The well-informed correspondent of the Times in the Balkan Peninsula
sent to Wednesday's paper an interesting article on the conflicting emotions of the Balkan States. He is convinced that popular feeling in Roumania, Bulgaria, and Greece is wholly with the Entente Powers. But these Balkan States dare not he on the losing side, and it should be remembered that their General Staffs without exception believed at the beginning of the war that Germany would win. That belief, it is true, is now modified, but it still causes mis- giving. Meanwhile Germany and Austria are doing their best to distract public attention in the Balkans from occupying itself too much with the war. Officials and the Press are offered tempting bribes, and the public are invited to enter- tainments provided by anonymous hosts. Thus at Bucharest battles of flowers have been arranged at which baskets of flowers and carriages were provided free I Another cause which binds the Balkan States at present to inaction is their mistrust of one another. We fear that the Treaty of Bucharest is a cause of vast mischief. We wish it could be undone. But unhappily the one man—M. Venezelos—who had the statesmanship to try to conciliate Bulgaria is still held in check.
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