BALKAN WAR 27 



which was occupied without fighting. On October nth, the Italian line was still 

 further advanced on the Sidi Abdullah plateau, the enemy being driven back with heavy 

 losses. 



The Italian troops now present in Libya numbered about 110,000, viz. Tripoli and 

 neighbourhood 45,000; Zuara and Sidi Said 15,000; Horns 6000; Misrata 10,000; Beng- 

 hazi 12,000; Derna 20,000; Tobruk 6000. The Turco-Arab forces were estimated at 

 about 40,000, with a few guns. 



Meanwhile, the Balkan crisis had arisen, and the Turkish mobilisation was being 

 hampered by inability to transport troops across the Aegean Sea. 



Peace with Italy was indispensable, but the negotiations came to a deadlock on 

 October i2th. Preparations were being made in Italy for active naval operations when 

 on October i5th the Porte accepted the Italian terms, and peace was signed. Turkey 

 agreed to withdraw her troops from Libya, without formally recognising Italian sov- 

 ereignty. Italy consented to restore the captured islands and to guarantee a portion of 

 the Ottoman debt corresponding to the revenues of Libya. 



The war had cost Italy about sixteen millions sterling, up to the end of August 1912, 

 or 47, 250 a day. (H. H. WADE. Major.) 



THE BALKAN WAR: October- December 1912. 



Military conventions for joint action against Turkey had been signed during the 

 summer of 1912 between Bulgaria, Servia, Greece and Montenegro. Some preparatory 

 naval and military measures were taken by the Allies during September, at first secretly, 

 and more openly on the announcement in the latter part of September that grand 

 manoeuvres of 200,000 Turkish troops were to be held near Adrianople. The manoeu- 

 vres in question were cancelled on the advice of the Powers, and the Turkish reservists 

 were dismissed; nevertheless, on September 3oth, the four States of the Balkan League 

 issued orders for mobilisation, a step to which the Porte replied by a similar order on 

 October ist, and by impounding some 150 Greek vessels lying in Ottoman ports. 

 Mobilisation and concentration appear to have been completed in Bulgaria, Servia, and 

 Greece about October i2th to i6th; and in Montenegro, where distances are shorter, by 

 the yth. In Turkey serious delay was caused by the inability to transport troops over 

 the Aegean because of the war with Italy, and by the absence of many units from their 

 peace stations owing to recent political disturbances. 



Montenegro, having finished her concentration first, declared war on October 8th. 

 This step was probably taken to anticipate intervention by the Powers; it may also 

 have been desired to capture Scutari before its defences could be further strengthened, 

 and to detain as many Turkish troops as possible in the west. On October i3th the 

 other States of the Balkan League presented an identic note to Turkey demanding re- 

 forms in Macedonia, and the demobilisation of the Turkish Army. On the i7th the 

 Porte, declining further negotiations, declared war on Bulgaria and Servia. Some 

 attempt was made to detach Greece from the League, but on the evening of the i7th 

 that Power declared war upon Turkey. 



The Turkish territory in Europe was divided geographically into three principal 

 regions, forming distinct theatres of war: an eastern region of open country in Thrace; 

 a western mountainous region between the Vardar Valley and the Adriatic; and a central 

 belt of rugged country between the Aegean Sea and the Rhodope Mountains; the latter 

 range was crossed by passes on the Uskub-Sofia and Serres-Struma Valley-Sofia roads, 

 but was otherwise impassable for large bodies. Strategically, the eastern theatre of 

 war, on the direct road to Constantinople, was of greatest importance, and it was in this 

 direction that Bulgaria deployed her largest masses. But the geographical conditions 

 and the territorial ambitions of the other allied States favoured a development of their 

 chief strength in the western theatre of war. 



The Bulgarian forces destined to invade Thrace consisted of 8 regular divisions, 

 various reserve brigades (afterwards formed into 2 additional divisions), and i cavalry 

 division, with a total strength of about 200,000. These troops were organised in three 



