the autonomy of Macedonia. Unfortunately, the offer came many years too late. On Sept. 30, the Balkan allies ordered the mobili- zation of their armies, and on Oct. 8 Montenegro, with which coun- try no formal agreement had been made, declared war on Turkey. On Oct. 13, the allied Balkan Powers sent a virtual ultimatum to the Porte; on Oct. 17, Turkey declared war on Serbia and Bul- garia, and on Oct. 18 Greece declared war on Turkey.
First Balkan War 1912-3. The war with Turkey was popular throughout the country, for the people of Bulgaria, though they are often represented as self-centred and materialistic, had felt the sorrows of their kinsfolk in Macedonia as their own, and were prepared for any sacrifices in order to set them free. The campaign in Thrace brought out once more the admirable qualities of the Bulgarian soldier, his power of endurance, his courage and his obedience to discipline, but the success of the campaign was in reality less complete and satisfactory than it appeared to be in press accounts. The Bulgars, it is true, forced the Turkish army back in disorder, after severe fighting near Kirk-Kilisse and Lule-Burgas, to the strong defensive position of the Chatalja lines; but, owing to lack ot heavy artillery, they failed to capture Adrianople and proved unable to force the Chatalja lines and so to advance on Constanti- nople. For all its supplies, the army was dependent on ox transport ; nearly every cart and draught animal in Bulgaria had been re- quisitioned. The rough tracks by which supplies had to travel had been rendered almost impassable by rains, and it was fully ten days' trek from the railhead at Yambol to Lule-Burgas; there was heavy mortality among the draught animals. The enforced pauses, whilst the army was waiting for supplies to come up, twice gave the Turks time to withdraw and finally permitted them to reorganize their forces at Chatalja. The campaign had revealed great shortcomings in the medical and supply services, and the Bulgars suffered only a degree less cruelly than the Turks themselves from shortage of food and absence of sanitary and medical care. The assaults on Chatalja, which cost the Bulgars some 10,000 casualties, were undertaken contrary to the advice of Fichev, chief of staff, and were inspired by Ferdinand, whose ambition it was to take Con- stantinople regardless of the cost. Fichev, who had realized that the troops were too much exhausted after the five weeks' fighting in Thrace to follow up their success to complete victory, was com- pelled by the King to ask for sick leave and was succeeded by Nerezov.
On Dec. 4 an armistice between Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia was signed. At this moment the position was everywhere favourable to the allies. The Greeks, who did not sign the armistice, had oc- cupied most of southern Macedonia and held Salonika. The Serbs, after heavy fighting at Kumanovo and Prilep, had taken Monastir, and the Turkish army had retreated into Albania. The Turkish fortresses of Scutari, Yanina and Adrianople still held out, but their garrisons were suffering from shortage of supplies. The sig- natories of the armistice met in London to arrange terms of peace. The Bulgarian demands, which included the vilayet of Adrianople and the port of Rodosto on the Sea of Marmora, seemed likely to be accepted by the Turks, but a coup d'etat in Constantinople brought the Young Turk party back to power, and as the Young Turks seemed as determined to hold Adrianople as the Bulgars were to obtain it, the conference was broken up. On Feb. 3 1913, hostilities again began. Yanina surrendered early in March, the Serbs and Bulgars entered Adrianople almost simultaneously on March 25, and Scutari fell a month later. After the surrender of Adrianople, the Turks sought the mediation of the Powers, and after another conference in London, the delegates were, on May 30 1913, induced to sign a treaty, the terms of which had been drafted by the Powers. Turkey surrendered to the allies all her possessions in Europe up to a line drawn from Enos on the Aegean to Midia on the Black Sea, Midia being about 63 m. from Con- stantinople. Albania was granted independence. The Bulgarian casualties in the war were officially given as 93,000 while the Serbian and Greek official figures of their respective casualties were given as 31,000 and 29,000.
Rupture of Balkan Alliance. The discussions at the conferences in London had shown that considerable friction existed between the allies. Apart from the antagonism of national character and the mutual distrust and dislike, which events in Macedonia during the . last few years had accentuated, the difficulties which now presented themselves arose from the interpretation of the treaties of alliance. The military successes of the allies had been unexpectedly complete, and had thus created a situation which had not been foreseen in the treaties of alliance. The Serbs claimed that as new conditions had arisen, the treaties should be revised as a whole, and the arbitration of the Tsar should be sought for all matters in dispute. The Bulgars characteristically held out for the letter of the agreement as regards territorial arrangements, and they were, moreover, unwilling to submit even the contested zone to the arbitration of the Tsar, as they doubted his impartiality. By Article 2 of the secret annex to the treaty between Bulgaria and Serbia (March 13 1912), it had been agreed that " all territorial gains acquired by combined action . . . shall constitute the common property (condominium) of the two allies," and the lines of partition, to be effected within a period of three months after restoration of peace, were then laid down. Serbia, however, as a result of her victories in Macedonia,
hold much of the territory which had been assigned by the treaty to Bulgaria; whereas Bulgaria held Adrianople and all Thrace, a situation which had not been provided for in the treaty. Moreover, Greece occupied Salonika (where a Bulgarian detachment had been left for political reasons) and many districts of southern Macedonia in which Bulgars formed a majority of the population. It was impossible for Bulgaria to give up her claim to Macedonia, where the bulk of the inhabitants were of Bulgarian nationality, as it had been for their sake that she had made immense sacrifices; on the other hand, since Serbia was now cut off from the Adriatic by the creation of an Albanian state, Serbia was naturally anxious to have access to Salonika, without having to pass through Bulgarian territory before reaching the Greek frontier. Controversy also arose as to the fulfilment of the terms of the military convention of June 1912, in which it had been agreed that Bulgaria and Serbia should each, " if no other special arrangement be made," send at least 100,000 men to the Vardar theatre of war. Serbia asserted that Bulgaria had sent only 32 ,000 men to the Vardar theatre, whereas Serbia had voluntarily sent 50,000 men to Adrianople to help the Bulgars, and she claimed that, without the Serbian heavy artillery, that fortress could not have been taken. It must, however, be remembered that the Thracian campaign had proved the longest, the most difficult and the most costly of the allied operations, and that the taking of Adrianople was essential to the allied cause as a whole. The Serbs, again, attributed the prolongation of the campaign to the intransigeance of the Bulgarian delegates in London. It was evident that there was never mutual confidence between the allies, and that personal contact between the respective armies had often given rise to friction rather than good-will. Bulgarian suspicion of Serbian designs was intensified by an official circular written by Pashich in the autumn of 1912, in which he spoke of Prilep and Ochrida as belonging to Old Serbia, although both these places were within the zone allotted to Bulgaria. In Jan. and March 1913, meetings took place between Prince Alexander of Serbia and Prince Nicholas of Greece, and Bulgaria had reason to suspect that some agreement was made as to combined action against herself. The occupation by Serbia and Greece of regions of Macedonia which had not been actually allocated by treaty to either Power seemed to Bulgaria to be assuming a permanent character. The murder of King George of Greece in March 1913 meant the removal of a factor which made for peace and moderation, whereas in Bulgaria, the military party, with whom King Ferdinand was in full sympathy, had, by the early spring, gained ascendancy over the policy of the country. In April a Cabinet council was held at Adrianople when, according to Gen. Savov, it was decided to retain in Thrace only such armed forces as were absolutely necessary for defence, and to transfer the rest of the army as quickly as possible against the Greeks and Serbs in Macedonia. There were good reasons for haste, for the military authorities, with the King at their head, were now convinced that war was inevitable, and, moreover, they were aware that the troops were becoming increasingly anxious to return to their homes. The concentration of troops on the Macedonian frontier was gradually effected during June. The Serbs, on their part, had not failed to make corresponding preparations on the other side of the frontier. On June I Gueshov and Pashich, both of them men of moderate and prudent views, met in the hope of coming to an agreement ; on the same day a treaty was signed at Salonika between Serbia and Greece. During the month of June the Tsar of Russia put all possible pressure on Serbia and Bulgaria, both directly and through his diplomatic representatives, Hartwig at Belgrade and Nekludov at Sofia, to prevent the outbreak of hostilities, but Ferdinand's replies to the Tsar's proffered mediation showed an increasing arrogance. On May 30 Gueshov, finding that his policy of caution and moderation was not supported by the King, resigned : his place was taken by Danev, a politician who stood well with the military party and who had shown marked intractability as delegate to the London conference. On June 19 a speech by Tisza in the Hungarian Parliament indicated that Austria-Hungary considered that the Balkan states should be free to choose their own method of settling their differences.
Second Balkan War. On June 29 the Bulgarian Fourth Army, acting on orders signed by Gen. Savov, made the treacherous attack on their Serb and Greek allies which alienated from Bulgaria the sympathy and respect of Europe, and proved the first step towards her downfall. The manner of the attack was unjustifiable, but it must be remembered that the attack was not unexpected, and that it probably forestalled a declaration of war on Bulgaria by Serbia and Greece. The treaty of June I between Serbia and Greece, the concreted entrenchments at Oyche Polye, the secret orders given by the Serbian commander-in-chief, Gen. Putnik, ten days before the attack and King Peter's proclamation, issued to the troops on July I, must count as evidence that the Serbs were fully alive to the situation. On July I Savov forbade further hostilities; he himself was recalled a few days later. It has been officially stated that the reports of the ministerial council contain no minute ordering the opening of hostilities against the Greeks and Serbs June 29 1913, and Danev denied in the press that his Government had ever con- templated such orders. A judicial inquiry into the causes of the second Balkan War was opened in Sofia, but was never concluded. Savov asserted that the King himself, as commander-in-chief,
