Chapter I: Preface

This book was written in the spring of 1914, just before Germany plunged the world into the horrors of a war which she had long prepared, taking as a pretext a Balkan incident--the political murder of an Austrian prince by an Austrian subject of Serb nationality. Germany having prepared for war was anxious for an occasion which would range Austria by her side. If Germany had gone to war at the time of the Agadir incident, she knew that Italy would desert the Triple Alliance, and she feared for Austria's loyalty. A war pretext which made Austria's desertion impossible was just the thing for her plans.

It would be impossible to reshape this book so as to bring within its range the Great War, begun in the Balkans, and in all human probability to be decided finally by battles in the Balkans. I let it go out to the public as impressions of the Balkans dated from the end of 1913. It may have some value to the student of contemporary Balkan events.

My impressions of the Balkan Peninsula were chiefly gathered during the period 1912-13 of the war of the Balkan allies against Turkey, and of the subsequent war among themselves. I was war correspondent for the London _Morning Post_ during the war against Turkey and penetrated through the Balkan Peninsula down to the Sea of Marmora and the lines of Chatalja. In war-time peoples show their best or their worst. As they appeared during a struggle in which, at first, the highest feelings of patriotism were evoked, and afterwards the lowest feelings of greed and cruelty, the Balkan peoples left me with a steady affection for the peasants and the common folk generally; a dislike and contempt, which made few exceptions, for the politicians and priests who governed their destinies. Perhaps when they settle down to a more peaceful existence--if ever they do--the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula will come to average more their qualities, the common people becoming less simple-minded, obedient, chaste, kind: their leaders learning wisdom rather than cunning, and getting some sense of the value of truth and also some sense of ruth to keep them from setting their countrymen at one another's throats. But at the present time the picture which I have to put before the reader, with its almost unbelievable contradictions of courage and gentleness on the one side and cowardly cruelty on the other, is a true one.

The true Balkan States are Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania. Roumania is proud to consider herself a Western State rather than a semi-Eastern Balkan State, though both her position and her diplomacy link her closely with Balkan developments. Turkey, of course, cannot be considered in any sense as a Balkan State though she still holds the foot of the Balkan Peninsula. Greece has prouder aspirations than to be considered one of the struggling nationalities of the Balkans and dreams of a revival of the Hellenic Empire. But in considering the Balkan Peninsula it is not possible to exclude altogether the Turk, the Greek, the Roumanian. My aim will be to give a snapshot picture of the Balkan Peninsula, looking at it as a geographical entity for historical reference, and to devote more especial attention to the true Balkan States.

FRANK FOX.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Vexed Balkans 1

II. The Turk in the Balkans 19

III. The Fall of the Turkish Power 37

IV. The Wars of 1912-13 53

V. A Chapter in Balkan Diplomacy 78

VI. The Troubles of a War Correspondent in
the Balkans 94

VII. Jottings from my Balkan Travel Book 124

VIII. The Picturesque Balkans 149

IX. The Balkan Peoples in Art and Industry 162

X. The Future of the Balkans 175

Index 207

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

A Balkan Peasant _Frontispiece_

Trajan's Column in Rome 7

The Walls of Constantinople from the Seven Towers 10

Sancta Sophia, Constantinople 21

King Peter of Serbia 28

King Nicolas of Montenegro 33

Montenegrin Troops: Weekly Drill and Inspection of Weapons 35

The King of Roumania 39

The Shipka Pass 42

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria 46

King Ferdinand's Bodyguard 48

Bulgarian Infantry 53

Bulgarian Troops leaving Sofia 60

General Demetrieff, the Conqueror at Lule Burgas 69

Adrianople: A General View 76

Roumanian Soldiers in Bucharest 85

Adrianople: View looking across the Great Bridge 88

General View of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria 92

Sofia: Commercial Road from Commercial Square 101

Bucharest: The Roumanian House of Representatives 108

General Savoff 117

Bulgarian Infantry 124

Ox Transport in the Balkans 133

A Balkan Peasant Woman 136

A Bagpiper 140

Some Serbian Peasants 149

General View of Sofia 156

Bucharest 161

A Bulgarian Farm 166

Albanian Tribesmen 176

Greek Infantry 181

Podgorica, upon the Albanian Frontier 188

_Sketch Map on page xii._

THE BALKAN PENINSULA