London Thinks Crisis Near.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 3, 1912:
Silence Thought to Portend Fatal Blow to the Turkish Cause.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Nov. 2.— To-day saw another of those remarkable spells of silence which have marked the progress of the Balkan campaign, and which have regularly been broken by news of the most startling and important kind.
    Beyond a Constantinople report that fighting is still proceeding all along the line of the Eastern theatre of the war, only scrappy dispatches have come through, leading to the surmise in some quarters that both armies are exhausted by the fierce struggle of the last few days and are resting.
    This supposition is contrary to all the records of this marvelous campaign. Inaction now on the part of the Bulgars would be positively dangerous. To allow Nazim Pasha to intrench himself with even a third of his army along the Tchatalja lines would be a costly error, and it is unlikely that Gen. Savoff is making it.
    It is evident from Lieut. Wagner's dispatches that the Bulgarian Commander in Chief is hoping to inflict another crushing blow by sheer rapidity of movement before the mass of Nazim Pasha's forces can reach the Tchatalja.

Bad Strategical Mistake.
    As J. L. Garvín points out in his notes for to-morrow's Observer, when the Turks were overthrown on Thursday, they made an error, which may mean the climax of their disasters. Their centre retreated by the wrong route upon the wrong point.
    The shattered left had no choice but to fly toward Tchorlu, and from thence by the shore road toward Stamboul, but even the centre rushed back upon Tchorlu. Under circumstances like these, the mass of Turks, not being in anywise modern or intelligent, are especially liable to panic.
    The confusion and congestion of the wild, unformed rabble of men and impedimenta together, jammed into a single line of retreat, must have been in the last two days one of the awful spectacles of the war.
    But that was not the worst. The Bulgarians grasped the situation in a moment. They had passionately desired a Sedan, and aimed at it from the first. It seemed to have escaped them last week when Nazim Pasha made his big change of front and stopped their turning movement.
    But when the Turkish centre was beaten Thursday night and took the wrong road for retreat and marched toward the route by which the rolled-up left was already flying, the Bulgarians saw their great aim was just in sight again.

Great Flanking Movement Begun.
    From Saria and Istranja the Bulgarians commanded the outflanking roads to Tchatalja. They began their forced marches again. They are marching night and day in the hope and confidence that they will get between the main mass of the fugitives and Constantinople.
    Ichabod is the epitaph of the Turkish power in Europe. Nothing of the peninsula remains under the feet of the Turk save that low promontory of Thrace, stretching like a little finger toward the Bosporus, wherein, on a huddled route with vain endeavors to rally, Nazim and the last army of the Osmanli reel toward their last defense.
    But the Tchatalja lines may never receive even the minimum number of men required to man them. The invaders may possibly crown the surprises of this amazing war by compelling the huge army they have beaten to capitulate and by marching into Stamboul within a week.
    Constantinople, then, is in imminent peril. All else is lost. The only military question to be decided is whether the Bulgarians are to be constrained to break the last illusions of European diplomacy by forcing the Tchatalja lines, removing the whitewash in the Mosque of St. Sophia from the Christ in gold Mosaic, which still glimmers with a dim prophecy through that disgrace, and dictating peace in the neighboring buildings.

Real Danger of a Massacre.
    The name of the Sublime Porte is Ichabod. In spite of the official bulletins the Moslem populace know it. The rumors of wholesale massacre are, under these circumstances, no baseless scare but a very deadly possibility.
    The total population of Constantinople now numbers, in all probability, a million and a quarter. Of these somewhat less than a third are Turks, or rather Mohammedans in general, but there are over 200,000 Greeks, nearly as many Armenians, large numbers of other miscellaneous Christians, and a Levantine rabble of nameless composition.
    An outbreak of fanaticism might result in scenes reducing into relative insignificance the horrors of St. Bartholomew or the massacres of last September.
    It is unlikely that the Turkish Government in any case will be able to keep the city in hand. If the mass of maddened troops once get within the Tchataldja lines, many of them, instead of staying to defend the fortifications, will stream toward the city. In that case the danger of massacre will only be increased. This is a contingency for which the warships of the naval powers must be prepared.

Powers' Warships Hastening.
    It is reported that the British Admiralty is sending out a battle squadron, and in this connection reports from Portsmouth, Chatham, and other naval stations to-night tell of extraordinary activity there.
    There are fears also of an outbreak of anti-foreign ferocity at Salonika, where is one of the most remarkable Jewish communities in the world, and British, French, and German warships have already been sent there.
    Discussing the probable eventual partition of Turkey, Mr. Garvín makes a curious suggestion relative to Salonika. He says:
    "The Turk, unless an outbreak of massacres within the next few days compel his elimination from this side of the Bosphorus, will doubtless be retained in Constantinople, shall we say in the eastern vestibule as the hall porter of Europe.
    "Salonika might well become a free municipality under international protection and a free port.
    "The majority of its inhabitants are Jews. Their management of Salonika as a free port would be an experiment of profound interest.
    "Where everything is to be settled upon the basis of race the same principle might well decide the Government of this great Mediterranean port, where the Jew alone predominates. Were Lord Beaconsfield alive, he would probably have suggested the idea. It is an unexpected but most practical form of Zionism, which might well appeal to Jews throughout the world."
    Little credence is attached to the reported surrender of Adrianople. The only authority for it is an unimportant Bohemian paper.

Powers United for Mediation.
    Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was busy at the Foreign Office all day, and will forego the usual week-end out of town.
    Dispatches from the Continent indicate activity at all the Chancellories of the great powers. The proposals of M. Poincaré, the French Premier, for mediation are understood to have met with general acceptance, as far as the character of the mediation is concerned, but the powers have not yet decided that the moment is quite opportune.
    There is some disposition to regard the news of British naval activity as an indication that the agreement of the great powers is not so complete as reported, yet no hint of any hitch comes from any responsible quarters. But hitch or no hitch, the obvious inference is that the British Admiralty is determined to show that England is prepared for any eventualities.