Greece In Balkan War.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 10, 1913:
A Rejoinder to Gen. Miles from an American Who Fought In It.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
    Dispatches from Paris quote our distinguished Gen. Nelson A. Miles as saying to newspaper correspondents that he has been to Sofia by way of Vienna to study Bulgaria's brilliant Thracian campaign, that while he was in Sofia the present war broke out between Bulgaria, the Servians and Greeks, and he is quoted as saying that the real responsibility for this new war rests upon the action of certain European powers, who played on the jealousies of Balkan nations, which were already exceedingly irritable.
    When reading stories in the European press directed against Bulgaria it must be remembered that Serbs, Greeks, Rumanians, and Turks at all times had free access to the ear of the world, while Bulgaria has been surrounded and unable to state her case. Gen. Miles is quoted as saying that he believes Bulgaria could have withstood the Serbs and Greeks successfully if Rumania had not taken a hand. Gen. Miles evidently got his opinions and impressions from hostile Sofia and Vienna. As a matter of fact the Greek Army alone could have defeated Bulgaria.
    The record of the campaigns this past Winter is as follows: The Greek Fleet kept the Turkish Navy bottled up in the Dardanelles during the war, thereby preventing the hordes of Turkish soldiers of Asia from swarming to Adrianople and over the Balkans. The record further shows that in the fighting at the Adrianople lines the Bulgarians could not take the city, even though they had an army of 100,000 men, until a Servian army of 65,000 was sent to assist them, and this same Servian army brought sixty heavy field guns with it; and this same Servian army was the first to enter Adrianople — a brilliant Thracian campaign, but really won by the Servian arms.
    Bulgaria has had the best of the newspapers of Europe on her side during the Balkan war — even the illustrated journals — and on account of Gen. Miles being confined to the limits of Sofia and Vienna the facts were probably not known to him. Greece and Servia have been given scant attention.
    I was with the Greek Army at Fort Bezanie, the Turkish stronghold that guarded the City of Janina, in the mountains of Epirus, and I witnessed the assaults of the Greeks on this seemingly impregnable fortress of snow and ice, defended by 35,000 Turkish veterans and 150 modern Krupp cannons, 6,100 feet above the sea level and in the cold months of November, December, January, and February. The Greek Army besieging this fort numbered only 60,000 men, and Bezanie seemed a Gibraltar, as I had seen that famous British fortress. But the Greek Army, alone and unaided by any of her allies, captured it — one of the greatest military feats ever accomplished. This proves beyond any doubt that Greece could handle Bulgaria easily.
    Bulgaria has been paraded and advertised all over the world as having "the fighting army" of the Balkans, and the newspapers of Europe and America have given her soldiers full praise and great credit, but subsequent events have shown that the Greek Army is vastly superior in organization, discipline, and equipment, as the Greeks have won every battle they have fought against the Bulgarians. The men of Bulgaria are brave, but they have been completely outclassed by the Greeks. The brilliant victory the Greeks won at Sarantaporo also emphasizes these facts.
    It is well known by all officers and sailors in Europe that the Greek Fleet did as much if not more to drive the Turks out of Europe than all other things combined. This new war started on account of the greed of Bulgaria in the division of territory, especially in Thrace and Macedonia, and the Greeks and Serbs were too wise to let her keep all the lands taken from Turkey, especially as they had done most of the fighting, as per the 65,000 Servians at Adrianople and the sixty heavy siege guns furnished by Servia. I hope that Gen. Miles will get information from both sides before he again expresses himself.
    I admire Gen. Miles as one of our great leaders, and I know he is too much of an American to be biased by one-sided reports such as he will naturally get from Sofia and Vienna, as both of these capitals are bitterly opposed to Greeks and Servians. Each one, Sofia and Vienna, wants Salonika for itself. Salonika is now held by the Greek Army and Fleet, and its population is Greek by religion, blood, and ambition.
    THOMAS S. HUTCHISON, Brigadier General Tennessee National Guard, Retired. [Late of the Fifteenth Regiment, Greek Infantry, and eight field batteries of artillery in the Epirus campaign.]
    Chicago, Ill., Aug. 3, 1913.