Evening star., 1915-03-13
STORY Of THE BALKANS
DETAILED IN LECTURE
DR.. Albert B. Hart Of Harvard Re-
views Situation in Five
States.
Success of Effort to Throw Off Turk.
ish Yoke-Politics and So
cial Conditions

DR.. Albert Bushnell Hart, profe ssor
of history in Harvard University. lec-
tured upon The Balkans before
members Of the National Geographic
Society at New, Masonic Temple last
night. DIR. Hart has long been a stu
dent of affairs in the Balkan coun-
tries. and has Investigated conditions
upon the ground. He reviewed in de-
tail the complex aspirations and in
ter-relationships of Rumania, Bull
garia, Serbia, Greece, Albania, Mon
tenegro and European Turkey-the
Balkan states His lecture was illus
trated by typical scenes of the region.
Agriculture. the growing of grains
and the raising of stock, DR.. Hart said,
is the backbone of Balkan wealth, and
as the women and children cultivate
and harvest the farm crops, this ex-
plains how these little countries are
able to plunge from one exhausting
war into another. There is little or no
other industry in the Balkans, and
there are few mines, though some min
eral deposits exist. Furthermore. the
lecturer said, the means for trans
portation are very poor, which Is an
added obstacle to commercial and in
dustrial development.
!, Political Situation Discussed.
Speaking of the political situation
there, DR.. Hart pointed out that the
various divisions in the Balkans are
all recent. these divisions having be-
gun only about 100 years ago with the
freedom of Rumania from Turkish rule.
Serbia. Greece and Bulgaria have fol-
lowed Rumania and cast off the Turk
a q al nfru m
profit, won her freedom in 1912. Little
Montenegro, the speaker said. perched
in her inaccessible, nature-trenched
mountain, alone of the Balkan lands
Turk. but has maintained her inde-
pendence through 500 years of almost
continuous warfare:
National boundaries in- southeastern
culiar fashion. according to Dr. Hart,
and this greatly enhances the complex
ity of Balkan politics. These national
boundaries do not follow either racial
or religious lines of demarkation.
Ruma mans, Bulgarians, Serbians and
Greeks belong to the Greek Catholic
faith. DR.. Hart said. but their churches
are all individual establishments, and
all differ from the Russian Greek
Church. of which, the tsar Is the head
The lecturer characterized the Serb
fans as the French of the Balkans;
the Albanians. as the regions most in
teresting and picturesque people, and
the Bulgarians.. as perhaps. the penin-
sula's strongest and ablest people The
Albanians. he continued, are the old
est inha abitants of the Balkans, they
having been there from the dawning Of
history. He explained that the Turks
managed to get on we'll with the AL
banians. as they refrained from taxing
them or from subjecting them to mill
tary conscription.
Siege Of Belgrade Inevitable.
No war in the Balkans is ever COM
plete without a siege of Belgrade,
Serbia's capital. DR.. Hart said. in COM
ment upon the bitter destruction which
has overtaken the city in the present
war. Belgrade has suffered SO some
twenty times. he said. The theory that
Serbian national life is based on as
sassination Is untenable, DR.. Hart
maintained. though he admitted there
is certain element Of truth in the
theory. He told a story of a little Ser
bian girl, who. when asked by her
teacher to name the rulers Of Serbia
who had died natural deaths, began
naming those who had been put out of
the way expeditiously by their subjects.
under the impression that this was the
natural way for ruler to die.