19143 If^ i^he Bulgaria?! Capital 



join Serbia in an attempt to free Croatia from the 

 Hungarian yoke, offering (if I remember rightly) 

 some substantial advantage in return for her help. 

 She, however, refused to consider the matter. 



The influence of Robert College of Constantinople, 

 and its sister institution, the Woman's College, is 

 everywhere felt in the land. One of the leading public 

 men said to me that "Robert College is the very heart 

 of Bulgaria." The prominent intellectuals of Sofia, Rohen 

 including the pro-erector of the University, Dr. ^"^^''^^ 

 Stephan Kyroff, are graduates of it. The university ^^"' ^"^^ 

 faculty gave me a formal dinner (at which I spoke in 

 behalf of international peace), and I was invited to 

 several gatherings in private houses. At one re- 

 ception many influential people of the city were 

 present, among them Dr. P. M. Matthieff,^ formerly 

 minister to Greece, at that time representing the Red 

 Cross in Bulgaria. 



It was on this occasion, also, that I made the 

 acquaintance of Lieutenant Sherman Miles, then 

 American charge d'affaires at Sofia. An accomplished 

 and scholarly young man, son of the distinguished 

 General Nelson Miles, whom in earlier days I often 

 met in Washington, Lieutenant Miles was much 

 interested in the problems of world peace. 



Speaking of the entrance of Bulgaria into the first The first 

 Balkan war, one of the university professors said ■^^'^''"' 

 that the then premier, Gueschoff, told him that he 

 understood the formation of a military alliance 

 against Turkey to be merely a "simulacrum" — that 

 is, a "bluff" — it being thought that the unified in- 

 fluence of the Balkan states would suffice to compel 



^ From whom I have since gained much valuable information concerning 

 Bulgaria. 



c 577 :i 



war 



