Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-17
TROOPS OF RUMANIAZ
RENEW BALKAN CRISIS
Enter Budapest in Revenge-Wars Z
HI
Central Europe Since 1912 Re- :,
viewed by Simonds. q.
BY FRANK H. sIMONDs.

in Budapest has produced one
more Of those kaleidoscope
changes in southeastern Eu-
rope of which there have been so
many in the years that separate the
first Balkan war from the latest Incl
dents along the Danube.
Before discussing this new develop
view for a moment the several shifts
which have taken place in seven years.
In the summer of 1912 Germany. Aus
tria and Italy were, as they had been
for almost a generation, united in that
association which. under the title of
the triple alliance. had dominated con-
tinental affairs from the morrow OF the
congress of Berlin.
To this alliance Rumania was bound
by treaty, and with it Turkey was
associated by something approximate
ing an informal engagement. Already,
however. an Italian attack upon Tur-
key. the ally of Italy's German and
Austrian allies. had provoked bitterness
in Berlin and Vienna. and was, in fact,
the first step in the general dissolu-
ton of the alliances.
Wars in 1912 and 1918.
Thus. in 1912, we have the Tripoli-
tan war between Italy and Turkey.
Toward the close of the same year.
while the Tripolitan war was being
liquidated by the treaty of Lausanne.
Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. heredi-
tary enemies since the coming of the
slavs to the Balkan peninsula, joined
hands and crushed Turkey.
A few months later, early in 1913,
Rumania, whose last war had been
fought with Turkey in support of
Bulgaria, joins hands with the
Greeks and the Serbians and with the
Turk in depriving the Bulgars of
most Of their conquests in the first
Palkan war. Thus the Greeks and
Serbs in a few short months found
themselves the allies. first of the Bull.
garians against the Turks and then
the associates Of the Turks against
ally of Germany and Austria, sent
her armies against Bulgaria, which
was both a secret ally of Austria Hun
gary and had an Austrian sovereign.
Then two years later Bulgaria, in
alliance with Turkey as well as Aus
and the Greeks of King Constantine.
while officially neutral. surrendered
to the Turks the province and the for
tress won by the king in the war Of
complete the destruction of Serbia.
Rumania's Varying Fortunes.
mania followed the example of Italy
and Joined the western allies in an
attack upon Austria Hungary, with
a consequent war with Bulgaria. In
this conflict Rumania. betrayed by
Russia, was swiftly crushed. Bucha-
rest was occupied by Hungarian, Bull
garian and German troops, and a year
later by the second treaty of Bucha-
rest Rumania had to surrender not
only the territory she had taken from
1918, but also her entire seacoast in
the Dobrudja.
Less than a year later, when Ital-
ian troops had crushed the AustrianS
had overcome Bulgarian, Austrian and
Turkish troops in the south. Rumania
entered the war, took from the Bull
ga, las the territory seized by them
ard again invaded and this time held
vast regions of Hungary.
In the brief span of seven years
then We have seen the Bulgarians. the
allies of the Greeks and the Serbs and
the enemies Of the Turks in one war.
the opponents of the Greeks. the Serbs
and the Turks in q second; the allies
of the Turks, with Greece as silent
partner in an attack upon Serbia in
q third; the allies of the Turks and
the opponents of the Rumanians, the
Serbs and the Greeks in fourth; and
at this present hour Sofia dispatches
fol- ecast q new Bulgarian attack upoL
Serbia and Greece.
In this same time Rumania, starting
as an ally of the Germans and the
Austrians. has attacked Bulgaria. in
conjunction with the Serbs. the Greeks
and the Turks; has attacked Austria,
Hungary and been attacked by the
Bulgars. the Turks and the Germans:
as an ally Of Russia and in a war of
great province belonging to her re-
cent Russian ally. and now, at last,
appears in Budapest, returning the
visit of the Hungarian troops to Blu
charest less than three years ago.
Hopeless Confusion" in Balkans.
One could indefinitely multiply these
which thus revealed
the utter. and to the western mind,
the hopeless confusion in the near
east. The Rumanian episodes of re-
which extends backward into the
night of time. to that hour when
Rome was no longer able to hold the
Danube frontier. and the latter time,
when the Byzantine empire succumb-
ed to the double attack from the north
and from the south. In that period
the Byzantine Greeks and Serbs, the
Bulgars. the Turks. the Rumanians
and the Hungarians have, in turn,
dominated all or much of that no
mans land which extends from Buda-
pest to the Golden Horn. Each, in
turn. has aspired to great empire,
immense power for a brief
period and then yielded place to an
neighbor.
And underlying all else in this
Balkan ard Hungarian complication
is the consciousness in the minds of
each of the many nationalities that it
was once a great nation and the be-
lief that it has an imperial destiny.
The Greek turns backward to the
Byzantine period, when the frontier
of the eastern empire, still inviolate,
extended to the Danube in Europe
and the Cilician Gate in Asia. The
Bulgar recalls the glories OF Simeon
the Serb. the conQuests Of Dushan.
The Rumanian goes back to that Ru-
nanian period whom the colonist Tro-
jan settled the Decian country be-
tween the Thesis and the Dniester.
The Hungarian f1xes his eye on that
map Of Europe which existed at the
when the world war began
and shows Hungary a state in area
greater than Italy. with a population
Of more than twenty-five millions of
people.
Now at this precise moment all
feuds a thousand years old and sew
eral brand new ones confront the
Or the student who would
seek to find a reasonable and lasting
settlement in the near east. The Ital-
ian and the Jugoslav are in conflict
from Gorilla to Scutai; the Greek
and the Italian from Valona to Smyr-
ma: the Greek and the Bulgarian from