Bulgaria e-book - iMedia

The passions which the war has engendered are only partly due to
lust for territorial aggrandisement. Mere thirst after conquest would
have never produced such perversions of moral sense had it not been
backed by the sentiment of fear and jealousy. This is clearly proved
by the fact that feelings have reached their highest point of intensity
where this latter element loomed largest. The Bulgarians have exhibited
a degree of self-control which is in marked contrast with the conduct
of other Allies. This equanimity is the more surprising in view of the
fact that the position of Bulgaria is well-nigh desperate. For months
past, the brunt of the war has fallen almost entirely on her. On every
side she is surrounded by an atmosphere of open hostility. By threats
of invasion, Roumania has wrung from her a ransom for the Balkan
victories, while in Macedonia her allies are preparing to dispute her
lawful share and have massed against her their whole armies. So long as
peace with Turkey is not signed she must remain immobilised in front
of Chatalja and Bulair. For a parallel case one must go back to the dark
hours of Prussia during the Seven Years’ War. But in the midst of all
these difficulties Bulgaria has kept a cool head, whereas public opinion
in Servia and Greece has parted company with all reason. It is not
indifference to the issues at stake which explains this placid demeanour.
When the proper time arrives, the Bulgarians will be found tough
bargainers and determined to claim their full due. They know, however,
that the position of their country as prime factor in the Balkans cannot
be seriously affected by the results of the allotment. Even before the war,
the supremacy of Bulgaria was hardly questioned, and the formation of
the Balkan League would have been impossible but for this acquiescence
in her right to leadership. With the disappearance of Turkey, this
predominance is bound to be further accentuated and henceforth will
have to be reckoned with as a political axiom.
The reasons which have enabled Bulgaria to envisage the future with
tranquillity are for her allies a source of uneasiness. Servia and Greece
have long watched the rapid and uninterrupted progress of their pushful
neighbour with mixed feelings of fear and envy. Her seniors in point of
time, they have been outdistanced in the race for Balkan hegemony. In
1885 Servia made a desperate attempt at grappling with the problem,
but had no reason to be satisfied with the results. The doctrine of Balkan
equilibrium was buried at Slivnitza, and since then Servia has had to rest
contented with a secondary place. But the galling memory of defeat had
never died out and probably plays in the present anti-Bulgarian agitation
a larger part than most Servians realise or would care to admit.
Antagonism between Greeks and Bulgarians is a legacy of the past.
Their history is a long record of ceaseless struggle. When they could no
longer war as freemen, the feud was transferred to ecclesiastical ground
and there continued under the mocking eye of their new masters. Since
their restoration to independent life, they have not been able to revert
to the old tradition owing to Turkey’s presence as buffer state. This
involuntary truce, however, has not turned hatred into love. They are
once more to have a common frontier and will thus be brought in direct
contact.
... The war has widened the gulf between these races by adding to
the old stock of animosities a fresh supply of military jealousies. It has
let loose over the entire Peninsula a flood of vanity which has upset the
balance of a good many heads. A year ago, no sane Servian would have
dreamed of pitting his country against Bulgaria, and this recognition of
inferiority stood for peace. Now, every Servian officer is convinced that
the result of such a trial of forces would be favourable to Servia, just as
he is persuaded that the issues of the war with Turkey have been decided
mainly by Servian valour....
If this is the way in which Servians are wearing their laurels, it can
be imagined what the effect of recent events has been on impressionable
Greece. To the trepidation with which the war was entered has
succeeded the feeling of boundless self-reliance. All sense of reality
and proportion has been banished, and there is no exploit which seems
beyond the reach of Greek effort.
The outbreak of a fresh Balkan war would, in the present
circumstances, prove little short of a world-wide calamity. Should,
however, Europe succeed in localising such a conflict, its miseries will,
to a certain extent, be compensated by one very important advantage.
A trial of forces between the various Balkan competitors will clear the
atmosphere and settle in the only efficacious way the sore problem of
Balkan hegemony, which is at the bottom of Balkan unrest. It will fix
for a long term of years the respective positions of the parties. Just as
the Servo-Bulgarian War in 1885 proved a blessing in disguise, so this
time also the arbitrament of the sword might create conditions more
favourable to the political stability of the Peninsula. And this will be a
gain not only to the Balkan nations, but to the whole of Europe.
The last thing of which that Bulgarian writer dreamt was the
actual result of the fresh Balkan war, which did break out and which
ended in the humiliation of Bulgaria. He contemplated the necessity
of palliating to European minds the enormity of a fratricidal war
between allies who had sanctioned their war against Turkey as a
struggle of the Cross against the Crescent; but he had no idea that
there was the barest possibility that Bulgaria would have to suffer
complete defeat instead of explaining victory.
The Conference of London which endeavoured to arrange a
peace after the first phase of the Balkan war met first in December