The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

men around Tsar Ferdinand, success is the only measure of the fairness of an enterprise. Had Ferdinand of Coburg succeeded in beating the Greeks and Serbians, and in snatching from them, as the price of victory, the whole of Macedonia together with Salonica, he would have been praised in 1913 as he is praised to-day as the greatest statesman and patriot in Bulgaria, and M. Gueshov would never have said a word against his treachery to the alliance. Indeed we must recognise here that Tsar Ferdinand acted under the strongest provocation. That provocation was not the obstinacy of Serbia, whose desire for revision of the treaty and some compensation are readily comprehensible and could have been met half-way, but he was provoked by a unique opportunity of beating the Serbian and Greek armies and establishing the supremacy of his own troops beyond all doubt. His personal pride had suffered much at that moment because of the failure to conquer Constantinople and to enter that Imperial city in the state and pomp of a Byzantine emperor. He had already ordered everything necessary for such a ceremony on the eve of the failure of his troops to force the Chataldja lines at the very gates of Constantinople, and he needed some sort of solace in a new brilliant feat of arms. Flatterers throughout Europe had praised his talent and wisdom, his army was considered second to none but Prussian troops in efficiency, and how could he permit any 185