* * * The Balkans Last April we thought that
the kingdoms of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and of Bulgaria had come to a reason- able agreement over the troubles on their frontier. A Conference was held at Pirot, and a protocol drawn up. Unfortunately, it has never been ratified. Great Britain and France have, in the most friendly way possible, urged both sides to compose their differences. Negotia- tions are again going on and we must hope that they will lead to better feeling. But at present those who are in power, soldiers for the most part, in Jugo-Slavia are not conciliatory. They hold out for a neutral zone from which Macedonians shall be excluded, and for the " liquidation " of the frontier properties, mainly Bulgarian farms, the very matters on which the Pirot agreement failed; In Bulgaria it is difficult to believe that the return of M. Radoslavoff, King Ferdinand's Minister, is a matter of very deep feeling, or that if there was good feeling towards Jugo-Slavia, Bulgarians would care much what was thought in Belgrade 'of a worn-out old man coming home at last. It is, as ever, the Macedonian element which does not want peace, and can always stir Bulgarian sympathy by stinging the Serbians into action against themselves. Mr. Sidney Waterlow, who has been appointed. His Majesty's Minister at Sofia, has an engrossing task before him. The Balkan peoples will only be led by those whom they trust, but when once a Minister (or a J. D. Bourchier) gains their confidence, they will accept his advice.
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