EFFICIENT BULGARIA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 15

EFFICIENT BULGARIA.

■. YEARS OF PREPARATION. ' THE PEOPLE THAT SURPRISED • EUROPE. I used to think—l supposb most peoplo used to tuiuk (writes Uio special correspondent ot tne "Manchester Uuardian" at jUusta'la Pasha)—that no pnpin' tno'Near Mat could bo'cither silent or cnipient. Hut 1 slid not kusw tha Bulgarians. 1 have now lived among them through a, supremo national'cr&is.'" ■ I hayb'rseon them "making history" with a rapidity almost. uhexumpl»l."-'j.'hcy have been enBtiged- upon •-a'-"world's'TnuTeraent"leadiiig to vast and unknown issues. But from iirst to last I have never heard a f-pecch, except in Parliament, nor seen a trace of emotion, beyond a happy confidence. If thel'o was rhetoric or escitoment tho people get aver it before mobilisation. One can almost imagina the order "Alter mobilisation,'no tatlc or outcries." It would have been obeyed, but it was un-ne'cesa'ai-y. Here alone of armies known to me, soldiers of all ranks are forbidden to mention in letters the names or numbers, pt tho killed and wounded.-- I believe no officials lists' are published.'.', Thero is something more than Jap'anoso in-such indifferonoo to death compared with tho purpose of war—in such lorgetfulncss >of tjiq person when the country is concerned. It comes hear the polity of ''spldior'ants.''. ', How thoroughly and silently the staff must have worked for years in preparaI Hon for this event, that thoy•'■ knew- -so long was approacliing! This, littlo town— [.the .first Turkish town aoross the, frontier—aits, astridb tho main ■', road of • invasion.' It is the road from' Sofia,-' and, I suppose, ultimately from:Vienna'to Constantinople.' Probably it is'old as: tho Byzantine j Empire,''-or: older.' 'Sofia, Pliihppopohs, Adrianople—those are'high classical names, and these, cities - stand upon it. No doubt it was a highway of trado and learning and honour'long before the~blighr of "the "TufFTeU" upon thb most .beautiful- regions of-the world. Now an almost uninterrupted line of ox-carts' 'passes' along -,it day after day, .and as I watch the white oxen dragging their. Iwoadcn :far-m wagons ' steadily— arid silently onward ■ I think of the staff and the steady and" silent work that has brought ■ each cart into its right place with its right load at the appointed time. Thousands on thousands of carts—the whole country must beT'emptied ]of carts— up ;_tp tho service, I believe, on. a mere receipt from tho Government and, no further promise, to pay/or" io restore: Oxen'have.-'gonp with them,, and now, insead of ploughing and taking- produce to market, ■ ,th.e.v. dvas- load after load of bread to feed .tho hnudretls of'.thousands of men,occupied with a different business than;, farm work; they' d'ra? huge •'• mas=es of,iron wrought in"'shnpes' unlike the plough, and; on the return journey they drajr. helples,s men" tied iip with white bandages that-the'red comes through. : Carefully Calculated Success. 1 It is this silent and continuous' movement that impresses .one with a feeling pf assurance; and carefully calculated success;' !Tho'".vcry existencb of the whole | peoplo wa9 staked on success. With.such transport, failure meant utter ruin. Imagine an army away from defeat with 'ox-wagons! No. stores, no ivonnded. no ; big ' giins'. could have been sav.edr'i victbriSus enemy's, cavalry-could alihost"have .exterminated the manhood of .tlio'nation. I must not betray figures, but; :fol''bne purpose or another,.nearly, every man between eighteen and fifty' must-now be working, for tho piiblio service,' 'and many .above fifty too. Thpus-. aiuts,'perhaps,'arb ; only driving ox : car'ts, but', after; defeat -all "would have fallen equally -"victim's, and this/ancient road would- havp been 'converted' into a chaos of slaughter from Mustafa Pasha up to Sofia" itself; -All was staked on success. Silently the -plans were, la'id, aiid ;'siie'htlly, carried out. Success has been assured, and also silent. '' '".'r-. ' '••".■ •Seldom has; a peoplo, cheered 'victory so little, or been so indifferent, to reclame. It. is trup.one.cannot pxpect much cheer r irig 'when. all : the niou areaf'the front. But.take the official bulUjtiris, which, is all, ivg;;are. allowed to know of the general course of ;the, war. They:'are meagre : almost : to sileucei.', Historic victories are told i,n thrcp lines. '.■■Here• in ' this filthy town,-nnklb'depii in slush, wo-.-nro -..now awaiting the, beginning of-the"-next great apt 'liv - the ; ' drama. .Will Adrianople be bbrab'ai'dpd? Will .its;forts.bo.approach-' •cd.by parallels? Will they be rushed b"y"as'sault ? ""Or'will it be'kept cooped up. till the crisis of war is de-cide'd!--bofore"''Constantinople's old. walls, and:.thenbe. left ■to surrender at', leisure? No one hero, except, .perhaps, thb': General (whose iiamo., I must not mention),' .ca'iW know;;.but" I. should' never : bo' /surprised' if. oho. morning; we woke to. find a 'bulletin;postcd;:'"Adriahbple' .fell the day /before yesterday.''.'."And'/tho ox-carta will ,-go ! on'.'rarrying*Drcad-.'Rs-.'usual;' ■"■;■'"'* ' ': :'■ It 'is/ magnificent; but .it. is not war 'correspondence.. Over/thirty of .- the correspondents -suddenly departed together, "for . various, reasons," as ,1 telegraphed. Others. are; vanishing, 'biio by one, and somo who showed .' themselves conspicuous for vivid imaginative-, capacity will never ,bo -welcomed 'back to an'army that cares nothing whatever for imaginative glories. It is'all admirable, arid splendid war 3 like/these arc not'made for the 'benefit of !■ correspondents or foreign.readers far away. 'With .silent rapidity the army has" advanced to a. victory-which the people > h'a.vo bought with long years, of patient sacrifice, as well-as'by tho lives of those who fall." No one can complain. Biit' for' one who. -like myself, has closely watched the Balkan history,- and during. th'6~la"st sisteefi'years'has'attemptedwhat was possible in" aid of tho Balkan peoples,' still under Turkish misrule, it would bo a bitter) loss-not to' bo allowed to. witness tho destruction of Adrianople's'fortresses, of," later' , on;''to watch tho' Turk" drifting across the Bosphoru's on anything that ,will;floit;. ( a'nd landing with a.cat and 'half a .chair, upon, thb Asiatic, coast. .