The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-01-03

StaT Correspondent of the Chicago
Record-HeraId in the Balkan War.
Mustapha Pasha-The minarets of
Sultan SeIimi
Needle-like, I have seen them rise
over the indistinct mass OF Adr1ano-
pie from the distant hills, then as
substantial columns from the nearby
nils, and again so close from the
shellproof of an advanced infantry
position that I could make out the
things on the dome of the great
mosque itself.
The simple grace of the minarets
dominated town, and landscape, and
siege. Weary drivers Of the weary
oxen Of the transport and still wear
Ter artillerymen, bringing up addi-
tional guns through seas of mud, saw
them for the first time as a token of
defiance, Of work unfinished, of bat
ties yet to be fought, and of lives yet
TO be lost
Infantrymen In the advanced
trenches saw them as the goal
against foe which had fallen back
without any adequate rear guard sec
ton, but which had begun to fight
desperately under their shadows.
That Turkish garrison as it with
drew into the shelter of it's forts,
seemed to find something Of the spirit
of old Sultan Selim the Magnificent,
for whom the mosque was named,
but with this difference: Sultan
Selfm was not given to falling back
on forts and minarets. He stormed
forts; he went ahead to plant new
minarets in the soil of Christendom.
Rouses Old Turks Spirit
From the first in this war the Turk
took the defensive; from the first be
accepted it as his part and portion Of
the campaign.
In Bulgaria, where many Turks still
live under Christian rule, we had
seen the Terrible Turk, the great
fighting man of the past, whose soul
was supposed to be above lowly toll.
as newer of wood and a carrier of
water. He did odd jobs in the alb
sence Of the Bulgarian at the front.
The lion of the past had been trained
to dog harness
All the early victories of the Bull
gar1an army completed an impression
of one-time lordly race demoralized
and enervated, who retained only the
fatalism of "Kismet," in it's Iexocon
The warriors cry, For Allah" was
lost forever. But at AdrianopIe For
Allah! For the Minaretsl For the
Padisha!" rose again to the dignity
which abandoned bravery always com
mands
The sheer, impetuous fearlessness
of the Bulgarian, well drilled and
coolly manipulated, was the first
great revelation Of the campaign. and
the second was how. in the hour of
hopelessness, his desperation arous-
ed the old qualities of the Turk.
Every situation. every development
in the war reverted to Adrianople. It
was the nut to crack in the, first plan
of strategy of the campaign. 1t how
cred over the first army before
Tchatalja as a nightmare 1t stood
in the way of the prompt supplies of
bread and bullets for the first army.
1t delayed the signing of the armis-
tice for ten days; it has been the
main subject of contention before
the London peace conference; It was
responsible for the treatment of the
military attaches, who saw nothing of
the war, and of the correspondents
who saw little
War Hinges on AdrianopIe.
Even our phlegmatic little English
Ia
pha would lose his temper at the
very suggestion of any peace terms
with Adrianople still in Turkish DOS
session.
We shall have a revolution If we
don't get Adrianople," ] have heard
many officers say.
I'VE shall not go home without
Adrianople," the wounded soldiers
returning from the front kept repeat
ing
Such were the instructions which
Dr. Danef, the Elihu Root of the Bal
kans, took with him to London. Ad-
rfanople was craven on the minds of
MS countrymen. BY diplomacy he
must get fortress which was not
yet taken by force of arms.
Glance at a map and YOU will see
that the whole success of the allies
depended on bottling up the Turk on
the peninsula, so that all the other
Turkish forces from Scutari to Adri-
anople, from Kumanova to Hassona
should be cut off from communities.
ton The Greeks, Serbs, and Mon.
tenegrins were the backs The Rul-
garians undertook to buck the line
Bulgaria did not have to consider
a reserve army. European public
opinion and the jealousies of the pow
ers acted as efficient substitutes, for
the Bulgarian military craftsmanship
understood that if Bulgaria were beat,
en- the powers would never permit
Turkey to take an inch of Bulgarian
soil. 1t was a case Of Heads l win.
tails l don't lose"
The Turks knew this, too. 1t was
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Care of Broken China.
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