Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
General Demetrieff, Commander of the Third Bulgarian Army, the victor of
Kirk Kilisse and of Lule Burgas, the reluctant attacker at Chatalja,
impressed me as a man of fine character. For some few days I was a
member of the officers' mess at Erminekioi, which was the headquarters
of the Staff before the lines of Chatalja, and had the chance of seeing
much of the general. He struck one as a frank, courageous man. He
answered questions truthfully or not at all, and was notably kind to the
very small group of correspondents who had got through to the front. His
personal staff worshipped him, and told with pride that most of the
staff work with him on the battle-field was under fire. When it was
clear that the attack at Chatalja had failed, General Demetrieff neither
attempted to tell falsehoods nor shut himself off from visitors. He
ascribed the cessation of the attack to the outbreak of cholera in the
Bulgarian lines (and the statement was probably in his mind not only the
truth but all the truth: in any case one could not expect him to
disclose the shortage of big gun ammunition): was avowedly disconsolate
but not in the least discouraged. I cannot imagine General Demetrieff
having any hand in the making of the second Balkan war against the
Serbians and Greeks, and think that the Bulgarians had in him a man of
honesty and courage as well as of great military skill. No other general
of the Bulgarian Army impressed me in the same way, certainly not
General Savoff.
Of the Bulgarian politicians, M. Gueshoff, Prime Minister at the
outbreak of the first war, and M. Daneff, chief Bulgarian delegate at
the Peace Conference and Prime Minister at the outbreak of the second
war, had the chief parts in the glories and tragedies of 1912-13. M.
Gueshoff seemed a well-meaning but weak man. He was fond of insisting
upon his English education and of advancing that as a proof of his
complete candour. I imagine that he played no directing part in the
drama of his country's sudden rise to power and more sudden fall, but
did just as his king directed, sometimes probably under protest. M.
Daneff was a more virile man, and his force of character, with little
guidance from experience, of liberal education, or from wise purpose,
had much to do with the downfall of Bulgaria. Of the Balkan Peace
Conference which met first in London in December 1912, M. Daneff
attempted from the outset to be dictator. He never lost a chance of
being rude to an opponent or fulsome to a supporter. He diplomatised by
pronunciamento and made a vigorous use of the minor newspaper Press with
the idea of overawing the chancelleries of Europe. I am sure that the
British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had nearly as much amusement
as chagrin from the incidents of the Conference. Just when the Turkish
delegates were being gently coaxed up to drink the hemlock, Bulgaria
would publicly dance a wild triumph of joy, and announce that the very
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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