Norwich bulletin., 1915-10-20
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Menastir. picked as the latest war capital of Servia. as a stronghold where the enemy ia never expected to | arrive, forms the subject of the geo. graphical description issued today by | the National Geographic Sociery. The | war primer reads as follows:
 Monastir is the last place in Ser via. hard upon the Greek frontier. and | defended by lesser mountains on ev- cry hand. It was one of the most | vians after the war in 1s12 of the Bel | kan League with the Ottoman Empire. | By means of schools. propaganda, Servian committees, and Servian priests, the people of all this southern territory were long carefully prepared for an ultimate, union with the lit- tie kingdom. The Servians pursued the same tactics here that the Bull garians and Greeks pursued for years in their endeavors to win the upper hand in the Turkish province of Mec- edonia- Monstir was to the Servian ambitions what the port of Salonilxi was to the Greeks and the Bulgar- iane.
 "Monastir was the second city of
 Turkish Macedonia It did a thriving the Servians entertain great hopes I for its future. Moreover, this noun ! tain city is one of the important | strategic points In the Balkans. and. ! when under Turkish rule. 1t was made a base of military defense and of-
 fense Of the same rank as Adrianople. | Here was located the headquartars' 1 offices of a Turkish army corps; for the roads from the port of SalonilIi, on the Aegean Sea: from the port of Durazzo, on the Adriatic Sea; from Nish. the ancient capital of Servia:
 and from the important fortress Adri-
 auople, met and crossed here. The Servians have strengthened the defen-
 sive works of the city since their oc- lcupation, and 1t is today an important
 between Servia and Greece and Ser
 via and Albania.
 "The city nestles in a bowl scooped
 in the mountain clusters at an alti-
 tude of 2.oi9 feet. To the west, the
 mountains rise to a height of more than 5000 feet. All the mountain country around is heavily wooded ! while the broad valley is carpetec } with fruitful fields. The port of Sal oniki. where the Allied troops landed is but S5 miles distant in the south east. Constantinople is 400. miles tC
 the east Belgrade is 26o miles to tn, : north and Nish 135 miles. The near est point of the Bulgarian frontier. a , Strumitza, is only 65 miles away. 2 "A railway line connects Monasti and Saloniki, with which city most O ] the ServIan towns trade is done. Tn . export products of all southern Ser via are assembled at this place am :, sent to the Grecian port. while tn I imports are distributed from the sam ' center and from Uskup. The city ha a population of 60.O00 and an annua ? trade of the value of $2, ,000,000 dur ! ing normal times. Considerable gol : and silver work for export is don here. but the staples of Mnnastir' n tobacco. and carpets. The town ha = large barracks. a military hospita " and a number of progressive educs r tional institutions"
 h "There is a strong Servlar pcpuIs e tiop of long settlement in the south
 Hungary, whose villages cover a cor
 siderable region in the Magyar kinG p dom opposite Seryian Belgrade ar " Semendria1" says a war primer ju
 given out by the National Geograph
 Society. This colony or, rathe if there colonies have taken no inconsis IT erable part in the history of Austria " the Austrian Grown owe a score le gratitude to one another.
 pr The foundations of the Servis ys colony in Hungary were laid followii m the decisive Turkish victory upon u 10 plain of Koesovo on June IS, l3$ 1e Here, the soldiers of Sultan Murat ny finally crushed the independence
 the Servian tribes, though the Suit ed himself was killed upon the field he battle by a ServiAn knight. The Fur or sold the Servians as slaves in ,t t he markets of Constantfnople, while t he Janissaries stationed in their Ian ID, made life unbearable for such as T CT mained behind. Therefore, an inf ot of Servtans took place across [
 northern border.
 of "As a consequence of the Servi
 settlements and of their value as or
 post defenders against the ever wi
 ening dominion of the Turks Geor Brankovitch. Servian despot, W
 granted fiefs in Hungary, and val