Big Bulgar Victory Rumored.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 22, 1912:
    LONDON, Tuesday, Oct. 22.—The Sofia correspondent of The Daily Telegraph sends a report that the Bulgarians have captured Kirk-Kilisseh, that 20,000 Turks surrendered there, and that communication with Constantinople was cut. It is added, however, that there is no official confirmation of this.
    The fighting at Flava, which was captured on Sunday by the Montenegrins, was very severe. According to a Cettinje dispatch to The Standard, the Albanian population fought desperately and retired only when the whole place was in flames. Nine hundred Albanians were killed, including many women and children, who were found dead with arms in their hands.
    The Seventh Regiment of Servian infantry is reported to have been virtually exterminated by the explosion of Turkish land mines after crossing the frontier into the district of Novi-Bazar, according to a news agency dispatch from Belgrade.
    A column of Greek troops was repulsed yesterday when it attacked the Kemiadis Pass, which is held by the Turks, according to a news agency dispatch from Constantinople. Kemiadis Pass is in the mountains on the Albanian frontier.
    "The bombardment of St. Constantine Monastery at Euxinograd, by the Turkish warship's, says a Sofia dispatch to The Times, and the destruction of this venerable and interesting building were an act of gross vandalism which nothing can justify. It may be taken as an omen of the barbarous character of the struggle which civilized Europe has failed to prevent."
    The monastery was formerly the residence of Prince Alexander, and subsequently of King Ferdinand.
    The Bulgarian Army will, it os thought, be the first to strike a heavy blow, for at the Bulgarians' objective point, the fortress of Adrianople, the main Turkish army is rapidly growing in strength and with time will outgrow that of the invaders. According to a Constantinople report an important battle at Adrianople is imminent.
    Rumors were current yesterday that two of the outer forts of Adrianople had fallen into the Bulgarians' hands, but these must be taken with reserve in the same way as the report of the capture of the town of Kirk-Kilisseh, of which there is no confirmation.

Guerrilla Warfare In Hills.
    The grimmest fighting of the war is likely to occur out of sight of the main armies, as some 4,000 Albanians are arming and Greek and Bulgarian bands have taken to the hills, where they will engage in guerrilla warfare.
    A well-known American business man and former Government official who has just returned from Cettinje gives some interesting information regarding the sudden aggressive tactics of Montenegro in the present war. In an interview yesterday he said:
    "The plan of war disclosed to me by King Nicholas has thus far been invariably successful. The capture of Scutari within a fortnight is inevitable. The Montenegrins know the country as well as their own dooryards, and stand in no danger of having their communications cut.
    "Although the Montenegrins had been planning the war for three years, the outbreak was premature — not a deliberate part of the plan of the Balkan League. The Montenegrins were concentrated on the border. Each soldier had three days' rations. At the end of that time even King Nicholas was powerless to hold them in leash.
    "The Montenegrin soldiers are well armed and equipped. They are splendid fighters. The only question is how well they can stand discipline, having been accustomed only to guerrilla warfare.
    "On leaving Cettinje I visited the northern division of the Montenegrin Army, whose General told me that he expected to form a junction with a Servian column. The combined armies would then proceed to fight their way through Macedonia and form a junction with the Greeks between Uskub and Monastir. They expected by this movement to hold large bodies of Turkish troops from going to the relief of Adrianople, where a big battle is planned.
    "I found every evidence that the Balkan League was working in perfect harmony, but the Montenegrin and Servian officials believe that the powers will permit only one or two important battles before they intervene, and they are already figuring on a convention similar to that at Berlin. Balkan diplomats have confessed that the arrangement of peace between Italy and Turkey was such a blow to their plans that, had the note of the powers been presented a week before the concentration on the Montenegrin border, war very likely would have been averted.
    "The Balkan League, which surprises even its founders by its solidarity, was formed so secretly that no European diplomat had an inkling of its purpose."
    The Greek Consul at Cardiff, acting under instructions from his Government, is laying claim to all the Greek tonnage entering that port. Every vessel so commandeered becomes the property of the Greek Government and the Captain an officer of the Greek Navy. Shipowners have requested the British Foreign Office to protest against this procedure.
    The Turkish Government was ready to agree to the annexation of Crete to Greece if Greece would withdraw from the Balkan alliance before the formal declaration of war. It has just been made known that this was intimated to Greece, and also that Turkey was ready to assent to the junction of the Greek and Turkish railway systems, a project which had until then been strongly objected to by Turkey. Greece refused point blank to accept the proposition.
    The British Government yesterday issued a proclamation of neutrality in the Balkan war.