Allies Will Impose Severe Peace Terms.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 15, 1912:
    LONDON. Dec. 14.— On the eve of the peace conference, The Associated Press has gathered from the representatives of the Balkan kingdoms and the foremost Turkish delegate an authoritative declaration of the terms which the allies propose to enforce and the Ottoman views thereon.
    Like experienced diplomatists, all the Balkan delegates, in speaking officially, adhere to the watchword adopted in the first, and probably the last, plenary meeting before entering the conference, that they are "in complete accord and have established a perfectly united programme to follow."
    When they speak with friends, not for quotation, their faces light up with their enthusiasm and their faith is admirable.
    "Tell the Americans," they say, "that we trust in their sympathy and moral support, as we are fighting desperately and shedding our best blood for the same cause which rendered the name of Washington glorious and venerated. We are risking all we possess for our liberty and independence."
    "Tell them," added, in perfect English, M. Vesnitch, the Servian Minister at Paris, "that some of the sons of the Balkans who became American citizens are in the ranks at the front giving proofs of valor and bravery of which Uncle Sam should be as proud as we are."

Grim Threat to the Turks.
    The determination of the Balkan States not to permit an Ottoman policy of procrastination is significant on account of the form which it has manifested. "The Turks are much mistaken," said one of the chief delegates, "if they entertain such an idea. Peace will practically be concluded between Christmas and New Year's around the diplomatic table in St. James's Palace, or we will impose it in
    Constantinople at Easter under the range of our cannon and at the point of our bayonets. But then conditions will be very different Now we are satisfied with the minimum demands; then we will exact the maximum."
    The main conditions of the allies include the immediate surrender of Scutari, Adrianople, and Janina, the garrisons of which will be granted full military honors; the evacuation of Eastern Europe by Turkey as far as East Tchatalja to a line which experts appointed by the contracting parties will delimit on the spot; the cession to Greece of all the Aegean Islands, including Rhodes and eleven others which Italy is keeping as a pledge for Turkish fulfilment of the treaty of Lausanne; the annexation of Crete to Greece and the payment of a war indemnity and the expenses sustained on account of the Ottoman prisoners.
    In return the allies will grant complete amnesty to the Mussulman population in the territories they annex for any acts of hostility during the war; the return of all prisoners; the recognition of the spiritual sovereignty of the Sultan over Ottomans becoming subjects of the Balkan States, and the free administration by the Mussulmans of their Pious funds in the Balkans.
    The Servian ex-Premier, Stojan Novakovitch, head of the Servian plenipotentiaries, said he was satisfied an agreement would be reached on the question of an Adriatic port, on which Servia and Austria are at swords' points.

Turkish Talk of Resistance.
    Rechad Pasha, the most distinguished Ottoman delegate, who has resided so long abroad that he is a type of the intelligent cosmopolitan, expressed the hope that the assistante of the powers on the one side and moderation on the part of the allies on the other would result in a solution which, if not satisfactory to Turkey, would safeguard her dignity. He feared that the apparent harmony of the allies would last only while the common enemy was before them, but that the moment they were left to themselves they would be plunged into anarchy over the division of the spoils, rendering intervention by the powers inevitable.
    He said he would have to raise the question at the first meeting of the failure of Greece to join the armistice.
    "Is it possible," he asked, "to treat for peace while war is in progress? Some understanding would be reached which might be annulled by the progress of the military operations. What would be the use of a discussion about Janina if while the discussion is going on it would be forced to capitulate, or about Salonika, if it were recaptured by the Turks?
    "The conditions put forward by the Greeks to adhere to the armistice were absurd, as among other things they asked for the surrender of Janina and the continuation of the blockade. If the other States followed the same idea we would have been asked to surrender Adrianople and Scutari also, and, admitting that we were such idiots as to accept terms of this kind, there would be no need of a meeting here to discuss the conditions of peace, nor would it be possible for us to continue the war.
    "If they make it impossible for us to conclude an honorable peace they will find that the old Mussulman lion, although wounded, has not lost its strength."

Position of Greece in Doubt.
    The Greek delegation, interrogated on the question of the armistice, answered that peace between Italy and Turkey went through several months of negotiations and was finally concluded without any previous armistice.
    To this Rechad Pasha retorted that the situation with respect to Italy was quite different, because the negotiations were  unofficial, and the continuation of the war could never affect the positions of the two belligerents, as it may in the case of Turkey and Greece.
    In diplomatic circles it is believed that after some skirmishing on this question a middle course may be found, on the lines at Greece, although not adhering to the armistice, will promise to suspend war operations during the conference, and that Turkey shall do the same.
    The outlook with respect to the conference of Ambassadors to-night is optimistic. The chances of an agreement on autonomy for Albania under the protection of the Powers are regarded as favorable, the expression used being "Albania must not become the Schleswig-Holstein of the Balkans, but the Belgium of the Balkans." Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Minister, will deliver an address of welcome to the delegates to the peace conference at its first meeting, which has been arranged to take place at noon on Monday.