Balkan War

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 162, 26 November 1912, Page 5

Balkan War

REINFORCING CHATALD J A. A PESSIMISTIC REPORT. THE FATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 25, 11.25 p.m. Constantinople, November 25. Skirmishing continues at Ciwtaldja. The Turks lost 700 last week, mostly through shrapnel wounds. The torpedoing of the Hamidieh proved a severe handicap. The fire of the other warships was ineffective in stopping the Bulgarian advance. The Messudieh is replacing the Hamidieh. Ten thousand reservists are preparing to take the second position between Chataldja and Stamboul. The Turks have reinforced Nallipoli, anticipating an attack on the Dardanelles. Correspondents report large arrivals of troops it Chataldja from Syria. Many heavy fortress guns have been sent from the Dardanelles.

The respite since Luleburgas has enabled the troops to recover their morale. Faud Pasha has presented a pessimistic report to the Government upon the state of the army at Chataldja. The xesistance is likely to be short-lived. If the Bulgarians force the lines the fate of Constantinople is selaled. ACTIVITY IN AUSTRIA. Vienna, November 24. Though mobilisation is authoritatively contradicted, the newspapers are strictly censored respecting the movements of the troops. A TURKISH GUNBOAT SUNK. Athens, November 24. A torpedo boat entered Aivalik harbor. The commander of a Turkish gunboat, carrying three Krupps, immediately opened the Kingston valves and abandoned the vessel. Greek sailors boarded her, but were unable to close the valves, and sank the gunboat with a torpedo.

CAPTURED GUNS. Belgrade, November 24. The guns captured by the Servians at. Monastir included ten which the Greeks had previously lost to Turkey. THE TURKS OPTIMISTIC. THE CHOLERA SCOURGE. PLOTTERS ARRESTED.

Constantinople, November '24. . The recent success lias heartened the Turks, and the men are singing in the trenches. Great piles of bread, meat and ammunition !uv<: accumulated. Dc-spite the horrors of cholera, the Turks are not anxious to employ foreign doctors, who are forced to commandeer the wounded and sick to fill their beds. Train loads or thousands are arriving daily in the city, though the sickness and mortality at the front are decreasing. Four ex-Ministers have been arrested for plotting. Many important members of the Committee of Union and Progress will soon be under lock and key.

A SANGUINARY ENCOUNTER. Received 25, 9.55 p.m. Buda-Pestli, November 25. Anti-war social processions resulted in a sanguinary encounter between the police and .ihe demonstrators. Many were wounded, and fourteen are "not expected to recover. Thirty have been arrested. MERCI LESS UUU!ARTANS. .STRAINED RELATIONS. , Received 25, f1.55 p.m. Salonika, November 25. The Bulgarians en route mercilessly ravaged the Turkish villages. Directly they entered Salonika tliey pillaged systematically, regardless of Greek protests, and the consuls' protests were also resultless. The relations of the Greek and Bulgarian troops are most strained. The Bulgarians state that they are resolved that their oraipauon shall be permanent.

AUSTRIA'S ULTIMATUM. STANDS FOR THE STATUS QUO. Received 25, 10.40 p.m. Rome, November 25. Austria has informed Italy that she •will adhere to the agreement of 1007, pledging her not to attempt to expand Albania, and supporting the status quo or Albanian autonomy. Austria is resolved to fight rather than give way.

A SEQUEL TO MONASTIR. Received 25, 10.40 p.m. Belgrade, November 25. The Servians have captured Ochrida. Official accounts of the fight at Monas:ir state that Zekki Pash and Dwavid Pasha escaped disguised as privates. I'ethy Pasha ordered a Turkish officer lo shoot him. The officer afterwards suicided.

RECRUITS FOR MACEDONIA,

Received 25, 10.45 p.m

Sofia, November 25. After twenhy-one days' training, 1012 recruits are going to Macedonia on garrison duty. . THE lIAMIDIEEL Received 20, 12.55 a.m Constantinople, November 25. Four Bulgarian torpedoers eluded the Turkish destroyers blockading Bourgas, and caught the llamiilieh napping fifteen miles off Varna. Her forward bulkheads alone prevented the llamidieh sinking. PEACE PROSPECTS. BULGARIA'S NEW OFFER. Berlin, November 24. The reported differences between Austria and Roumania are denied. It is slated that Servia is aware that Russia will not go to extremes to help her. The general opinion is that tlie prospects of a peaceful settlement are increasing. .Military circles consider the situation as grave, but not alarming. Sabres are being rattled merely to warn disturbers of the peace in Belgrade and St. Petersburg to be in readiness. The Bulgarians' offer of more acceptable terras is believed to be due to 100,000 casualties out of 300,000 men, and the fact that already youths of sixteen are being called to the colors. Constantinople, November 24. There was no fighting at Chataldja on Saturday. The ' Bulgarian plenipotentiaries arrive to-day. Additional delegates have been appointed for the armistice proposals.

GERMAN CRITICISM. Berlin, November 24. General Yon Der Goltz, in an address to the Asiatic Society, said that no attempt was made to maintain a modern army in Turkey till 1908. They set t

i work with much eagerness and industry, J but without 11u» right understanding of I their task. There was a lack of instructors after thirty years' lethargy. -The building of a homogeneous corps of officers would take years. The army defeated in the Balkans was only an army of recruits.

THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. Received 26, 12.25 a.m. Constantinople, November 25. Nazim Pasha had a preliminary meeting at SavolT, near Chataldja. The other Ottoman delegates are Izzet Ostnani, Hadi Resliid and Nazmi Pasha. The last-named is Turkish Ambassador at Berlin. Sofia, November 25. The Greek Minister and a military attache will represent Greece in the negotiations, while Bulgaria will represent Servia and Montenegro. Belgrade, November 25. M. Pasics states that it is essential that Servia should have a free passage to the Adriatic. She claims territory between a line from Durazzo and tlieOchrida Lake, south of Allessio and Bjakova in the north. Vienna, November 25. King Ferdinand has returned. The Reichspost announces that as a result of his visit the Triple Alliance will be closer than over. A communique contains indications that Herr von Bethmann Holhveg's restraining iufluence has been weakened in favor of a strong port of Austria under the aegis of I-lerr Waechter Kiderlin. It is reported in Vienna that the Kaiser told King Ferdinand that Germany does not want war, but would unreservedly support her if .Austria were attacked. A MODERN FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. Received 25, 10.45 p.m. Constantinople, November 25. Miss Alt, an old English lady, formerly one of Lady Dufferin's nurses, is working alone in the San Stefano camp, using her own funds for nursing the stricken.

RED CROSS FUNDS.

Received 25, 10.45 p.m

N Constantinople, November 25. Mr. Rockhill, the United States ambassador, offered American Red Cross funds to organise a camp.

THE CHOLERA ABATING. Received 25, 10.45 p.m. Constantinople, November 25. The cholera at Chataldja is rapidly decreasing. PITIFUL SPECTACLES. Received 25, 10.45 p.m. Constantinople, November 25. There are pitiful spectacles in four mosques at Stambonl, where deserters crowd the railings like caged creatures, cordons of bayonets preventing their breaking out. FIRST STAGE OF THE WAP,. SHORT AND FIERCE STRUGGLE. London, October 18. So indecisive and contradictory has been the news from the Balkans during the week that even up to yesterday it was hoped that diplomacy would triumph over military eagerness and bring about some understanding between the belligerents on the basis of Turkey granting to Macedonia the reforms and better government demanded by the Balkan States. Despite the bellicose attitude they assumed in the mobilising of troops on the Turkish frontier, Bulgaria and Strvia—the two more important members of the Balkan federacy—showed no precipitation in plunging into war. It was left to Montenegro to strike tlje first blow. Even when Turkey replied by virtually telling her neighbors to mind their own business, the conflict did not seem to have been hampered in any way. Servia and Bulgaria simply went on mobilising and entraining their troops. Military critics agreed that the delay favored the Porte, and that it need be in no hurry to force the crisis until it had brought up sufficient strength to strike a decisive blow.

The Turkish army in the field on the Thracian Plains round Adrianople and scattered over Albania, Macedonia and Epirus, amounted to about 350,000 men, whereas the Balkans League had a field strength of probably 000,000 men, all more or less ready to fall upon the common foe. Turkey, however, has an immense reserve to draw upon in Asia Minor, and as she was gradually massing these forces on the points where battles were likely to be fought the postponement of actual hostilities was giving the Ottoman commanders all the advantage of the waiting game. Besides, the Italian war, though in a condition of somnolence, had not been declared off. It would have added enormously to Turkeys' task if she had to encounter Italy, as well as her fierce neighbors on the north and west, but the negotiations between the two Powers engaged in the Tripolitan campaign ended in a procla- < mation of peace, and the Ottoman was therefore at liberty to devote his enlire attention to resisting the onslaught of the coalition, the object of which is finally to drive, the Turk out of Europe. Whether the Turkish armies are sufficiently strong to oppose successfully the combined armies of the four assailants, is not known with any certainty, for the censorship on news is very strict, but the, Turkish Ministry must have felt itself ready to assume the offensive without waiting for any further interchange of notes. The Porte formally declared war on Servia and Bulgaria, and began to set about the work of thrashing those belligerents with the energy of the Turk when engaged on what is, after all, a religious war. Meantime fighting has been in active eruption on the frontier of Montenegro, the ruler of which could not restrain his fiery mountaineers from falling on the hereditary enemy. Several minor positions have been captured by the Montenegrins, and at the time of "writing a small but victorious army is marching on to Scutari, an important strategical position from which the Turkish army in Albania may be kept busily employed. The most sickening feature of the warfare has been the absence of any pro-" vision for succoring the wounded. Describing her visit to Tuzi, one of the places from which the Turks retreated, the Daily Chronicle correspondent, Miss Durham, a nurse with the Montenegrin army, gives us the following picture of the horrors of war: —"A Montenegrin official was hard at work disarming Moslems and collecting a motley array of rides and bayonets in stacks. I went straight to the hospital, where I was met with a dreadful odor. I found the doctor, a Turk, who spoke a little German. Me, together with the dispenser, was breakfasting on cognac and sugar. The doctor refused to do any more work, although there were a hundred or more wounded Turkish soldiers needing treatment. They were lying about half-

miked everywhere, even on the floor of j the corridor. None of our own doctors speak Turkish, and we are terribly shorthanded, too, so we can give them little assistance. The Turkish doctor was, astonished to hear that Scutari was cut off and likely to be taken. He had believed the affair was quite local. A comrade who was with me went with a waggon full of cans to the river to fetch' water, of which there was urgent need

in the hospital for all purposes. All over the place were heaps and pailfuls of putrid dressing and bloody rags. I found them even behind the doors and under the tables. In the grounds I made a bonfire of sticks and leaves, and then carried out a whole lot of the stuff and burnt it. The doctor looked on stolidly at the proceedings, and though he himself made no effort to assist he told off some of his men to help me. Returning to Podgoritza, I passed a long straggling procession of women and children carrying bayonets and rifles for the Turks, of which an enormous number had been captured. I met some Franciscan mountain, priests, fully armed and with cartridge belts with them. The church is very militant. They told me that they had taken part in a fight, and expressed a fervent hope that Turkish rule is now over for ever."

The attack on Berane, one of the strongest Turkish outposts, was conducted by the Montenegrins with great gallantry. In describing the operations, the Daily Telegraph correspondent telegraphs:—"For some days General Vukotitch had been surrounding Berane, where Djavid Pasha had left about 4000 men, among whom were about 1000 Albanian volunteers and a battalion of Bashibazouks. The first task which the Montenegrins had to accomplish was to reduce the neighboring villages to submission, and this took several days. Meanwhile the Turkish garrison was preparing its defences and possibly awaiting reinforcements from lpek. This was probably the reason which induced General Vukotitch to hasten his action. He attacked Berane several times, and, with their usual dash,. small bodies of Montenegrin troops managed to reach some of the defences of the town. This morning (October 1C), however, after two days of siege and bombardment, the Montenegrin soldiers marched deliberately on' the town, from which, owing to the nature of the ground, the artillery could not be used in a very effective manner. Thus, when the Montenegrin guns had ceased firing in order to allow the infantry to pass, the combat was carried on almost entirely by means of rifle fire. Although their condition was hopeless, the Turks were unwilling to surrender. They fought up to the last moment, and remained in the trenches until the first companies of the enemy were upon them. Then they retired in the direction of lpek. The last stage of the battle was a hand-to-hand affair, and in order to retire the Turks had to open a way with their bayonets. They succeeded also in carrying away a few guns, but when the road was closed some 500 men remained in the town, of whom many were wounded. They were lying inside the barrack yard. The Montenegrins were left in possession of some hundreds of rifles, fourteen guns, ammunition for all arms and many sacks of flour and rice. The greater number of the inhabitants had fled in the early days of the fighting, but one hundred or so who had remained behind were allowed to go free, those possessing weapons being disarmed."

Monastir, the second city of Macedonia, which has been captured by the Servians, is on the Salonika-Monastir railway, 400 miles west of Constantinople. It possesses many mosques, churches and schools, and a military hospital. Jt is the seat of numerous consulates, an American Protestant mission, and a Lazarist mission. The annual value of its trade is about £400,000. Grain, flour, cloth, hides and bones are exported, and a large quantity of gold and silver ornaments is manufactured, although this industry of late years has tended to decline. The military advantages of its position at the meeting place of roads from Salonika, Durazzo, Uskub and Adrianople, led the Turks, about 1820, to make Monastir the headquarters of in army corps. Since then the importance of the city has greatly increased, and in 1808 it was made the see of a Bulgarian bishop. The population of Monastir in 1905 was about 00,000.

Two remarkable instances of narrow escapes were cabled from Scutari to the Sydney Sun: A woman was walking in a street carrying her baby, when a shell burst close beside licr. A fragment of the shell cut the baby in two. but the mother was untouched. Another woman was standing in the doorway of her house, when a shell passed just over her head and exploded in the room behind her, killing her two children and setting tin; house on fire.