BULGARIA ON THE FENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 14, 15 September 1915, Page 4

BULGARIA ON THE FENCE.

lii April last the Sofia correspondent of the Paris “Temps” sent to that journal an interesting series of interviews with prominent Bulgarian leaders, giving their points of view in tin' matter of joining the Allies against the Tnrco-Hnn combination. M. Rado- | slavoff, the Premier, elaborated a former declaration to the Sohranje that Bulgaria would preserve strict neutrality, adding that he did not think that the Triple Entente needed the help of

a little nation like Bulgaria. M. Mali-' noli, the chief of the Democratic’ Party, blamed the Government, for not! raking up a well-defined attitude towards the war. Bulgaria, he. ( saidJ might well take the place of .Greece 1 by the .side of the Allies .since Greece had refused to do so. but guarantees' for compensation would have to be clearly set down. Tire last offer s ofj th«) Triple Entente had wished to make the cession to Bulgaria of Macedonia conditional oit the extent of compensation that it would be. possible to give to Serbia at the end of the war. Such a guarantee was insufficient. M. Gertadioff was frankly outspoken when he said the Allies asked the Bulgarians to act against Turkey but would only guarantee them a- little bit of Thrace. Everybody knew that what they wanted was not Thrace, but Macedonia. “Now that we may be useful we are asked to return to the bosom of the family to >vhicb we were happy to belong, but from which we were kicked out in 1913. Certainly we have made mistakes, but they will never justify the refusal of Servia to abide by the treaty which she treated like a scrap of paper and the behaviour ol certain Powers at Bukarest. If we join the Triple Entente we must be given de finite guarantees that Servia will restore to Us part of the zone which was imcoutested before the Treaty of 1912, and that Greece will restore the district of Seres, Kavala, and Drama. At present I consider our situation good. Whether it will remain so to the end is another question. "At any rate our hands are free, we have no obligation to any one.” This plainly open bargaining shows the Bulgarian mind pretty clearly, but while such .selfish reasoning may he widely understandable, what people outside the little State do not comprehend is that the people who placidly argue hi this fashion fail to see that Turkey and Austria will certainly gobble up Bvijjgaria—and her neighbours also—should such an unthinkable disaster as defeat to the arms of the Allies he brought about.