Battle On Mid Peace Talk.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 17, 1912:
Europe Divided as to the Issue of the Complex Situation.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Sunday, Nov. 17.— The issue of peace or war is hanging in the balance in the Near East, and so many and conflicting are the conditions that weigh on each side that it is difficult to decide which way the scales are likely to move.
    On the one hand, Lieut. Wagner of the Vienna Reichspost, telegraphing from Sofia. Intimates that the Balkan allies are preparing a great coup. Another dispatch from the Bulgarian capital reports that the attack in force has begun on the Tchatalja lines, the assailants having reached the village of Larazikeui, on the Turks' right wing, south of Lake Derkos; the town of Tchatalja in the centre, and the village of Arnantkeui to the southward, near Lake Biyuk Chekmeje.
    On the other hand, Constantinople reports that 60,000 men, the flower of the Turkish regular army, are being brought from Asia Minor with the object of landing at Midia and making an attack on the Bulgarian rear to cut the communications of the force, investing Tchatalja.

Powers May Press Bulgaria.
    Still another dispatch from Constantinople, dated last night, tells of firing being heard all day, which seems to confirm the stories that the Bulgar advance has begun.
    It is generally assumed that the Porte, despite any plans for further resistance, will accept the allies' terms of peace unless they should be made too onerous. Even the temporary Bulgarian occupation of Constantinople may be waived, if the official journal at Sofia is to be believed.
    Some pressure, according to the Pall Mall Gazette, may be put upon Bulgaria to prevent her insisting upon what she has looked forward to as the crowning triumph of the campaign. That paper asserts that Roumania already has strong bodies of troops concentrated at Kalarasi, separated from Silistria by the Danube, Giurgevo, opposite Rustchus, and Turna, opposite Nicopolis. Silistria, Rustchus, and Nicopolis, all in Bulgaria, are now almost depleted of troops, which were sent southward at the beginning of the war.
    From Kalarasi, Giurgevo, and Turna Roumanian soldiers could, at any moment, should it be deemed necessary, march on Sofia, Plevna, Tirnova, and Shumla, the four principal points in the very heart of Bulgaria.
    In diplomatic circles the opinion prevails, according to this authority, that this concentration of Roumanian troops is the result of some diplomatic arrangement, which would have for its main object the application of pressure upon Bulgaria to modify her terms for an armistice.
    Russia, it appears, is prepared as a guarantor, in case Bulgaria requires guarantees, that Turkey shall not land troops on the Black Sea Coast, and another power, Germany, will see that no troops shall be brought from Asia Minor.

Reported Terms of Peace.
    The Bulgarian reply to the Turkish proposals for an armistice cannot be long delayed. It will undoubtedly embody terms upon which the Allies are prepared to negotiate peace, and, according to some reports, will take the form of an ultimatum by which Turkey will have twenty-four hours to make reply.
    The Observer ascertains from a well-informed source that, while the Allies' conditions will probably be abated somewhat under representations from the great powers, the final settlement is likely to leave the territorial situation as follows:
    "Greece will retain Epirus and all the Aegean Islands, including Crete, with a port, possibly internationalized, on the Adriatic.
    Montenegro will retain Scutari, with a general extension of her territory.
    Bulgaria will retain all of eastern Macedonia down to Dedeagatch and Thrace, south from the frontier as far as Adrianople and Kirk-Kilisseh, including both those towns.
    Albania will acquire autonomy under a Christian Governor General, appointed by the powers or by the Allies, but under the suzerainty of the Sultan, just as in the case of Lebanon.
    If the armistice is agreed to, it means that the bases of peace will have been settled, leaving the details to be worked in subsequently.
    The surrender of Scutari and Adrianople will at once follow as a matter of course, but the garrisons will probably be allowed to march out.
    The surrender of the Tchatalja lines will probably be demanded, together with the capitulation of Nazim Pasha's army. The Turkish Government, however, will probably ask the Bulgarians to follow the Russian precedent of 1878 and confine their demand to the surrender of the most important positions only.
    As regards the general prospect the most authoritative view obtainable is that of Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who in a letter of apology for not attending a public meeting said:
    "Although the prospect of a solution of the European question is not unfavorable, it must be some time yet before I can get more freedom."