Turks Admit Enemy Is Near.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 6, 1912:
    LONDON, Wednesday, Nov. 6.— It was officially announced in Constantinople yesterday that fighting had begun between the Bulgarians and Turks at the Tchatalja forts, according to a special dispatch from that city. The result of the fighting is not stated.
    The water supply of Constantinople was cut off yesterday by a large Bulgarian force which occupied Derkas, at the end of the line of Tchatalja, from which point the aqueduct supplying the Turkish capital starts, according to a news agency dispatch from Sofia. This report has not been confirmed.
    The Bulgarian troops have, it is added, occupied the region between Tchorlu and Tchatalja, completely surrounding the Turkish force in that district.
    Another Bulgarian column, formed of detachments from Drama and other captured towns, is marching on the seaport of Kavala, on the Aegean Sea.
    An allied force, consisting of Bulgarians from Kuruk and Greeks from Yenidje-Vardar, is proceeding by forced marches to Salonika.
    Other telegrams say that, except for a few straggling detachments of men in fighting formation and fleeing Turkish troops, the country beyond the Tchatalja forts, forming the last Turkish defenses before Constantinople, is now clear of Ottoman troops. The investing Bulgarian force on the plains below the Tchatalja hills presents a front extending about thirty miles across the peninsula.
    To get on the move so quickly the Bulgarian troops must have worked hard, as they have thousands of wounded Turks and Bulgarians to care for, while they have had to burn or bury a large number of killed.
    The Servian troops are going loyally to the support of their Bulgarian allies. It is officially stated in a dispatch from Belgrade that the Servians, having annihilated the Turkish Army in Macedonia, have been ordered to assist the Bulgarians, Greeks, and Montenegrins. A large force of Serbians has already passed through Sofia on the way to Adrianople, the bombardment of which continues without abatement.
    Constantinople is quiet, but the Embassies have applied to the Porte for permission for the passage of a second cruiser of each power through the Dardanelles.
    Dispatches from the Turkish capital say the Ottoman press is taking the situation calmly, with the exception of The Hilali Osman, edited by the notorious Sheik Shawish, which prints a violent article against the powers. The newspaper is being eagerly bought by the public.
    "If the Bulgarians succeed in forcing the Tchatalja lines and advance on Constantinople," says a Constantinople dispatch to The Daily Telegraph, "the Ottoman Government will be prepared to adopt the most extreme resolutions in order to avoid signing a treaty with the Bulgarians at Constantinople. They will pass over to Asia Minor and organize resistance there, leaving the Bulgarians to settle matters at Constantinople directly with the powers.
    "At the present time in Turkish circles, however, the hope of defending the Tchatalja lines has not been abandoned. It is now officially confirmed that Turkey agrees to place herself in the hands of the powers. A note, in which the Porte announces this agreement, contains the phrase: 'In view of the immediate cessation of hostilities, Turkey leaves to the great powers the fixing of the terms of peace.'
    "Turkey has proposed that the terms should be discussed at a joint council of the Cabinet with the Ambassadors. The Ambassadors have given the Porte to understand that, while they accept the principle of mediation, it will not have the least chance of success if it is to take the form of a simple invitation to the Bulgarians to interrupt their military operations, without making them any corresponding concrete offer.
    "The Ambassadors advised the Porte to declare that it was left entirely to Europe to arrange any basis of mediation which Europe regarded as possible of acceptance.
    "The Turkish Government decided to follow this advice, but learned that the Bulgarians had determined categorically to refuse any offer of mediation; that they were resolved to march into Constantinople and sign the treaty there, without permitting themselves to be restrained by the possibility of an ulterior revision of that treaty by Europe.
    "The military attachés and correspondents returned to Constantinople from the front to-day. The British and Russian cruisers have arrived, and a French warship is expected here to-morrow."