Ottoman Army To Be Mobilized.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 2, 1912:
Porte Refuses Servians Demand and Servia Stops Ammunition Destined for Turkey.
TO DETAIN GREEK VESSELS
Turkey to Requisition Them — Greece Said to be About to Annex Crete.
KING FERDINAND TO LEAD
Chosen as Commander of the United Armies — Cretans Defy Powers and Say They Will Aid Greece.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Wednesday, Oct. 2.— Turkey's decision, to mobilize the whole of her regular army and First Reserves as an answer to the military preparations of Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece makes the Balkan situation still more critical, but in diplomatic quarters hopes are still entertained that an actual outbreak of hostilities can be averted.
    Continental Stock Exchanges yesterday took a gloomy view of the situation but the panicky disposition which prevailed during part of the day on the Berlin and Vienna bourses was checked by optimistic statements from political and financial authorities. On the London Exchange there was a general fall in prices, but here there was less tendency to take the blackest view, and it was even suggested that tight money in Berlin was more directly responsible for the heavy selling from that quarter than the news from the Near East,
    It was recalled that just four years ago Capel Court had a worse experience over the Balkans than the present situation has yet developed, and that war, nevertheless, did not materialize. Monday, Oct. 5, 1908, when Bulgaria proclaimed her independence, saw a heavy fall in prices, and throughout the week the war fever kept the markets in a state of acute nervousness, which by Friday developed into a state of demoralization bordering on panic.
    By Saturday, however, the crisis had passed, and a recovery as rapid as the collapse followed. Grave as the present situation is, it is not absolutely desperate.
    Five Balkan armies are mobilizing, and by the close of the week nearly a million men will be in arms in the Eastern peninsula.
    Greece is mobilizing both her army and her navy, and all steamers have been notified to concentrate at Piraeus.
    Servia, which began mobilizing on Monday, claims to be able to put 250,000 men under arms by to-night, but this estimate is considered exaggerated both as regards the number of men and the time required.
    Bulgaria's preparations include the proclamation of martial law, a severe censorship of press telegrams, and a moratorium, or suspension, of all payments — for debt, interest, or rent.
    Montenegro's little army is probably in a more forward state of preparedness than any of its allies, but is hardly a more lethal weapon of attack upon Turkey, unless acting in concert with other armies, than would be the militia which the Cretans are calling out.

Scenes in Constantinople.
    Details of the Turkish decision to mobilize are given by the Constantinople correspondent of The Daily Mail. He says:
    "During the Council of Ministers, which sat continuously from 10 o'clock till 6, the corridors of the Sublime Porte were full of groups of people eagerly discussing rumors that escaped from the council chamber. Khaki-clad cavalrymen with large dispatch cases constantly started to gallop up the steps of the street leading to the War Ministry on the ridge at Stamboul. At 3 o'clock Sir Gerard Lowther, the British Ambassador, who only returned from England this morning, drove up to the Porte in a carriage which was conspicuous by the scarlet and gold livery of the armed Kavass on the box. The Foreign Minister left the council room to receive him. Their conversation lasted two hours.
    "At 6 o'clock the flowing-robed Sheik ul Islam, the head of the Moslem priesthood, came out of the council room. He confirmed the rumor of the mobilization of the army. 'No act of aggression has yet taken place on our side,' he said. 'All the necessary dispositions are being taken.'
    "The Chief of the General Staff, passing through the corridor, was asked to pronounce on the report that it was intended also to send troops to the Russian frontier. He smiled cryptically, but made no reply.
    "It is reported that the Government has decided to issue arms to the Albanians, who are expected to hold back the Montenegrins and Servians.
    "The veteran Kiamil Pasha is credited with taking up a pacific attitude. Others of the Cabinet are said to be impatient.
    "Some officers of the General Staff are leaving to-night for the frontier. The railway authorities tell me that all goods traffic to Bulgaria will be stopped to-night, Passenger trains leave, however.
    "On the whole, the people of Constantinople preserve their traditional calm. I spent several hours at the War Ministry to-day. Hospitable coffee and cigarettes were handed around as usual, and when one spoke of the likelihood of war there was the remark, 'If God pleases.'
    "If the threats on the part of the great powers are not sufficient to cow the Balkan States into inactivity, it is difficult to see how a clash can be averted. The slightest incident would touch off the trains that are being laid on every frontier of Turkey in Europe."

Friction Among the Powers.
    Although some doubts are expressed in a Berlin dispatch to The Daily News as to whether all the great powers are really anxious that war should be avoided, the general consensus of opinion is that both the Triple Entente and two of the three powers of the Dreibund (Italy being the exception) are actuated by a common desire to stave off hostilities. Already, however, evidences of the jealousy and friction among the great powers which the Balkan situation is calculated to create are seen in Russia's determination to mobilize seven army corps in her Polish provinces, and the assertion is made in Vienna that Austria and Germany together intend to make representations to St. Petersburg on account of this supposed menace to the Austrian frontier.
    Austria, according to a Vienna dispatch to The Daily Mail, "is still preserving a watching attitude, but it is expected that the die will be cast before the expiration of the next forty-eight hours. Although a glimmer of hope that some settlement may be arrived at is still preserved, Austria will be forced to give the word to an armed force to proceed toward the Servian frontier unless a much-desired but very faintly expected turn of affairs is brought about by diplomatic action."
    According to an official communique derived from M. Sazonoff, the Russian Foreign Minister, strong but friendly representations have been made by Russia, France, and Great Britain to Turkey regarding the necessity of the speedy introduction of reforms in her Christian provinces, but it is a question whether the war fever in Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro can be reduced in this fashion. Something more is required — something in the nature of a stern admonition to these four Governments that, whatever might be the result of a combined attack upon Turkey, they would obtain none of the spoils of victory. If Bulgaria and her partners can be persuaded that they will derive no territorial advantage from war they may draw back at this eleventh hour from an enterprise in which the risks are tremendous.