Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
So at the rear of the army, which is making the Christian arm more
respected than it has been for some time in this Balkan Peninsula,
we sit and growl. Those of us who are convinced that we possess
that supreme capacity of a general "to see what is going on behind
the next hill" are particularly sad. There are so many precious
observations being wasted, theories which cannot be expressed,
sagacious "I told you so's" which are smothered. We are at the rear
of an army, and endless trains of transport move on; and if we can
by chance catch the sound of a distant gun we are happy for a day,
since it suggests the real thing. Some of us are optimists, and
feel sure that we shall go forward in a day or two; that we shall
be allowed to see the bombardment of Adrianople; if not that, then
its capture; if not that, then something. Others are pessimists,
and have gone home.
It is easy to understand the anxiety of the Bulgarians. They are
engaged in a big war. They know that some of the Great Powers are
watching its progress with something more than interest and
something less than sympathy. It is their impression that they can
beat the Turks; but that afterwards they may have to meet an
attempt to neutralise their victory. So they are anxious to mask
every detail of their organisation. Secrecy applies to the past as
well as to the present and the future. But it is very irritating;
and one goes home, or holds on in the hope that something better
will come after a time.
Meanwhile one may learn a little of the country and its
people--this country which has been riven by many wars. The
map--with its names in several languages--gives indications of the
wounds they inflicted. In Bulgaria, too, it shows how determined is
the nationality of the people who have within a generation
reasserted their right to be a nation. They permit no Turkish names
to remain on their maps. Not only do the Arabic characters go, but
also the Turkish names. Eski Sagrah, for example, gives place to
the title it has on the best English maps. "Sagrah" means in
Turkish a "dell," a place sheltered by a wood. "Eski" means "old."
The Bulgarian has changed that to Stara Zagora, Bulgarian words
with exactly the same significance. He wishes to wipe away all
traces of the defiling hand of the Turk from his country, though
tolerant of his Turkish fellow-subjects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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