Part 3

"Do not ask the reason of our dissensions of today, in a difference of interests, because such difference does not exist, but try to find it in the arrogance and the conceit of the two nations. We do not recognize you as a nation. But this recognition must be made with the understanding that you drop your conceit.

"In Bulgaria people think that at this moment we have the support of Russia. But there is a mistake even in this, as we are further than you from Russia. If today Russia offers to us her support she is doing that because we are struggling against Austria and preventing her from invading the Balkans.

"To this argument you oppose the treaty of Bucharest. But that treaty is not our work. By not accepting the Czar's wish in his telegram of May 5, (18,) 1913, you lost his support. This example from the past can show you how far you can go when you oppose Russia. But in no case are you entitled to blame those who are not guilty of your misfortune.

"When Russia undertakes to do something for the Slavs, she always does it in a way beneficial to the party to which she promised her support.

"When this war is over, when the whole of Slavdom shall be freed, when in a special congress all the interests of the Slavs shall be discussed and the services rendered by each and every one of them shall be weighed, Bulgaria must fear that decisions will be taken which will be contrary to her and that her interests will be sacrificed.

"A country must not act always according to her interests. Does not the Bulgarian people have any obligations toward Russia? Duty always stands above mere interest.

"When the war is over an entirely different atmosphere will rule in the souls of the peoples, and it will then be possible to weigh the actual interests with more equanimity and more calm. At least we Servians have this opinion."

_The following statement was made by the Servian Minister at Petrograd, Mr. Spalaikowich, in the Russkoye Slovo:_

What is Bulgaria going to do in the present circumstances? To which side will she cling? Is not her people going to take the arms against their secular enemy, the Turks?

This solution would be the most satisfactory for Bulgaria. Now a chance is given her to fulfill her obligations to Russia, who made her free. Let the Bulgarian sword be thrust against the secular enemy of Slavdom and the petty differences be forgotten.

Bulgaria, under the Russian wing, will enter the Slav family united, strong, and beloved. If she remains inactive she will drag herself poor and forgotten by all and full of regrets.

A PEASANT'S ANSWER.

_As illustrating the popular feeling in Bulgaria the following letter from a peasant to Mr. Maringovich appeared in the official organ of the Bulgarian Government, Echo de Bulgarie, published in French:_

Your Excellency: I am a plain peasant from the Danube country. While born on the shores of the beautiful blue Lake of Ochrida, and really, I cannot understand what is the meaning of your factum, (sic.) What have you come to do among us? Nobody knows you any more in Sofia. You are Servian and consequently a foreigner to us Bulgarians. There are certain pains that nothing can alleviate, nor heal, and there are wounds that nothing can cicatrize.

Since your entry in Ochrida, in my father's house, you, the Servian Army, behaved like enemies. You profaned the church, that Bulgarian church where I took my first communion. You have despoiled the archives and burned our libraries; you ordered closed our national school where I learned to mumble the alphabet of my mother tongue.

I have seen the epic struggle of my compatriots against Greeks and Turks, and I took part with them in order to obtain these national institutions. And did you come there in Ochrida, and everywhere in Macedonia protected by our valiant army of Lulé Bourgas and Chataldja, to perform the duty of allies--of Slav brethren?

You established yourselves as conquerors of the country, as vandals, with the manifest purpose of extinguishing every vestige of our national culture. You associated yourselves with the non-Slavs (Rumanians and Greeks) against us, your allies, in order to reach your end. Why, then, do you call us Slavs? We were called Tartars until just before you arrived in Sofia.

You treated as villains our Bishops, whom the Turks and the Greeks were forced to restore us after a struggle of seventy-five years. You burned our Bulgarian books, and you forbade, under penalty of death, our people from calling themselves Bulgars. You tortured my parents with all the refinements of torture that you have invented.

Why, I beg of you? Because you were Servians? I will not go so far as to injure you with the belief that the Servians are capable of crimes against nature. Then, because we were Bulgarians; because those poor people, taking you for their brethren, for Christians, for Slavs, at least had the courage to say they were Bulgarians and to think themselves such.

And this continues today with increased intensity. Ah, Mr. Maringovich! You have committed there and you persist in committing a crime against humanity that nothing will ever efface. You stabbed us to the heart, with premeditation, and the wound is still bleeding; you killed our faith in the Slav brotherhood. You morally assassinated us.

In the face of these crimes, Bregainitza and Slivnitza are pale figures. These odious crimes will not be left unpunished. The day of chastisement will come whether you look for it or not.

Your Excellency, I permit myself to repeat the question: What have you come to do among us?

Really you must have a good cheek--permit me this undiplomatic expression--and a Servian cheek, in order to have the audacity to come here and tell us tales. It is not only this; but you make sport of our sacredest and deepest sentiments, you reopen our wounds, and you purely and simply abuse us. You ought to have thought of all this before you set out for Sofia. Today there is an abyss dividing Serbs and Bulgars. It is an open precipice which will serve for you as a grave. You wish to fill it? To succeed you must employ other means than words.

Sir: You are a foreigner to us; there is not an honest man in all Bulgaria who can consider you a welcome guest. Nobody knows you. For every Bulgar there is only one word and one gesture for you. We stake our liberty in giving you the answer and in making the gesture.

Sir: You may take the train which brought you here from Nish. There is the depot. Farewell! Kindly accept the assurance of my consideration for your person, whom I had not the advantage to know.

THE MINISTRY'S POSITION.

_The statement by the new Servian Cabinet in the Skuptschina on Dec. 8, 1914, follows:_

The new Ministry has made in the Skuptschina the following declarations: The Government that has the honor to appear before you has been constituted with the purpose of manifesting to the end of this great crisis the union of the wills, the forces, and the intentions of all political parties of our country.

This Government is convinced of the confidence of the Skuptschina, as it puts all of its forces to the service of the great cause of the Servian Nation, and of the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian family.

The Government considers its first duty to bow low before the heroic sacrifices voluntarily made on the altar of the fatherland.

The Government sends to the entire army and to all the military, from commanders down to simple privates, the expression of its confidence, its admiration and its gratitude for their efforts and their sacrifices to the common fatherland.

Our little and young army, conserving the good reputation it had acquired in the past years, has put itself worthily on the side of the glorious and veteran armies of our great allies, who are struggling together with us for the cause of justice and liberty.

There is no doubt that in the end of these painful days of war our historic nation will be recognized and appreciated.

The Government is convinced that all the Servian people are united until the end of this hallowed war, to defend their hearths and their liberty; that their sole duty is to assure an army proportionate to this great war, which from the very beginning has been a struggle for the emancipation and the union of all our brother Serbo-Croato-Slovaks, who now suffer under foreign rule.

The brilliant success which will crown this war will compensate largely the great sacrifices of the present Servian generation. In this struggle the Servian people have not to choose, because in a question of life and death there is no choice.

This people is forced to struggle and will do its duty with the same unflinching energy of a century ago for the redemption of the tomb of Kossovo.

The Government will try faithfully to represent this national decision; and, faithful to its powerful and heroic allies, it will with confidence await the hour of victory.

The Government, conscious of the pains and hardships suffered by the army and in large part by the nation, will do all that human strength can do for the amelioration of the present situation and will energetically try all measures for refitting the army and bettering the sanitary service, as in this cause no sacrifices shall be spared.

In concert with you, gentlemen, the Government will take all the necessary measures for helping the population to recuperate after the war.

Now, while the enemy is yet at the gates of our country, the Government cries: Forward, with God's help, against the enemy! Forward in the struggle against the enemy!

[All the Deputies, without party distinction, repeated the last words of Premier Nicola Pashitch, and immense applause greeted the manifesto.]

STATEMENT TO GREECE.

_The Servian Minister at Athens, Mr. Baluhtchich, caused this announcement to be made on Nov. 29, 1914:_

On Nov. 29 the Servian Minister at Athens declared that all talk of Servian concessions of any kind in favor of Bulgaria was premature.

The Servian Government, the Minister said, finds it impossible to proceed to any concession territorial or moral, so long as Servia is in a state of war.

The Bulgarian Government has not made, and it is impossible to formulate, her demands directly to Servia, because it is impossible to foresee the outcome of a struggle so violent and apparently destined to be long. For Servia it is impossible to enter negotiations of indemnity or concessions for the neutrality of Bulgaria before an end is put to the present situation. The only certain thing is that the Governments of the Triple Entente are endeavoring to reconstitute the Balkan League, which is to be made of three Balkan States, namely, Servia, Greece, and Bulgaria.

But, as I had the occasion of stating some time ago, the Bulgarian territorial demands, with regard to the reconstitution of the league, have been so preposterous that neither Greece nor Servia could begin discussions on such a basis.

I deny, in the most emphatic manner, Mr. Baluhtchich said, the news that Servia was to cede, or that Bulgaria directly and formally demanded from my Government, any strip whatever of Macedonian territory, at least for the time being.

Likewise it is untrue that the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Mr. Radoslavoff, demanded from the Ambassadors of the Triple Entente that the compensation for her neutrality be guaranteed to her from now for the future. It is true that a disturbing political ferment is going on now in the Balkan Peninsula, the Servian Minister said in conclusion, but it is a difficult thing to express opinions at this time.

However, before the war is over, neither concessions nor discussion can be made, at least as far as Servia is concerned, and it seems that the Triple Entente concurs in this view.

BULGARIA AND KULTUR.

_In the semi-official Servian daily, Samouprava, published in Belgrade and now at Nish, the following editorial article appeared early in the first week of October, 1914:_

The Bulgarians are a queer people. Those of the foreigners who sympathize with them are apt to call them realists, positivists, and calculants, but we Servians, knowing them, understand that such definitions applied to them are flattering euphemisms and nothing more. The Bulgarian people are really laborious and thrifty. Unfortunately the cultured members of Bulgarian society, who studied abroad, bear in their social and political life the fundamental characteristics of the German intellect.

The cultured Bulgarians have absorbed the German Kultur, although they do not owe Germany even the hundredth part of what they owe to Russia.

All these are facts that need not proofs. Bulgaria, therefore, could not more wantonly accuse Servia than by saying that we allied ourselves with the enemies of Slavdom. The cynicism of these accusations is proved by the following officially registered Bulgarian actions:

The Stoïlof Ministry has concluded an alliance with Servia and also an understanding which the Bulgarians sold to Turkey for eight Bishoprics in Macedonia.

During the crisis which followed the annexation of Servian Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria, and when Russia was mortally insulted, Bulgaria, in common understanding with Austria, proclaimed her independence and definitely annexed Oriental Rumelia. These profits Bulgaria secured to the detriment of Servian interests.

During the Balkan war, and notwithstanding all that Servia had done for Bulgaria, the Bulgarian attitude was once more treacherous, culminating in the wanton attack upon her allies at the instigation of Austria.

Today, when Russia fights a life-and-death struggle, Bulgaria is keeping neutral, and every one knows what kind of neutrality is this when such a multitude of Germans is passing through Bulgarian territory in order to arm and lead the Turks against Russia. And, last but not least, immediately after the present war between Austria and Servia, the Bulgarians proposed an alliance to Rumania.

After all this it is a wonder how the Bulgarians dare to invoke Slav sympathies, which they always sold to Austria, and which the Bulgarian press is now trying to sell at auction. Lucky he who buys them.

[Illustration: A YOUTHFUL BELGIAN HERO

Joseph Lessen, a Boy Scout, 18 Years of Age, Who So Distinguished Himself That He Was Decorated on the Field by King Albert.]

[Illustration: THE CROWN PRINCE OF BELGIUM

H.R.H. Prince Leopold, Eldest Son of the King of the Belgians.

(_Photo from Underwood & Underwood._)]

AFTER FIVE MONTHS' FIGHTING.

_On Dec. 17, (30, New Style,) 1914, Crown Prince Alexander of Servia, in his quality of Commander in Chief of the Army, issued the following order of the day to his troops:_

Soldiers! It is now five months since the day when the enemy attacked our beloved country. Notwithstanding the fact that we had suffered the trials of two heroic but hard wars, nevertheless firm and undaunted we have stood the attack. Having routed the enemy in Tchar and Zadar we gave him, after heroic and sanguinary battles, the biggest blow of all.

Thousands of prisoners, hundreds of guns, a quantity of war booty, which came to our hands, are witnesses of his defeat and our glory.

Soldiers! I feel proud in announcing to you that not a single enemy remains on the soil of the Servian Kingdom. We cast him out with great losses.

At this sacred moment, when on the heroic City of Belgrade anew waves the victorious Servian flag, I desire to fulfill a great duty of gratitude. In our ranks, in this third war, are fighting our brothers which we have liberated from the Turkish yoke. The soldiers of Kossovo, of Vardar, of Hekligovatz, of Bregalnitsa, of Bitolie, and of Porets, have shown themselves worthy of their brothers of Shumadia and the Danube, of Poutrin and Morava, of Timok and Usjitsa.

They have shown themselves worthy of the heroes Milaten and Dughan, who for long have carried the glory and the good name of the Servian arms.

I want to give to these new soldiers of ours conspicuous proofs of the gratitude of the fatherland. In the face of the undeniable proof of their fulfillment of their duty, in the face of their enthusiasm I declare that these soldiers shall have the political and constitutional rights of Servia, their liberatrix! The Skuptschina, in its first sitting after peace is signed, will take all the necessary measures in order that full liberties be given to our brethren.

Soldiers! The iron ring of our powerful allies is fastening tighter every day around our common enemy. And he, (the enemy,) feeling that his defeat is well nigh at hand and dreading its dire consequences, fights desperately and strenuously. But in vain. The number of their soldiers is diminishing daily, and our allies are strengthened with new troops on the fields of battle.

The end of this gigantic struggle is from now known, although not yet accomplished. We must, therefore, for some time to come, fulfill our difficult duty and stay by the side of our big and powerful allies, who are fighting for us, till our enemy is annihilated on the battlefield.

And then peace will come to crown worthily those who have been sacrificed for our great fatherland, and then our country will be much enlarged, much stronger, and much happier than she ever has been. And for this, oh, my heroic Servia will be grateful to you.

RUSSIAN CONGRATULATIONS.

_On Dec. 18, 1914, the new Russian Minister to Servia, Prince Troubetzkoï, presented his credentials to the Servian Crown Prince Alexander, whom he addressed as follows:_

Illustrious Sir: I have the honor to hand to your Royal Highness the letter by which his Majesty the Emperor of Russia has deigned to accredit me by his Majesty the King of Servia.

My august master has charged me to express to you the vivid sympathy and the sincere admiration which his Majesty feels for the valiant people of Servia, her heroic army, and her venerable chief.

Allow me to express to your Highness the joy that I feel in fulfilling the imperial commission today when your army has covered itself with immortal glory and has written in Servian history the most beautiful page that a people may desire.

Separated by a long distance, but, attracted by the heart of her elder sister, Servia may say that in this terrible struggle against an enemy, numerically stronger but morally weaker, she is not alone and will not be forsaken.

I pray that this conviction may double the unflinching courage of the Servians and lead them always to new victories.

In assuming today the duties incumbent upon me after the death of my lamented predecessor, Hartwig, I take the courage, illustrious Sir, to express the hope that your Highness will not deprive me of his assistance, which will be absolutely necessary to me in order that I may work to the best of my abilities for the common good of the two countries, and also for the consummation of peace in the Balkan Peninsula, this peace that Russia considers as the essential aim of her efforts and her sacrifices.

_Crown Prince Alexander answered as follows:_

The expression of the vivid sympathy and admiration which his Majesty the Emperor has addressed through you to the people and army of Servia are so much the more welcome as I personally witnessed the hard conditions under which my valiant army is struggling and the heavy burdens oppressing my brave people.

The fact that, although separated by a long distance from Russia, her elder sister, Servia can find in her bosom a heart having the same sentiments as hers, has encouraged our army and our people to persist in the heroic struggle that they are waging against a more numerous enemy. This certainty will give us new strength to carry the struggle to the end.

In the fulfillment of your mission, after the death of your predecessor, a mission which the late Hartwig performed with such love and such devotion to the true Slav interests, you can rest on my absolute confidence and the continued support of my Government, being sure that the greatness and the power of Servia are in full accord with the greatness and the power of holy Russia.

The lamented Hartwig made many trips for the mutual benefit of both countries, Russia and Servia, and his efforts had resulted in creating stable conditions and securing the peace of the Balkans.

In accepting the letters, by which his Majesty the Emperor has accredited you by his Majesty the King of Servia, my beloved father, I bid you, Mr. Minister, welcome, and I wish you success in your mission.

BULGARIA'S SENTIMENT.

_The following Bulgarian view of the Servian victory that resulted in the recapture of Belgrade is presented from an editorial article of the Dnevnik of Sofia:_

The Austro-Hungarian action against Servia seems to have failed. It goes without saying that the return of the Servians to Belgrade does not mean yet that the handful of the starving and half-naked Servian Army has been victorious against its strong opponent.

The Servian success, according to latest information, is due to means that are very little laudable in themselves.

The commander of the advance posts of the Austro-Hungarian Army, being a native of Dalmatia, became intimate with the Servians and committed an odious treason. He disclosed to them the dispositions of the Austro-Hungarian forces, and he himself, with the sections forming the guard, surrendered to the Servians.

From the Austrian rearguard one part scattered to various villages, another was sleeping. They were not ready and, caught unexpectedly, were dispersed.

Austro-Hungarian prestige is severely wounded. The shameful treason shows how dangerous is the Pan-Servian propaganda to the integrity of the Austrian Empire, when corruption has reached even the officers standing in high command.

The Austro-Hungarian General Staff, as we are informed, has already taken those measures imposed by the situation. The Generals, Frank and Potiorek, have been recalled and will be probably court-martialed. And it seems that the "brilliant" Servian victories are the beginning of the end of the "Slav Belgium."

GREECE ACCLAIMS.

_The following editorial article, headed "A New Marathon" on the Servian victory, appeared in the Greek newspaper Patris of Athens on Dec. 3, (16, New Style,) 1914, expressing the views of the Hellenic Government:_

The reoccupation of Belgrade by the Servians is one of those military feats which amount to historical phenomena. The Servians not only contributed the greatest feat of the European war, as far as results are concerned, but won for themselves an immortal page in the world's history.

Greece alone has to show an analogous achievement, although greater, when she expelled the Persian invasion.

Only the achievements of Arhangelovatz, Ouzhitse, and Lazarevats can compare in a certain degree to the brilliancy of Marathon and Plateae. And the Servian achievement appears all the more Hellenic if analogies are to be considered.

The Servians, until yesterday a little people, with an army almost insignificant in face of the masses of the Austrian columns, submissive in times of peace, in the face of the most oppressive demands of Austrian diplomacy--considered like all the small peoples to be living at the mercy of the great--when the hour of supreme defense for altars and hearths struck, and in the face of an enemy threatening to swallow their country, they arose, terrible in their vengeance, and repeated the feat of the routing of Goliath by their small but invincible power.