Greece Refuses Armistice Plans.

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 3, 1912:
Statement by Minister in Paris — Will Not Consent to Feeding Besieged Turks.
BULGARS STILL CONFIDENT
Ferdinand Starts for Tchatalja and It Is Believed His Journey Means Armistice Will Be Signed.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Tuesday, Dec. 3.— The repeated postponements of the signature of the armistice between Turkey and the allies are beginning to cause some fears that the end of the war is not yet assured.
    The latest delay is generally ascribed to Greek dissatisfaction with the provision permitting the revictualing of Yanina, and on this point the Greek Minister in Paris has given the Temps an interview, in which he indicates that the hitch may prove serious.
    "The first conditions fixed for an armistice," said Minister Romanos, were perfectly logical. They comprised the surrender of all the besieged fortresses, Adrianople to the Bulgars, Yanina to the Greeks, Scutari to the Montenegrins, and Bivra and Durazzo to the Serbs, as well as the surrender of all isolated Turkish forces except those concentrated between Constantinople and the Tchatalja lines.
    "These first conditions having been rejected by Turkey, the Ottoman Government proposed that the armistice should carry with it not the surrender of the fortresses, but their revictualing, as well as the revictualing of the isolated Turkish forces, and, finally, the raising of the blockade.
    "This morning I told Premier Poincaré what I now repeat with the utmost distinctness — that the Greek Government cannot accept an armistice on such terms. We have communicated to our allies our point of view. "I have not been officially informed whether the Bulgarian Government accepts the Turkish conditions. I am confident that, like us, it will refuse them, for such an armistice would spell the annihilation of all the hopes of the Balkan Confederation, of all the work of emancipation of Christian peoples which we have in unison undertaken.
    "We are ready to continue the war with all our force in complete accord with our allies. We are equally ready to discuss conditions of peace; but we will on no account accept the armistice in its present form."
    Simultaneously with this plain-spoken declaration, which undoubtedly represents the views of the Greek Government and which possibly also is part of a concerted plan either to force a renewal of hostilities or to "bluff" the Turks into a more malleable spirit than they have shown during the progress of the negotiations, comes news from various quarters indicating that preparations to continue the war are being made on both sides.
    The bombardment of Adrianople is being continued, fighting goes on at Tarabosch, the Turks and Greeks are at each other's throats in the Island of Chios, and a Constantinople dispatch contains the significant statement that a heavy contract for military stores was signed by the Ottoman Government yesterday, a high price being paid for immediate delivery.
    Another Constantinople telegram suggests that it is believed in official circles that the Bulgarians are aiming at subduing Adrianople before an armistice is signed, in order that they may include that city in the clause referring to faits accomplis, which forms the basis of the armistice. At the back of the Turkish mind, it is further said, is a disposition to wait as long as possible, to see whether developments in the European situation may not relieve Turkey of some of her present most pressing difficulties.