TERRORS OF WAR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1642, 8 January 1913, Page 5

TERRORS OF WAR.

IN THE TRACK OF A VICTORIOUS ARMY. (By Luigi Barzini in the London ■ "Telegraph") . Chatalja, November 16. I do not know when you will receive my telegrams, which- the rriilitary post, problematical in its arrival and departure, carries to its telegraph office at Kirk-Kilisse. Tneso days which precede a great # action, probably decisive and certainly long and obstinate, are full of emotion, and the great events which I am about to witness have a profound interest, which. would seem to be capable of surviving even the news of accomplished facts. You j have-already received the account of my.

ournoy across Tlirace from Mustafa Pasha ;o Chorlu. Yesterday evening I reached .ho end of ray pilgrimage along the horrible paths which avo the high roads of Purkoy in Europe, and along which flows, slowly and continuously, the Gtream of the nourishment of-war. The roads are still traversed by convoys of primitive carriages, drawn by bullocks aiid driven by militarised peasants.. who \ wear the costumes of the most distant and remote regions.of Bulgaria. Rough country carts, with shapeless, creaking wheels, covered with matting, constitute an .immense and unexpbeted transport service, giving to, tho'Tca'r of a mocfern array a picturesque and primordial animation, something resembling a barbarous emigration. Carts of this Kind must'have followed the victorious expeditions of .Tsar Simeon.

rile necessities'of military ■ secrecy, will t permit mo to mention the name of o pljce where the, Bulgarian headqtuirrs are situated, and, ,for that matter, e ' name of the locality is t almost unlown. Wo are in a small village, where 0 headquarters staff arrived yesterday id established itself in some of tho retched wooden huts, over w'hich is now retched a network of telegraph and teleloiie lines. Now and again we hear, wards the Eouth, the distant 60und of •avy artillery; a Turkish cruiser on the >a of Marmora is firing, Without much feet, upon the Bulgarian extreme right. Caravans of Fugitives, ■ Prom j;ho villages along the coast many. ; the inhabitants, terrified by the boinirdment, are emigrating towards Chorlu, id yesterday I passed small caravans ofigitivcs coming from Silivri, with their irts loaded with the household goods ml children, preceded by small herds of ittle' and followed by numerous dogs, omo of tho fugitives go towards the orth, but the great and most impressive migration proceeds southwards. ' It has asssd like an immense human sea .in rout of the Bulgarian advance.' A. mad srror, if.it was not a oommand, has riven the whole of the Mohammedan opulation of Thrace from ', theso villges. . This . phenomenon, worthy of 1 other pochs, forms a cruel background of anlquit.v to a modern war. It began at ho moment when tho Bulgarian army rossed the frontier. All tho Turkish inabitants fled from Mustafa Pasha before ho enemy arrived, and from town to own; the immense hoard 1 of fugitives ontinued to increase, - forming a : vast valanche of misery, urged forward by error and hatred. It is hardly possible or our minds to understand, the reason or this • emigration.- .Wo are here in a ountrv which has remained five centures behind the times, and which has a' avage and primordial idea of . warfare, riil) Bashi-Bazouk mosshcrcs' l 'and 1 pilages according to his own. idea of war. Confronted: by an enemy who is stronßer hail himself, ho imagines that he is hreatened with massacre; and,' ■; conseluently, he takes to ■ (light. , The spontaneous; flight of the Moslem population ;eems to prove two things—namely, that he Turks were in a great minority in Juropean Turkey, and that tb.oy did not eel at homo there. ' Flight appeared to hom to bo ncccssary. and logical. ~ Centuries of Fear and Hatred. ' After five/centuries, the juries, still re-1 iiaincd the'invaders, as they were at the ;ima of the- conquest; No fusion had ; aken placo between .them and the couriered people; they had- not even govirncdj; they had established nothing, but 1 perennial military occupation: : The i'urks were still encamped oil the captur:d territory, and when their soldiers' retired, they also withdrew, their instinct'' :ompelling them to follow the fate-of the iriny. Tnis gigantic emigration,' more'jVor, is an infinitely pitiful and terrible thing., It carries with, it ah enormous amount of pain and suffering, and drags along innocent victims. ••• It seems that there are (about -300,000 fugitives, whom Ujrror has led in confused caravans to tho walls of Constantinople, : where they are now encamped, crushed and discouraged. , '■ '. According to the neV;s which has reached hero, their entry into the'-capital was prevented by the Ottoman authorities for reasons of ..public order, and thus held betweon war, which is Approaching and the -cruel, inhospitable town,- this 'unhappy multitude, languishing with starvation,' seems destined to; be out down by death in the suburbs of the capital. In a few Tillages tho Mussulman population' has remained-behind, and, has sent its elders to make au act of-submission to the Bulgarian authorities. From a military point of view, the emigration of tho Turks en masse has rendered a great service to the enemy; it has simplified the problem'of protecting the rear,, whioh. would, have been-a great task if the'interminable,, and 6jowly-moving convoys which we have seen had had, to pass through towns inhabited by Turks. 'It would have been necessary to leave larger numbers of troops along the line of communications,' thus depleting'the big units of the army which are now maintained compact on the field of'action. > Captured Correspondents. In t)ie, muddy and precipitous 6treet of the-village where the headquarters are situated'there is plenty, of activity. Busy officers como and go, orderlies pass at c gallop, lines of Red, Cross carts oomt from the front;'guns rattle along in the opposite direction, and groups of prisoners, for the most part deserters, are led in.. One vaguely feels that the final pre, parations are being niade; there is at atmosphere of watchfulness and-of battl< about.the village.' . Amongst the prisoners who were cap : tiired two or threo days ago there' wer< three correspondents and a photographer who were following the Ottoman army They were, surprised by the, Bulgaria! patrol near'the, village of Elvasan', beinj quite certain that the Bulgarians wcr< still far away. The Turkish authoritiei had made them wear fezes) 60 as to pro tect 1 them from possible, mistakes on thpart of the soldiers of .the Sultan. Bu the headdress which saved them from;tb Turk's brought them into danger fron the Bulgarians. Thirty miles from Con stantinople thero is nothing more danger ous than a fez, and the ;oorrespondent wero very nearly fired upon by tho Bui ga'rinn. patrol. They- havo been sent -oi as -prisoners to Kilk-KiliSso. . . ' ' -

Facing ths Chatalja; Lines. The Bulgarian army is in front of th fortifications of Chataljn. Tho Turks ill not bffcr nny resistance. They retire gradually, abandoning 'hill after nil! without impeding tho advance of tho ei omy, and to-day thoy arc on tho plain c Chatalja. One move more, and the Bu garians will he in contact with the fort: Much, lias ljeen said and written abov these fortifications, but their real vain is still ft mystery. They consist of tw and in some places threo chains of fori or redoubts, and to attack them it : necessary to advanco in the open,_ aero: a valley. Against positions of this kin any turning movement would seem to I impossible. The flanks aro protected I tho Dcrkos Lake and tho Chckmejo li goon. It would seem that tho defcnco en only bo broken down by a frontal a tacit, which would bo possible with troor 60 bravo as th© Bulgarians, but tho difl culties, are evidently enormous. Tli lxittle of Chatalja will certainly be tl bitterest, the longest, and tho most sai guinavy of tho whole, war.