The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

proposals of the Entente Powers, as they ran counter to the most cherished Bulgarian desires. The very existence of Serbia was a perpetual menace to her aspiration to supremacy. How could she be expected to contribute to the stability and strength of Serbia or to help the Russian conquest of Constantinople and thus frustrate her own cherished dreams? As long as Constantinople remains in Turkish hands the Tsar of Bulgaria may hope to enter it. Moreover she believed in German victory, and as the Central Empires proposed the annihilation of Serbia and division of her territory between Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary, Sofia was only too eager to accept the bargain, leaving to the future the realisation of her ambition in the direction of Constantinople.

Thus Bulgaria had thrown in her lot definitely and irrevocably with the German combination of Powers. The words “ liberty ” and “‘ humanity’ had no charm for materialistic Bulgaria. She bid for a greater price, and sold herself to Germany not in rashness of passion but coolheadedly and deliberately. She cannot plead that she was unaware of German methods of warfare and of the full meaning of the ‘* Kultur.” Bulgaria made her choice after the atrocities of the Belgian invasion, after the crime of the Lusitania, and after the judicial murder of Miss Cavell, and justice must be done to her according to the merits of her action.

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