The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-12-06
GREATEST THUNDER
As TURKS SEE It
At the Mont1nartre Cafes
Women Inhale Drugs OPP
emily from Snuff Boxes.

Constantinople. Dec. Ito learn
anything definite about the reasons
LOT the disasters which overlook the
auFkish army Of the east" n has
10 go to n men who have borne tho
nrunt Of the battle. and have been In
the held. In the hospitals (almost
every large building in the city IL now
hospttal.) the o~ficers and men talk
Freely about the campaign in Thrace.
from the ofttcers one can gather
much n same story. for there Is lit
ne d~ivergenc OF opinion about tho
nam iacts Of the collapse of the Tur-
kish defense. No Turkish OFFICER will
admit that the strategy of the general
stan has been at fault. or that Otto.
man troops have failed In the stress Of
actual lighting to display their tradt-
tionai courage. Nor will they ac-
knowledge that the Bulgarian is man
Tor nan a better soldier. have put
together the following. which is a
fair resume Of the story of the off,
GERS:
w were %unprepared when the wal
broke out. The nghting of last sum-
mer with the Albanians, and the effort
to police the railway lines and the
mountainous country OF Central Mace
had worn out the soldiers. who
We're in active service. The redifs
(reservists) Of the first ban had been
dismissed for the winter in late Au-
gust and early September. and had
scattered to their homes In Asia Minor.
The army of the east. which has had
to face h Bulgarian invasion. was
greatly depleted in numbers and phy-
steal strength, when the Balkan states
began their mobilization. As it was
impossible to oncentr at Adrian
~ the battalions already under arms
IN Europe. owing to the fact hat they
were i~mperatively needed on the
Greek. Montenegrin, and Sevvian from
tiers. the army OF the east was de-
pendent upon tho A~natolian 'redifs'
OF the second ban.
We have been criticized for not adj
herring rigidly to the reform Of Gen.
Der Goltz concerning the make
up OF the battalions of the first line.
But how could we complete these bat
talions in lighting strength sufficient
to meet the large forces Of Bulgaria
n Servia combined. il we were not
to hll them up with 'redifs?' We
could not draw our forces from the
Russian Asiatic frontier. The 'nizam'
tactlve) corps in Mesopotamia could
not reach the front for two months. |
and our 'nizams' of the sixth army
corps could not be forwarded from
and Beirut because we were
still at war with Italy. and did not
have command Of the sea. The same
misfortune prevented u moving the
at Smyrna, when We feared
Italian attack there. Since the
peace was signed, the Greek fleet has
prevented the landing Of troops all
.aloiha. D~edeagatch and Cavaila.
Fall Back on Unframed Men.
$50 We were compelled to fall back
the 'redifs' who could be mobol-
lYoH NJ H1ANG Gao ,,@~k. ~> >~--I
the Anatolian railway. The urgent
need justified our seizure Of Greek YES
at Constantinople. for these were
needed for transports from the Black |
Sea littoral. For the rest we had to
depend upon the single railway track
from Konia to Scut4ri. and the other |
single track from Constantinople to
be commended with as that which
the Russian concentration
in Manchuria.
when you come to speak Of men
by III hundreds OF thousands, one
railway line is little help in mobiliza-
lion and concentration. Between Con-
and Adrianople we had
some 275 freight cars available. each
OF which would accommodate forty
men. A little multiplication and div
lsion Will demonstrate that the two
weeks we had before the Bulgarians
attacked was pitifully little.
After their long railway journey
Ia cramped position. and without food,
the soldiers were put Immediately
upon the battlefield. The quarter.
department had broken down
There was no. bread. The
poor fellows were many Of them with
out shoes and o%vercoats. and blankets
a luxury. Many Of them had
never been drilled In the use Of our
rifle. and could not tight with It.
1T vas the redif battalions from
Afon-Kara-Hissar who started the
panic at Kirk-kilisseh The battle
had not been lost. If we had enough
we could have stopped the
panic. AS it was. the decentralization
was complete. Why not confess Il?
The men were crazy. We shot them
down. and yet they did not stop. It
Is impossible to estimate how many
oncers were killed by their own reEi-