Powers Still Hope To Avert Conflict.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 2, 1913:
Porte's Reply Is Declared a Good Basis for Peace, but War Seems Inevitable.
PLAN TO STORM ADRIANOPLE
Savoff Says Preparations Are All Made — Austria Sends Pacific Note to the Czar.
    LONDON, Feb. 1.— In Turkish and Balkan headquarters the expectation has been intense all day of some move by the Powers, collectively or separately, to avert the threatened war. Russia and Austria, which are most interested in near Eastern conditions, and Great Britain, which has peculiar reasons as host of the conference for wishing to see it succeed, were expected to make special efforts to bridge the narrow gulf between the combatants.
    Although the delegates thanked England in glowing terms for her hospitality, some do not think that England gave as much assistance as she might have done.
    The Ambassadors of the Powers met to-day and later notified their Governments that the sense of the meeting was that the Turkish reply to the Powers' note afforded a possible basis for resuming peace negotiations. They suggested bringing this view to the attention of Bulgaria, but any attempt by the Powers to reconcile the belligerents is hampered by the shortness of time before the armistice ends.
    The Turkish delegation have received instructions from their Government to renew the declaration to the representatives of the powers and the British Foreign Secretary that Turkey desires peace and has made great sacrifices to attain this object, but cannot be expected to accept terms that wound her dignity and cause internal disorders.
    Rechad Pasha spoke in the same vein, but gave the impression that the Ottoman Government might make further concessions in the matter of Adrianople.
    The Balkan plenipotentiaries reasserted their desire for another campaign, which would make them dictators of peace on their own terms and would satisfy their ambitions to absorb European Turkey, including Constantinople. Dr. Daneff, head of the Bulgarians, said:
    "The immediate future rests with rifles and guns. Probably the contest will be short and sharp. Probably there is in store for the world a bigger surprise than the earlier events of the war provided.
    "I have noticed in some quarters a disposition to accuse us of not exhibiting a conciliatory spirit. Are the public aware that, in deference to the powers, the allies on three separate occasions deferred the final act? To remain longer would be undignified and ridiculous."

Ready to Storm Adrianople.
    Members of the Bulgarian delegation have received word from the front that Gen. Savoff, the commander in chief, asserts that the joint Bulgarian and Servían army, surrounding Adrianople, is one of the most efficient ever gathered together. He says that every detail for the attempt to storm and capture the city has been carefully prepared, and its execution, if the plan is carried out as rapidly as has been arranged, will be a remarkable military feat. The General finds another element of success in the rivalry of the Servian and Bulgarian troops who, in almost equal numbers, invest the fortress.
    Bets are freely offered among the besiegers as to who will be the first to enter Adrianople and plant on its walls the victorious flag of the allies.
    It is asserted here that the Montenegrins and the Greeks have received semiofficial assurances that Russia and France will support their retention of Scutari and, Janina, if they succeed in capturing them, while the Bulgarians are taking Adrianople.
    That a tendency toward ultra republican ideas is being developed among the military party in Constantinople is asserted by a news agency dispatch from the Turkish capital The Ottoman Government is said to show an inclination to make concessions to this faction.