New York Times 100 years ago today, December 31, 1912:
Balkan Allies, Indignant at Fresh Proposal for Delay, Threaten an Ultimatum.
DISTRUSTFUL OF POWERS
Bulgarian Leader Says That Unless the Turks Yield on Adrianople the Negotiations Will End.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Dec. 30.— The peace conference adjourned to-day until Wednesday with the delegates no nearer an agreement than when they first met. It was expected that a certain amount of time would be wanted by the tactics of each side in setting forth demands which it was prepared to moderate, but it was also expected that these demands would offer a reasonable basis for negotiations.
As it is, the allies' proposals are looked upon as impossible of acceptance by the powers, even if the Porte were disposed to entertain them, while the Turkish counter-proposals are so widely opposed to those of the allies that it seems impossible to harmonize them. Under the circumstances the belief is strengthening that the powers will be compelled to take a hand in the negotiations, and it is stated that this is the opinion of the delegates themselves.
The Turkish delegates to-day arrived at the conference with new proposals, but when the time came to present them it was found that they were incomplete and had not been properly translated from the Porte's cipher telegrams. The Turks suggested that the conference should consider such proposals as had been deciphered, but the allies insisted that the proposals should be complete and in writing. Another adjournment, therefore, was necessary. Although no progress was made, there was an informal exchange of views, during which the Turkish delegates urged that certain questions ought to be referred to the powers for settlement. These questions referred to the future of the Sanjak of Novibazar, Macedonia, and Crete.
It is stated that the Balkan delegates were astonished at the suggestion and impatient over what they declared to be Turkey's inability to realize that she was bargaining with victors. It is reported, in fact, that they decided that at the next meeting they would let it be clearly known that further delay could not be tolerated, and would take steps which would probably be in the nature of an ultimatum.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Servian Army Left A Trail Of Blood.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 31, 1912:
Thousands of Men, Women, and Children Massacred in March to Sea, Say Hungarian Reports.
EXECUTIONS A DAILY SPORT
Terrible Atrocities the Result of Deliberate Policy to Exterminate Moslems.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Tuesday, Dec. 31.— A Budapest dispatch to The Daily Telegraph gives details of atrocities in Albania and elsewhere, as contained in reports gathered for the Austro-Hungarian authorities. The correspondent says:
"On the march through Albania to the sea the Servians did not only treacherously murder and execute armed Albanians, but their beast-like cruelty did not stop at falling upon unarmed and defenseless persons, old men and women, children and infants at the breast.
"The Servian officers, intoxicated by their victory, declared that the most effectual pacification of Albania would be the total extermination of the Mohammedan Albanians. This mot d'ordre was quickly adopted by the Servian Army of occupation and put into practice.
"Between Kumanova and Uskub some 3,000 persons were done to death. Near Pristina 5,000, exclusively Arnauts, fell beneath the hands of the Serbs, not in honorable fight, but by unjustifiable murder.
"To carry out these crimes the maddened soldiers even invented new methods of cruelty to satisfy their lust for blood. In many villages all the houses were set afire, and as the unfortunate inhabitants fled before the flames they were shot down like rats. Men were shot in the sight of their wives and children, and afterward the helpless women were forced to watch their children literally carved to pieces with bayonets.
"Executions were the daily diversion of the Servian soldiers. In every house in which arms were found all the inhabitants were killed, being shot or hanged. On single days as many as thirty-six executions took place.
"The former Secretary of Premier Pasitch, Herr Tomiatch, says that during a journey from Prisrend to Ipek he saw nothing, but villages burned to the ground. The wayside was lined with gallows, from which the bodies of Albanians hung. The road to Diakowitza was like a "gallows alley."
But the tale of the atrocities which were perpetrated in Albania was by no means exhausted. The deeds done in Prilep, Kossovo, Weschitsa, it is said, exceed everything which the Albanians had to suffer under Turkish rule.
An Albanian of note, who fled from Prisrend to Graz, in Styria, and who studied in Austria as a youth, relates the following story:
"Whoever denounced an Albanian to the Servians was sure the man would be shot. It happened repeatedly that persons who owed money to Albanian Mohammedans informed on them, designating them as traitors. They were invariably hanged and the debtor was enabled to purchase the house and farm of the victim at an absurdly low price.
"In Uskub unarmed Albanians were simply shot down by the Servian officers in the street, and if only a hunting knife was found in a house the owner was shot, no mercy being shown."
At Verisovitch the Servian Commander invited the fugitives to return and lay down their arms. After they had done this 400 persons were cut down. In the whole of Verisovitch only half a dozen Mohammedan families were left alive.
At Pana the Serbs killed their prisoners, while at Varos and Pristina the population was slaughtered.
The Servian officers themselves say they hunted out the Albanians, and one officer boasted that he shot down nine Albanians in one day.
Even outside the boundaries of Albania the Servian soldiers perpetrated all kinds of atrocities. In the fortress of Nish, where many Turkish prisoners were brought, tragic scenes occurred. A man was trampled to death there for insubordination. A doctor of the Red Cross says: "Wherever the Albanians were found they were slain without mercy. Women, children and old men were not spared. I saw villages in flames in old Servia every day.
"Near Kratovo Gen. Stefanovitch placed hundreds of prisoners in two rows and had them shot down with machine guns.
"Gen. Zivkovitch had 950 Albanian and Turkish notables killed near Sienitza because they opposed his progress."
Thousands of Men, Women, and Children Massacred in March to Sea, Say Hungarian Reports.
EXECUTIONS A DAILY SPORT
Terrible Atrocities the Result of Deliberate Policy to Exterminate Moslems.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Tuesday, Dec. 31.— A Budapest dispatch to The Daily Telegraph gives details of atrocities in Albania and elsewhere, as contained in reports gathered for the Austro-Hungarian authorities. The correspondent says:
"On the march through Albania to the sea the Servians did not only treacherously murder and execute armed Albanians, but their beast-like cruelty did not stop at falling upon unarmed and defenseless persons, old men and women, children and infants at the breast.
"The Servian officers, intoxicated by their victory, declared that the most effectual pacification of Albania would be the total extermination of the Mohammedan Albanians. This mot d'ordre was quickly adopted by the Servian Army of occupation and put into practice.
"Between Kumanova and Uskub some 3,000 persons were done to death. Near Pristina 5,000, exclusively Arnauts, fell beneath the hands of the Serbs, not in honorable fight, but by unjustifiable murder.
"To carry out these crimes the maddened soldiers even invented new methods of cruelty to satisfy their lust for blood. In many villages all the houses were set afire, and as the unfortunate inhabitants fled before the flames they were shot down like rats. Men were shot in the sight of their wives and children, and afterward the helpless women were forced to watch their children literally carved to pieces with bayonets.
"Executions were the daily diversion of the Servian soldiers. In every house in which arms were found all the inhabitants were killed, being shot or hanged. On single days as many as thirty-six executions took place.
"The former Secretary of Premier Pasitch, Herr Tomiatch, says that during a journey from Prisrend to Ipek he saw nothing, but villages burned to the ground. The wayside was lined with gallows, from which the bodies of Albanians hung. The road to Diakowitza was like a "gallows alley."
But the tale of the atrocities which were perpetrated in Albania was by no means exhausted. The deeds done in Prilep, Kossovo, Weschitsa, it is said, exceed everything which the Albanians had to suffer under Turkish rule.
An Albanian of note, who fled from Prisrend to Graz, in Styria, and who studied in Austria as a youth, relates the following story:
"Whoever denounced an Albanian to the Servians was sure the man would be shot. It happened repeatedly that persons who owed money to Albanian Mohammedans informed on them, designating them as traitors. They were invariably hanged and the debtor was enabled to purchase the house and farm of the victim at an absurdly low price.
"In Uskub unarmed Albanians were simply shot down by the Servian officers in the street, and if only a hunting knife was found in a house the owner was shot, no mercy being shown."
At Verisovitch the Servian Commander invited the fugitives to return and lay down their arms. After they had done this 400 persons were cut down. In the whole of Verisovitch only half a dozen Mohammedan families were left alive.
At Pana the Serbs killed their prisoners, while at Varos and Pristina the population was slaughtered.
The Servian officers themselves say they hunted out the Albanians, and one officer boasted that he shot down nine Albanians in one day.
Even outside the boundaries of Albania the Servian soldiers perpetrated all kinds of atrocities. In the fortress of Nish, where many Turkish prisoners were brought, tragic scenes occurred. A man was trampled to death there for insubordination. A doctor of the Red Cross says: "Wherever the Albanians were found they were slain without mercy. Women, children and old men were not spared. I saw villages in flames in old Servia every day.
"Near Kratovo Gen. Stefanovitch placed hundreds of prisoners in two rows and had them shot down with machine guns.
"Gen. Zivkovitch had 950 Albanian and Turkish notables killed near Sienitza because they opposed his progress."
The Arkansas At Havana.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 31, 1912:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30.— The battleship Arkansas, which landed President Taft at Key West yesterday, arrived today at Havana, where the ship's company will spend New Year's day. Later the ship will proceed to the New York Navy Yard to make ready for the approaching mid-Winter cruise of the fleet to the West Indies.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30.— The battleship Arkansas, which landed President Taft at Key West yesterday, arrived today at Havana, where the ship's company will spend New Year's day. Later the ship will proceed to the New York Navy Yard to make ready for the approaching mid-Winter cruise of the fleet to the West Indies.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Turks Will Refuse To Cede Adrianople.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 30, 1912:
Other Peace Proposals Likely to be Modified, but on That Point They Are Firm.
AUSTRIA MAKES NEW TROUBLE
Insists on an Enlarged Albania, and the Allies Again Talk Defiantly of Intervention.
CONSTANTINOPLE. Dec. 29.— Following an all-day conference of the Council of Ministers discussing the reports from the peace envoys at London, a semi-official note was issued stating that fresh instructions had been sent to London to the affect that "while the Porte is animated by a conciliatory spirit and is desirous of a successful conclusion of the negotiations, it can under no circumstances consent to the cession of Adrianople."
It is understood that the Ministers have decided to instruct the Turkish delegates to propose reference of the questions which have given rise to dissension to the Ambassadorial conference.
In official circles the belief is held that an agreement can be reached on all points except Adrianople.
Other Peace Proposals Likely to be Modified, but on That Point They Are Firm.
AUSTRIA MAKES NEW TROUBLE
Insists on an Enlarged Albania, and the Allies Again Talk Defiantly of Intervention.
CONSTANTINOPLE. Dec. 29.— Following an all-day conference of the Council of Ministers discussing the reports from the peace envoys at London, a semi-official note was issued stating that fresh instructions had been sent to London to the affect that "while the Porte is animated by a conciliatory spirit and is desirous of a successful conclusion of the negotiations, it can under no circumstances consent to the cession of Adrianople."
It is understood that the Ministers have decided to instruct the Turkish delegates to propose reference of the questions which have given rise to dissension to the Ambassadorial conference.
In official circles the belief is held that an agreement can be reached on all points except Adrianople.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Uncle Sam Reaching 150,000 Men A Week.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Gigantic Publicity Work to Boom Naval Enactments Handled by New York Bureau.
STRENGTH NOW 4,000 SHORT
Youngsters All Over the Country Recipients of Letters Telling of Glorious Life in Warships.
In the big office building at 153 West Twenty-third Street one whole floor is rented by the United States Government as an office for the Publicity Bureau of the Recruiting Service of the Navy. There Commander George C. Day, U.S.N., is supreme, and under him he has a corps of picked enlisted men whose duties involve among other things the sending out of about 150,000 letters every week to young men in various parts of the country, to whose attention is called the advantages offered by an enlistment in the navy.
In the record rooms of the bureau are the names of more than half a million American boys and young men who have been reported to the navy as good material for the enlisted personnel of the service afloat. These names have been sent in by postmasters, by enlisted men who have sent in the names of friends, and by friends of the service everywhere in the country. At present the enlisted strength of the navy is about 4,000 mon short, but the indications are that within the next few months the full enlisted strength will have been reached, for the recruiting forces are bringing the average of 1,200 young men into the service every month.
Whenever Commander Day or one or his subordinates receives the name of a likely youngster who may turn out to be a good bluejacket, a letter is mailed immediately to that young man, in which he is politely asked to consider the advisability and advantages of a tour of service in the navy.
Calculated to Arouse Interest.
This is a copy of one of the letters sent out this month to young men and boys who have been recommended as good naval material:
United States Navy Recruiting Service
Publicity Bureau, 153 West Twenty-third St.,
New York, Dec. 10, 1912.
Dear Sir: Do you know that within the last few years there has been a wonderful change in the character of the men who man our battleships? No longer do we have the old type of man-o'-warsman whose behavior while ashore was often such as to bring disgrace to the bluejacket's uniform.
How different it is to-day! Now our ships are manned by young Americans coming from all States in the Union; most of them graduates of the grammar and high schools, and not a few have attended the leading colleges ane technical schools. All of them bright, gentlemanly young follows, of whom our people are justly proud. Their conduct, abroad as well as at home, is universally praised. They are students, too, constantly studying to fît themselves for higher positions in the navy or in civil life when they return to it, and learning much from their travel which is an education in itself.
The navy offers young men permanent employment at good pay, with excellent opportunities for advancement to numerous positions paying from $600 to $2,400 a year. It pays them not less than $17.60 a month while they attend the school for apprentice seamen or the various trade schools which the navy maintains for turning out the hundreds of technically trained men which it requires. Their pay is practically clear money, as there is no board, doctor's bills, &c., to pay.
You cannot fail to be interested in learning what the navy offers you, so fill out at once the inclosed blank and mail it in the accompanying envelope, which requires no postage. In return you will receive, without any obligation on your part, the free booklet describing life in the navy, the opportunities to learn trades, and how to secure a steady job where you can save money. To enable you to visit your home, frequent furloughs with pay will be granted, and your life in the navy will be an interesting one of travel and education.
No one less than 17 years of age can enlist, and those under 18 must have the written consent of their parents or guardians. Foreigners cannot enlist; all must be American citizens, native or with final naturalization papers.
G. C. DAY,
Commander, U. S. Navy, in Charge.
With the letter also goes a neat little book illustrated in colors entitled "The Making of a Man-o'-Warsman." This book, published by the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, is written in a style that is sure to appeal to many young Americans. For instance, there is a short article on the fascination of a bluejacket's life.
http://www.history.navy.mil/museums/greatlakes/manowar/index.html
"There is a fascination," that part of the book reads, "about a life that follows the sea, from port to port, country to country, from ocean to ocean, amid ever changing, ever shifting scenes as compared with the quiet, stationary, though commendable life in the factory, farm or office.
"There is a fascination about being one of the crew of a ship of the United States Navy; the navy that carries the Stars and Stripes; the navy that produced a John Paul Jones, a Lawrence, a Decatur, a Perry, a Farragut, a Porter, and a Dewey; the navy that gave birth to such expressions as 'I have only begun to fight,' 'Don't give up the ship,' 'We have met the enemy and they are ours,' 'Damn the torpedoes, go ahead,' 'You may fire when you are ready. Gridley' — expressions that will live in the minds of men forever."
Then, the little book goes on to tell of the fascinations of a navy life other than those of the spectacular and patriotic side, such as the boxing and fencing bouts for fleet and division championships, the football, baseball and rowing championships, the minstrel shows, the band concerts, &c., recreations that have become a part of the life on board every American warship.
After the fascinations comes the chapter on the hardships of a bluejacket's life. Here is the way the Navy Department talks about the hardships that come, into a life in the navy:
The Navy Department does not wish to misrepresent the life of a man-o'-warsman. He must endure hardships, the same as any other human being, although it is believed that his hardships are fewer than those of the landsman.
The man who goes to sea is separated from his family, which is not entirely agreeable. He is confined to small quarters, though he has more room than he who dwells in a city apartment. He is subject to military discipline, which is a fine thing for every boy, though many of them dislike it. He can't quit his job when he gets tired of it or when he is angry with his "boss." He has got to stick to his job until the end of his enlistment, unless he purchases his discharge. It may be unpleasant at times, but it teaches a boy "stick-to-it-iveness," a thing for which he will be thankful in later years. Sometimes he must "stand watch" at night. This may prove irksome, but he is allowed to regain his lost sleep the next day. There is homesickness, which is a painful experience, but the necessity of enduring it will make a man of him, and teach him to brace himself for hard knocks later in life. As to seasickness, well, many millionaires frequently pay large sums on ocean greyhounds for that experience, and most bluejackets must endure it at first, but they soon get their "sea legs."
Good Food an Argument.
Then comes the story of the fine meals the navy serves to its men on board its ships, with sample menus from some of the battleships, and then much about the splendid training schools now maintained for the instruction of bluejackets in electrical work, in mechanics and other useful occupations that will be of great benefit in civil life when the period of enlistment expires.
Another interesting bit of information refers to the financial benefits of a life in the navy. On this point the book points out:
Regarding financial benefits, we will suppose, for example, that a man enlisting at the age of 18 years reaches the rank of petty officer by the end of his first enlistment (four years,) and chief petty officer at the end of his second enlistment (four years more.) Any man can do this if he is willing to work. If he saves half his pay during thirty years, from the age of 18 to the ase of 48, and invests it in the Navy Savings Bank at 4 per cent. interest, and re-enlists immediately on the expiration of each enlistment those thirty years, at the end of that time he will have in cash $27,486, and may retire on three-fourths of his pay, which will be about $105 a month, or $1,260 a year. Thus he will have $27,486 in cash, which he can, invest at 4% per cent., which will bring him in over $1,236 a year. Add this to his retirement pay and you will readily see that he would have $2,406 per year income from the early age of 48 for the balance of his life.
The percentage of men who are able to accumulate an income of $2,000 a year after thirty years' employment is not large, as every one knows. Nor do very many bluejackets save half their pay during their entire career, for they are proverbially generous and open-hearted; but it is possible for them to do so. This statement shows what can be done if the bluejacket is reasonably frugal.
This story only briefly recites some of the interesting information that the Publicity Bureau in Twenty-third Street is sending out to the youths of the country. Any boy or young man who wishes to find out more about the service afloat has only to write to Commander Day at 153 West Twenty-third Street, and the information desired will be promptly forthcoming.
Gigantic Publicity Work to Boom Naval Enactments Handled by New York Bureau.
STRENGTH NOW 4,000 SHORT
Youngsters All Over the Country Recipients of Letters Telling of Glorious Life in Warships.
In the big office building at 153 West Twenty-third Street one whole floor is rented by the United States Government as an office for the Publicity Bureau of the Recruiting Service of the Navy. There Commander George C. Day, U.S.N., is supreme, and under him he has a corps of picked enlisted men whose duties involve among other things the sending out of about 150,000 letters every week to young men in various parts of the country, to whose attention is called the advantages offered by an enlistment in the navy.
In the record rooms of the bureau are the names of more than half a million American boys and young men who have been reported to the navy as good material for the enlisted personnel of the service afloat. These names have been sent in by postmasters, by enlisted men who have sent in the names of friends, and by friends of the service everywhere in the country. At present the enlisted strength of the navy is about 4,000 mon short, but the indications are that within the next few months the full enlisted strength will have been reached, for the recruiting forces are bringing the average of 1,200 young men into the service every month.
Whenever Commander Day or one or his subordinates receives the name of a likely youngster who may turn out to be a good bluejacket, a letter is mailed immediately to that young man, in which he is politely asked to consider the advisability and advantages of a tour of service in the navy.
Calculated to Arouse Interest.
This is a copy of one of the letters sent out this month to young men and boys who have been recommended as good naval material:
United States Navy Recruiting Service
Publicity Bureau, 153 West Twenty-third St.,
New York, Dec. 10, 1912.
Dear Sir: Do you know that within the last few years there has been a wonderful change in the character of the men who man our battleships? No longer do we have the old type of man-o'-warsman whose behavior while ashore was often such as to bring disgrace to the bluejacket's uniform.
How different it is to-day! Now our ships are manned by young Americans coming from all States in the Union; most of them graduates of the grammar and high schools, and not a few have attended the leading colleges ane technical schools. All of them bright, gentlemanly young follows, of whom our people are justly proud. Their conduct, abroad as well as at home, is universally praised. They are students, too, constantly studying to fît themselves for higher positions in the navy or in civil life when they return to it, and learning much from their travel which is an education in itself.
The navy offers young men permanent employment at good pay, with excellent opportunities for advancement to numerous positions paying from $600 to $2,400 a year. It pays them not less than $17.60 a month while they attend the school for apprentice seamen or the various trade schools which the navy maintains for turning out the hundreds of technically trained men which it requires. Their pay is practically clear money, as there is no board, doctor's bills, &c., to pay.
You cannot fail to be interested in learning what the navy offers you, so fill out at once the inclosed blank and mail it in the accompanying envelope, which requires no postage. In return you will receive, without any obligation on your part, the free booklet describing life in the navy, the opportunities to learn trades, and how to secure a steady job where you can save money. To enable you to visit your home, frequent furloughs with pay will be granted, and your life in the navy will be an interesting one of travel and education.
No one less than 17 years of age can enlist, and those under 18 must have the written consent of their parents or guardians. Foreigners cannot enlist; all must be American citizens, native or with final naturalization papers.
G. C. DAY,
Commander, U. S. Navy, in Charge.
With the letter also goes a neat little book illustrated in colors entitled "The Making of a Man-o'-Warsman." This book, published by the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, is written in a style that is sure to appeal to many young Americans. For instance, there is a short article on the fascination of a bluejacket's life.
http://www.history.navy.mil/museums/greatlakes/manowar/index.html
"There is a fascination," that part of the book reads, "about a life that follows the sea, from port to port, country to country, from ocean to ocean, amid ever changing, ever shifting scenes as compared with the quiet, stationary, though commendable life in the factory, farm or office.
"There is a fascination about being one of the crew of a ship of the United States Navy; the navy that carries the Stars and Stripes; the navy that produced a John Paul Jones, a Lawrence, a Decatur, a Perry, a Farragut, a Porter, and a Dewey; the navy that gave birth to such expressions as 'I have only begun to fight,' 'Don't give up the ship,' 'We have met the enemy and they are ours,' 'Damn the torpedoes, go ahead,' 'You may fire when you are ready. Gridley' — expressions that will live in the minds of men forever."
Then, the little book goes on to tell of the fascinations of a navy life other than those of the spectacular and patriotic side, such as the boxing and fencing bouts for fleet and division championships, the football, baseball and rowing championships, the minstrel shows, the band concerts, &c., recreations that have become a part of the life on board every American warship.
After the fascinations comes the chapter on the hardships of a bluejacket's life. Here is the way the Navy Department talks about the hardships that come, into a life in the navy:
The Navy Department does not wish to misrepresent the life of a man-o'-warsman. He must endure hardships, the same as any other human being, although it is believed that his hardships are fewer than those of the landsman.
The man who goes to sea is separated from his family, which is not entirely agreeable. He is confined to small quarters, though he has more room than he who dwells in a city apartment. He is subject to military discipline, which is a fine thing for every boy, though many of them dislike it. He can't quit his job when he gets tired of it or when he is angry with his "boss." He has got to stick to his job until the end of his enlistment, unless he purchases his discharge. It may be unpleasant at times, but it teaches a boy "stick-to-it-iveness," a thing for which he will be thankful in later years. Sometimes he must "stand watch" at night. This may prove irksome, but he is allowed to regain his lost sleep the next day. There is homesickness, which is a painful experience, but the necessity of enduring it will make a man of him, and teach him to brace himself for hard knocks later in life. As to seasickness, well, many millionaires frequently pay large sums on ocean greyhounds for that experience, and most bluejackets must endure it at first, but they soon get their "sea legs."
Good Food an Argument.
Then comes the story of the fine meals the navy serves to its men on board its ships, with sample menus from some of the battleships, and then much about the splendid training schools now maintained for the instruction of bluejackets in electrical work, in mechanics and other useful occupations that will be of great benefit in civil life when the period of enlistment expires.
Another interesting bit of information refers to the financial benefits of a life in the navy. On this point the book points out:
Regarding financial benefits, we will suppose, for example, that a man enlisting at the age of 18 years reaches the rank of petty officer by the end of his first enlistment (four years,) and chief petty officer at the end of his second enlistment (four years more.) Any man can do this if he is willing to work. If he saves half his pay during thirty years, from the age of 18 to the ase of 48, and invests it in the Navy Savings Bank at 4 per cent. interest, and re-enlists immediately on the expiration of each enlistment those thirty years, at the end of that time he will have in cash $27,486, and may retire on three-fourths of his pay, which will be about $105 a month, or $1,260 a year. Thus he will have $27,486 in cash, which he can, invest at 4% per cent., which will bring him in over $1,236 a year. Add this to his retirement pay and you will readily see that he would have $2,406 per year income from the early age of 48 for the balance of his life.
The percentage of men who are able to accumulate an income of $2,000 a year after thirty years' employment is not large, as every one knows. Nor do very many bluejackets save half their pay during their entire career, for they are proverbially generous and open-hearted; but it is possible for them to do so. This statement shows what can be done if the bluejacket is reasonably frugal.
This story only briefly recites some of the interesting information that the Publicity Bureau in Twenty-third Street is sending out to the youths of the country. Any boy or young man who wishes to find out more about the service afloat has only to write to Commander Day at 153 West Twenty-third Street, and the information desired will be promptly forthcoming.
To Offer Air Cruiser.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Germany Not Being Encouraging, Inventor Is Going to England.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
PARIS. Dec. 28.— Further interesting details of the aerial cruiser which is intended to carry passengers across the Atlantic, as cabled to The New York Times, and which is about to be built by a German firm, have been brought to The New York Times correspondent's notice by the inventor himself, A. Boerner, a Brussels engineer.
M. Boerner, to whom any aid, except vague moral support, has been refused by the German War Office, is going to England to offer the airship to British capital.
"As in the case of the Zeppelin balloon," he told the correspondent, "the German War Office wants us to go to all the expense, promising to buy the completed airships from us just as it buys from the Zeppelin makers at present.
"But in the case of the aerial cruiser, matters are somewhat different. When it is considered that the latter can develop a speed of thirty-five yards a second, that its radius of action extends 3,000 miles, and that it can carry about forty tons of ammunition, it is easily seen that it is of supreme importance in warfare.
"Having, however, met only with all sorts of evasive replies from the German Government, we have decided to go to England, where two important groups of financiers are already keenly interested in the aerial cruiser.
"I am going in a few days to London. To me there is no doubt that if the English Government adopts the airship it will make its coast defenses absolutely impregnable, while, with a sufficient number of airships, a transatlantic passenger service can be brought to a point where it would net more than $2,500,000 clear profit.
"Once more Germany proves herself backward when it comes to big developments in aerial flight. Whether any Government comes to our assistance or not, however, air travel across oceans is assured, and the construction of the first giant hangar for aerial cruisers will be started in the very near future,"
Germany Not Being Encouraging, Inventor Is Going to England.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
PARIS. Dec. 28.— Further interesting details of the aerial cruiser which is intended to carry passengers across the Atlantic, as cabled to The New York Times, and which is about to be built by a German firm, have been brought to The New York Times correspondent's notice by the inventor himself, A. Boerner, a Brussels engineer.
M. Boerner, to whom any aid, except vague moral support, has been refused by the German War Office, is going to England to offer the airship to British capital.
"As in the case of the Zeppelin balloon," he told the correspondent, "the German War Office wants us to go to all the expense, promising to buy the completed airships from us just as it buys from the Zeppelin makers at present.
"But in the case of the aerial cruiser, matters are somewhat different. When it is considered that the latter can develop a speed of thirty-five yards a second, that its radius of action extends 3,000 miles, and that it can carry about forty tons of ammunition, it is easily seen that it is of supreme importance in warfare.
"Having, however, met only with all sorts of evasive replies from the German Government, we have decided to go to England, where two important groups of financiers are already keenly interested in the aerial cruiser.
"I am going in a few days to London. To me there is no doubt that if the English Government adopts the airship it will make its coast defenses absolutely impregnable, while, with a sufficient number of airships, a transatlantic passenger service can be brought to a point where it would net more than $2,500,000 clear profit.
"Once more Germany proves herself backward when it comes to big developments in aerial flight. Whether any Government comes to our assistance or not, however, air travel across oceans is assured, and the construction of the first giant hangar for aerial cruisers will be started in the very near future,"
Mediation By Us Favored By Italy.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Rome's Opinion Is That London Peace Conference Will Find Claims Irreconcilable.
DEADLOCK IS EXPECTED
Ambassador O'Brien Suggested as a Diplomat Fitted to Help the Cause of Friendly Intervention.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
ROME, Dec. 28.— While the social and domestic world, if one may so call it, is engrossed in celebrating Christmas and New Year, the political world, and Italian opinion in general, is engrossed in following the conferences which are taking place in London, the decisions of which will be of such immense importance to the Italian nation, and in trying to sift out the innumerable suggestions that have been put forward for the settlement of the many thorny questions which must be decided if the Balkans and Europe in general are to have a feeling of security and peace.
It is a very general idea that what is wanted is to find some person or some nation that is in a position to offer sincere and disinterested advice to both sides and make them understand what it is possible for them to hope to obtain and what they must make up their minds to resign to others, to find, if possible, "an honest broker," as Bismarck was fond of calling himself, who would be a link between the two contending parties, and could mediate between the seemingly irreconcilable tendencies and desires.
Many persons have suggested that the only nation that can undertake such a delicate enterprise and could convince both parties that its advice is entirely disinterested is America, and that Ambassador Thomas J. O'Brien, who is said to have had considerable personal, if not official, influence in bringing about an acceleration of the peace between Italy and Turkey, and whose tact and well-balanced judgment have won him golden opinions in the highest circles since his coming here, would be eminently fit for such an undertaking.
Pretenders to a possible throne of an autonomous Albania are not wanting. Collateral descendants and even less closely related offshoots of that Albanian hero, Castriota Scanderbeg, are to be heard from. The Turkish Prince Fuad, who is now staying in Rome and has received a military education in the Italian military college at Turin, is a great favorite with some, especially because while his Turkish blood and appearance would condemn him to the Mussulman population of Albania, his European education, tastes, and adaptable disposition make him a favorite candidate in some Italian circles. In other circles Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who has received a military training and is a member of the Russian army, is thought to be one who would be more independent and more acceptable to the majority of the powers interested in the question, while his military bearing and the great name he bears would commend themselves to a martial and war-loving race he might be called upon to rule over.
The Pope is said to have been painfully impressed by the terrible tales which have been brought by the many fugitives who have poured into Italy from the lands which the recent war has reduced to ruin, and which will need many years to bring back to a state of even relative prosperity.
On several recent occasions, notably at a reception at which all the members of the Sacred College offered him congratulations on the occasion of Christmas, the Pope expressed himself strongly concerning the anxiety which he felt when the great issues of peace or war hung in the balance. He stated his conviction that it was the imperative duty of all Christians to be as fervent in prayer as he himself was, that the counsellors, gathered together in the English metropolis, might be guided and led to a just and lasting solution of the problems before them.
Rome's Opinion Is That London Peace Conference Will Find Claims Irreconcilable.
DEADLOCK IS EXPECTED
Ambassador O'Brien Suggested as a Diplomat Fitted to Help the Cause of Friendly Intervention.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
ROME, Dec. 28.— While the social and domestic world, if one may so call it, is engrossed in celebrating Christmas and New Year, the political world, and Italian opinion in general, is engrossed in following the conferences which are taking place in London, the decisions of which will be of such immense importance to the Italian nation, and in trying to sift out the innumerable suggestions that have been put forward for the settlement of the many thorny questions which must be decided if the Balkans and Europe in general are to have a feeling of security and peace.
It is a very general idea that what is wanted is to find some person or some nation that is in a position to offer sincere and disinterested advice to both sides and make them understand what it is possible for them to hope to obtain and what they must make up their minds to resign to others, to find, if possible, "an honest broker," as Bismarck was fond of calling himself, who would be a link between the two contending parties, and could mediate between the seemingly irreconcilable tendencies and desires.
Many persons have suggested that the only nation that can undertake such a delicate enterprise and could convince both parties that its advice is entirely disinterested is America, and that Ambassador Thomas J. O'Brien, who is said to have had considerable personal, if not official, influence in bringing about an acceleration of the peace between Italy and Turkey, and whose tact and well-balanced judgment have won him golden opinions in the highest circles since his coming here, would be eminently fit for such an undertaking.
Pretenders to a possible throne of an autonomous Albania are not wanting. Collateral descendants and even less closely related offshoots of that Albanian hero, Castriota Scanderbeg, are to be heard from. The Turkish Prince Fuad, who is now staying in Rome and has received a military education in the Italian military college at Turin, is a great favorite with some, especially because while his Turkish blood and appearance would condemn him to the Mussulman population of Albania, his European education, tastes, and adaptable disposition make him a favorite candidate in some Italian circles. In other circles Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who has received a military training and is a member of the Russian army, is thought to be one who would be more independent and more acceptable to the majority of the powers interested in the question, while his military bearing and the great name he bears would commend themselves to a martial and war-loving race he might be called upon to rule over.
The Pope is said to have been painfully impressed by the terrible tales which have been brought by the many fugitives who have poured into Italy from the lands which the recent war has reduced to ruin, and which will need many years to bring back to a state of even relative prosperity.
On several recent occasions, notably at a reception at which all the members of the Sacred College offered him congratulations on the occasion of Christmas, the Pope expressed himself strongly concerning the anxiety which he felt when the great issues of peace or war hung in the balance. He stated his conviction that it was the imperative duty of all Christians to be as fervent in prayer as he himself was, that the counsellors, gathered together in the English metropolis, might be guided and led to a just and lasting solution of the problems before them.
Improves Radio-Telephone.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
French Inventor Believes He Is Close to an Important Discovery.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
PARIS, Dec. 28.— Important improvements in wireless telephony are foreshadowed by the experiments of Edouard Branly in his laboratory at the Catholic Institute here.
In an interview this week M. Branly says that he is at work on an investigation of the essential element of wireless telegraphy, the radio-conductor, especially as regards the action of shock. He has already proved that its effect is not produced by a new distribution of conducting grains in a tube of iron filings, as hitherto thought, and his most recent experiments, carried out with extreme care and in great variety, with special apparatus, have brought him to the conclusion that "the conductability of a radio-conductor is the conductability of a thin non-conducting body between two conductors."
In his experiments M. Branly has employed gutta-percha, collodion, mica, copal, resin, celluloid, &c., as non-conductors, and has used a tube of zincite filings, which has given remarkable results.
He finds, in fact, that the tube can be used as a direct telephonic receiver, even without a battery, and to obtain the maximum telephonic sonority the pressure on the filings necessary is quite different from that required for telegraphy.
Although M. Branly abstains at present from drawing too definite conclusions from his discoveries, it is generally believed here that he is on the eve of making wireless telephony absolutely practicable, and of far greater scope than hitherto.
French Inventor Believes He Is Close to an Important Discovery.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
PARIS, Dec. 28.— Important improvements in wireless telephony are foreshadowed by the experiments of Edouard Branly in his laboratory at the Catholic Institute here.
In an interview this week M. Branly says that he is at work on an investigation of the essential element of wireless telegraphy, the radio-conductor, especially as regards the action of shock. He has already proved that its effect is not produced by a new distribution of conducting grains in a tube of iron filings, as hitherto thought, and his most recent experiments, carried out with extreme care and in great variety, with special apparatus, have brought him to the conclusion that "the conductability of a radio-conductor is the conductability of a thin non-conducting body between two conductors."
In his experiments M. Branly has employed gutta-percha, collodion, mica, copal, resin, celluloid, &c., as non-conductors, and has used a tube of zincite filings, which has given remarkable results.
He finds, in fact, that the tube can be used as a direct telephonic receiver, even without a battery, and to obtain the maximum telephonic sonority the pressure on the filings necessary is quite different from that required for telegraphy.
Although M. Branly abstains at present from drawing too definite conclusions from his discoveries, it is generally believed here that he is on the eve of making wireless telephony absolutely practicable, and of far greater scope than hitherto.
Hotheads Active In Berlin.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Recall Ancient Prophecy, but the Kaiser Is Strongly for Peace.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Dec. 28.— Germany's holiday season has been somewhat marred by more predictions that Europe will be plunged into a great war within six months.
Military and naval men are foremost in propagating this gloomy view, and some of the hotheads even go so far as to fix the date of hostilities for April at the latest. Others say that it will be postponed until Summer, asserting that the Kaiser has given his militant Austrian ally, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to understand that Germany will under no circumstances go to war until after the celebration of Emperor William's silver jubilee on June 15.
When the members of the war party are asked why war is inevitable, they say that it will come as the irresistible climax of the period of strain under which Europe has lived for the last five years. Russian and Austrian antagonisms, they explain, will be the immediate cause, while the underlying motive will be the long-time feud between Slavism and Germanism, which, it is argued, must be fought out sooner or later, and may as well be settled now.
Others assert that war must come in order to decide the burning question of German or British supremacy in Europe. Still another theory, which is being advanced, is that Austria-Hungary, having gone to such enormous expense to place her military establishment on a war footing, now requires a war which shall bring in some sort of return for her great financial sacrifices.
Many are inspired by a prophecy dating back to 1849. In that year Emperor William I., then the young Crown Prince of Prussia, visited St. Petersburg. For his entertainment an old Russian soothsayer read his future. He was told that three of the most important events in German history would take place, respectively, in 1871, 1888, and 1913. In 1871 Germany defeated France and became an empire. The year 1880 was the three Kaisers' year, when the old Emperor died, only to be followed to the grave 100 days later by his son, Emperor Frederick. In 1913, the soothsayer said, Germany would be embroiled in a tremendous European war.
As the predictions of 1871 and 1888 came true, a good many Germans, especially the less evenly balanced, believe that 1913 is to bear out the prophet's forecast.
The fact cannot be too strongly emphasized, however, that the Kaiser himself is standing firm for the preservation of peace. His popularity with the army and navy, indeed, if one were to believe the irresponsible chatter heard nowadays among the younger officers in the drawing rooms and at the dinner tables of the season, has been considerably lessened by his insistence upon the defensive character of Germany's military and naval establishment.
It is also pointed out that, although the supreme War Lord is exercising very great influence in the direction of peace, the army and navy are in a state of preparedness, such as they have never before attained. There is not the slightest doubt that they are ready at a moment's notice to strike a terrible blow in whatever direction their services may be required.
The fighting spirit of officers and men was never more on edge. The alarm, engendered by the Balkan war, has caused a thorough overhauling of the German war machine.
The war menace resulted in very serious reduction of Christmas trade in many branches of business. Establishments which depend on the custom of the wealthy classes have done a business this December hardly one-third of what they did a year ago. The great department stores admit that their trade has been almost cut in two, when compared with that of previous Yuletides. Everybody, rich and poor, seems to have hoarded money this Christmas instead of spending it.
One of the pathetic effects of the pessimism in Berlin was the enormous quantity of unsold Christmas trees, left in the hands of the poor folk, who usually reap a harvest from their sale. Ordinarily, the stocks are depleted by Christmas Eve. This week trees, costing 50, 75 cents, or $1, went begging at 2 or 3 cents apiece.
Recall Ancient Prophecy, but the Kaiser Is Strongly for Peace.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Dec. 28.— Germany's holiday season has been somewhat marred by more predictions that Europe will be plunged into a great war within six months.
Military and naval men are foremost in propagating this gloomy view, and some of the hotheads even go so far as to fix the date of hostilities for April at the latest. Others say that it will be postponed until Summer, asserting that the Kaiser has given his militant Austrian ally, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to understand that Germany will under no circumstances go to war until after the celebration of Emperor William's silver jubilee on June 15.
When the members of the war party are asked why war is inevitable, they say that it will come as the irresistible climax of the period of strain under which Europe has lived for the last five years. Russian and Austrian antagonisms, they explain, will be the immediate cause, while the underlying motive will be the long-time feud between Slavism and Germanism, which, it is argued, must be fought out sooner or later, and may as well be settled now.
Others assert that war must come in order to decide the burning question of German or British supremacy in Europe. Still another theory, which is being advanced, is that Austria-Hungary, having gone to such enormous expense to place her military establishment on a war footing, now requires a war which shall bring in some sort of return for her great financial sacrifices.
Many are inspired by a prophecy dating back to 1849. In that year Emperor William I., then the young Crown Prince of Prussia, visited St. Petersburg. For his entertainment an old Russian soothsayer read his future. He was told that three of the most important events in German history would take place, respectively, in 1871, 1888, and 1913. In 1871 Germany defeated France and became an empire. The year 1880 was the three Kaisers' year, when the old Emperor died, only to be followed to the grave 100 days later by his son, Emperor Frederick. In 1913, the soothsayer said, Germany would be embroiled in a tremendous European war.
As the predictions of 1871 and 1888 came true, a good many Germans, especially the less evenly balanced, believe that 1913 is to bear out the prophet's forecast.
The fact cannot be too strongly emphasized, however, that the Kaiser himself is standing firm for the preservation of peace. His popularity with the army and navy, indeed, if one were to believe the irresponsible chatter heard nowadays among the younger officers in the drawing rooms and at the dinner tables of the season, has been considerably lessened by his insistence upon the defensive character of Germany's military and naval establishment.
It is also pointed out that, although the supreme War Lord is exercising very great influence in the direction of peace, the army and navy are in a state of preparedness, such as they have never before attained. There is not the slightest doubt that they are ready at a moment's notice to strike a terrible blow in whatever direction their services may be required.
The fighting spirit of officers and men was never more on edge. The alarm, engendered by the Balkan war, has caused a thorough overhauling of the German war machine.
The war menace resulted in very serious reduction of Christmas trade in many branches of business. Establishments which depend on the custom of the wealthy classes have done a business this December hardly one-third of what they did a year ago. The great department stores admit that their trade has been almost cut in two, when compared with that of previous Yuletides. Everybody, rich and poor, seems to have hoarded money this Christmas instead of spending it.
One of the pathetic effects of the pessimism in Berlin was the enormous quantity of unsold Christmas trees, left in the hands of the poor folk, who usually reap a harvest from their sale. Ordinarily, the stocks are depleted by Christmas Eve. This week trees, costing 50, 75 cents, or $1, went begging at 2 or 3 cents apiece.
The Dream Of Ferdinand.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Apparently "young men see visions" when they belong to the House of Hapsburg, and the vision of the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Francis Joseph, as reported from Paris, is a splendid one. Whether it be correctly reported may be doubted, but its main features correspond to what is known of the Archducal views. His sympathies, as is apt to be the case with heirs apparent, are with the Opposition. He can hardly contemplate a coup d'état in Austria, because that would needlessly imperil his as yet uncrowned head, and because he cannot have very long to wait in order to ascend the throne and test the practicability of such plans as he may have formed.
His chief reported purpose is the "liberation" of the discontented and ill-assorted peoples who form the monarchy. That will be no easy task. The Austrian Parliament, with which he would have first to deal, is at present composed of some fifteen different parties, whose members speak seven or eight different languages. The Germans, to whom his House is most intimately allied, are but little over 10,-000,000 strong and form less than a fourth of the population of the empire. The various branches of the Slav race number some 20,000,000, and are about 40 per cent. of that population. They are of very diverse character, tendencies, and capacities. They are scattered in a ring on the outskirts of the empire, surrounding the relatively homogeneous people of Hungary, with its core of energetic and determined Magyars. That autonomous kingdoms could be created from the various branches of the Slav races is extremely improbable.
The story runs that the Archduke recognizes this fact and seeks to meet it by forming a confederation, of which the members would include the Balkan States, and especially Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro. Here the difficulties would obviously be very great, but there is in the plan the germ of an idea that might prove fruitful. If it were possible to frame a Federal Government that should embrace the whole Balkan peninsula, including Rumania, and if the basis of the federation should be made the common interest of all the peoples in industrial development and in freedom and growth of commerce, the result would be permanently beneficial. It is true that such a change would be resisted by the Germans in the northwest and by the Magyars in the centre of the empire, who would sink their own rivalries as against the evolution of races they dislike, generally despise, and have always ill-treated. But it is not impossible that the leaders of these vigorous peoples might come to see the great advantages likely to accrue to all from a combination on such a peaceful basis. One obstacle to such a union would be the long-cherished ambition of Russia to assume the headship of all the Slav races and, if possible, ultimately to assimilate them. But recent events have made the attainment of this desire substantially hopeless. The Balkan States have shown their readiness and their capacity to act independently. They have placed in the field armies of surprising strength and fighting power, and have won a series of victories that has amazed all Europe. They now manifest some disposition to settle in joint conference with the great Powers some points in international relations. They show none whatever to sink their independence or to fuse themselves with Russia. Given these national entities, developed and strengthened by common efforts and sacrifices that have been crowned with success, the whole future of the Near East may well be changed. It really is no longer a question of which of the great Powers shall extend its sway in that region. It is a question of what can be done in co-operation with the newly emerged Balkan States for the common advantage of Europe.
In this situation the idea of wider federation, such as seems to have come to the Austrian heir apparent, may prove to be fruitful. If it should result in a league of peace, freedom of exchange, and mutual aid, it certainly would prove so. There is much reason to think that the old system of plotting and grabbing has come to an end. From the situation of helplessness to enforce the old system may arise a a new system, nobler and more fecund.
Apparently "young men see visions" when they belong to the House of Hapsburg, and the vision of the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Francis Joseph, as reported from Paris, is a splendid one. Whether it be correctly reported may be doubted, but its main features correspond to what is known of the Archducal views. His sympathies, as is apt to be the case with heirs apparent, are with the Opposition. He can hardly contemplate a coup d'état in Austria, because that would needlessly imperil his as yet uncrowned head, and because he cannot have very long to wait in order to ascend the throne and test the practicability of such plans as he may have formed.
His chief reported purpose is the "liberation" of the discontented and ill-assorted peoples who form the monarchy. That will be no easy task. The Austrian Parliament, with which he would have first to deal, is at present composed of some fifteen different parties, whose members speak seven or eight different languages. The Germans, to whom his House is most intimately allied, are but little over 10,-000,000 strong and form less than a fourth of the population of the empire. The various branches of the Slav race number some 20,000,000, and are about 40 per cent. of that population. They are of very diverse character, tendencies, and capacities. They are scattered in a ring on the outskirts of the empire, surrounding the relatively homogeneous people of Hungary, with its core of energetic and determined Magyars. That autonomous kingdoms could be created from the various branches of the Slav races is extremely improbable.
The story runs that the Archduke recognizes this fact and seeks to meet it by forming a confederation, of which the members would include the Balkan States, and especially Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro. Here the difficulties would obviously be very great, but there is in the plan the germ of an idea that might prove fruitful. If it were possible to frame a Federal Government that should embrace the whole Balkan peninsula, including Rumania, and if the basis of the federation should be made the common interest of all the peoples in industrial development and in freedom and growth of commerce, the result would be permanently beneficial. It is true that such a change would be resisted by the Germans in the northwest and by the Magyars in the centre of the empire, who would sink their own rivalries as against the evolution of races they dislike, generally despise, and have always ill-treated. But it is not impossible that the leaders of these vigorous peoples might come to see the great advantages likely to accrue to all from a combination on such a peaceful basis. One obstacle to such a union would be the long-cherished ambition of Russia to assume the headship of all the Slav races and, if possible, ultimately to assimilate them. But recent events have made the attainment of this desire substantially hopeless. The Balkan States have shown their readiness and their capacity to act independently. They have placed in the field armies of surprising strength and fighting power, and have won a series of victories that has amazed all Europe. They now manifest some disposition to settle in joint conference with the great Powers some points in international relations. They show none whatever to sink their independence or to fuse themselves with Russia. Given these national entities, developed and strengthened by common efforts and sacrifices that have been crowned with success, the whole future of the Near East may well be changed. It really is no longer a question of which of the great Powers shall extend its sway in that region. It is a question of what can be done in co-operation with the newly emerged Balkan States for the common advantage of Europe.
In this situation the idea of wider federation, such as seems to have come to the Austrian heir apparent, may prove to be fruitful. If it should result in a league of peace, freedom of exchange, and mutual aid, it certainly would prove so. There is much reason to think that the old system of plotting and grabbing has come to an end. From the situation of helplessness to enforce the old system may arise a a new system, nobler and more fecund.
'Atlantean' Relics Fascinate Kaiser.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
He Sees the Mysterious Objects Brought from Africa by Dr. Frobenius.
"NEVER MADE BY NEGROES"
Emperor's Remark on Viewing Terra Cottas — Dr. Frobenius Likely to Continue Exploration Work.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Dec. 28.— Dr. Leo Frobenius, chief of the German Central African Exploration expedition, who asserts that he has located the exact site of the lost Atlantis, expounded his views and the results of his travels before the Kaiser this week at a soirée at the home of the Colonial Secretary, Dr. Solf. The Kaiser himself is a keen archaeologist, his fondness for the subject being one of the thing's responsible for his close friendship with Allison V. Armour, who puts in a good deal of his time cruising in ancient waters on board his private yacht, the Utowana, in search of archaeological booty.
The Kaiser is much interested in the trophies that Frobenius obtained in support of his Atlantis views, particularly the collection of terra cottas.
"One sees that these were never made by negroes." was his Majesty's terse comment.
The Emperor also thought the terra cottas were portraits, as every head is different.
Dr. Frobenius exhibited the photograph of a Byzantine imperial castle which he had discovered in the heart of Africa. He explained that most of his exploration had taken place on British soil, but he had ran across the ruins of a Persian city on German territory.
This statement evoked a spontaneous outburst from the Kaiser to the effect that everything must be done to enable a thorough excavation of the ruins. Dr. Frobenius, therefore, will probably soon return to Africa with imperial backing.
He Sees the Mysterious Objects Brought from Africa by Dr. Frobenius.
"NEVER MADE BY NEGROES"
Emperor's Remark on Viewing Terra Cottas — Dr. Frobenius Likely to Continue Exploration Work.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
BERLIN, Dec. 28.— Dr. Leo Frobenius, chief of the German Central African Exploration expedition, who asserts that he has located the exact site of the lost Atlantis, expounded his views and the results of his travels before the Kaiser this week at a soirée at the home of the Colonial Secretary, Dr. Solf. The Kaiser himself is a keen archaeologist, his fondness for the subject being one of the thing's responsible for his close friendship with Allison V. Armour, who puts in a good deal of his time cruising in ancient waters on board his private yacht, the Utowana, in search of archaeological booty.
The Kaiser is much interested in the trophies that Frobenius obtained in support of his Atlantis views, particularly the collection of terra cottas.
"One sees that these were never made by negroes." was his Majesty's terse comment.
The Emperor also thought the terra cottas were portraits, as every head is different.
Dr. Frobenius exhibited the photograph of a Byzantine imperial castle which he had discovered in the heart of Africa. He explained that most of his exploration had taken place on British soil, but he had ran across the ruins of a Persian city on German territory.
This statement evoked a spontaneous outburst from the Kaiser to the effect that everything must be done to enable a thorough excavation of the ruins. Dr. Frobenius, therefore, will probably soon return to Africa with imperial backing.
Allies Enraged By Turks' Reply.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Reading of the Porte's Peace Proposals Evokes Cries of Amazement and Anger.
BALKANS' TERMS IGNORED
"Preposterous!" Cries the Bulgarian Leader — Montenegrin Envoy Wants to Resume War.
RECHAD PASHA ALONE CALM
He Promises to Inform the Sultan of the Allies' Firm Position — Conference Adjourns to Monday.
LONDON, Dec. 28.— Indignation mingled with astonishment among the allies' delegates to the Balkan peace conference to-day when Rechad Pasha, head of the Turkish representatives, read the reply of the Constantinople Government to the demands of the allies in regard to territorial settlement. It was expected that the counter proposal of the Porte would be unacceptable, but none of the delegates of the other nations was prepared for the unyielding attitude shown in the Turkish reply.
Turkey's maximum demands are regarded as impossible, and when adjournment was taken to Monday it was evident that the Turks must lower their demands very much or consent to negotiate on a basis of the terms proposed by the allies. If they try to stand by their guns or resort to strategy the allies may break off the negotiations. It is thought not improbable that Turkey desires this, with the hope of intervention by the powers which would lead to a European conference or mediation. The plenipotentiaries could then say to the Mussulman world that they yielded to the pressure of all Europe. The allies do not object to mediation, if it is understood that the mediators must respect the territorial acquisitions resulting from the war.
The terms embodied in the Turkish reply are as follows:
First— The Province of Adrianople to remain under the direct administration of Turkey.
Second— Macedonia to be converted into a principality with Salonika as its capital. The principality to be under the suzerainty or the Sultan of Turkey, but governed by a Prince, chosen by the Balkan allies and nominated by the Sultan of Turkey. This Prince to be a Protestant and from a neutral State.
Third— Albania to be autonomous under the sovereignty of the Sultan and governed by a Prince of the imperial Ottoman family, who is to be chosen for a term of five years with the possibility of a renewal of his appointment.
Fourth— All the islands in the Aegean Sea to remain Turkish.
Fifth— The Cretan question not to be one for the decision of the conference, as it is a matter between Turkey and the great European powers.
It was Turkey's turn to-day to furnish the presiding officer, and Rechad Pasha took the chair, promptly unfolding a document containing the proposals of his Government, which he presented to the conference.
Even while he was reading the propositions the Balkan delegates could not refrain from manifesting their amazement by means of gestures and expressive exclamations.
"These terms do not form even the basis for negotiations," was the general sentiment of the envoys, after the Turkish delegate had had finished reading.
"Why did we fight, then?" "What is the return for our victories?" "Doesn't the blood shed by 100,000 glorious victims deserve some other reward?" "It is a mockery and not a serious conference!" were some of the sharp ejaculations which crossed the mediaeval picture gallery in St. James's Palace.
The chief of the Turkish delegation, as Chairman, could hardly control the excitement. The first speaker was the Greek Premier, M. Venizelos. The Turkish conditions were so astounding, he said, that he could scarcely believe that they were meant seriously.
Rechad Pasha replied, defending the claims of his Government. He expressed the opinion that the work of the delegates would be smoother and the mutual relations better if the press did not chronicle all the details of the conference.
Dr. Daneff, head of the Bulgarian envoys, said that all hopes of concealing the proceedings from the press being lost, he proposed to have a special tribune for the newspaper men in the hall of St. James's. He dilated on the impossibility of dealing with the Turkish demands.
Rechad Pasha interrupted and asked why.
Dr. Daneff answered that he would not even enter into the merits of the question, the Ottoman claims being preposterous.
M. Miyuskovitch, the Montenegrin delegate, remarked that Turkey had not even respected the decision of the powers. It had been agreed by the Ambassadors' conference that Albania should be autonomous under the suzerainty of the Sultan, while Turkey demanded the sovereignty of the Sultan, with a ruling Prince from the Sultan's family.
Stojan Novakovitch, the leading Servian envoy, indignantly refused even to consider the Turkish "dreams," which appeared tragic when he recalled the hosts of brave soldiers who had fallen on both sides.
M. Madjaroff, Bulgarian Minister at London, said the whole procedure was wrong. He pointed out that as the allies had presented terms. Turkey should have offered real counter-proposals, that is, real changes, alterations, or refusals, and should not have ignored them to present a totally different scheme.
M. Skouloudis, a Greek delegate, said that for the vanquished to dictate terms to the conquerors and expect to retain territories lost by warfare was absolutely unprecedented.
Premier Venizelos asked, for the sake of historic curiosity, that copies of the document which Rechad Pasha had read be given to the delegates. The sitting was suspended while the Secretaries made copies, the Balkan representatives gathering in one room and the Turks in another.
"When the sitting was resumed Rechad expounded the main argument of Turkey in support of her claims. He said that the powers, since the beginning of the troubles with the Balkan States, had declared that in case of a conflict nobody would gain from it, whatever the result, the powers being determined to maintain the status quo.
Dr. Daneff retorted:
"But you forget that after the war all the Premiers of the powers recognized that the status quo was ended and that it was impossible to continue a policy based on its maintenance."
Rechad Pasha made further efforts to induce the allies to state what they objected to in his propositions, but was unsuccessful, all repeating that it was impossible to take them as a point of departure, as they seemed to have been drafted by a person unacquainted with the events of the last three months.
M. Venizelos pointed out that Turkey had refused to apply to Macedonia the reforms proposed by Count von Berchthold, which it is ready to grant, now that Macedonia is entirely in the hands of the allies.
M. Novakovitch asked the Turks to say openly whether their proposals represented their last word.
Rechad Pasha was evidently disconcerted by this point-blank question. He eluded a direct answer, saying that his instructions did not authorize a reply either way.
M. Venizelos wished to add an interpretation of the desire of the allies. He declared that they would never accept a discussion of reforms, especially concerning Macedonia, especially at this stage, when it was not a question of reforms but a question of ceding territories won by force of arms, and thus rightly belonging to the victors.
Rechad Pasha, in view of the turn taken by the discussion, said that he would transmit to Constantinople the observations made by the allies, in the hope that he would receive the reply of his Government by Monday, to which date the conference adjourned.
The informal conversation between the delegates which followed the formal session was even more animated in character.
Rechad Pasha was the only calm personage present. With his right hand in his trousers pocket and his left hand caressing his beard as if hiding a smile, he stood there quietly without uttering a word.
Dr. Daneff, the Bulgarian leader, was greatly excited. Shaking his arms in the air, he exclaimed:
"For whom, then, have we fought?"
He went on making similar utterances in the same tone of voice. His face was congested, and he was compelled to put up his hand to his eyes at every moment in order to save his eyeglasses, which threatened to fall owing to the violence of his emotion.
Lazar Miyuskovitch, the Montenegrin delegate, shouted with a firm voice:
"I am going to pack and to return and resume my place at the front."
Stojan Novakovitch, the "Servian Bismarck," said dryly:
"The Turks have not yet learned that honesty is the best policy."
Premier Venizelos was also indignant, but was able to control himself. He thought the situation a deplorable one, and exclaimed: "What is the use of staying here?" The members of the Greek delegation were the first to leave the palace.
One of the Bulgarian delegates, speaking to the Turks. said:
"You must remember that the allied troops are still at the Tchatalja lines. Unless you are willing to negotiate on the basis of the dismemberment of European Turkey, any discussion will be futile."
Dr. Daneff, when in a calmer mood, said he was now more hopeful of a successful issue of the negotiations, as the delegates had at last really got down to something like business.
Reading of the Porte's Peace Proposals Evokes Cries of Amazement and Anger.
BALKANS' TERMS IGNORED
"Preposterous!" Cries the Bulgarian Leader — Montenegrin Envoy Wants to Resume War.
RECHAD PASHA ALONE CALM
He Promises to Inform the Sultan of the Allies' Firm Position — Conference Adjourns to Monday.
LONDON, Dec. 28.— Indignation mingled with astonishment among the allies' delegates to the Balkan peace conference to-day when Rechad Pasha, head of the Turkish representatives, read the reply of the Constantinople Government to the demands of the allies in regard to territorial settlement. It was expected that the counter proposal of the Porte would be unacceptable, but none of the delegates of the other nations was prepared for the unyielding attitude shown in the Turkish reply.
Turkey's maximum demands are regarded as impossible, and when adjournment was taken to Monday it was evident that the Turks must lower their demands very much or consent to negotiate on a basis of the terms proposed by the allies. If they try to stand by their guns or resort to strategy the allies may break off the negotiations. It is thought not improbable that Turkey desires this, with the hope of intervention by the powers which would lead to a European conference or mediation. The plenipotentiaries could then say to the Mussulman world that they yielded to the pressure of all Europe. The allies do not object to mediation, if it is understood that the mediators must respect the territorial acquisitions resulting from the war.
The terms embodied in the Turkish reply are as follows:
First— The Province of Adrianople to remain under the direct administration of Turkey.
Second— Macedonia to be converted into a principality with Salonika as its capital. The principality to be under the suzerainty or the Sultan of Turkey, but governed by a Prince, chosen by the Balkan allies and nominated by the Sultan of Turkey. This Prince to be a Protestant and from a neutral State.
Third— Albania to be autonomous under the sovereignty of the Sultan and governed by a Prince of the imperial Ottoman family, who is to be chosen for a term of five years with the possibility of a renewal of his appointment.
Fourth— All the islands in the Aegean Sea to remain Turkish.
Fifth— The Cretan question not to be one for the decision of the conference, as it is a matter between Turkey and the great European powers.
It was Turkey's turn to-day to furnish the presiding officer, and Rechad Pasha took the chair, promptly unfolding a document containing the proposals of his Government, which he presented to the conference.
Even while he was reading the propositions the Balkan delegates could not refrain from manifesting their amazement by means of gestures and expressive exclamations.
"These terms do not form even the basis for negotiations," was the general sentiment of the envoys, after the Turkish delegate had had finished reading.
"Why did we fight, then?" "What is the return for our victories?" "Doesn't the blood shed by 100,000 glorious victims deserve some other reward?" "It is a mockery and not a serious conference!" were some of the sharp ejaculations which crossed the mediaeval picture gallery in St. James's Palace.
The chief of the Turkish delegation, as Chairman, could hardly control the excitement. The first speaker was the Greek Premier, M. Venizelos. The Turkish conditions were so astounding, he said, that he could scarcely believe that they were meant seriously.
Rechad Pasha replied, defending the claims of his Government. He expressed the opinion that the work of the delegates would be smoother and the mutual relations better if the press did not chronicle all the details of the conference.
Dr. Daneff, head of the Bulgarian envoys, said that all hopes of concealing the proceedings from the press being lost, he proposed to have a special tribune for the newspaper men in the hall of St. James's. He dilated on the impossibility of dealing with the Turkish demands.
Rechad Pasha interrupted and asked why.
Dr. Daneff answered that he would not even enter into the merits of the question, the Ottoman claims being preposterous.
M. Miyuskovitch, the Montenegrin delegate, remarked that Turkey had not even respected the decision of the powers. It had been agreed by the Ambassadors' conference that Albania should be autonomous under the suzerainty of the Sultan, while Turkey demanded the sovereignty of the Sultan, with a ruling Prince from the Sultan's family.
Stojan Novakovitch, the leading Servian envoy, indignantly refused even to consider the Turkish "dreams," which appeared tragic when he recalled the hosts of brave soldiers who had fallen on both sides.
M. Madjaroff, Bulgarian Minister at London, said the whole procedure was wrong. He pointed out that as the allies had presented terms. Turkey should have offered real counter-proposals, that is, real changes, alterations, or refusals, and should not have ignored them to present a totally different scheme.
M. Skouloudis, a Greek delegate, said that for the vanquished to dictate terms to the conquerors and expect to retain territories lost by warfare was absolutely unprecedented.
Premier Venizelos asked, for the sake of historic curiosity, that copies of the document which Rechad Pasha had read be given to the delegates. The sitting was suspended while the Secretaries made copies, the Balkan representatives gathering in one room and the Turks in another.
"When the sitting was resumed Rechad expounded the main argument of Turkey in support of her claims. He said that the powers, since the beginning of the troubles with the Balkan States, had declared that in case of a conflict nobody would gain from it, whatever the result, the powers being determined to maintain the status quo.
Dr. Daneff retorted:
"But you forget that after the war all the Premiers of the powers recognized that the status quo was ended and that it was impossible to continue a policy based on its maintenance."
Rechad Pasha made further efforts to induce the allies to state what they objected to in his propositions, but was unsuccessful, all repeating that it was impossible to take them as a point of departure, as they seemed to have been drafted by a person unacquainted with the events of the last three months.
M. Venizelos pointed out that Turkey had refused to apply to Macedonia the reforms proposed by Count von Berchthold, which it is ready to grant, now that Macedonia is entirely in the hands of the allies.
M. Novakovitch asked the Turks to say openly whether their proposals represented their last word.
Rechad Pasha was evidently disconcerted by this point-blank question. He eluded a direct answer, saying that his instructions did not authorize a reply either way.
M. Venizelos wished to add an interpretation of the desire of the allies. He declared that they would never accept a discussion of reforms, especially concerning Macedonia, especially at this stage, when it was not a question of reforms but a question of ceding territories won by force of arms, and thus rightly belonging to the victors.
Rechad Pasha, in view of the turn taken by the discussion, said that he would transmit to Constantinople the observations made by the allies, in the hope that he would receive the reply of his Government by Monday, to which date the conference adjourned.
The informal conversation between the delegates which followed the formal session was even more animated in character.
Rechad Pasha was the only calm personage present. With his right hand in his trousers pocket and his left hand caressing his beard as if hiding a smile, he stood there quietly without uttering a word.
Dr. Daneff, the Bulgarian leader, was greatly excited. Shaking his arms in the air, he exclaimed:
"For whom, then, have we fought?"
He went on making similar utterances in the same tone of voice. His face was congested, and he was compelled to put up his hand to his eyes at every moment in order to save his eyeglasses, which threatened to fall owing to the violence of his emotion.
Lazar Miyuskovitch, the Montenegrin delegate, shouted with a firm voice:
"I am going to pack and to return and resume my place at the front."
Stojan Novakovitch, the "Servian Bismarck," said dryly:
"The Turks have not yet learned that honesty is the best policy."
Premier Venizelos was also indignant, but was able to control himself. He thought the situation a deplorable one, and exclaimed: "What is the use of staying here?" The members of the Greek delegation were the first to leave the palace.
One of the Bulgarian delegates, speaking to the Turks. said:
"You must remember that the allied troops are still at the Tchatalja lines. Unless you are willing to negotiate on the basis of the dismemberment of European Turkey, any discussion will be futile."
Dr. Daneff, when in a calmer mood, said he was now more hopeful of a successful issue of the negotiations, as the delegates had at last really got down to something like business.
'13' Superstition Clouds New Year.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 29, 1912:
Frederic Harrison. Turned Pessimist, Fears a Great European Conflict in 1913.
DREADS GERMAN AGGRESSION
And Urges the British Nation to Raise a $750,000,000 Loan to Strengthen Army and Navy.
BERLIN RECALLS PROPHECY
Russian Soothsayer Predicted Great Event in 1913, and the Hotheads Are Already Counting on War.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Dec. 28.— Frederic Harrison, the noted historian and philosopher, appears in the rôle of a pessimist in an article in the January number of The English Review. In his survey of the international outlook the "thirteen" superstition has apparently exercised some influence over the veteran Positivist, who says: "It is, of course, merely fanciful and no one can regard it seriously that 1913 should mark a great recasting of the European State system, just as 1813 marked the downfall of Napoleon's imperial ambition, and just as 1713, by the peace of Utrecht, marked the collapse of the ascendancy of Louis XIV. A new century, plus that ominous thirteen, seems to have something in it of fate."
Basing his forecast on the Balkan war, Mr. Harrison says that whatever may be the arrangements made at its close, they can be but temporary at best, and may only lay down the material for a struggle even more desperate and for changes even greater than those of this resettlement of international relations. He says:
"What 1912 seems to have effected is a vast aggrandisement of the Slavonic races in their secular struggle against the Teutonic races. Even a local and temporary triumph of Austria over Servia cannot cancel the fact that henceforth the way southeast to the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea is barred to Germany." With this result of the war nothing outside of Europe, he says, is now open to Germany, and he proceeds:
"But, alas! Europe is open and within touch, and even if occupied, offers magnificent fields for enterprise of all kinds. It is, therefore, inevitable that the mighty German Empire, swollen, perhaps, by the German part of Austria, will seek 'compensation' for its exclusion from places 'in the sun' within Europe itself. It has won compensations and accessions thrice before, in 1864, 1866, and 1870, and four or five times since by demanding fresh compensations it has brought Europe to the brink of war. We have to see what compensations it demands in 1913."
As to the lines of German expansion, Mr. Harrison argues that there is imminent risk to Belgium, Northern France, and Holland, either one or all of which may be the object of assault, or, in the case of the Low Countries, of practical control without actual war.
"We know," he remarks, "that a systematic preparation for this has long been made."
Dealing with the question of how Germany's attempt at expansion should be met, Mr. Harrison expresses the opinion that to say that the British Navy is adequate to keep open the worldwide routes in the face of the perpetual increase of the German and Austrian navies is an "ignorant, almost insane, delusion." Therefore Great Britain requires a navy at least 30 per cent. stronger than she possesses, and also needs a European army of at least 250,000 long-service men, and about twice that number of reserves and territorials.
Mr, Harrison adds that, impossible as it may seem, "I do deliberately advocate a new war loan of at least £150,000,000 to be spent freely at once, say £100,000,000 on the navy and £50,000,000 on the army."
Furthermore, Mr. Harrison advocates a policy of concentration.
"Let us draw in this empire," he says, "while there is yet time. Outlying provinces and conquests, however tempting, are no longer within our power to defend."
In connection with this he says that the Mediterranean is now a mere trap, and adds:
"The Mediterranean must be given up, stock and block, and with it, yes, even Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, and, of course, Egypt. For thirty years I have maintained that Egypt will be our death trap. It will be our grave if we seek to leave there 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000 good men, while we are fighting for our lives in Europe."
Mr. Harrison makes this explanation of his attitude:
"I am," he insists, "neither an alarmist nor faint of heart. I am an ardent lover of our fatherland and full of confidence in her sons' courage and strength. For forty years now I have foretold the German peril and have denounced the imperial adventures into which we have been misled, and I challenge my critics to show a point in which, in forty years, I have been false to our principles, or where my forecast has proved to be wrong."
Frederic Harrison. Turned Pessimist, Fears a Great European Conflict in 1913.
DREADS GERMAN AGGRESSION
And Urges the British Nation to Raise a $750,000,000 Loan to Strengthen Army and Navy.
BERLIN RECALLS PROPHECY
Russian Soothsayer Predicted Great Event in 1913, and the Hotheads Are Already Counting on War.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Dec. 28.— Frederic Harrison, the noted historian and philosopher, appears in the rôle of a pessimist in an article in the January number of The English Review. In his survey of the international outlook the "thirteen" superstition has apparently exercised some influence over the veteran Positivist, who says: "It is, of course, merely fanciful and no one can regard it seriously that 1913 should mark a great recasting of the European State system, just as 1813 marked the downfall of Napoleon's imperial ambition, and just as 1713, by the peace of Utrecht, marked the collapse of the ascendancy of Louis XIV. A new century, plus that ominous thirteen, seems to have something in it of fate."
Basing his forecast on the Balkan war, Mr. Harrison says that whatever may be the arrangements made at its close, they can be but temporary at best, and may only lay down the material for a struggle even more desperate and for changes even greater than those of this resettlement of international relations. He says:
"What 1912 seems to have effected is a vast aggrandisement of the Slavonic races in their secular struggle against the Teutonic races. Even a local and temporary triumph of Austria over Servia cannot cancel the fact that henceforth the way southeast to the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea is barred to Germany." With this result of the war nothing outside of Europe, he says, is now open to Germany, and he proceeds:
"But, alas! Europe is open and within touch, and even if occupied, offers magnificent fields for enterprise of all kinds. It is, therefore, inevitable that the mighty German Empire, swollen, perhaps, by the German part of Austria, will seek 'compensation' for its exclusion from places 'in the sun' within Europe itself. It has won compensations and accessions thrice before, in 1864, 1866, and 1870, and four or five times since by demanding fresh compensations it has brought Europe to the brink of war. We have to see what compensations it demands in 1913."
As to the lines of German expansion, Mr. Harrison argues that there is imminent risk to Belgium, Northern France, and Holland, either one or all of which may be the object of assault, or, in the case of the Low Countries, of practical control without actual war.
"We know," he remarks, "that a systematic preparation for this has long been made."
Dealing with the question of how Germany's attempt at expansion should be met, Mr. Harrison expresses the opinion that to say that the British Navy is adequate to keep open the worldwide routes in the face of the perpetual increase of the German and Austrian navies is an "ignorant, almost insane, delusion." Therefore Great Britain requires a navy at least 30 per cent. stronger than she possesses, and also needs a European army of at least 250,000 long-service men, and about twice that number of reserves and territorials.
Mr, Harrison adds that, impossible as it may seem, "I do deliberately advocate a new war loan of at least £150,000,000 to be spent freely at once, say £100,000,000 on the navy and £50,000,000 on the army."
Furthermore, Mr. Harrison advocates a policy of concentration.
"Let us draw in this empire," he says, "while there is yet time. Outlying provinces and conquests, however tempting, are no longer within our power to defend."
In connection with this he says that the Mediterranean is now a mere trap, and adds:
"The Mediterranean must be given up, stock and block, and with it, yes, even Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, and, of course, Egypt. For thirty years I have maintained that Egypt will be our death trap. It will be our grave if we seek to leave there 10,000, 20,000, or 30,000 good men, while we are fighting for our lives in Europe."
Mr. Harrison makes this explanation of his attitude:
"I am," he insists, "neither an alarmist nor faint of heart. I am an ardent lover of our fatherland and full of confidence in her sons' courage and strength. For forty years now I have foretold the German peril and have denounced the imperial adventures into which we have been misled, and I challenge my critics to show a point in which, in forty years, I have been false to our principles, or where my forecast has proved to be wrong."
Friday, December 28, 2012
Austrian Ambitions Alarm The Allies.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 28, 1912:
With Her Army Still on War Footing, the Dual Monarchy Presses for Adriatic Base.
ITALY OPPOSES THE SCHEME
Bulgaria Reported to be Preparing to Renew War — Turks Will Reply to Allies' Demands To-day.
LONDON, Dec. 27.— On the eve of the reassembling of the Balkan Peace Conference, when Turkey is expected to answer the allies' territorial proposal with a counter proposal, equally unacceptable, interest has shifted again to the serious question of Austria's real purposes in the Near East.
That the dual monarchy is determined to carry out some ambitious plan is thought proved by the fact that she has not yet begun to demobilize the big army which she recently called to the colors. In diplomatic circles it is believed that at the resumption of the Ambassadorial conference Thursday Austria will urge the representatives of the powers to make the territory of autonomous Albania as large as possible, and include in it Prisrend, Djacova, and even Scutari.
Meanwhile Austria is tempting Montenegro by proposing, in exchange of Austria's support of the cession of Scutari to Montenegro, that Austria have possession of the mountains dominating Cattaro, which would thus become such an impregnable naval stronghold as to make the Vienna Government the master of the Adriatic Sea.
Italy, which is the power chiefly interested, opposes such a scheme as would give her rival the coveted supremacy on the sea, which was once regarded as a Venetian lake. Russia is equally anxious to stifle the Austrian project, which, if successful, would end forever the Muscovite ambition to obtain an outlet on the Adriatic.
Montenegro regards the scheme as fatal to her very existence. The loss of the mountains above Cattaro, besides depriving her of a strong weapon against Austria, would virtually put the country in Austrian hands, as from those mountains cannon could dominate Cettinje.
Austria's project is causing among the allies dissatisfaction with the Triple Entente, which is accused of acting against its own interests in failing to defend the Balkan States. Said a member of the Servian delegation:
"The Austrian declares that he desires no territorial aggrandizement, but through his mobilization he prevents a solution of the Balkan problem and imposes the formation of Albania into territories, which Austria will seize at the first opportunity. German policy will be definitely substituted in the Orient for the Balkanic Slav equilibrium, if the Triple Entente makes this last abdication before the Triple Alliance. The Balkan Slavs realize that not even a victorious war can gain for them conditions necessary to their political, moral, and economic development, and find that their safety lies in a close understanding with Austria.
"This would cause a great transformation in the status of the Orient, as Germany and Austria, freed from the nightmare of a great Servian State, would dominate the Balkans unopposed, having in their hands the markets and a route to India. If the Triple Entente desires this, they had better say so frankly."
Turkey's reply to the demands made by the Balkan allies will be delivered tomorrow to the peace conference in St. James's Palace. She will make large demands in turn, but it is well known that Turkey has no hope of obtaining what she will ask, and has no intention of resuming a war, which may result in further disaster to her.
Reports from Constantinople that the military officers had been ordered to the Tchatalja lines caused a ripple of excitement here to-day. The explanation given is that they were sent back because the soldiers were mutinous over the officers enjoying themselves in the capital, while they were enduring hardships in the trenches.
With Her Army Still on War Footing, the Dual Monarchy Presses for Adriatic Base.
ITALY OPPOSES THE SCHEME
Bulgaria Reported to be Preparing to Renew War — Turks Will Reply to Allies' Demands To-day.
LONDON, Dec. 27.— On the eve of the reassembling of the Balkan Peace Conference, when Turkey is expected to answer the allies' territorial proposal with a counter proposal, equally unacceptable, interest has shifted again to the serious question of Austria's real purposes in the Near East.
That the dual monarchy is determined to carry out some ambitious plan is thought proved by the fact that she has not yet begun to demobilize the big army which she recently called to the colors. In diplomatic circles it is believed that at the resumption of the Ambassadorial conference Thursday Austria will urge the representatives of the powers to make the territory of autonomous Albania as large as possible, and include in it Prisrend, Djacova, and even Scutari.
Meanwhile Austria is tempting Montenegro by proposing, in exchange of Austria's support of the cession of Scutari to Montenegro, that Austria have possession of the mountains dominating Cattaro, which would thus become such an impregnable naval stronghold as to make the Vienna Government the master of the Adriatic Sea.
Italy, which is the power chiefly interested, opposes such a scheme as would give her rival the coveted supremacy on the sea, which was once regarded as a Venetian lake. Russia is equally anxious to stifle the Austrian project, which, if successful, would end forever the Muscovite ambition to obtain an outlet on the Adriatic.
Montenegro regards the scheme as fatal to her very existence. The loss of the mountains above Cattaro, besides depriving her of a strong weapon against Austria, would virtually put the country in Austrian hands, as from those mountains cannon could dominate Cettinje.
Austria's project is causing among the allies dissatisfaction with the Triple Entente, which is accused of acting against its own interests in failing to defend the Balkan States. Said a member of the Servian delegation:
"The Austrian declares that he desires no territorial aggrandizement, but through his mobilization he prevents a solution of the Balkan problem and imposes the formation of Albania into territories, which Austria will seize at the first opportunity. German policy will be definitely substituted in the Orient for the Balkanic Slav equilibrium, if the Triple Entente makes this last abdication before the Triple Alliance. The Balkan Slavs realize that not even a victorious war can gain for them conditions necessary to their political, moral, and economic development, and find that their safety lies in a close understanding with Austria.
"This would cause a great transformation in the status of the Orient, as Germany and Austria, freed from the nightmare of a great Servian State, would dominate the Balkans unopposed, having in their hands the markets and a route to India. If the Triple Entente desires this, they had better say so frankly."
Turkey's reply to the demands made by the Balkan allies will be delivered tomorrow to the peace conference in St. James's Palace. She will make large demands in turn, but it is well known that Turkey has no hope of obtaining what she will ask, and has no intention of resuming a war, which may result in further disaster to her.
Reports from Constantinople that the military officers had been ordered to the Tchatalja lines caused a ripple of excitement here to-day. The explanation given is that they were sent back because the soldiers were mutinous over the officers enjoying themselves in the capital, while they were enduring hardships in the trenches.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Salonika Jews Slain.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
Merchants Killed in Streets — Turks Allege Massacre by Greeks.
LONDON, Dec. 26.— A Salonika correspondent of The Jewish Chronicle, in re-cording the assassination of two Jewish merchants in the streets on Dec. 23, says that this was the crowning act of a series of attacks which remain unpunished.
The correspondent adds that consternation prevails among the Jewish community.
Merchants Killed in Streets — Turks Allege Massacre by Greeks.
LONDON, Dec. 26.— A Salonika correspondent of The Jewish Chronicle, in re-cording the assassination of two Jewish merchants in the streets on Dec. 23, says that this was the crowning act of a series of attacks which remain unpunished.
The correspondent adds that consternation prevails among the Jewish community.
Plans Great New Empire?
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
Heir to Austrian Throne Said to be Arranging a Slav Confederacy.
PARIS, Friday, Dec. 27.— According to the Vienna correspondent of The Journal, a friend, of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is responsible for the disclosure of an ambitious plan which the Archduke has conceived and is now actively endeavoring to make effective. If the plan is successful, it is expected to have the effect of completely breaking up at one stroke the political forms and system of alliances of the Europe of to-day.
In a word, the Archduke aims at the creation of a vast Slav empire of the south under the crown of the Hapsburgs. The Archduke has now in preparation a coup d'etat in Austria-Hungary to clear the way for the first part of his programme, which is the liberation of the discontented and ill-assorted peoples who form the monarchy. Having thus made a clean sweep of the existing political conditions, he will proceed with the work of building up, by restoring the ancient and historical kingdoms, and founding new principalities.
The confederation, according to the same authority, is to include the autonomous kingdoms of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, each with its own personal ruler; Servia, with its frontiers extended by recent victories, and still further increased by the inclusion of Slavonia; Montenegro, enlarged by a part of Dalmatia, and part of Herzegovina, and the other Balkan States.
Poland is said to have been quick to grasp the plan, and has signified unanimous adhesion. Bulgaria is favorably disposed, and active pourparlers are now going on between King Ferdinand and Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Servia, it is also said, is beginning to realize the advantages of the scheme.
Heir to Austrian Throne Said to be Arranging a Slav Confederacy.
PARIS, Friday, Dec. 27.— According to the Vienna correspondent of The Journal, a friend, of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is responsible for the disclosure of an ambitious plan which the Archduke has conceived and is now actively endeavoring to make effective. If the plan is successful, it is expected to have the effect of completely breaking up at one stroke the political forms and system of alliances of the Europe of to-day.
In a word, the Archduke aims at the creation of a vast Slav empire of the south under the crown of the Hapsburgs. The Archduke has now in preparation a coup d'etat in Austria-Hungary to clear the way for the first part of his programme, which is the liberation of the discontented and ill-assorted peoples who form the monarchy. Having thus made a clean sweep of the existing political conditions, he will proceed with the work of building up, by restoring the ancient and historical kingdoms, and founding new principalities.
The confederation, according to the same authority, is to include the autonomous kingdoms of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, each with its own personal ruler; Servia, with its frontiers extended by recent victories, and still further increased by the inclusion of Slavonia; Montenegro, enlarged by a part of Dalmatia, and part of Herzegovina, and the other Balkan States.
Poland is said to have been quick to grasp the plan, and has signified unanimous adhesion. Bulgaria is favorably disposed, and active pourparlers are now going on between King Ferdinand and Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Servia, it is also said, is beginning to realize the advantages of the scheme.
Navy Wireless Overland.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
Mare Island Sends Radio Greetings to Arlington for First Time.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26. — For the first time a wireless Christmas greeting was flashed last night from the Mare Island Navy Yard on the Pacific Coast to Washington.
The message was from Capt. Mayo, the Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard, and was received by the giant radio station at Arlington. It conveyed the wishes of Capt. Mayo and other officers at the navy yard to the Secretary of the Navy and the officers of the Navy and Marine Corps, for "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
Mare Island Sends Radio Greetings to Arlington for First Time.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26. — For the first time a wireless Christmas greeting was flashed last night from the Mare Island Navy Yard on the Pacific Coast to Washington.
The message was from Capt. Mayo, the Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard, and was received by the giant radio station at Arlington. It conveyed the wishes of Capt. Mayo and other officers at the navy yard to the Secretary of the Navy and the officers of the Navy and Marine Corps, for "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
Does It Mean War?
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
We take it that Mr. Bryan is not going to be a member of President Wilson's Cabinet. The evidence is inferential, but it cannot be disregarded. It is to be found in an editorial article which appeared yesterday in Mr. Bryan's Commoner, published at Lincoln, Neb., here reprinted:
The Democratic Party is going to have another struggle in both Senate and House over committee assignments and is again threatened with the blight of seniority, that is, it will be asked to put the ambitions and interests of individuals above the welfare of the party.
The progressive Democrats will now be in the majority in the Senate caucus. Will they allow a reactionary minority to man the ship? Will they allow length of service to outweigh sympathy with the progressive cause? * * * The Democrats of the Senate owe it to the party to make the Senate organization represent the prevailing sentiment of the party, and thus enable it to work in harmony with the Administration. To do this the rule of seniority should be ignored. Assignments to committee should be made upon the basis of fitness and with a view to giving faithful expression to the will of the majority.
At the most critical moment in the discussion of the Alabama affair between Charles Francis Adams, our Minister to England, and Lord Palmerston, Mr. Adams said: "I need not say to your Lordship that this means war." It is very evident that Mr. Bryan's Commoner article means war, it is war. His advice that the Senate and House committee assignments be made in disregard of seniority, and with a deliberate purpose of putting the committees and the control over the business of the Senate and House into the hands of "progressive Democrats," and that unmistakably means Bryan Democrats, would rob the Democracy of the fruits of the victory which give it control of the two branches of Congress. It would consign to inaction and to sulking and sullenness some of the ablest and most experienced men in the House and in the Senate. It would be a deadly affront to Democrats of prominence and of leadership, it would violate all usage and tradition, it would set up from the start a factional division in the majority party in and out of Congress.
Mr. Bryan's advice, if taken as he plainly intends it to be taken, would deprive Mr. Underwood of his Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Manifestly, it would put Champ Clark out of the Speakership, which is more important than any committee. Representative Henry of Texas, a progressive and a near friend of Mr. Bryan, was spoken of not long ago as a possible contestant for the Speakership of the next Congress. Mr. Henry had good sense enough and loyalty enough to say at once that he must decline altogether to be considered a candidate for Champ Clark's place. A contest between himself and the Speaker, he said, would mean a certain split in the Democratic Party in the House, it would wreck the House Democratic majority at the beginning of the Wilson Administration. Leaving aside the question of the Speakership, the adoption of the course urged by Mr. Bryan would be equally effective in wrecking the Democratic majority. It would practically wreck the Administration, for a President who cannot count upon the support of Congress is robbed of much of his power, and a President with a Congressional majority that is at war with itself would hardly hope to make headway with his measures and his policies, or to retain the confidence of the people. The adoption of Mr. Bryan's policy would foredoom the Wilson Administration to failure.
It was on Saturday. Dec. 21, that Mr. Bryan visited Gov. Wilson at the State House in Trenton and conferred with him for two or three hours. A day or two later, the story was published that Speaker Clark was going to serve notice on the President-elect that if Mr. Bryan was made a member of the Cabinet, he, the Speaker, would have nothing to do with him. The story was without authentication, and, we assume, was wholly baseless, as baseless as the Omaha newspaper report which Mr. Bryan used as a text for his attack upon Mr. Underwood. Mr. Bryan's declaration of war follows swiftly upon the heels of his visit to Triton, and of the publication, of the story about Speaker Clark. It is impossible to affirm upon information that The Commoner article is the fruit of anything said or not said at the Trenton interview, or that it was provoked by the report of the Speaker's attitude. But if Mr. Bryan had been invited into the Cabinet, or if he still entertained the hope that he would be a member of the Cabinet, it is not conceivable that he would now try to set the Democrats by the ears in both houses of Congress, substitute factional discord for union and harmony, and to the extent of his influence try to ruin the Administration of which he was to be a part.
We take it that Mr. Bryan is not going to be a member of President Wilson's Cabinet. The evidence is inferential, but it cannot be disregarded. It is to be found in an editorial article which appeared yesterday in Mr. Bryan's Commoner, published at Lincoln, Neb., here reprinted:
The Democratic Party is going to have another struggle in both Senate and House over committee assignments and is again threatened with the blight of seniority, that is, it will be asked to put the ambitions and interests of individuals above the welfare of the party.
The progressive Democrats will now be in the majority in the Senate caucus. Will they allow a reactionary minority to man the ship? Will they allow length of service to outweigh sympathy with the progressive cause? * * * The Democrats of the Senate owe it to the party to make the Senate organization represent the prevailing sentiment of the party, and thus enable it to work in harmony with the Administration. To do this the rule of seniority should be ignored. Assignments to committee should be made upon the basis of fitness and with a view to giving faithful expression to the will of the majority.
At the most critical moment in the discussion of the Alabama affair between Charles Francis Adams, our Minister to England, and Lord Palmerston, Mr. Adams said: "I need not say to your Lordship that this means war." It is very evident that Mr. Bryan's Commoner article means war, it is war. His advice that the Senate and House committee assignments be made in disregard of seniority, and with a deliberate purpose of putting the committees and the control over the business of the Senate and House into the hands of "progressive Democrats," and that unmistakably means Bryan Democrats, would rob the Democracy of the fruits of the victory which give it control of the two branches of Congress. It would consign to inaction and to sulking and sullenness some of the ablest and most experienced men in the House and in the Senate. It would be a deadly affront to Democrats of prominence and of leadership, it would violate all usage and tradition, it would set up from the start a factional division in the majority party in and out of Congress.
Mr. Bryan's advice, if taken as he plainly intends it to be taken, would deprive Mr. Underwood of his Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Manifestly, it would put Champ Clark out of the Speakership, which is more important than any committee. Representative Henry of Texas, a progressive and a near friend of Mr. Bryan, was spoken of not long ago as a possible contestant for the Speakership of the next Congress. Mr. Henry had good sense enough and loyalty enough to say at once that he must decline altogether to be considered a candidate for Champ Clark's place. A contest between himself and the Speaker, he said, would mean a certain split in the Democratic Party in the House, it would wreck the House Democratic majority at the beginning of the Wilson Administration. Leaving aside the question of the Speakership, the adoption of the course urged by Mr. Bryan would be equally effective in wrecking the Democratic majority. It would practically wreck the Administration, for a President who cannot count upon the support of Congress is robbed of much of his power, and a President with a Congressional majority that is at war with itself would hardly hope to make headway with his measures and his policies, or to retain the confidence of the people. The adoption of Mr. Bryan's policy would foredoom the Wilson Administration to failure.
It was on Saturday. Dec. 21, that Mr. Bryan visited Gov. Wilson at the State House in Trenton and conferred with him for two or three hours. A day or two later, the story was published that Speaker Clark was going to serve notice on the President-elect that if Mr. Bryan was made a member of the Cabinet, he, the Speaker, would have nothing to do with him. The story was without authentication, and, we assume, was wholly baseless, as baseless as the Omaha newspaper report which Mr. Bryan used as a text for his attack upon Mr. Underwood. Mr. Bryan's declaration of war follows swiftly upon the heels of his visit to Triton, and of the publication, of the story about Speaker Clark. It is impossible to affirm upon information that The Commoner article is the fruit of anything said or not said at the Trenton interview, or that it was provoked by the report of the Speaker's attitude. But if Mr. Bryan had been invited into the Cabinet, or if he still entertained the hope that he would be a member of the Cabinet, it is not conceivable that he would now try to set the Democrats by the ears in both houses of Congress, substitute factional discord for union and harmony, and to the extent of his influence try to ruin the Administration of which he was to be a part.
Aeroplane Finds Submarine.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 27, 1912:
Signal Corps Says Airmen Can Detect Under-Water Operations.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.— The Navy Department is bowing to the Signal Corps, which has announced that aeroplanes can be used for the purpose of discovering the whereabouts and movements of submarines. It is said that experiments at Annapolis have developed the fact that the operators in the air craft can discover the presence of the under-water terrors without glasses, although they may be at a considerable depth.
This, in the opinion of naval officers, may advance the plan of having aeroplanes as a part of the equipment of all the fighting craft in the United States Navy.
Signal Corps Says Airmen Can Detect Under-Water Operations.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.— The Navy Department is bowing to the Signal Corps, which has announced that aeroplanes can be used for the purpose of discovering the whereabouts and movements of submarines. It is said that experiments at Annapolis have developed the fact that the operators in the air craft can discover the presence of the under-water terrors without glasses, although they may be at a considerable depth.
This, in the opinion of naval officers, may advance the plan of having aeroplanes as a part of the equipment of all the fighting craft in the United States Navy.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Adrianople Turks Saved The Capital.
New York Times 100 years ago today, December 26, 1912:
Mr. Palmer Tells How Their Desperate Resistance Upset the Whole Bulgarian Advance.
SHOWED OLD-TIME SPIRIT
Forts Taken by Besiegers Were Recaptured and Held — Tales of Famine Not Borne Out.
By FREDERICK PALMER.
Special Correspondent of The New York Times in the Balkan War.
The minarets of Sultan Selim! Needle-like, I have seen them rise over the indistinct mass of Adrianople from the distant hills, then as substantial columns from the nearby hills, and again so close from the shellproof of an advanced infantry position that I could make out the tilings on the dome of the great mosque itself. The simple grace of the minarets dominated town, and landscape, and siege. Weary drivers of the weary oxen, of the transport and still wearier artillerymen, bringing up additional guns through seas of mud, saw them for the first time as a token of defiance, of work unfinished, of battles yet to be fought, and of lives yet to be lost. Infantrymen in the advanced trenches saw them as the goal against a foe which had fallen back without any adequate rear-guard section, but which had begun to fight desperately under their shadows.
That Turkish garrison, as it withdrew into the shelter of its forts, seemed to find something of the spirit of old Sultan Selim the Magnificent, for whom the mosque was named, but with this difference: Sultan Selim was not given to falling back on forts and minarets. He stormed forts: he went ahead to plant new minarets in the soil of Christendom.
Old Quality of Turk Aroused.
From the first in this war, the Turk took the defensive; from the first he accepted it as his part and portion of the campaign in Bulgaria, where many Turks still live under Christian rule, we had seen the Terrible Turk, the great fighting man of the past, whose soul was supposed to be above lowly toil, as a hewer of wood and carrier of water. He did odd jobs in the absence of the Bulgarian at the front. The lion of the past had been trained to dog harness.
All the early victories of the Bulgarian Army completed an impression of a onetime lordly race demoralized and enervated, who retained only the fatalism of "Kismet" in its lexicon. The warrior's cry, "For Allah!" was lost forever. But at Adrianople "For Allah! For the Minarets! For the Padishah!" rose again to the dignity which abandoned bravery always commands. The sheer, impetuous fearlessness of the Bulgarian, well drilled and coolly manipulated, was the first great revelation of the campaign, and the second was how, in the hour of hopelessness, his desperation aroused the old qualities of the Turk.
Though we saw but little of the war — nothing until the last — among my memories of personal experiences I would not yield that of the minarets, of the daily trickle of wounded back from the front, the arrival of groups of prisoners, the many talks with officers and soldiers which the censors would not allow to pass, and the glimpses that we had of the actual workings of the siege. What is written here is uncensored, is written after the armistice is signed, and it can do no harm to the army which gave me a red arm band to wear and a set of multifarious regulations to obey. The world public has had news of a sort in meeting its demands for something recking from the field of action, but has not had much of the inside facts of the war. These could not be given when fighting was still in progress.
Centre of the Whole Situation.
Every situation. every development in the war reverted to Adrianople. It was the nut to crack in the first plan of strategy of the campaign. It hovered over the First Army before Tchatalja as a nightmare. It stood in the way of the prompt supplies of bread and bullets for the First Army, it delayed the signing of the armistice for ten days; it has been the main subject of contention before the London Peace Conference; it was responsible for the treatment of the Military Attachés, who saw nothing of the war, and of the correspondents — who saw a little. Even our phlegmatic English-speaking censor assistant at Mustapha would lose his temper at the very suggestion of any peace terms with Adrianople still in Turkish possession.
"We shall have a revolution if we don't get Adrianople," I have heard many officials say.
"We shall not go home without Adrianople," the wounded soldiers returning from the front kept repeating.
Such were the instructions which Dr. Daneff, the Elihu Root of the Balkans, took with him to London. Adrianople was graven on the minds of his countrymen. By diplomacy he must get a fortress which was not yet taken by force of arms. If he went home without it, he must face the same sort of unpopularity that Baron Komura, head of the Japanese Commissioners at Portsmouth, faced when he returned to Japan without any indemnity.
The day that Komura and his party boarded the outward-going steamer at Yokohama, a foreign diplomatist said to him:
"Yours is an honor that rarely comes to any foreign Minister. You wrote the ultimatum, and now you go to dictate the terms of peace."
At the moment the Japanese were sending up daylight fireworks over the harbor in Komura's honor.
"Yes, I am going," he said; "and like the rockets going up, I shall return like the rocket sticks."
For Komura knew that he would not be able to get any indemnity. Japan must have peace, she had fought herself to a standstill, while all the world, in view of her previous victories, thought that she had only to press the button in order to win another victory.
What did Daneff know as he journeyed Londonward, stopping at Bucharest to see the Rumanian statesmen, who must have "something" in the dismemberment of the Turkish corpse at Vienna, which must also have something, and at Berlin, which wanted to make sure that no one got anything which interfered with German interests? He must have known, as well as Komura knew, whether his rocket was going up to become a fixed star, or whether he was to come down with the stick. He must have known whether Turkey was to keep Adrianople or not. Its future was in his portfolio.
Turks with Backs to the Wall.
Glance at a map and you will see that the whole success of the allies depended upon bottling up the Turk on the peninsula, so that all the other Turkish forces from Scutari to Adrianople, from Kumanova to Elassona, should be cut off from communication. The Greeks, Serbs, and Montenegrins were the backs. The Bulgarians undertook to buck the line.
Bulgaria did not have to consider a reserve army. European public opinion and the jealousies of the Powers acted as efficient substitutes for one. Bulgarian military statesmanship understood that if Bulgaria were beaten the Powers would never permit Turkey to take an inch of Bulgarian soil. It was a case of "Heads I win, tails I don't loose."
The Turks knew this, too. It was an old situation to them. Successful war meant no aggrandizement, only that no more territory would be taken from them. This is enough, after some generations, to breed the defensive instinct in any soldier. The Turk must have his back against the wall in order to fight well. His attitude is that of the mad bull against the toreador; and a very mad bull, we know, sometimes gets a horn into the toreador's anatomy and tosses him over the paling's. This happened to the Greeks at Janina. It also happened in a way at Adrianople.
"Victory is to the heaviest battalions." Bonaparte said this, but after Caesar said it, and Caesar said it after some General of Egypt, Babylon or Ninevah. The allies knew that their success depended on speed in a Kali campaign — speed and the shock of masses pouring over the frontier. Theirs was a hundred-yard-dash chance. The Serbs at Kumanova, their critical battle, had odds of at least four to one. The Greeks, at first, never had less favorable odds, usually much higher. As for the Montenegrins, who had a small show, what they did in one way or another did not matter. They had work to keep them fully occupied, as it developed, in the siege of Scutari. The only one of the allies who disdained modern organization, their failure to make any headway again emphasizes the wide difference between a body of men with rifles and an actual army.
Dash of the Bulgarians.
So the Bulgarians took the great and telling work of the war on their shoulders. You have only to know the Bulgarians to understand that this was inevitable. There is stubborn and aggressive character enough in Bulgaria to spare for all Southwestern Europe. Bulgaria made a hundred-yard dash with ox-cart transportation, and made it around an obstacle — Adrianople. The main railroad line and the great Constantinople highway ran by Adrianople. It was on the direct line of communication from the centre of the Bulgarian base to the centre of its objective. In the centre of Thrace, it was the only real fortress on the way to Constantinople. Kirk-Kilisseh, (or Losengrade, as the Bulgarians call it), despite their willingness to allow an impression of its formidability to be spread abroad, was not in any sense well fortified.
Now, the first thing was to surround Adrianople; that is, to strike at it from all sides, as the key to the position. A branch of the main Sofia-Constantinople railroad line runs to Yamboli. With this as its base, Demetrieff's swung around Kirk-Kilisseh, which was taken in the first splendid ardor of the campaign. With its fall and one can see from a staff map that any battle line of defense with Adrianople as a part of it was impossible for a force of the numbers of the Turkish main army. Two or three hundred thousand men who were homogeneous might have held on, but not half that number when badly organised. Therefore, Nizam Pasha had to fall bark to a new line and leave Adrianople to care for itself.
The next step was the decisive battle on the line from Lule Burgas to Bunnarhissar. There, again, superiority of numbers, as well as organization, counted; that superiority which makes a heavy turning movement possible while the enemy's front is engaged. In short, the Bulgarians had the Turks going. They gave the Turks no rest, and they had a sufficient numerical preponderance, in addition to the dependable courage of their infantry, to guarantee success.
Startling Courage of Invaders.
So there was nothing wonderful about the strategy of the campaign, nothing new, nothing startling. The old principle of the swift turning movement had been applied to the situation in hand. By the flank the Japanese kept putting the Russians back from the Halu to Mukden. By the flank Grant put Lee back to Richmond. There was just one, and only one, startling feature in this war — Bulgarian courage. That enabled Demetrieff to gain at Kirk-Kilisseh and Lule Burgas in a hurry what with most armies would have required much more time. Demetrieff had willing flesh for a necessary sacrifice. He threw his infantry against frontal positions in a cloud, into shrapnel and automatic gun fire, without waiting to silence the enemy's batteries.
The cry of "Fix bayonets!" became that of a military fanaticism. It was an army intoxicated, an army lifted out of human limitations by an idea which fed on its success.
"Nothing can stop us," thought every Bulgarian soldier.
"They come like a flood! Kismet!" thought the Turk.
For psychology is still a factor in war. Victory is easier for the heavier battalions when in the full cry of the pack on the quarry's heels.
Yet relatively few Bulgarian soldiers ever gave a Turk a bayonet thrust. The Turk was gone from most points of the position before the Bulgarian arrived, thanks to the fact that cold steel had been used at the critical points. Boer tactics, with thin lines of infantry, were proven a relic of a campaign against guerilla sharpshooters. They have nothing to do with the war of great masses of troops. Where big armies are concerned, enough troops must be thrown into critical positions with a rush to hold the position once it is taken, and that means slaughter, and willingness to suffer slaughter on the part of the soldiers, and readiness to order slaughter on the part of the General. Such willingness of the Bulgarian infantry, such readiness on the part of Demetrieff, account for the Bulgarian successes.
Planned to Storm Adrianople.
And after Lule Burgas the next step would have seemed the storming of Adrianople. When peace negotiations should begin, it was a vital point in the Bulgarians' favor in the negotiations to have Adrianople in their possession. The Bulgarian treatment of the correspondents is one of the many indications that the Bulgarian staff did expect at one time to take Adrianople by storm.
It was argued by serious correspondents who did not feel that they ought to waste their time or the money of their papers in idleness, that the Bulgarian Government ought not to have received any correspondents at all. But this was not logic to the Government. The press represented public opinion. It could serve a purpose, and all the college professors in the land who spoke any foreign language found their work in the common cause, no less than grandfather found his in driving an ox cart and the women in making bread. The plan was well thought out, and the regulations, which would fill a column of The New York Times, left nothing that occurred to officers or college professors out of consideration. No mention was to be made of the wounded, nor even of the weather if it were bad, for bad weather might tell the enemy that the roads were bad.
But there was no limitation put on press agent enthusiasm. Then one correspondent turned in an elaborate account of a splendid Bulgarian charge which was entirely imaginary, the censor let it go.
"But it is untrue," protested another correspondent.
"It praises Bulgaria," answered the censor. "and so long as a correspondent and his paper wish to take the responsibility of it, why that is not our affair."
"But it's hard on the fellows who have not got any imagination," the correspondent further protested. Then the censor offered him a story. It was about the Turks burning villages and massacring.
"That is merely using another's imagination. I cannot report what I have not seen," said the captious correspondent.
Then the censor smiled in a way that indicated that he gave up trying to assist so perverted a reportorial mind. While many an imaginary account, because it had the similitude of narrative which characterizes all convincing fiction, was hailed as real war correspondence, the Bulgarian staff, when it came to actual reports of actions (exclusive of massacres,) was scrupulously exact and exasperatingly late and brief. All praise by the press kept the ball of the prestige of victory rolling. It helped to convince the Powers and the Turk that the Bulgarian army was irresistible. The stage climax of the whole campaign would be the fall of Adrianople. Therefore were the correspondents moved to Mustapha Pasha just as Lule Burgas was being won; and Constantinople, being then supposedly defended only by a demoralized army which could not make a stand, every report from Mustapha Pasha, which showed that Adrianople was on the point of capitulation added to the stage effect of Bulgarian triumph.
Expected Victory at Tchatalja.
As Demetrieff's Army drew near the Tchatalja lines, the mise en scène was complete; but Nizam Pasha, making use of the elapsed time to fortify the Tchatalja lines, rather than submit to the humiliating terms offered, bade the Bulgarian hosts "come on." Success had turned the heads even of the Bulgarian staff. They had begun to think that the old fighting quality was out of the Turk, and so willing was the Bulgarian infantry to undergo slaughter that it was only a case of reordering another charge of flesh against shrapnel and automatic gun fire, and the day was won.
Alas, an old principle of war dealing with an impossibility of the same order as squaring the circle in mathematics, was now to bring generalship back from the clouds to solid earth.. You can take strong positions in front only with time by sapping and mining and all the weary operations of a siege, as the indomitable Grant learned by the failure of his first rush attack at Vicksburg and the indomitable Nogi learned by the failure of the first rush attack at Port Arthur. In a week, any army that has spades and a few of the resources of material which should be part of the storehouse at its base should make such a position as that of the series of rising hills back of Tchatalja fully tenable against any but siege attack, unless there was room for a flank attack.
And the breadth of the position open to infantry approach in any attempt at storming was only sixteen miles, while from either sea side of the narrow strip of peninsula the Turkish Navy could bring into play more powerful guns than any Demetrieff had at his disposal. At the same time there is to be kept in view the generally accepted tenent that you must not send infantry against any well-entrenched position until its batteries are silenced or it is known that they can be kept under control during the infantry attack by a well concentrated fire of your own batteries.
Hail of Bullets Too Much.
Demetrieff used his guns for a day in trying to develop the strength and location of the enemy's batteries. But the Turks would not be drawn. At last the tables were turned. With the Moslem was the satisfaction of a new confidence.
Yet — "Guards, up and at them!"
What the Bulgarian guns had failed to accomplish the sheer intrepidity of the private soldier would accomplish. So the Bulgarian infantry was sent forth against the batteries. It found them all right and the rapid fire guns, too, and concentrated hell generally.
I talked with three soldiers wounded in one of these charges. Each illustrated by comparison with some object in the neighboring landscape how near he got to the first infantry trench before he fell. (Behind these, were other supporting trenches, of course.)
"Many bullets?" I asked.
"Whish, whish, whish, all about the ears!" one of the soldiers answered.
"You could not take the position?"
"No; too many bullets — just like hail. Lie as close as you could to the ground you were bound to be hit."
"When you are well you will go back to fight again?"
"Yes! it is our duty when our country calls us." What infantry! Trusting fearless, stubborn, yet a very tired infantry as all three of those wounded men were free to confess.
It was at the three-quarters now of the Marathon which it had undertaken with the impetus of a hundred-yard dash. The Turks had their base of supplies close at their backs; the Bulgarian base was well away over muddy roads. Absence of sanitary equipment, sheer human exhaustion, and the clumsiness of the ox-transport for rapid operations, were telling. If there had been mulecarts and mulepacks and mounted infantry and ample artillery, then a real hundred-yard-dash at the close of the Marathon could have broken through to Constantinople before the Turks had time to reform and fortify.
"A reconnoissance in force" was the Sofia description of the attempt on Tchatalja; and, of course, if this were not threat enough to force the Turks to terms, a real and decisive attack would be made. However, Demetrieff was franker. He said to the correspondents who were with his staff: "We thought that we could do it. We have gone far enough to know we can't. There is no use of sacrificing further lives in the attempt."
Adrianople a Natural Fortress.
Meanwhile, Adrianople also was toiling. You may discuss as much as you please whether the original plan of the Bulgarian staff was to mask this fortress or to take it by storm, the fact remains that the only result was to mask it, and the lesson was that any garrison in the rear of an advancing army, though it is held securely in investment, remains a mighty force in being for the enemy's purpose.
Nature meant Adrianople to be a fortress. Past it on the south flows the Maritza River, taking its origin in the Balkans and plowing its way across the alluvial lowlands of Thrace to the sea. A strong bridge crosses it on the line of the Constantinople highway at Mustapha
Pasha, some twenty-five miles from Adrianople. This bridge, which is not far from the Bulgarian frontier, the Turks left intact, a characteristic piece of carelessness in the earlier part of the war in keeping with all other signs of Turkish demoralization and wrongheadedness, which might easily lead the Bulgarians to think that Adrianople would not resist a brilliant onslaught.
Everywhere the Turks had made fatal blunders. At Kirk Kilisseh Turkish troops had spent the night firing on each other. Again, they had attempted practically no rearguard action at the Mustapha Bridge. The very fates seemed in favor of the Bulgarians. It was inconceivable that Turkish stupidity would not leave some opening by which the Bulgarians could turn the trick at Adrianople. Mustapha Pasha became the headquarters of the second Bulgarian army, under General Ivanoff, who was to have the thankless task of the operations around Adrianople, while easy glory was to be the fortune of Demetrieff who commanded the first army — until the first army had to take positions in front without any opportunity for flanking, which was the nature of Ivanoff's task from the start.
The Maritza, which twists and turns among the hills, is joined to the south of Adrianople by the River Arda, whose valley is comparatively broad and sprinkled with villages and farms and orchards, which would furnish cover to the operations of advancing infantry. On the south side of the Maritza the railroad line follows the river pretty closely. On the north side is the Constantinople highway, which runs through the town. At the risk of repetition, let it be observed again how completely Adrianople lay astride the direct and natural line of communications for Demetrieff's army.
Failed to Find an Opening.
The nearby ring of hills around Adrianople all had strong, permanent fortifications well laid out by foreign military engineers. Of course, each fortification was located with the object of commanding any guns which should be brought within range of the town itself. It was said that the execution of the plans of the fortification had been left to Turkish contractors, who had used mud in the place of cement; while there were gun positions without guns and guns without ammunition. Therein lay the opportunity of the well-informed commander to penetrate the circle and gain a foothold from which he could force the surrender of the garrison. Such an opening was selected on the north, I understand; but when it was tried out the result was disappointing. Meanwhile, topographically the obviously weak point of attack was from the Arda Valley, and once the Bulgarians had control of the bridge, from the suburb of Karagash into the city the trick was done. The bridge of Mustapha having been easy, why not this also?
While the correspondents had been led to expect the immediate fall of Adrianople, they also heard any number of reports of the garrison's distress. Not a day but refugees came out with reports of the Turkish soldier growing emaciated on one biscuit a day, and the civil population, with their stores being requisitioned, gradually starving. And reports were all we had to work with. We were not allowed to go over the hills and see things for ourselves. But we did observe that the occasional group of Turkish prisoners looked fairly well fed, and even the refugees were not hollow-cheeked from famine.
Obviously the first step after the victory of Kirk Kilisseh was to make sure that the Adrianople garrison was actually shut in. Even when Lule Burgras was being fought there were big gaps through which the garrison might have cut its way. The troops which had assisted in the surrounding movement, were moved on to reinforce the main army as rapidly as their places could be filled.
Serbs Took Up the Siege.
With Kumanova won, the Serbs sent two divisions of 50,000 men to assist in the siege. We were not allowed to mention their presence. Even the photograph of a man in civilian clothes and a Serb military cap was not allowed to go. The Serbs had better transportation than the Bulgarians, including excellent pony carts, and they made a smarter appearance. They furnished the majority of the guns and howitzers which were of a calibre suited for siege operations. The rapidity with which the whole force was moved from Servia over the single line railway was amazing.
When mention was made of any action in which the Serbs took part, the implication was that it was the work of the brave Bulgarians. The Servian officers accepted the situation with good nature. They showed themselves true allies. They were there for the cause, not for quarreling about the international distribution of glory. Yet it was evident when you talked with them that the Servian policy did not contemplate a terrible loss of life in making a general attack. Their divisions were acting only as a retaining force. This also goes to show that the original idea of storming must have been given up early in November, while every Bulgarian gun and soldier that could be spared was hurried to Demetrieff at Tchatalja. If Demetrieff won, there was no need of a general attack upon Adrianople. After all, including the Servians, there were only 90,000 men in the investment, and while the world was waiting for Adrianople to fall, the actual situation was that of a kind of checkmate.
Fort Taken and Retaken.
It was Papastepe and Kartaltepe which awakened Ivanoff from his dream of a final brilliant stroke in keeping with the earlier ones of the war, just as Tchatalja brought Demetrieff down from the clouds of overconfidence. Papastepe is one of many hills in the narrowing rib of hills between the Arda and the Maritza, the 203 Meter Hill of the siege. With guns in position there, Adrianople would be under bombardment. The Bulgarians took it by sending in the usual cloud of infantry and losing about a thousand men. But the Turks took it back again. Four times, I am told, it changed hands in the course of those night actions which we observed only by the brilliant flashes in the sky above the hills.
At least I know this, that it was still in Turkish hands ten days before the signing of the armistice, unless my informant, a Servian officer, was wrong on that red letter day when I actually got into a battery when it was firing and saw something of the positions at close quarters. The Servian officer was acting as my guide in a series of elaborate shell proofs which protected the advanced infantry position in the direction of Papastepe. We looked through a narrow slit in a heavy timbered roof from one of many chambers so fashioned that the damage done by an exploding shell would be localized, and back of them the regiment had made for themselves a set of rabbit warrens, where they sat high and dry and comfortable in the season of heavy rains, while the opposite slope of the valley was pitted with craters made by the Turkish shells passing overhead.
"Yes! We could take Papastepe again," he said, "but we could not hold it. It is untenable under the hell of fire the Turks can pour upon it."
Besiegers Still Held Well Back.
Looking away from the minarets and the city and toward the Arda valley, you realized, as your eye was able to follow the positions which the Bulgarians had actually occupied — in contrast with the reports of their advances — that at least no Bulgarian success had been unheralded. The censors had quite held their own with the press. One smiled as he thought of the correspondents who had considered themselves crafty in masking items of news between items of praise of Bulgarian courage. The second censorship in Sofia cut out the news and let the praise go. But before you criticise the morals of this, consider what would be the state of your own morals if you were making a fight for your house and garden against an ancient racial foe.
We had heard not only of the besiegers' infantry fighting in the suburb of Karagash, but that Marash, the hill beyond Papastepe. was in our possession. Papastepe, let alone Marash, was not ours. Far up the valley in the mist was Kartaltepe, that other important hill which commanded the river bottom of the Arda. We took Kartaltepe in November and a month afterward, in one of their splendid sorties, the Turks, so far as I could learn, had taken it back; but found it untenable. Possibly because it was again ours and very evidently ours permanently, the Bulgarian censors had found it worth while to confound skepticism and persistent unfriendly rumors by allowing the correspondents to enter the promised land of their dreams, where for weeks, between the batteries on the hills and the infantry in the muddy river bottom of the Arda, hell had raged in the Winter rains.
We had heard the pounding of the guns; seen the sky alight with flashes at night, and had hazarded conjectures and listened to the gossip of the street. Now we saw just where the antagonists stood after that terrible month. Far from our infantry being within striking distance of Karagash, it was engaging a line of Turkish infantry with a pretty steady rifle fire some seven miles from Karagash, in the neighborhood of the village of Dadzaras, which our guns from their battery positions on the west bank of the Arda had set in flames.
Romance of Detached Army.
We did not know then, as we were to know a few days later, that beyond Kartaltepe in the direction of Delegatch was another force isolated from the Adrianople garrison and the main Turkish army, that of Taver Pasha with some 10,000 men, caught in the literal flood of that hundred-yard dash of the ready, informed, prepared aggressor against the unready enemy taken unawares and hastening reinforcements to the scattered garrisons and trying to adjust itself for the blow about to fall with the crash of a pile driver released from its clutch.
But Taver Pasha's 10,000 were still a force in being, with guns and full equipment — a force in a box; a force in desperation. Do you see the Adrianople garrison (which was in touch by wireless with the Turkish main army) striking out to connect up with Taver Pasha? Do you see Taver Pasha trying out lines of least resistance in a savage effort to reach Adrianople or the main Turkish army? Something to stir the blood, this, in the way of a war drama, while not a single foreign corespondent, or attaché knew even of the existence of Taver Pasha's command until its surrender. The news of this was conveyed with the official assurance that now no other Turkish force except that of Adrianople remained in Thrace, when we had been under the impression for over a month that it was the only one! The censors did not smile as they posted the bulletin, but some of the correspondents smiled — at themselves.
No, after the first rainbow hope of a successful general attack was over, Ivanoff was fully occupied in holding Adrianople safely in siege. That battery of old Krupps, which fired over the advanced Servian infantry position, while a battery of Creusots in turn fired over it, added their items of evidence to the same end. These Krupps were taken by the Russians at Plevna in the war of 1877-78, and given to the little army of the view nation of Bulgaria. Bulgarian recruits had dragged them through the muddy roads and over the pastures and beautifully emplaced them, and were working them against the enemy with boyish pride. But the world was thinking only of the modern Creusots and their brilliant showing.
The Bulgarians almost proved that you can make bricks without straw. They won the war by the bravery of their self-confidence as well as by their courage. Adrianople, which was about to starve if it did not fall, had, I am convinced, two months' supplies when the armistice was signed. With the nineteen and twenty-year-old conscripts already on the way to the front, with a casualty list that is easily one-fifth of the whole army, there was no sign of weakening. The square chin of the stoical Bulgarian was as firmly set as ever. I wonder what would happen in Europe if it included in its borders a nation of 100,000,000 Bulgarians!
Mr. Palmer Tells How Their Desperate Resistance Upset the Whole Bulgarian Advance.
SHOWED OLD-TIME SPIRIT
Forts Taken by Besiegers Were Recaptured and Held — Tales of Famine Not Borne Out.
By FREDERICK PALMER.
Special Correspondent of The New York Times in the Balkan War.
The minarets of Sultan Selim! Needle-like, I have seen them rise over the indistinct mass of Adrianople from the distant hills, then as substantial columns from the nearby hills, and again so close from the shellproof of an advanced infantry position that I could make out the tilings on the dome of the great mosque itself. The simple grace of the minarets dominated town, and landscape, and siege. Weary drivers of the weary oxen, of the transport and still wearier artillerymen, bringing up additional guns through seas of mud, saw them for the first time as a token of defiance, of work unfinished, of battles yet to be fought, and of lives yet to be lost. Infantrymen in the advanced trenches saw them as the goal against a foe which had fallen back without any adequate rear-guard section, but which had begun to fight desperately under their shadows.
That Turkish garrison, as it withdrew into the shelter of its forts, seemed to find something of the spirit of old Sultan Selim the Magnificent, for whom the mosque was named, but with this difference: Sultan Selim was not given to falling back on forts and minarets. He stormed forts: he went ahead to plant new minarets in the soil of Christendom.
Old Quality of Turk Aroused.
From the first in this war, the Turk took the defensive; from the first he accepted it as his part and portion of the campaign in Bulgaria, where many Turks still live under Christian rule, we had seen the Terrible Turk, the great fighting man of the past, whose soul was supposed to be above lowly toil, as a hewer of wood and carrier of water. He did odd jobs in the absence of the Bulgarian at the front. The lion of the past had been trained to dog harness.
All the early victories of the Bulgarian Army completed an impression of a onetime lordly race demoralized and enervated, who retained only the fatalism of "Kismet" in its lexicon. The warrior's cry, "For Allah!" was lost forever. But at Adrianople "For Allah! For the Minarets! For the Padishah!" rose again to the dignity which abandoned bravery always commands. The sheer, impetuous fearlessness of the Bulgarian, well drilled and coolly manipulated, was the first great revelation of the campaign, and the second was how, in the hour of hopelessness, his desperation aroused the old qualities of the Turk.
Though we saw but little of the war — nothing until the last — among my memories of personal experiences I would not yield that of the minarets, of the daily trickle of wounded back from the front, the arrival of groups of prisoners, the many talks with officers and soldiers which the censors would not allow to pass, and the glimpses that we had of the actual workings of the siege. What is written here is uncensored, is written after the armistice is signed, and it can do no harm to the army which gave me a red arm band to wear and a set of multifarious regulations to obey. The world public has had news of a sort in meeting its demands for something recking from the field of action, but has not had much of the inside facts of the war. These could not be given when fighting was still in progress.
Centre of the Whole Situation.
Every situation. every development in the war reverted to Adrianople. It was the nut to crack in the first plan of strategy of the campaign. It hovered over the First Army before Tchatalja as a nightmare. It stood in the way of the prompt supplies of bread and bullets for the First Army, it delayed the signing of the armistice for ten days; it has been the main subject of contention before the London Peace Conference; it was responsible for the treatment of the Military Attachés, who saw nothing of the war, and of the correspondents — who saw a little. Even our phlegmatic English-speaking censor assistant at Mustapha would lose his temper at the very suggestion of any peace terms with Adrianople still in Turkish possession.
"We shall have a revolution if we don't get Adrianople," I have heard many officials say.
"We shall not go home without Adrianople," the wounded soldiers returning from the front kept repeating.
Such were the instructions which Dr. Daneff, the Elihu Root of the Balkans, took with him to London. Adrianople was graven on the minds of his countrymen. By diplomacy he must get a fortress which was not yet taken by force of arms. If he went home without it, he must face the same sort of unpopularity that Baron Komura, head of the Japanese Commissioners at Portsmouth, faced when he returned to Japan without any indemnity.
The day that Komura and his party boarded the outward-going steamer at Yokohama, a foreign diplomatist said to him:
"Yours is an honor that rarely comes to any foreign Minister. You wrote the ultimatum, and now you go to dictate the terms of peace."
At the moment the Japanese were sending up daylight fireworks over the harbor in Komura's honor.
"Yes, I am going," he said; "and like the rockets going up, I shall return like the rocket sticks."
For Komura knew that he would not be able to get any indemnity. Japan must have peace, she had fought herself to a standstill, while all the world, in view of her previous victories, thought that she had only to press the button in order to win another victory.
What did Daneff know as he journeyed Londonward, stopping at Bucharest to see the Rumanian statesmen, who must have "something" in the dismemberment of the Turkish corpse at Vienna, which must also have something, and at Berlin, which wanted to make sure that no one got anything which interfered with German interests? He must have known, as well as Komura knew, whether his rocket was going up to become a fixed star, or whether he was to come down with the stick. He must have known whether Turkey was to keep Adrianople or not. Its future was in his portfolio.
Turks with Backs to the Wall.
Glance at a map and you will see that the whole success of the allies depended upon bottling up the Turk on the peninsula, so that all the other Turkish forces from Scutari to Adrianople, from Kumanova to Elassona, should be cut off from communication. The Greeks, Serbs, and Montenegrins were the backs. The Bulgarians undertook to buck the line.
Bulgaria did not have to consider a reserve army. European public opinion and the jealousies of the Powers acted as efficient substitutes for one. Bulgarian military statesmanship understood that if Bulgaria were beaten the Powers would never permit Turkey to take an inch of Bulgarian soil. It was a case of "Heads I win, tails I don't loose."
The Turks knew this, too. It was an old situation to them. Successful war meant no aggrandizement, only that no more territory would be taken from them. This is enough, after some generations, to breed the defensive instinct in any soldier. The Turk must have his back against the wall in order to fight well. His attitude is that of the mad bull against the toreador; and a very mad bull, we know, sometimes gets a horn into the toreador's anatomy and tosses him over the paling's. This happened to the Greeks at Janina. It also happened in a way at Adrianople.
"Victory is to the heaviest battalions." Bonaparte said this, but after Caesar said it, and Caesar said it after some General of Egypt, Babylon or Ninevah. The allies knew that their success depended on speed in a Kali campaign — speed and the shock of masses pouring over the frontier. Theirs was a hundred-yard-dash chance. The Serbs at Kumanova, their critical battle, had odds of at least four to one. The Greeks, at first, never had less favorable odds, usually much higher. As for the Montenegrins, who had a small show, what they did in one way or another did not matter. They had work to keep them fully occupied, as it developed, in the siege of Scutari. The only one of the allies who disdained modern organization, their failure to make any headway again emphasizes the wide difference between a body of men with rifles and an actual army.
Dash of the Bulgarians.
So the Bulgarians took the great and telling work of the war on their shoulders. You have only to know the Bulgarians to understand that this was inevitable. There is stubborn and aggressive character enough in Bulgaria to spare for all Southwestern Europe. Bulgaria made a hundred-yard dash with ox-cart transportation, and made it around an obstacle — Adrianople. The main railroad line and the great Constantinople highway ran by Adrianople. It was on the direct line of communication from the centre of the Bulgarian base to the centre of its objective. In the centre of Thrace, it was the only real fortress on the way to Constantinople. Kirk-Kilisseh, (or Losengrade, as the Bulgarians call it), despite their willingness to allow an impression of its formidability to be spread abroad, was not in any sense well fortified.
Now, the first thing was to surround Adrianople; that is, to strike at it from all sides, as the key to the position. A branch of the main Sofia-Constantinople railroad line runs to Yamboli. With this as its base, Demetrieff's swung around Kirk-Kilisseh, which was taken in the first splendid ardor of the campaign. With its fall and one can see from a staff map that any battle line of defense with Adrianople as a part of it was impossible for a force of the numbers of the Turkish main army. Two or three hundred thousand men who were homogeneous might have held on, but not half that number when badly organised. Therefore, Nizam Pasha had to fall bark to a new line and leave Adrianople to care for itself.
The next step was the decisive battle on the line from Lule Burgas to Bunnarhissar. There, again, superiority of numbers, as well as organization, counted; that superiority which makes a heavy turning movement possible while the enemy's front is engaged. In short, the Bulgarians had the Turks going. They gave the Turks no rest, and they had a sufficient numerical preponderance, in addition to the dependable courage of their infantry, to guarantee success.
Startling Courage of Invaders.
So there was nothing wonderful about the strategy of the campaign, nothing new, nothing startling. The old principle of the swift turning movement had been applied to the situation in hand. By the flank the Japanese kept putting the Russians back from the Halu to Mukden. By the flank Grant put Lee back to Richmond. There was just one, and only one, startling feature in this war — Bulgarian courage. That enabled Demetrieff to gain at Kirk-Kilisseh and Lule Burgas in a hurry what with most armies would have required much more time. Demetrieff had willing flesh for a necessary sacrifice. He threw his infantry against frontal positions in a cloud, into shrapnel and automatic gun fire, without waiting to silence the enemy's batteries.
The cry of "Fix bayonets!" became that of a military fanaticism. It was an army intoxicated, an army lifted out of human limitations by an idea which fed on its success.
"Nothing can stop us," thought every Bulgarian soldier.
"They come like a flood! Kismet!" thought the Turk.
For psychology is still a factor in war. Victory is easier for the heavier battalions when in the full cry of the pack on the quarry's heels.
Yet relatively few Bulgarian soldiers ever gave a Turk a bayonet thrust. The Turk was gone from most points of the position before the Bulgarian arrived, thanks to the fact that cold steel had been used at the critical points. Boer tactics, with thin lines of infantry, were proven a relic of a campaign against guerilla sharpshooters. They have nothing to do with the war of great masses of troops. Where big armies are concerned, enough troops must be thrown into critical positions with a rush to hold the position once it is taken, and that means slaughter, and willingness to suffer slaughter on the part of the soldiers, and readiness to order slaughter on the part of the General. Such willingness of the Bulgarian infantry, such readiness on the part of Demetrieff, account for the Bulgarian successes.
Planned to Storm Adrianople.
And after Lule Burgas the next step would have seemed the storming of Adrianople. When peace negotiations should begin, it was a vital point in the Bulgarians' favor in the negotiations to have Adrianople in their possession. The Bulgarian treatment of the correspondents is one of the many indications that the Bulgarian staff did expect at one time to take Adrianople by storm.
It was argued by serious correspondents who did not feel that they ought to waste their time or the money of their papers in idleness, that the Bulgarian Government ought not to have received any correspondents at all. But this was not logic to the Government. The press represented public opinion. It could serve a purpose, and all the college professors in the land who spoke any foreign language found their work in the common cause, no less than grandfather found his in driving an ox cart and the women in making bread. The plan was well thought out, and the regulations, which would fill a column of The New York Times, left nothing that occurred to officers or college professors out of consideration. No mention was to be made of the wounded, nor even of the weather if it were bad, for bad weather might tell the enemy that the roads were bad.
But there was no limitation put on press agent enthusiasm. Then one correspondent turned in an elaborate account of a splendid Bulgarian charge which was entirely imaginary, the censor let it go.
"But it is untrue," protested another correspondent.
"It praises Bulgaria," answered the censor. "and so long as a correspondent and his paper wish to take the responsibility of it, why that is not our affair."
"But it's hard on the fellows who have not got any imagination," the correspondent further protested. Then the censor offered him a story. It was about the Turks burning villages and massacring.
"That is merely using another's imagination. I cannot report what I have not seen," said the captious correspondent.
Then the censor smiled in a way that indicated that he gave up trying to assist so perverted a reportorial mind. While many an imaginary account, because it had the similitude of narrative which characterizes all convincing fiction, was hailed as real war correspondence, the Bulgarian staff, when it came to actual reports of actions (exclusive of massacres,) was scrupulously exact and exasperatingly late and brief. All praise by the press kept the ball of the prestige of victory rolling. It helped to convince the Powers and the Turk that the Bulgarian army was irresistible. The stage climax of the whole campaign would be the fall of Adrianople. Therefore were the correspondents moved to Mustapha Pasha just as Lule Burgas was being won; and Constantinople, being then supposedly defended only by a demoralized army which could not make a stand, every report from Mustapha Pasha, which showed that Adrianople was on the point of capitulation added to the stage effect of Bulgarian triumph.
Expected Victory at Tchatalja.
As Demetrieff's Army drew near the Tchatalja lines, the mise en scène was complete; but Nizam Pasha, making use of the elapsed time to fortify the Tchatalja lines, rather than submit to the humiliating terms offered, bade the Bulgarian hosts "come on." Success had turned the heads even of the Bulgarian staff. They had begun to think that the old fighting quality was out of the Turk, and so willing was the Bulgarian infantry to undergo slaughter that it was only a case of reordering another charge of flesh against shrapnel and automatic gun fire, and the day was won.
Alas, an old principle of war dealing with an impossibility of the same order as squaring the circle in mathematics, was now to bring generalship back from the clouds to solid earth.. You can take strong positions in front only with time by sapping and mining and all the weary operations of a siege, as the indomitable Grant learned by the failure of his first rush attack at Vicksburg and the indomitable Nogi learned by the failure of the first rush attack at Port Arthur. In a week, any army that has spades and a few of the resources of material which should be part of the storehouse at its base should make such a position as that of the series of rising hills back of Tchatalja fully tenable against any but siege attack, unless there was room for a flank attack.
And the breadth of the position open to infantry approach in any attempt at storming was only sixteen miles, while from either sea side of the narrow strip of peninsula the Turkish Navy could bring into play more powerful guns than any Demetrieff had at his disposal. At the same time there is to be kept in view the generally accepted tenent that you must not send infantry against any well-entrenched position until its batteries are silenced or it is known that they can be kept under control during the infantry attack by a well concentrated fire of your own batteries.
Hail of Bullets Too Much.
Demetrieff used his guns for a day in trying to develop the strength and location of the enemy's batteries. But the Turks would not be drawn. At last the tables were turned. With the Moslem was the satisfaction of a new confidence.
Yet — "Guards, up and at them!"
What the Bulgarian guns had failed to accomplish the sheer intrepidity of the private soldier would accomplish. So the Bulgarian infantry was sent forth against the batteries. It found them all right and the rapid fire guns, too, and concentrated hell generally.
I talked with three soldiers wounded in one of these charges. Each illustrated by comparison with some object in the neighboring landscape how near he got to the first infantry trench before he fell. (Behind these, were other supporting trenches, of course.)
"Many bullets?" I asked.
"Whish, whish, whish, all about the ears!" one of the soldiers answered.
"You could not take the position?"
"No; too many bullets — just like hail. Lie as close as you could to the ground you were bound to be hit."
"When you are well you will go back to fight again?"
"Yes! it is our duty when our country calls us." What infantry! Trusting fearless, stubborn, yet a very tired infantry as all three of those wounded men were free to confess.
It was at the three-quarters now of the Marathon which it had undertaken with the impetus of a hundred-yard dash. The Turks had their base of supplies close at their backs; the Bulgarian base was well away over muddy roads. Absence of sanitary equipment, sheer human exhaustion, and the clumsiness of the ox-transport for rapid operations, were telling. If there had been mulecarts and mulepacks and mounted infantry and ample artillery, then a real hundred-yard-dash at the close of the Marathon could have broken through to Constantinople before the Turks had time to reform and fortify.
"A reconnoissance in force" was the Sofia description of the attempt on Tchatalja; and, of course, if this were not threat enough to force the Turks to terms, a real and decisive attack would be made. However, Demetrieff was franker. He said to the correspondents who were with his staff: "We thought that we could do it. We have gone far enough to know we can't. There is no use of sacrificing further lives in the attempt."
Adrianople a Natural Fortress.
Meanwhile, Adrianople also was toiling. You may discuss as much as you please whether the original plan of the Bulgarian staff was to mask this fortress or to take it by storm, the fact remains that the only result was to mask it, and the lesson was that any garrison in the rear of an advancing army, though it is held securely in investment, remains a mighty force in being for the enemy's purpose.
Nature meant Adrianople to be a fortress. Past it on the south flows the Maritza River, taking its origin in the Balkans and plowing its way across the alluvial lowlands of Thrace to the sea. A strong bridge crosses it on the line of the Constantinople highway at Mustapha
Pasha, some twenty-five miles from Adrianople. This bridge, which is not far from the Bulgarian frontier, the Turks left intact, a characteristic piece of carelessness in the earlier part of the war in keeping with all other signs of Turkish demoralization and wrongheadedness, which might easily lead the Bulgarians to think that Adrianople would not resist a brilliant onslaught.
Everywhere the Turks had made fatal blunders. At Kirk Kilisseh Turkish troops had spent the night firing on each other. Again, they had attempted practically no rearguard action at the Mustapha Bridge. The very fates seemed in favor of the Bulgarians. It was inconceivable that Turkish stupidity would not leave some opening by which the Bulgarians could turn the trick at Adrianople. Mustapha Pasha became the headquarters of the second Bulgarian army, under General Ivanoff, who was to have the thankless task of the operations around Adrianople, while easy glory was to be the fortune of Demetrieff who commanded the first army — until the first army had to take positions in front without any opportunity for flanking, which was the nature of Ivanoff's task from the start.
The Maritza, which twists and turns among the hills, is joined to the south of Adrianople by the River Arda, whose valley is comparatively broad and sprinkled with villages and farms and orchards, which would furnish cover to the operations of advancing infantry. On the south side of the Maritza the railroad line follows the river pretty closely. On the north side is the Constantinople highway, which runs through the town. At the risk of repetition, let it be observed again how completely Adrianople lay astride the direct and natural line of communications for Demetrieff's army.
Failed to Find an Opening.
The nearby ring of hills around Adrianople all had strong, permanent fortifications well laid out by foreign military engineers. Of course, each fortification was located with the object of commanding any guns which should be brought within range of the town itself. It was said that the execution of the plans of the fortification had been left to Turkish contractors, who had used mud in the place of cement; while there were gun positions without guns and guns without ammunition. Therein lay the opportunity of the well-informed commander to penetrate the circle and gain a foothold from which he could force the surrender of the garrison. Such an opening was selected on the north, I understand; but when it was tried out the result was disappointing. Meanwhile, topographically the obviously weak point of attack was from the Arda Valley, and once the Bulgarians had control of the bridge, from the suburb of Karagash into the city the trick was done. The bridge of Mustapha having been easy, why not this also?
While the correspondents had been led to expect the immediate fall of Adrianople, they also heard any number of reports of the garrison's distress. Not a day but refugees came out with reports of the Turkish soldier growing emaciated on one biscuit a day, and the civil population, with their stores being requisitioned, gradually starving. And reports were all we had to work with. We were not allowed to go over the hills and see things for ourselves. But we did observe that the occasional group of Turkish prisoners looked fairly well fed, and even the refugees were not hollow-cheeked from famine.
Obviously the first step after the victory of Kirk Kilisseh was to make sure that the Adrianople garrison was actually shut in. Even when Lule Burgras was being fought there were big gaps through which the garrison might have cut its way. The troops which had assisted in the surrounding movement, were moved on to reinforce the main army as rapidly as their places could be filled.
Serbs Took Up the Siege.
With Kumanova won, the Serbs sent two divisions of 50,000 men to assist in the siege. We were not allowed to mention their presence. Even the photograph of a man in civilian clothes and a Serb military cap was not allowed to go. The Serbs had better transportation than the Bulgarians, including excellent pony carts, and they made a smarter appearance. They furnished the majority of the guns and howitzers which were of a calibre suited for siege operations. The rapidity with which the whole force was moved from Servia over the single line railway was amazing.
When mention was made of any action in which the Serbs took part, the implication was that it was the work of the brave Bulgarians. The Servian officers accepted the situation with good nature. They showed themselves true allies. They were there for the cause, not for quarreling about the international distribution of glory. Yet it was evident when you talked with them that the Servian policy did not contemplate a terrible loss of life in making a general attack. Their divisions were acting only as a retaining force. This also goes to show that the original idea of storming must have been given up early in November, while every Bulgarian gun and soldier that could be spared was hurried to Demetrieff at Tchatalja. If Demetrieff won, there was no need of a general attack upon Adrianople. After all, including the Servians, there were only 90,000 men in the investment, and while the world was waiting for Adrianople to fall, the actual situation was that of a kind of checkmate.
Fort Taken and Retaken.
It was Papastepe and Kartaltepe which awakened Ivanoff from his dream of a final brilliant stroke in keeping with the earlier ones of the war, just as Tchatalja brought Demetrieff down from the clouds of overconfidence. Papastepe is one of many hills in the narrowing rib of hills between the Arda and the Maritza, the 203 Meter Hill of the siege. With guns in position there, Adrianople would be under bombardment. The Bulgarians took it by sending in the usual cloud of infantry and losing about a thousand men. But the Turks took it back again. Four times, I am told, it changed hands in the course of those night actions which we observed only by the brilliant flashes in the sky above the hills.
At least I know this, that it was still in Turkish hands ten days before the signing of the armistice, unless my informant, a Servian officer, was wrong on that red letter day when I actually got into a battery when it was firing and saw something of the positions at close quarters. The Servian officer was acting as my guide in a series of elaborate shell proofs which protected the advanced infantry position in the direction of Papastepe. We looked through a narrow slit in a heavy timbered roof from one of many chambers so fashioned that the damage done by an exploding shell would be localized, and back of them the regiment had made for themselves a set of rabbit warrens, where they sat high and dry and comfortable in the season of heavy rains, while the opposite slope of the valley was pitted with craters made by the Turkish shells passing overhead.
"Yes! We could take Papastepe again," he said, "but we could not hold it. It is untenable under the hell of fire the Turks can pour upon it."
Besiegers Still Held Well Back.
Looking away from the minarets and the city and toward the Arda valley, you realized, as your eye was able to follow the positions which the Bulgarians had actually occupied — in contrast with the reports of their advances — that at least no Bulgarian success had been unheralded. The censors had quite held their own with the press. One smiled as he thought of the correspondents who had considered themselves crafty in masking items of news between items of praise of Bulgarian courage. The second censorship in Sofia cut out the news and let the praise go. But before you criticise the morals of this, consider what would be the state of your own morals if you were making a fight for your house and garden against an ancient racial foe.
We had heard not only of the besiegers' infantry fighting in the suburb of Karagash, but that Marash, the hill beyond Papastepe. was in our possession. Papastepe, let alone Marash, was not ours. Far up the valley in the mist was Kartaltepe, that other important hill which commanded the river bottom of the Arda. We took Kartaltepe in November and a month afterward, in one of their splendid sorties, the Turks, so far as I could learn, had taken it back; but found it untenable. Possibly because it was again ours and very evidently ours permanently, the Bulgarian censors had found it worth while to confound skepticism and persistent unfriendly rumors by allowing the correspondents to enter the promised land of their dreams, where for weeks, between the batteries on the hills and the infantry in the muddy river bottom of the Arda, hell had raged in the Winter rains.
We had heard the pounding of the guns; seen the sky alight with flashes at night, and had hazarded conjectures and listened to the gossip of the street. Now we saw just where the antagonists stood after that terrible month. Far from our infantry being within striking distance of Karagash, it was engaging a line of Turkish infantry with a pretty steady rifle fire some seven miles from Karagash, in the neighborhood of the village of Dadzaras, which our guns from their battery positions on the west bank of the Arda had set in flames.
Romance of Detached Army.
We did not know then, as we were to know a few days later, that beyond Kartaltepe in the direction of Delegatch was another force isolated from the Adrianople garrison and the main Turkish army, that of Taver Pasha with some 10,000 men, caught in the literal flood of that hundred-yard dash of the ready, informed, prepared aggressor against the unready enemy taken unawares and hastening reinforcements to the scattered garrisons and trying to adjust itself for the blow about to fall with the crash of a pile driver released from its clutch.
But Taver Pasha's 10,000 were still a force in being, with guns and full equipment — a force in a box; a force in desperation. Do you see the Adrianople garrison (which was in touch by wireless with the Turkish main army) striking out to connect up with Taver Pasha? Do you see Taver Pasha trying out lines of least resistance in a savage effort to reach Adrianople or the main Turkish army? Something to stir the blood, this, in the way of a war drama, while not a single foreign corespondent, or attaché knew even of the existence of Taver Pasha's command until its surrender. The news of this was conveyed with the official assurance that now no other Turkish force except that of Adrianople remained in Thrace, when we had been under the impression for over a month that it was the only one! The censors did not smile as they posted the bulletin, but some of the correspondents smiled — at themselves.
No, after the first rainbow hope of a successful general attack was over, Ivanoff was fully occupied in holding Adrianople safely in siege. That battery of old Krupps, which fired over the advanced Servian infantry position, while a battery of Creusots in turn fired over it, added their items of evidence to the same end. These Krupps were taken by the Russians at Plevna in the war of 1877-78, and given to the little army of the view nation of Bulgaria. Bulgarian recruits had dragged them through the muddy roads and over the pastures and beautifully emplaced them, and were working them against the enemy with boyish pride. But the world was thinking only of the modern Creusots and their brilliant showing.
The Bulgarians almost proved that you can make bricks without straw. They won the war by the bravery of their self-confidence as well as by their courage. Adrianople, which was about to starve if it did not fall, had, I am convinced, two months' supplies when the armistice was signed. With the nineteen and twenty-year-old conscripts already on the way to the front, with a casualty list that is easily one-fifth of the whole army, there was no sign of weakening. The square chin of the stoical Bulgarian was as firmly set as ever. I wonder what would happen in Europe if it included in its borders a nation of 100,000,000 Bulgarians!
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