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Turks at that 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.
The Cathedral, Sofia
I do not think one need offer any harsh criticism about a nation
coming to such a decision as that. 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 stop that war.
I was much struck with the wonderful value to the Bulgarian
generals of the fact 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 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, absolute secrecy could be kept. No one
abroad knew anything, either from the babbling of “Pro-Turks,” or
from the newspapers, that this great campaign was being designed
by Bulgaria.
The Secret Service of Bulgaria before the war had evidently been
excellent. They seemed to know all that was necessary to know
about the country in which they were going to fight; and I think
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, for the Bulgarian people knew the state of corruption and
rottenness 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.