Turks Deny Enemy Is Near.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 8, 1912:
    LONDON, Friday, Nov. 8.— The past twenty-four hours have brought little official news from the seat of war. A report from Athens that Salonika had been evacuated was premature, and a similar report concerning Monastir is unconfirmed.
    A Constantinople dispatch gives a Turkish assertion that there are no Bulgarians before Tchatalja, and that both armies are resting. The Turkish reports regarding the progress of the war, however, have been so consistently misleading as to have little value. According to a news agency dispatch from Sofia, the Bulgarian troops advancing on Constantinople yesterday occupied several villages in the vicinity of the line of Turkish forts at Tchatalja.
    Between the Bulgarian Army and Constantinople now stand only the Tchatalja forts, which are held by an army that has suffered a series of crushing defeats and that has been rendered, it is believed in military circles, incapable of making any sustained defense against a vigorous assault.
    The commanders of the Bulgarian invaders are said to have fixed next Sunday as the day on which they will enter the Turkish capital with their troops and hold a service of thanksgiving in the Mosque of St. Sophia.
    The present lull in news may mean that some important action is proceeding. Below Adrianople, says a Sofia dispatch to The Standard, the Bulgarians have dammed up the River Maritza so that the water has been forced back and has flooded the town, it is expected that this will compel an early surrender.
    A Cettinje dispatch to The Standard says that King Nicholas is annoyed at the protracted siege of Scutari, as Montenegro has occupied much less Turkish territory than the other allies, and it is feared that this will have an unfavorable effect when the partition of Turkey is made.
    The King has, therefore, ordered the commanders of the other Montenegrin columns to push forward and occupy as many places as possible before the Servians penetrate further west.
    Another Cettinje dispatch says that the whole country is in the grip of Winter, the snow is two feet deep, and roads are impassable.
    The report of the occupation of the port of San Giovanni di Medua, on the Adriatic Sea, as well as of the cities of Alessio and Jakova by Montenegrin troops is confirmed in a dispatch received by the Montenegrin Consul General here yesterday. Fighting is also taking place around Bonchan, to the south of Scutari.
    The antagonism of the Malissori tribesmen to the Montenegrins is said to have checked the army or Crown Prince Danilo of Montenegro, which has made several attacks on Tarabosch.
    The American High School for Girls at Scutari, on the Asia Minor side of the Bosphorus, has sent its scholars of Bulgarian nationality on board one of the British cruisers now at Constantinople owing to fears for their safety, according to a dispatch from the Turkish capital.
    At the request of the Ambassadors in Constantinople intrenchments have been thrown up at San Stefano and at Kiatkane, so that if the rout that occurred after previous battles should be repeated the mob of fleeing soldiery can be checked.
    Should matters become more threatening in the Turkish capital the fleets of the powers may force the Dardanelles, in which case there would be 6,000 men available for landing, with possible reinforcements from the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.