Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-11-01
FOUR NATIONS Al WAR With OTTO
MAN EMPIRE.

clared and battles are being fought.
many casual readers are asking
Where? Why? Wherefore? The
following details will therefore be
of interest at this time:
Real war has begun and is threat re:
ening to spread. Half a million
men are already in the field, and
collisions occur every day. Turkey
in Europe has been invaded by
Montenegro, Servia and Bulgaria.
Greece has proclaimed a blockade
of the Turkish coast and has begun
to inforce it. This means that
Grecian warships guard the coast
and claim the right to capture mer.
chant vessels going into or out OF
Turkish ports, even if the merchant
vessels belong to neutral countries.
By the laws of nations there can be
no blockade except within three
miles of shore. If a merchant
vessel of a neutral country can get
that far out to sea it is safe from
capture. 49,
Montenegrins prove to be unlm-
portant. They were small villages
and there was little resistance. The
same is true of Elassona, occupied
| by the Greeks. This town is at the
| foot of Mount Olympus, on the
summit of which the mythical gods
and goddesses of ancient Greece
were supposed to dwell. At first
these actions were reported as ''great
Victories" Many of the news
paper reports of battles proved to
be untrue.
The Bulgarian army is operating
futher east than the others, and
not far from the shores of the Black
Sea. The Montenegrins are on the
extreme west of Turkey in Europe,
and the Servians are between the
two. The Greeks have thus faI
done little on land but are active
with their navy. The whole front
Ter. from the Black Sea to the
Adriatic. is practically in the posses
sion of the allies, and the Turks are
slowly retreating southwark. Bull,
garia alone has six separate colums
invading Turkey. The Servians
have two, said to be $50, 900 strong
The Montenegrins, with a much
smaller force, are holding impor'
tant mountain passes through
which the allies may pour into
western Turkey.
Thus the Sultan, having just
concluded peace with Italy after a
disastrous conflict, now finds him,
self at war with four nations. But
this is not the worst of it for him
Turkish statesmen fear that Russia
lis about to join the allies, and are
making frantic appeals to Great
Britain to prevent this or else come
to the aid of Turkey in The struggle
against ".the Bear"
The reasons for going to war with
Turkey are explained in an eloqu'
ent proclamation just issued by
King Ferdinand of Bulgaria.
The King referes first to bis
peaceful reign of Is years, and SAYS
he had hoped that it would never
be stained by war.
but Providence, "he adds. has
Judged otherwise. The moment
has come when the Bulgarian race
| is called upon to renounce the bene'
fits of peace and have recourse tc
arms. Beyond the mountains oul
brothers in blood and religion have
not been able until this day, 81
years after our own liberation, tc
obtain conditions of life that are
bearable. The tears of Balkan
Slavs, and the grooming of millions
of Christians, could not butstir oul
hearts and the hearts of our CO.
religionists. Our love of peace is
now exhausted. To succor the
Christian population of Turkey there
remains to us no other means than
to turn to arms.
1t is the Christians of Macedo-
MIA who have suffered the most
cruel of the Mohammedan perSecu-
tions. That mountainous country,
famed in ancient history and litera,
ture, lies just north of Greece. Il
rose to be a great power some 2, 25O
years ago underits celebrated King,
"Philip of Macedon," whose son,
Alexander the Great, is regarded as
in the same class with Julius Cesar
and Napoleon Bonapart as one of
the greatest soldiers of whom his
tory tells us. : -.
Macedonia is inhabited chiefly by
Christians, but they are under the
rule of Turkey, whose Mohamme-
den soldiers treat them with the
most brutal crualty. These out
RACES are common wherever Moham-
medans rule over Christians, as is
the case throug hout Turkey in
Europe" They seem to have been
worse in Macedonia than elsewhere.
1t is in memory of its suffer-
ings, which were happily ended
some 35 years ago by independ-
ence, that Bulgaria now takes up