RAILWAYS OF THE BALKANS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1629, 26 October 1916, Page 4

RAILWAYS OF THE BALKANS.

There are few railways in the Balkans, but strategically, they are of importance. The most important, particularly to the Central Powers, is the great trunk railway passing through the Balkan .States from Belgrade to Constantinople. This railway comprises the only means of communication AustroGermany has with her Balkan Allies, Bulgaria and Turkey, and were this connecting link severed, a great blow would be delivered against the smaller States. Presumably that is one of the objectives of the offensive now being conducted by the Entente Powers in the Balkans from Salonika. When the alliance with Auslro-Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey was brought about it was of tho utmost urgency that the enemy should secure control of, and retain, this important railway, inasmuch as il provided the main, if not the only, means of effective communication between Berlin, Sofia, and Constantinople. The weakest part of the grip lay in the hostile country of Serbia, and that was remedied by merciless processes now only 100 well kMown. It is still fresh in memory how some time ago Germany loudly boasted of tin 1 fact, that trains were running liy this route direct from Antwerp to Constantinople without interference hy the Allies. As the railway was const meted more with tin eye to its strategical ami political than to its commercial value, its wresting from the enemy would be a gain of outstanding importance. It is a very well equipped and well managed railway with branches in Bulgaria and Turkey that enhances its value to whichever belligerent possesses il. Of all the Balkan States, Bulgaria lias shown herself the most energetic in the matter of railway construction. Fifty years ago there was not a single railway in Bulgaria proper, and a very meagre system indeed, constructed by the Turkish Government, in her southern province, Eastern I’onmclia. After the Balkan wars she set to work, and now boasts of some 1,100 miles of railroad. She has had still further projects in view, her main object in recent years having been to establish communication between Koumania and Salonika through her own capital, Sofia. The length of the great trunk line in its course, through the Balkan Stales, from Belgrade in Serbia to Constantinople in Turkey, is fid!) miles. Of this 212 miles passes through Serbia, 271 through Bulgaria, and 170 through Turkey. Bulgaria is thus seen to have slightly (he larger length, and this passes from west to east, with a southern inclination. Nowhere is it very far from the southern frontier which separate Bulgaria from Turkey. The railway is of comparatively recent construction. It was begun in 180!) and finished for through traffic in 1888. On reaching Biilgarm the railway enters upon the Sofia plateau, and passes thence into a long valley by a pass. Emerging, its course lies over the plain of Eastern Boumelia till it reaches Mustafa Pasha. Along most of its route through Bulgarian territory it is flanked on the north by the Balkan Range, and on the south by the Rhodope Mountains. Entering Turkey, the course lies along the valley of the Urgent*, through Adrianople, along what is broadly known as the Peninsula of Constantinople, then through the Chatalja lines to its terminus at the Golden Horn. Throughout the country is broken and |o a great extent mountainous. So important a line of direct communication is n»t, of course, without branches of more or less importance. But they are very few. At Nish, in Serbia, there is a line striking out southwards, and terminating at Salonika, after a course of 278 miles. The route embraces several narrow gorges which rendered the line vulnerable to an enemy, and the Bulgarians very early after joining in hostilities hurried over their frontiers and seized several sections. In Turkey, too, there is a branch from the trunk lino a lijtlp smith of Adrianoplc am) ending a) Salonika. But hy far the most important offshoot s measured hy immediate circumstances are those in Bulgaria itself. Ranking firs) in the estimates of warfare is a branch which leaves llie trunk line at Sofia, and after passing northwards along I lie valley of the river Tskcr, sharply turns to tfu* east and proceeds over the plains of Northern Bulgaria just as the trunk line swerves from the Roumanian frontier, until it terminates at Varna, on the Black Sea. This branch was opened in 18!)!), and is 33(5 miles long. It serves Northern Bulgaria just as the trunk line serves the southern territory. Between the two railways towers the Balkan Range, The immense utility in any circumstance,s of the,sc separate and almost parallel railways has been immeasurably increased in quite recent limes hy the construction of a connecting railway running from north to south, and cutting through the Balkan Range. By this route it is now possible to transfer troops easily from North to South Bulgaria, without taking the long route to Sofia by the Sofia-Varna railway, and then back along the trunk line. The Bulgarians have lijkpwipie profited hy a similar facility for <.-i»jp?e;p.rgJii)n in it branch line which leaver Sofia ip a south-westerly direct ion, and takes a course of !)() miles through Radomir to the frontier. The ad" vance upon Uskuh thoroughly proved the advantage of that short branch, which was only constructed six ycay* ago, Of less, (hough hy no means negligibly, interest is a short length of railway leaving pin;

trunk lino in a north-eastern direction, and providing communication between Philippopolis and Burgas, on the Black Sea.