Norwich bulletin., 1915-11-26
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

Within the Sanjak of Novibazar lies
 the scene of the last determined ef-
 fort of the Serbians to resist the oc-
 cupation of the northern half of their
 country. The characteristics of this
 interesting, isolated battle-theater are
 given in a war primer just issued by the National Geographic society. It
 reads:
 Ancient Russia, or that part of
 modern Serbia included in the district
 of Novibazar, formed the kernel Of the territories in the Balkans of which the migratory Serbs took possession;
 and it was within this aerea that Ser bian independence died hardest Gen erations passed after the field of Kos sova, on which the Ottoman hordes
 smashed the Serbian Enlipre. and be- queathed to the generations that fol- lowed the merciless, unequal and un- ending struggle, which was fought out between the conquerors an the fugt- tives in the hills of Novibazar.
 "The area of the Sanjak Is noun tainous, gashed-with small, irregular canyons, made difficult with great, ! broken piles of rocks, and clothed with forests. From the days of the Byzantine writers, this area has been renowned for its defensive qualities.
 and rated high for its strategic val
 ues among the many natural strong
 holds found among the almost inac-
 cessible- Balkan mountain systems.
 "The region is watered by the Linn,
 which flows northward into Bosnia,
 and by numesous rHnall tributaries of the River Ibar. In Its broadest valley, which bisects it, lies its one import
 ant town, Novibazar, which dominates the way between Serbia and Monte
 negro, and between Serbia and Aus | trian Bosnia Many of the important points in this area were strongly for tified by the Turks, and these Turkish | works may have been put to good use ! by the Serbian army of the north.
 The Sanjak was acquired by Serbia as one of the fruits of the war Of the Balkan league with Turkey in 1912.' | No~jbazar-"Heavily fortified in the time of Turkish administration toward l the north, the west and the northeast, | Novibazar is today one of the import
 ant military points in Serbia, says primer recently issued by the Nation | al Geographic society Tt lies on the road to the highlands of Montenegro, | in a northeast-southwest valley en- lclosed by mountain walls. It is this path that the Serbians have so stout ! ly defended in order to keep open their communications with their allies | of the mountain kingdom.
 "Novibazar lies 30 miles northeast of Mitrovitza the northern terminal | of the railroad from the Greek port I Saloniki. The best way from the railroad terminal to Novibazar runs down the valley of the Morava to Rashka, thirty miles north, where it follows up the course of a small trib- utary, little less than thirty miles to the southwest. Upon this angle. Ser bian soldies based their slow retreat | in toward the domain of King Nicho- | las. From Novfbaxar it is thirty miles to the Montenegrin frontier. ''The modern city. with a population of 12,0o0, rises on the site Of the an cient Serbian city of Russia. It marks the center of old Serbian power. and today it still marks, roughly, the cen- ! ter of the Serbian block; for besides the kingdom of Serbia the Serbian | people composes the greater part of l the population of Croatia and Slavo-
 mia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dafmatia and Montenegro. The country round about is rich in old Serbian memories, one of which is the old Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in which Stephen Nemanya, king of Serbia in 1l43 passed from the Roman to the Greek church. 1t was over this valley road 1 through Novibazar that the Serbians