Evening star., 1940-10-21
BuIgorio's Choice

SN''S ISs$S
There can be little doubt that Bull
garia is lining up with the axis pow
Balkans tell of laSt-minute British
diplomatic efforts to deter Bulgaria
from this step, but the same dis
patches say that officials of the Brit
ish Legation in Sofia, the Bulgarian
capital are burning its archives in
case hasty exit becomes inevitable,
while Sofia newspapers assert that
British diplomacy is bound to fail.
What is the reason for this atti-
tude of Bulgaria? The answer is to
be found in a tale of disappointment
and disaster extending back nearly
thirty years.
Down to the Balkan Wars of
1928, Bulgaria was the leading
Balkan state Indeed, when Russia
liberated most of the Balkan Chris
tianS in its war with Turkey in the
late 1870s, the Car planned a Big
Bulgaria" which would have dWarfed
the others into relative inSignifi-
canoe. The plan was thWarted by
Britain, which feared that a big
Bulgaria would be a mask for Rus
sian domination, though subsequent
history indicates that Bulgaria
would have asserted its independence
even against its liberatOr.
This is because the Bulgars have
a strong national and racial feeling
of their own. Though usually
clasSed as SlavS, they are partly
descended from Asiatic nomads akin
to the Turks, and the ASiatic strain
shows in dourness and dogged te-
nacity which marks them off tenn
peramentally from their Slav neigh
bors. A Bulgarian proverb puts it
pithily when it says: The Bulgar
in his OK cart pursues the hare-and
overtakeS it,"
When the Christian Balkan states
leagued together and made war on
Turkey in 1912 the fine Bulgarian
Army did the hardest fighting, and
expected the lions share of the
spoils. When Bulgaria's allies,
Greece and Serbia, baked, a second
war broke out between the victors,
and, at the crucial moment, Ru-
mania interviewed against Bulgaria,
which was forced to submit. Having
gained almost nothing of the Turk
iSh SpOilS and having had to give
Rumania its province of Dobrudja,
Bulgaria emerged from the Balkan
Wars weaker than its neighbors.
Bitterly, the BulgarS waited for their
revenge. They had not long to wait,
because next year the World War
broke out and Bulgaria soon joined
the Germanic powers. Having picked
the wrong side, Bulgaria suffered
fresh territorial losses, especially her
outlet on the Mediterranean. Fur
thermore, she was disarmed and for
hidden to have more than a token"
army. In short, Bulgaria was re-
duced to inSignificance.
Nevertheless, the stubborn Bulgar
spirit was not broken. This her
neighbors knew, and one of the OBJ
jects of their postwar diplomacy
was to keep Bulgaria from making
trouble. That meant maintaining
the status quo and refusing Bulgaria
any concessions. All went we'll until
the postwar settlements began to
break down all over Europe, when
Of the treaties-first secretly, then
openly, and mainly with German
aid. Nazi Germany saw how useful
the Bulgars might be, befriended
them, and got most of their trade.
The ruling classes and the army
were soon pro-German. Among the
peasantry there was much Com
munist sentiment which made them
tend toward Moscow; but the Russo
German agreement at the opening
of the present war smoothed Ger
many'S path. German diplomacy
was mainly responsible for COM
pelling Rumania to return Dobrudja,
and now Germany is putting pres
sure on Greece to give back the lost
outlet on the Mediterranean. 1t is
also probable that secret promises
have been given that Bulgaria'S
Macedonian claims against Yugo-
slavia will be satisfied if the axis
wins That is why Bulgaria is to be
found on the axis side.