The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-17
Europe Now Recognizes These States Control Great
 High Road to the Orient

I Paris Nov. 17-The Ba1kin question T formerly internal with Macedonia as the chief stakes and the states rang Led against each other or against Tur- i key over this rich bone of contention, ,i has undergone complete change in the past few months.
 l Some of this Marcedonian issue still
 remains. between Bulgaria and Serbia. but it is almost lost in a far greater E issue, international instead of inter
 nal, as the two great warning elements in Europe have suddenly recognized 1 these little Balkan states controlled the high-road from northern Europe to the Orient-the link between Ger many and Austria. in the north and that vast vista of sleeping power in ! the southeast; Turkey and the Dar-
 danelles, Egypt and the Suez Canal, Asia Minor and the Persian gulf, and i the overland route straight from Ber- lin to the Far East
 i So that petty Balkan disputes that have been going on for years are now II suddenly merged into a great interna+- \ tional drama, in which the Balkans | are a mere incident, the supreme is- :; sue now being: For the Quadruple .t tact as far as possible a solid wall or buffer between the Austro-German l in the north and their imperial goal
 in the south: Turkey, the Dardane1les, Egypt and the East.
 For Austro-GermanyAto divide
 the Balkans as much as possible, state against state, with a predominating
 state, Bulgaria, favorable to the Aus tro- Germans aim of direct route
 from Germany to Turkey ana the
 Orient.
 This shift of the Balkan issue, mak-
 ing it part of great international
 game instead of a petty struggles of
 small states, has. come about in the last four months The allied pow
 CTS were slow in realizing it, and their
 negotiations with Bulgaria and Serbia
 up to the present date treated the
 question as the old fight over terri
 tory in Macedonia But al the the time e~GerInany was setting the scenes in
 a larger drama-the winning of Bull garia and the linking of the Central Powers to Turkey and the Near Beast
 Each of the Balkan states had a
 number of issues involved in the new
 struggle. Some explanation of these
 had been gathered from official and diplomatic sources-Serbia.s Bulgarian,
 Grecian, and Rumanian and from
 other available quarters, showing the
 respective viewpoints about as follows H Bulgaria considers herself the az grieved party of the Balkans. She
 claims to have done most of the fight ing against Turkey over Macedonia,
 and have received least of the reward, the bulk going to Serbia and Greece, which, Bulgaria claims. 01O not oO L1A0 the territory taken from Turkey:
 tion furnished the Associated Press
 with a pamphlet review of its case, showing the following distribution of II before the war, received 39, 900 square i Serbia with the smallest territory
 before tFe war, received Ss'Oo square kilometers, of which 15,000 were fer tile, and added 100000 to her popu- 1 lation. .sfz55s5fts zts<-7t9 fgat
 Greece, next smallest in area and population. gained 54.000 square ki1o- meters, of which 28,o00 were fertile, l and added 1,600,O 900 to her populati on. I Bulgaria the largest in area, and 1 population, received only 5, 900 square ki1ometers, of which none were fertile and, added only 100000 to its popula- tion.'' Then follows this explosive 1 official statement:
 s'Is this possible? Yes! and because
 of it, this is what Bulgaria demands: l She is not satisfied with such divi- sions she demands "a new one; She shuts her eyes to proposals of a Ball. INkan Union in which she pays all the l expense"
 1 Bulgaria has issued another pam phlet printed at the royal printing l esta bIishmeTlt at Sofia, entitled How 1 the Serbs Behave in Macedonia, giv- ling detailed accounts of alleged atroci- ties in Serbia's part of Marcedonia against priests of the Bulgarian state l church. These accounts are harrow- l ing in the extreme, alleging in some cases Bu1gaTians were crucified, others Iburied alive, others tortured until they | died, with names and places. Thi | pam phIet is given an evidence of | JBuIgaria's claim that her people in Macedonia are being crushed.
 l Another of Bulgaria's allegations is that Rumania took 8,370- square kill l ometers of Bu1garia's Black Sea front | while her hands were tied during the struggle with Turkey. The Black Sea country added 30O,OO0 people to Ru- l mania's population. The people axe
 Bulgarians, according to Bulgaria, and i she wants them back, and the Black Sea front too.
 Aside from these official claims, ! there are reports of other aspirations | of Bulgaria. King Ferdinand is said 1 to foresee another great Byzantian DF,mpire in southeastern Europe, with r himself as the first Car of Byzantiun. The realization of this dream would
 mean the the absorption of the Bal
 kan states into Bulgaria, and her Revolution into an Empire stretching q to the Bosphorus. Cherif PaSha, the I Turkish agftator, has even asserted in i a recent signed article in Paris news I papers, that the young Turk element II had agreed with Bulgaria to turn over
 Constantinop1e to that country, rath- CT than let it pass into the hands of
 the Allies through their assault on
 the Dardane1les.
 Serbia's attitude in the Balkans is 1 summed up as the staunch and loyal
 friend of the Quadrup1e Allies and their chief reliance in. blocking the sI Austro- German advance. Serbia was
 the first to clash with her giant neigh
 bor to the north, Austria, and thus ; lpreci pitate the European war. Serbia
 has always stood in the way of Aust
 ria barring her advance southward to l. the Mediterranean, and westward to :. the Adriatic Serbia's first aim, there
 fore. is to hold what she now has of F Macedonia against the encroachment
 of Bulgaria, and at the same time aid inc Ouadrup1e alliance by holding . of Austria nd Ger