Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-22
SOLUTION OF THE PRESENT BALKAN CRISIS
MAY BE DECIDING FACTOR IN WORLD WAR

Bull garians were already declaring that
| they would take from Eumania the Do
brudja province, gained in the Russo
! Turkish war. and the sole Rumanian
window on the sea. To Rumanlan de-
mands for the cession by Bulgaria of
| the fortress of Silistria. the real key to
Rumaniac coast province, Austria,
| busy fattering Bulgaria, turned a deaf
| ear.
! But Russia, now thoroughly enraged
! at Bulgaria's course. gave full consent
| to Rum: oia to attack Bulgaria, and at
| the moment when the Greek AND Ser
| bian armies were winning the Mace
donia a Rumanian army crossed the
Danube and entered Bulgaria. Finally
| a Turki-h army came back to Adrian
| ople Surrounded by enemies, her
armies beat-n, her resources exhaust
! ed. Bulgaria gave up the fight.
Treaty of Bucharest.
The results of the second Balkan war
were embodied i'll the treaty of Bucha-
rest Serbia received all of Macedonia
west of the Rhodopians. Greece not
only Saloniki, but kavala. Sores and
Drama Rumania took the whole Silis-
trian region between the Danube and
the Black sea. with some OF the rlcn-
est of Bulgarian lands Turkey took
back all but a tiny fraction OF Ihrace
After her great efforts Bulgaria &C
uuired nothing but a little strip OF
territory fronting the Aegean, put IN
accessible by reason of mountains. VI
what she had hoped to gain she had
lost all but few hundred thousands
of people. Serbia and Greece had eacn
acquired above $4,000 square miles OF
territory and 100000 people. Bulgaria
had gained less than half mlliioh;
IS u1an :, million Bulgars had
'..-. 'Cr- 20 Greece and Serbia. and the
whole dream of Bulgarian statesmen
auu people lor a generation had been
destroyed.
Bulgaria retired sullen. resentful. re-
venseful. All seemed lost, but there
was 70 surrender Of BULGARIAN pur-
pose. Meantime Russia had scored an
.cner great victory and Austrian ~
nJomacy was bankrupt. \ new strong
SCRIBE was looking across the Danube
into Bosnia and Croatia. pan-Seroiah
dreams had assumed as perllous pro-
portions as those of the Italian pa
t~iots half century before. seFnia
already felt herself q second Sardinia
and backed by Russia dreamed OF re
deeming" the millions of southern
Slavs from Tfieste to the Draw and
from Laibach to Belgrade.
1t was the realization of the meaning
of the Serbian dream which precipi-
tated the great war. Austrian dlpio-
macy, twice defeated by Russian. hav-
ing twice seen Russian influence IN
creased by Balkan wars. recognizing
the SeTDldl IiitIieitS' 'Ooi
of the murder of the archduke TO
strike at Serbia and give Russia the
choice between abandoning her little
Slav protege and riskinG Armaseo
don. Russias answer was the hrst
step in the colossal drama now gong
forward.
When the Great War Began.
The outbreak of the great war last
August found the Balkans in this stu
alton: Serbia was already engaged,
Greece and Rumana were bound to
Serbia by treaty to preserve the treaty
of Bucharest, but both were ruled by
friends of Germany. Charles of Ru-
mania was IA Hohenzollern. Constan-
tines wife was the sister of the KAISER
The courts of both states were strongly
pro-German. The people, on the con-
trary, were strongly inclined to the
allies.
But Greece was unable to go to the
aid of Serbia, because there was
steady prospect that Serbian defeat
would lead Bulgaria to seek TO re-
claim not alone the portion of Mace
donia held by Serbia, but that occupied
by Greece, including both kaVala and
SaIoniki. Greece was then immobiliZed
by Bulgarian menace and by the court
sympathies with Germany. Rumanla.
quite in the same fashion, was held by
the fear that if she attacked Austria
and were defeated Bulgaria would take
her revenge.
But the Rumanian situation was still