The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-10-21

sef-denying declaration about Mace
donia, Epirus and the Turkish islands
OF the archipelago. It is conceded
that for purposes of defense, Greece
would require at the least a force OF
$4,000 w~ell-trained men. TO equip
n such army is somewhat beyond the
financial capacity o a country with less
than z, 100000 inhabitants. To meet
the argument In favor OF making the
sacrifices required to maintain and
equip an efficient army in Greece there
is always the depressing reflection thai
however efficient a Greek soldier may
become, and however large a percent
age of the male population may bear
arms, Turkey will always be able to
overrun Thessaly with troops and to
capture Athens. 1t has thus been made
TO appear that the biggest army that
the Greeks could afford would be as
useless as the smallest, and 1t has been
asked with some p~ertinence, why
should she ruin herself by paying the
difference?"
In Servia human life is very cheap,
but the qualities that go to make a ma
ton formidable in war are sadly lack
ting. There are 100000 native Serbs,
but, either in their own land or out
side of it, they are not holding their
own. The reasons for this have been
summed III as follows: The Serbs
are thriftless, averse to all kinds of la
Dor, and are characterized by anti
social instincts, frequently culminat-
ing in a decided leaning toward anar-
chy. The finances Of the kingdom have
always been in a deplorable condition,
and political assassination has been
one or the approved methods Of rival
parties IN their struggle for power.
Reckoning Sundays, religious holidays,
and "cursedays." which are the surVi-
walls of old pagan festivals, it is said
that there are over $50 days of rest in
the dominions Of King Peter. 1t is
hardly to be wondered at hat the
Serbs should be giving way to the
Woodworking races by whom they
are surrounded. 1t is in Bulgaria that
the Turk will find, should it come to
war, an army equally formidable in
numbers and in quality. The Bull
Sarian army was at first drilled by,
RUSSIAN officers, but since 1885, when
the ear recalled them, 1t has been re-
leased from all foreign superintend-
ence. At present 1t is conceded to be
the strongest and best-trained of all
the Balkan armies, and it has been
claimed that it might enter the field
without being much outclassed by the
Turkish army n that through rapid
ity Of mobilization it might earn some
decisive victories at the very start.
In time OF war Bulgaria can raise an
army Of $50, 900 men, most Of whom
are we'll disciplined, enduring and Cou-
rageous. The elite Of the officers
graduated from the military school of
Sofia, are educated at ST. Petersburg,
Turin, Paris and Vienna. The nation
al militia" which the first article of
the treaty of Berlin conceded to the
autonomous and tributary principal
tty' Of Bulgaria, has been developed
by the very necessities of national ex-
iStence and by the patriotic devotion
of the people into a force which at a
very early stage Of it's evolution won a
brilliant victory over the Servian in
vader, and which can hardly fail to
give a good account Of itself in a strug-
gle against the Turks.
That the j~ealousies among the great
powers will operate now, a they have
always done, to the advantage of Tur-
key does not admit OF a doubt, but it
is far from true that the declared ene-
mics of Turkey are entirely united
among themselves. If it were a cues
ton Of sharing the spoils of victory, it
Is difficult to see how they could reach
a harmonious agreement. A union be-
tween Crete and Greece could, of
course, be effected with unanimous APP
prOval. but Greece has interests in
Macedonia which are hardly r~econcil-
able with those of her present allies,
and it is the ambition of King Mich
las of Montenegro to join together
under his sceptre the two fragments OF
the Servian race. That would neces-
sarily involve the elimination of the
present Servian dynasty which occu-
pies the throne in virtue of the assas-
sination of it's previous occupant. OF
course Austria-Hungary would insist
on having something to say were the
choice of the Servian people to fall
upon a member of the house of ME-
gosch. The statesmen of Vienna rec
ogntZe the fact that, once Joined, the
mass of politically organized Serbs
would act as a powerful magnet, draw
ing their fellow-countrymen Of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Croatia and DaIma-
tia, away from Austria and causing Sc
rious p~erturbations in the dual mon
archy. Austria, therefore, favors di-
vision among the Serbs, and when
there is no native cause at work pro-
ducing 1t, she is reputed to be always
ready to provide one. Briefly, whether
considered with reference to the jar
ring policies of Russia and Austria
Hungary in regard to the future of the
southern Slavs, or in the light of the
incompatible ambitions existing among
the states Of the Balkan peninsula
themselves. 1t Is difficult to imagine a
war having less promise Of any fruit
full issue than that which seems on the
point of enveloping southeastern Eu-
rope Wa.