The Days of a Man 



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

 one of them supported the king and premier through 

 thick and thin. The leader of the " Left " was A. Mali- 

 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 



Bulgaria's into the responsibility of "Tsar" Ferdinand for the 



n gemus nat j on > s misfortunes, and especially for the ill-judged 



attack on Serbia in 1912. l This discussion brought out 



several matters of historic interest which, however, I 



have neither space nor ability to treat adequately. 



Rado- I was fortunate in being able to meet the premier 



slavoff Dr. Radoslavoff, a faithful supporter of Ferdinand 



a well-groomed gentleman of excellent address whc 



spoke admirable French. We freely discussed the 



situation in Europe, though his carefully measurec 



utterances contained nothing new to me. 2 But I waj 



told by some one else that the government hac 



lately received a communication from a Serbiai 



official asking whether Bulgaria would be willing tc 



1 It would appear, for reasons into which I cannot go, that responsibilit 

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

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

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

 dissection of Macedonia, conditions which rendered conflict inevitable. 



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



5763 



