Christians Deserted Turks.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 8, 1912:
Failure of Ottomans Chiefly Due to That, Says a Correspondent.
    BERLIN, Nov. 23.— "The chief responsibility for the failure of the Turkish army rests with the Christians of that army," says a correspondent, writing from Semlin. He adds:
    "The Turkish soldier is the same brave fellow he used to be, but he was deserted by his Christian allies, confused by his officers, and left by his commissariat to starve, while mountains of rice, bread, beans, and zwieback were piled up less than twenty miles away.
    "In the battle of Kumanova 25 per cent. of the army was made up of Christians — Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, and Catholic Albanians. Not much confidence was placed in the Bulgarians and Servians, but the Turkish leaders had no conception of the new unity of the Balkan States and could not have imagined that the Greeks, always bitter enemies of the Bulgarians, would favor them. Accordingly, while the Bulgarians and Servians were generally employed in the munition trains, the Greeks were put at the front, generally in charge of the artillery.
    "When the clash came the Christians promptly deserted to the enemy, leaving the guns unserved and disorganizing the troop units. At the same time the Bulgarians in charge of the military supplies showed no desire to bring up munitions for use against their blood brothers, and when munitions were at hand it was found that thousands of the cartridges were blank and soap instead of shells filled the caissons."