How Wagner Foiled Bulgarian Censor.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 25, 1912:
Saw Actual War Operations After Penetrating the Lines from Mustapha Pasha.
RETURNED AMID WOUNDED
Officers Sent His Dispatches, Thinking Him an Army Official — London Times Man Confirms Story.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Monday, Nov. 25.— A dispatch to the London Times from Vienna says:
    "Lieut. Wagner, the well-known Reichspost war correspondent with the Bulgarian Army, who has returned to Vienna after an ineffectual attempt to investigate the Prochaska incident at Prisrend, describes to-day, in The Reichspost the manner in which he contrived to escape the restrictions imposed upon his colleagues and to transmit his dispatches.
    "Although this is not absolutely exhaustive, inasmuch as he declares himself not to be at liberty to divulge the circumstances of his three days' special mission during the battle of Lule-Burgas, Lieut. Wagner's account is a sufficiently complete refutation of the charges brought against him.
    "While he was supposed to be at Mustapha Pasha or Sofia, he spent in reality only three hours in the former place, and, aided by his knowledge of Bulgarian and his acquaintance with Major Stoinoff, contrived to proceed for five days to the front.
    "Near Adrianople, with the artillery train, he witnessed the artillery duels and attacks described in his dispatches, crossed the Maritza and saw the heroic attack of the Bulgarians on the Turkish positions at Marash.
    "Returning northward with a trainload of wounded, he concealed himself until Mustapha Pasha was passed, and thus escaped the attention of the patrols which were seeking to arrest him in consequence of the jealousy of Austrian and German colleagues, who denounced him to Dr. Radeff, the Censor, as a Turkish spy.
    "Alighting at Lyubimetz, the first Bulgarian station after Mustapha Pasha, he ordered the telegraph operator, who mistook him for a Bulgarian commissariat officer, to transmit his dispatches via Philippopolis. They thus escaped the censorship of Starazagora.
    "At Tirnovoseimenli a similar expedient again proved successful. Lieut. Wagner gives the names of a number of Bulgarian officers with whom he spent the night at Tirnovoseimenli and mentions many further details susceptible of exact verification.
    "I may add that I have seen the original of the telegrams received by the Reichspost from Lyubimetz and other places, and can testify that they correspond to the dispatches published in expanded form by the Reichspost."

Lieut. Wagner Facetious.
    In relating his adventures in the Reichspost, Lieut. Wagner declares that on his arrival he spent only three hours in Mustapha Pasha and facetiously remarks:
    "It amuses me to read that some of the correspondents saw me dally. I hope their other observations are more correct."
    After spending five days away from Gen. Ivanoff's headquarters and witnessing the fighting at Adrianople, Lieut. Wagner returned with the transport. He goes on:
    "When the train stopped at Mustapha Pasha I sought refuge from any peeping eyes in an obscure corner of the carriage. We only made a short halt, thank goodness; then the train took me away from the dangerous neighborhood of the censorship and my colleagues of the war.
    "The first station after Mustapha Pasha is near Ljubimetz. Here I got out and reported myself to the military station master as returning from the royal headquarters. He was a retired officer of the old-fashioned type, who did not know what to do with me.
    "My plan was quickly made. I went to the local telegraph office to try my luck at sending an uncensored message. Detachments of the newly formed Tenth Division were just marching through from Adrianople, when the natschanlik or postmaster hurried in with apologies for being absent to receive my enormously long telegram.
    "He has never seen a newspaper correspondent before and from my red armband took me for a War Commissioner.
    "I had no reason to point out his mistake. He promptly accepted my dispatch for transmission via Philoppopolis. I feared for a moment he would want to send it via Stara Zagora.
    "As a reward I gave him a lively account of the brilliant feats performed at Marash."
    After the battles of Lule-Burgas and Tchorlu, Lieut. Wagner returned to Sofia. At the Stara Zagora railway station the Bulgarian patrol searched the platform for him, for word had been sent from Mustapha Pasha that he must be arrested at ail costs. Meanwhile, Lieut. Wagner was sitting in the train, describing his experiences to a Captain on the Bulgarian General Staff.
    After an unpleasant incident at Philippopolis he reached Sofia safely. There he had an interview with Premier Güechoff. At the Minister's request he told him how he got the messages through, having first secured from Güechoff a general pardon in advance.