The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

“Any dispute which would arise concerning the interpretation and execution of whatever article of the treaty and of the present Secret Appendix of the military convention will be submitted for definite decision to Russia, as soon as one of the contracting parties shall have declared that it considers it impossible to arrive at an agreement by direct negotiations,’’ the Tsar of Bulgaria light-heartedly delivered his treacherous blow against Serbia and Greece on the eve of the arbitration of the Tsar of Russia.

The dispute over Macedonia, together with other disputes over the Dobrudja, was liquidated at Bucharest in August 1913, but since the very date of the signature of the Treaty of Bucharest the Bulgarian Government has not ceased to protest against it, openly announcing its determination to amend it to its own interest. No doubt can be entertained to-day concerning the mischievous part Austria-Hungary played in the last dramas of the Balkans. Unable to help Bulgaria, her victim and accomplice, at the time, she promised her an early opportunity to wreak her vengeance upon Serbia, since war against the latter was already decided in Vienna, even at the cost of a general conflagration, as we now know, thanks to Signor Giolitti’s revelations made in the Italian Parliament. Bulgaria was the loser, but Austria-Hungary was the gainer, because the greatest danger which stood in the way of her aggressive designs —the Balkan

) 193