Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
The second session of the Balkan Peace Conference came to an abrupt end
through practically an ultimatum from the British Foreign Secretary, Sir
Edward Grey, that peace with Turkey on the lines determined by the
Powers must be signed at once. The Grecian and Serbian delegates saw
then that the game of delay could no longer be played, signed the Peace
of London, and hurried away to their homes expecting an attack from
Bulgaria.
Some strange infatuation drove the Bulgarian leaders at that time to a
fit of madness. They had just wrung the last atom of concession from
Turkey, and had an enormous undisputed access of territory in Thrace and
in eastern Macedonia, with a good coastal frontage on the Aegean. True,
they were faced with a demand for a small territorial concession by
Roumania, and Greece disputed the right of Bulgaria to an area of
northern Macedonia, and Serbia disputed with her over her Macedonian
area. It would have been quite within the rules of Balkan diplomacy for
Bulgaria to have sought the help of one of her neighbours, so that she
might withstand the others. With proper adroitness she might have robbed
each in turn with the help of the others. But Bulgaria elected to fight
all of them at once. To Roumania she was rude, to Serbia stiff, to
Greece provocative. By joining hands with Serbia, which had helped her
very gallantly at Adrianople, and was now much injured by the decision
of the Powers that she was not to keep the Adriatic territory which she
had won in the war, Bulgaria might have coerced Greece and Turkey at
least, and perhaps have struck a better bargain with Roumania. But she
had conciliation for none.
The events that followed are as tragical as any that I can recall in
history. Bulgaria had within a few weeks raised herself to a position
which promised her headship of a Balkan Confederation. She might have
been the Prussia of a new Empire. Within a few days her blunders, her
intolerance, and her bad faith had humbled her to the dust. As soon as
she attacked Greece and Serbia--to attack such a combination was
absurd--Roumania moved down upon her northern frontier, and the Turk
moved up from the south. Neither Roumanian nor Turk were opposed. The
whole Bulgarian strength was kept for her late Allies: and yet the
Bulgarian forces were decisively routed by both Serbians and Greeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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