 + +Volga River, 3 + +Volgars. _See_ Bulgars + +Vranga, 43 + + +Wallachia, 13, 29 + +Wallachians. _See_ Roumanians + +War correspondent, the, 98, 99, 102, 103, 107, 126, 185 + advice to, 110 + new school, 107, 108, 113 + passing of the, 122 + a personal record, 116 + +War of Liberation, 85 + +Winter sports, 152 + + +Yamboli, 42, 65, 69 + +Yanina, battle of, 67 + + +Zablack, 35 + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_. + + + + +A NEW SERIES OF COLOUR BOOKS + +EACH CONTAINING 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + +_Large Square Demy 8vo._ Price =7/6= net each. _Bound in Cloth._ + +(_By Post_, 8/-) + + +BULGARIA. By Frank Fox. + +This book will give to the reader an adequate idea of a wild and +little-known corner of Europe, but to those who look upon Bulgaria as a +place of endless massacres and savage inhospitality the book will bring +many surprises. The Bulgarian artist shows us a land in which +civilisation is evident and art not unknown. The Australian author (who +was with the Bulgarian Army as correspondent for the London _Morning +Post_ during the former Balkan War) writes of a people whom he found +usually courteous, gentle, and worthy. His personal experiences of the +Bulgarian peasantry are vividly interesting, and hardly less interesting +is the brief sketch of the early history of Bulgaria, the country where +the Roman Empire met its doom. + + +ITALY. By Frank Fox. + +Messrs. A. & C. Black have published many books on the various cities of +Italy with colour illustrations. But before this they have not offered +to the public a handy volume giving a general idea of the country which +was the cradle of Christian civilisation. Whether to tourists who +contemplate a visit to Italy or to those who cannot hope for that +pleasure, _Italy_ will be welcome. The author has left to the vivid +pictures the main task of describing Italian scenery, and devoted most +of his text to telling of the spirit of the people and showing how the +Italy of to-day is linked up with the Italy of the Roman Republic and +the Italy of the Renaissance. + + +SWITZERLAND. By Frank Fox. + +This volume will give to the reader a good knowledge not only of the +scenery of Europe's playground but of the Swiss people and their life. A +little nation which has supplied Europe at various times with bands of +both heroes and waiters, which is celebrated alike for generous +hospitality to refugees and the most strictly commercial hospitality to +tourists, has a paradoxical aspect whatever way it is regarded. The +author seeks to describe rather than to explain the Swiss, but gives a +closely compressed record of their early history as some key to the +curiously contradictory elements of their national character. + + +ENGLAND. By Frank Fox. + +The task of describing England was for good reason given to a visitor to +the Mother Country. It will be found that Mr. Frank Fox has done his +work well. A stranger to England will have his attention drawn to the +features of her life which are most characteristic: residents in England +will find interest in studying an impression of their country from a +sympathetic Australian observer. Within a very small compass there is a +bright living picture of England, her history, her institutions, her +people, her green country-side, her historic monuments. + + +FRANCE. By Gordon Home. + +Mr. Gordon Home's chapters cover many aspects of French life, and give +the reader a comprehensive vision of the land from Boulogne to Mentone +and Bayonne. Political life, home life in town and country, the duel, +marriage arrangements, the navy, architecture, the doctor, the priest, +the _midinette_, the constitution, the great rivers, the +watering-places, hunting, vine-growing, and school life are a few of the +many topics that come in orderly sequence in the book. After reading the +volume and studying the pictures, even those who know France well will +probably understand some aspects of it more clearly, and those who have +yet to cross the English Channel will go there understanding much that +might otherwise puzzle them. + + +AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. By G. E. Mitton. + +It was through Austria-Hungary that the great crisis in Europe arose. +Yet how few people know anything about the country, although both in the +matter of national history and scenery Austria-Hungary is well worth +considering. Its story of romance, its scenery is not behind any in +Europe, though, except for the Tyrol and the Dolomites, it is far from +well known. In the reconstruction of political frontiers which will +necessarily follow the War, the races of the Dual Monarchy will have to +be taken into account, and it is essential to know something of them if +we would be abreast of the times. + + +Published by A. & C. BLACK, Ltd., 4, 5, & 6 Soho Square, London, W. + + + + +OTHER BOOKS ON + +THE BALKAN PENINSULA + + +CONSTANTINOPLE + +Painted by WARWICK GOBLE + +Described by Prof. ALEXANDER VAN MILLINGEN, D.D. + +CONTAINING 62 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + +_Published at_ =20/-= _net, now offered at_ =7/6= _net_ (_by post_, 8/-) + + "Mr. Goble has succeeded in a difficult task. He has 'caught the + glory' of the Queen of Cities, and, in the wealth of material for + choice, has seized on those features which, though the most skilful + pencil can convey them only inadequately, best represent their + wonderful variety to those who have never seen them."--_Daily + Chronicle._ + + +GREECE: MONTENEGRO: TURKEY + +In the "Peeps at Many Lands" Series + +EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + +_Large Square Crown 8vo, bound in Cloth._ + +(_By post_, 1/11) Price =1/6= net each (_By post_, 1/11) + + This series of little travel books for young people who are of an + age to be interested in the countries of the world and their + peoples has steadily grown on account of its wide popularity. Each + book is written in a simple and very attractive style, and thus the + child gains valuable instruction and a vivid interest in countries, + great cities, and peoples through the sheer pleasure of reading and + by examining the beautiful illustrations. The youthful reader + becomes absorbed in descriptions of how children work and play, and + in the way of living, in the various countries of the world. + + The volumes are handsomely bound and splendidly illustrated in + colour. + + +THE SPIRIT OF THE ALLIED NATIONS + +A SERIES OF ESSAYS BY + +PAUL STUDER, M.A., Professor of the Romance Languages in the University +of Oxford. + +ALEXIS ALADIN, Ex-member of the Russian Duma. + +PAUL HAMELIUS, D. es L., Professor of English Literature in the +University of Liege. + +J. H. LONGFORD, B.A., Professor of Japanese in the University of London. + +R. W. SETON-WATSON, D. Litt., New College, Oxford; Author of _The +Southern Slav Question_, etc. + +SIDNEY LOW, M.A., Balliol College, Oxford, Lecturer on Imperial and +Colonial History, King's College, London University; Author of _The +Governance of England_, _A Vision of India_, etc. + +Edited, with an Introduction and Appendix, by SIDNEY LOW + +_Crown 8vo._ Price =2/6= net _Cloth._ + +(_By post_, 2/10) + + "No student, or even casual lover of books, and certainly no + patriot, should hesitate to read this remarkable little + volume."--_Daily Express._ + + "A valuable supplement to the books relating to the negotiations + preceding the war and to the campaign itself."--_Aberdeen Journal._ + + +Published by A. & C. BLACK, Ltd., 4, 5, & 6 Soho Square, London, W. + + + * * * * * + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +Both "Serbia" and "Servia", "country-side" and "countryside" are found +in this text. + +At p. 54, the phrase "I was through the war" may be an error for "I went +through the war", but has been left unchanged. + +There is only one typo: "howevre" (on p. 21) has been changed to +"however". + +Four words in the index have a different spelling from that used in the +text. Kossovo, Nova Zagora, Chorlu and Zablak are indexed as "Kossova", +"Nova Sagora", "Tchorlu" and "Zablack" respectively. These spellings +have been left unchanged. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Balkan Peninsula, by Frank Fox + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALKAN PENINSULA *** + +***** This file should be named 39688.txt or 39688.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/6/8/39688/ + +Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Margo Romberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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