Norwich bulletin., 1913-02-08
w. c. REEVES & CO.,, pspt. G. N. i74 E. zsd St. New York.
FERDINAND OF BULGARIA
 EXECUTED THE PLAN
Responsible For Success of Balkan Leasue-Many Difficulties in Bring ing Old Rivals Together.


 The successful campaign of the Balkan allies against the Turks has thrown into striking prominence King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who is gener- ally considered to be the originator and head of the alliance. The task he has accomplished is undoubtedly one of the knottiest in the history of diplomacy, and hence of interest even in America.
 It was in 1887. after the abdication of Prince Alexander. the hero of Slivnitza' and the Servian war, that Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha was called to the throne of Bull garia- Russian intrigue had over thrown his predecessor. Being him self an Austrian and of a peaceful and studious turn of mind. he hesitated be- fore accepting the responsibility and the certainty of many sleepless nights, which the Slav principality offered him. But once his scruples were over come he devoted himself whole heartedly to the welfare of his adopted people
 Unpopular at First.
 This was from the first an ungrate- full task. The new king was not only a foreigner, but an Austrian; he was not only moderate. but lover of peace. The people, strong with sense of reviving nationality after five centuries of Turkish rule. were wholly won over by the propaganda of Bull garian revolutionary committees, whose cry was, Free Macedonia from the Turkf" They wanted war right away The king opposed this popular desire with all his quiet might. The result ant unpopularity he had to endure may be readily imagined.
 To the last Ferdinand hoped for peaceful solution of the Balkan ques- tion. but that did not prevent him from feeling the inevitability of war. He saw, however. that such war. to be successful. must be unanimous outburst of all Balkan peoples For ten years Bulgaria has been devoting all it's dogged energy to the perfecting of it's army and it's finances for the struggle which is now supposed to be victoriously ended For ten years, too, to reconcile the old enmities of the little Slav states with each other and with the Greeks.
 What problem! Bulgaria and Servia had recently been at war. Bulgaria, Servia and Greece each re- garded the others as rivals in Mace donia. Bulgarian and Greek revolu- tionary "bands'' had long been at each others throats in that sorely stricken land. Each of the three nations could look back to the day when the whole Balkan peninsula was under its indi- vidual rule-before the Turk came the Turk whom they all hate! An other complication was introduced by the fact that Turkey. with cunning perception had. since the Greecian war of independence. been secretly encour- aging the Greek guerrilias in their forays against the more powerful Bull gar guerrillas in Macedonia.
 Sought a Turkish Alliance.
 As might be expected, all Ferdinand's endeavors for a long time came to naught. The effort seemed hopeless. Accordingly. when the young Turk party came to power in Constantinople in 1909 the Bulgarian ruler sought to establish a Turko- Bulgarian alliance. This was a shrewd move. The sol dferly qualities of Turkey combined with the thoughtful steadiness of Bull garia would have made a powerful coalition, At the same time, Mohana- medan atrocities in Macedonia would of necessity have ceased. But the young Turks, drunk and blind with their own plots and ambitions, re- pulsed F'erdinand's advances step which they must now most heartily rue.
 The Bulgarian monarch returned again to his negotiations with Servia and Montenegro, and it is understood a secret alliance was concluded some two years ago. Still Greece suspici- ously held out. The whole weight of the Greek orthodox clergy was against a Bulgarian alliance, for the latter state, while of the same religion, had seeded from the authority of Athens and set up national church known