Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-06
|BIUGAR COLLAPSE PUTS AN END
TO HUN PLAN OF MITTELEUROPA
Long Step Toward End of War; Mr. Smonds
of Part Balkans Have Played In World Struggle-Allies
Must Create New Serb State Danube to Check
Further German Effort.

task in this region to the Bulgars
who were not available for service III
France or Belgium. Only few Ger.
man troops. and not many more Aus.
Balkans, while the British and
French alone have had nearly quar-.
ter of a million locked up in what the
Germans have not inaptly described
IS the greatest internment camp in
Europe"
Balkans, No Longer Sideshow.
But now. when Ludendorff is fight.
ing for his life in France and Austrian
troops are aiding him. or are massed
in Italy against a possible Italian Of
fensive, the Balkan situation makes
an imperative demand upon German
reserves, urgently needed in Flanders
and in Lorraine. and. as a result
Germany has to weaken her armies
in France to save her position in Bull
garia. AS a consequence the Balkan.
cease to be a ''sideshow' for the al
lies: they have become a very i'm
portant circumstance in the main
drama. If you desire a parallel, it is
to be found in the Spanish situation
of 1913, when Napoleon. fighting
desperately in Germany. was Obliged
| to send troops to Spain. which, had
they been under his hands in Saxony.
might have prevented the disaster
which overlook the great emperor a,
LeipSig.
We shall do well to be wary of toe
great immediate expectations in the
Balkans. Bulgaria may have sought
| by the threat of surrender to compel
her German ally to send troops, al
| ready asked and refused. while at the
| same moment sounding allied capitals
/ to gather an idea of what terms were
| obtainable. She may have sought
\ merely to save her armies by resort
| ing to familiar ruse. But this ruse
almost never prevails: victorious
armies do not interrupt their pursuit
! OF beaten foe merely because the foe
suggests peace conversation without
giving any guarantee.
1t may be. too. that Bulgaria, hav.
| ing been told that she must evacuate
Serbia, Greece and Rumania and de-
[ mobolize her army or enlist on the
allies side. will choose to continue
fighting for little longer in the hope
that German aid will arrive. Much
depends upon the situation of Bull
] garian armies, and this is not yet dis
| closed. But if the armies are de-
stroyed or captured, then German aid
viii hardly change the situation for
the Bulgar people, who will be threat.
ened by the allied invasion on the one
! hand and by the occupation of their
| country by German armies on the
| other.
Long Step Toward Peace.
! Meantime. there is this to be said:
When Bulgaria is eliminated by con-
quest or by separate peace the Ger
man mitteleuropa dream, become fact
in this war. will be at an end. and a long
step, the longest. perhaps, will have
been taken toward peace, because Ger
many will not continue in fight which
holds out no prospect of profit. AS for
Austria. Bulgarian surrender will mean
the prelude to invasion and rebellion:
invasion from Serbia and from Rumania.
rebellion on the part of her Slav sub
jects, north and south alike. Turkey,
{; too, cut off from the trunk or mittel-
europa, will fall swiftly and surely into
allied hands.
| And the first Bulgarian gesture
gives us reason to look confidently to-
ward the elimination of Bulgaria at
no distant date. We are sure OF
Greece now. Serbia awaits deliver
ance, but will remain faithful to the
allies. Rumania, too. awaits our COM
ing, and recent reports indicate that
| she will take the field again the mo-
ment communications with the west
are restored, they will be when
Bulgaria quits. Indeed. there are in
dications that Rumania may not de-
lay action that long. Thus. after
| three years we ae in fair way
to restore the situation in the
near east. to regain the advantages
| los by blindness and worse in 1915
and 1916, to unscramble the Balkan
| eggs.
Glance at Future Problem.
| But the present situation should be .
viewed with a full understanding Of
future problems Unless as conse-
quence of victorious war we erect
l .,4n enc
GENTLY strong to hold the line Of the
Danube and the Carpathians against
a new German attack unless We deal
justly with rightful Greek aspira-
tions, unless we so deal with Turkey
as to remove all chance of return
of German domination of the Bosporus
and the Dardanelles in the future. We
| shall miss the great opportunity ana
preserve the dangers which precipi-
| tated this world confiagration.
) AS to Bulgaria. none of her territory
| is demanded. either by our Greek or
4 our Serb allies, but no foot of Greek
or Serb territory should now or here
| after be surrendered to the nation
! which has treacherously attacked all
| of her neighbors, pursued selfish and
| murderous ambitions and broken
faith and honor with all of her west
ern friends. There never was ma
| ton which in decade had more
! thoroughly deserved the contempt of
1
For the crimes of the whole people
there may be no adequate punish
| ment conceivable, and there is
| sound prejudice against mutilatIng
| a country, even when it's international
! relations have been marked by long
I series of crimes. But there should be
an end of the talk, particularly in this
| country. of an aggrandized Bulgaria.
1t is the Serb who deserves all of
| our sympathy and all of our admira-
ton. For six years Serb armies have
been fighting VIGOROUSLY for liberty,
| for the freedom of their own people
| and for the freedom of the Balkans.
j Turk. Austrian and Bulgar armies
| have been routed by Serb forces. and
! the latest victory between the Cerna
! and the Vardar is only one more in
! glorious cycle of triumphs. 1t was
| the Serbs who broke the force of
i Turkish invasion at the Danube CEN
/ turtles ago, it was the Serb who. first
| of Balkan people, achieved independ-
| ence; indeed a fraction of the race,
| in the Black mountains never yield
| ed. Now it is Serb force which has
cracked the keystone of the German
arch between the Danube and the
Golden Horn.
! New Serb State Needed.
Nor is this all. If we are to insure
ourseivs against new German drive
| to the near east we can only do it by
| erecting a Serb state between the Ad-
| ratio and the Danube. sufficiently
| strong to bar German advance when
| supported by an even stronger Ru-
manian state to the east. We can do
! this merely by adding to the Serb and
Rumanian states which existed be-