Turks Resigned To Defeat.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 16, 1912:
Population of Thrace Expects to Emigrate to Asia.
    LONDON, Nov. 16.— Telegraphing from Constantinople on Tuesday by way of Kustendje, Rumania, The Dally Telegraph's correspondent says:
    "I am leaving for the Tchatalja lines to watch the final stages of the drama of Turkey's graceless exit from Europe after six centuries of misrule, persecution, wasted opportunities and commercial stagnation.
    "An atmosphere of resignation at the inexorable decree of fate has settled over the Turkish civil and military authorities. All of them seem incapable of making a  further effort to save the State. They  are prepossessed with the idea that it is not written in the book of fate that the State should be saved. European Turkey, inducing even Rumelia, is regarded as hopelessly lost, and the little emotion of which the Turkish character is capable is devoted to shedding a few mild tears over the possibility of losing even a portion of Constantinople.
    "For the rest, life proceeds as usual. In Pera and in Government circles there is the same slow, even round, which no emergency can quicken. So apathetic are the Turks over the disaster of their falling empire that they seem incapable of making one final effort to save something from the wreck. Whatever Europe may arrange in distributing the spoils in European Turkey will not affect the Ottoman population, which already has made its own plans for the future. This great exodus from Thrace is not the temporary move of a mass of terrified refugees to escape the ravages of war, but a general return of a people to the land whence they sprung.
    "All to whom I have spoken reply: 'We will never return to Europe. We have had enough of constant wars, massacres, disturbances, extortion, and persecution; we only seek where we may dwell in peace.' This fact may materially assist the powers in their squabble over Bulgaria's legitimate spoils.
    "All reports from the front show that the Turkish Army is demoralized and disorganized to such an extent that it is now an open secret that the members of the extreme military party have given in and are urging that peace should be arranged at all costs. I hear no more of 'dying in the last ditch at Tchatalja.' The Turks know perfectly well that against the Bulgarian Army they are helpless, and that the rabble which passes under the name of 'army' will be driven back on Constantinople whenever the Bulgarians care to press home the attack.
    "The Bulgarian advance necessarily has been slow, as the line has been destroyed, and even if it had not rolling stock would not have been available. The enemy is preparing for his final move with the customary care and precision, so that when the blow falls it will crush once for all the feeble remnants of the Turkish Army in Thrace."