The Days of a Man X^^^^^ 



"Right" and were evidently "hand-picked," as every 

 one of them supported the king and premiei through 



Mdinof thick andthin. Theleaderof the "Left" was A.Mah- 

 noff, regarded by his friends as the coming states- 

 man. Some of these men also assured me that only 

 the pressure of imperial neighbors kept Bulgaria from 

 becoming a republic. In fact, one said that Malinoff 

 was ready to depose Ferdinand just as soon as he 

 could be sure that Austria would not bring him back. 

 This move he finally accomplished in 1918, an event 

 leading to the collapse of Austria and the consequent 

 surrender of Germany. 



On the day of our visit Parliament was conducting 

 an inquiry into the secret treaties with Russia. 

 Kirkoff, a Socialist, demanded further investigation 



Bulgarians into the responsibility of "Tsar" Ferdinand for the 



genius jj^i-jQj^'g misfortunes, and especially for the ill-judged 



attack on Serbia in 1912.^ This discussion brought out 



several matters of historic interest which, however, I 



have neither space nor ability to treat adequately. 



Raio- I was fortunate in being able to meet the premier, 



siavoff j-jj. Radoslavoff, a faithful supporter of Ferdinand, 

 a well-groomed gentleman of excellent address who 

 spoke admirable French. We freely discussed the 

 situation in Europe, though his carefully measured 

 utterances contained nothing new to me.- But I was 

 told by some one else that the government had 

 lately received a communication from a Serbian 

 official asking whether Bulgaria would be willing to 



^ It would appear, for reasons into which I cannot go, that responsibihty 

 for this attack, which began the second Balkan war, must be shared about 

 equally by officials on both sides. By the Treaty of London Serbia had been 

 debarred her hoped-for "window to the sea" and Bulgaria had witnessed the 

 dissection of Macedonia, conditions which rendered conflict inevitable. 



2 At the time of my visit to Sofia, Ferdinand was absent in Vienna. 



c 576 : 



