Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
When the army of Press correspondents were gathered, it was seen that
there were several Austrians and Roumanians, and these countries were at
the time threatening mobilisation against the Balkan States. It was
impossible to expect that the Bulgarian forces should allow Roumanian
journalists and Austrian journalists to see anything of their operations
which might be useful to Austria or Roumania in a future campaign. Yet
it would not have been proper to have allowed correspondents other than
the Austrians and Roumanians to go to the front, because that would
perhaps have created a diplomatic question, which would have increased
the tension. It certainly would have given offence to Austria and to
Roumania. It would have been said that there was an idea that war was
intended against those nations; and diplomacy was anxious to avoid
giving expression to any such idea. The military attachés were in
exactly the same position.
There were the Austrian attaché and the Roumanian attaché, and their
duty was to report to their Governments all they could find out that
would be to the advantage of the military forces of their Governments.
The Bulgarians naturally would not allow the Roumanian nor the Austrian
attaché to see anything of what went on. The attachés were even worse
treated than the correspondents, because, as the campaign developed, the
Bulgarians got to understand that some of us were trustworthy, and we
were given certain facilities for seeing. But we were still without
facilities for the despatch of what we had seen. But the military
attachés were kept right in the rear all the time. They were taken over
the battle-fields after the battles had been fought, so that they might
see what victories had been gained by the Bulgarians.
The Bulgarians were much strengthened in their attitude towards the war
correspondents by the fact that they admitted receiving much help in
their operations from the news published in London and in French
newspapers from the Turkish side. The Turkish army, when the period of
rout began, was in the position that it was able to exercise little
check on its war correspondents; and the Bulgarians had everything which
was recorded as being done in the Turkish army sent on to them. They
said it was a great help to them. I think the outlook for war
correspondents in the future is a gloomy one, and the outlook for the
military attaché also. In the future, no army carrying on anything
except minor operations with savage nations, no army whose interests
might be vitally affected by information leaking out, is likely to allow
military attachés or war correspondents to see anything at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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