New-York tribune., 1919-08-30
TINE announcement from Paris that the
Thracian dispute is approaching settle

Thracian dispute is approaching settle
ment and the terms which are also
foreshadowed indicate that we are to have
one more of those evil compromises of which
there have been so many in the past months.
As usual this is the result of an effort to
satisfy a portion of the claims Of two con-
testants, for both of whom the acquisition
of part will prove but an incentive for
further effort to get all.
The territory involved in the present dis
pute is practically all that was left Of Euro
pean Turkey after the Balkan wars, save
that area reserved for an internationalized
Constantnople provided such a state shall
presently be created. Roughly speaking, it
may be described as the shores of the Black
and AIgean interposing between Bulgaria and
the two seas.
Historically this territory was Greek in
the classical times-that is to say, it was
a field of Hellenic colonization and culture.
1t long held by the Byzantine Empire
and fell to the Turks only in the fourteenth
century. Thereafter it preserved it's Greek
character and was partly colonized by Turks,
but Adrianople and the surrounding country
still have larger Greek than Bulgar popu-
lation.
In the first Balkan war it was overrun
by Bulgarian armies, which fought their vic
torious battle of Lule Burgas, between
Adranople and the Chatalja lines, immedi-
ately covering Constantinople. In the first
treaty, which was made at London and de-
signed to settle the Balkan disputes, Bull
garia acquired Adrianople and all of Thrace
m tha for N
ing from the Egean to the Black Sea at
these two ports. In addition Bulgaria
acquired all Of Western Thrace, including
Kavala, as far as the Struma River. Greece
acquiesced in this settlement despite the fact
that most of the population, so far as it was
not Turk, was Hellenic.
But Bulgaria was not satisfied, and in
June, 1913, she attacked both her Greek and
Serb allies treacherously, with the purpose
OF taking both Salonica and Macedona-that
49, the portion of Macedonia assigned to
Serbia She was unsuccessful in this wholly
Prussian proceeding, and as a result was'
forced by the treaty of Bucharest to give
up kavala to the Greeks, while the Turks
retook Adranople
Now, 1t is essential to recall this circum-
stance because the argument to-day raised,
mainly by American representatives, that the
Bulgars must have part of Thrace, is based
on the assumption that if this is not assigned
to them there will be another Balkan war.
Yet when Bulgaria had with the consent of
the Serbs and the Greeks and the forced
assent of the Turks not merely the territory
now in question, but much more; when she
had the two 4Egean ports of Dedeagatch and
kavala, only the former of which is now
under debate, she nevertheless precpitated
Balkan war
Further than this, when at Bucharest, de-
spite her unprovoked attack upon Greece, she
was still permitted to retain Dedeagatch. she
again attacked Serbia and invaded Greece.
this time favored by the treachery of certain
Greek garrisons. Again she was defeated.
but not until she had once more been guilty
of innumerabe atrocities, which were aimed
at cxtermnating the Greek population in
Thrace.
1t will be seen, therefore, that there is
absolutely no foundation to the argument
that to give Bulgaria Dedeagatch and a strip