FROM AN HELLENIC CAMP.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.".1
Sin,—I have, quite accidentally, had the good luck to come across the Daily News and Leader of July 4th, in which an article of particular interest is published under the beading of "Europe's Task." The indignation expressed therein against the hideous iniquity of the present internecine war is most touching, and undoubtedly the readers of that paper will pat themselves on the back and glory in the fact that they belong to the civilized nations of Europe whose susceptibilities have been "outraged by this wanton plunge into barbarism," and who are separated by so wide a gulf from " those wretched combatants, that pack of wolves who, under pretence of fighting together a war for the deliverance of Macedonia, have turned in the pursuit to rend each other, and are now spreading throughout that miserable country a new desolation more terrible than any that has gone before." All, except those who knew what is and has been going on behind the scenes ! These cannot fail to be amused by the absurdities enounced in the article in question. It has been believed by some that European diplomacy was hoodwinked when the war between the Allies and Turkey broke out, that the Powers never imagined that the Balkan States could ever come to an agreement with regard to collec- tive action against Turkey, and that they never dreamt that war could, in any circumstances, be declared before spring set in.
There may or may not be any truth in these reports, but no one could be naïve enough to pretend to believe that European diplomacy did not know that the war between the Allies and Turkey was but the prelude to the war between Bulgaria and Greece, and that if the two latter countries were compelled to fight together a war of liberation they both knew very well that after the " war of liberation " they would be compelled to fight a war of annihilation of one or the other. No effort was made to conceal this fact from the very beginning of the Turco-Balkan war. Greece started upon that war without any definite arrangement having been entered into with the other Balkan States, and when the Bulgarians, to their intense surprise, found out that the Hellenic army had defeated the Turks and was marching towards Salonica, they relaxed their military proceedings against Turkey and started a race towards Salonica, hoping to arrive there before the Greeks. In this they were not successful, but the removing of some fifty thousand men from the Bulgarian theatre of action fos the above purpose gave the Turks the opportunity to reinforce their positions, and enabled them to oppose such an effective resistance in Adrianople and at Tchataltza, thus prolonging the war some five or six months longer than would otherwise have been the case. When the preliminary treaty of peace was signed in London, thanks to the firm attitude assumed by Sir Edward Grey, we one and all exclaimed, "La guerre est terminee ; vive la guerre!"
It is a well-known fact that the desolation which has been spreading throughout Macedonia was due to Turkey's taking advantage of and kindling the animosity between the Greeks and Bulgarians, a state of affairs which the European Powers have not only tolerated for centuries, but which they have done their utmost to foster and aggravate, with a view to satisfying petty jealousies among themselves and meandering [sic] to base commercial interests, encouraging Turkey against the Balkans collectively and individually, and the Balkans against Turkey and against one another.
Europe should have thought of her task many years ago. It is too late in the day to talk of it now, nor of the risk of her being stigmatized as an "accessory to one of the basest crimes in history." The best thing Europe could do at the present moment would be to hold her tongue.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ONE OF THE BLOODTHIRSTY FREEBOOTERS.
Hellenic Camp, Macedonia: July 20th, 1913.
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