GREEK VERSUS BTJLGAR.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—As an impartial traveller and observer, possessing a comparatively intimate knowledge of the Balkan races, and friendships of long standing amongst them all, may I venture on a few remarks with regard to the present situation ? It is improbable that any partition of the Balkan Peninsula can be finally agreed to without some action, direct or indirect, on the part of the Powers. That action must to a certain, though limited, extent be dependent on public opinion, and if public opinion is to be in any sense judicial it must hear all sides of the case. For information as to the points at issue between Bulgaria and her former allies we are largely, if not entirely, dependent on the press. Three or four parties in a suit must nearly always have the advantage over one. That, of course, is one reason why Bulgaria's influence with the neutral press is weakest. Her present actual isolation is another. A third is patent only to those familiar with the peculiarities and temperaments of these Balkan races. Stolid indifference to the views of foreigners is character- istic of the Bulger, and the policy of cultivating a " good press," a policy at which both Servians and Greeks— especially Greeks—excel, is altogether alien to his nature. I could quote innumerable illustrations of that trait. Compare, for instance, the tactless treatment of the foreign correspon- dents who tried to accompany the Bulgarian invasion of Thrace with the hospitable reception of their colleagues at the headquarters of the Servians and Greeks. Compare, again, the attitude of the commanders-in-chief of the Bulgarian and Greek armies at present in the field. Those who know him could, I venture to say, imagine no person in this world less likely than General Savoff to follow the example of his royal rival and to telegraph despatches direct to the editors of the halfpenny English press ! Which is the more attrac- tive of these respective characteristics is a mere matter of opinion.
Bulgaria's press campaign has been so inefficiently conducted, as compared with that of her rivals, that certain prominent features in the history of the quarrel are in danger of being altogether lost to view. May I therefore recall and lay stress upon the following four points ?—(1) In the war with Turkey the decisive actions were fought not in Macedonia nor in the 2Egean Sea, but in Thrace. In other words, the Bulgarians rather than their allies were the real victors of the war. Space does not permit me to enter into details, but few students of strategy will contest that point. In connexion with it note that the campaign cost Bulgaria in killed and wounded the equivalent of the whole Greek army. (2) The Servians and Greeks and not the Bulgarians prolonged the war with Turkey. But upon Bulgaria alone fell the whole strain of the final phases. And it was whilst the Bulgarian armies were tied to Thrace that the troubles in Central Macedonia began. (3) Upon Bulgaria has been fastened the responsi- bility of provoking the present war with such insistence and skill that we in Western Europe are beginning to accept this as true, and to forget that Bulgaria denies the accusation, and that the latter has been by no means proved. (4) Similarly, upon Bulgaria has been fixed the responsibility for all, or nearly all, the alleged excesses, again with such success that the Bulgarian name stands blackest. Bulgaria, it is true, has replied with counter-charges, but the charge is always stronger than the counter-charge in politics and war. An outstanding fact, of which not all of us are aware, is that the vast majority of the inhabitants of the area in which these excesses are said to have taken place (I have travelled through and through it) are Bulgarians, not Servians nor Greeks. In certain circum- stances a retreating army must burn or destroy anything in its wake likely to favour the advance of its pursuers—humane considerations must give way to military requirements. But is it reasonable to suppose that the Bulgarian soldiers have slain or tortured their own relatives and friends P—I am, Sir, A ROVING ENGLISHMAN.
[As to Bulgaria's achievements, we agree. But what an indictment of Bulgaria's recent policy and political wisdom! After such sacrifices and such successes she threw the results away because she did not realize that simple piece of world craft that you can have too much of a good thing, that you had better not bite off more than you can chew, and that over-trading may mean ruin. We are sorry for Bulgaria, and she mast be saved, but she has not shown herself able to keep her head in victory.—En. Spectator.]
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