be only to defer the day 

 of trying the issue with 

 modern arms. 



If the Turks admitted 

 European agents for the 

 purpose of reforms with- 

 in their own boundaries, 

 and gave equal rights to 

 Christian Bulgar, Greek, 

 and Servian, they would 

 soon be the subject and 

 not the ruling people. 

 Numerically the Chris- 

 tians of their European 

 provinces outnumbered 

 them and they were also 

 quicker of wit. The sit- 

 uation was one of an in- 

 ferior continuing to hold 

 back several advancing 

 races. 



The Turks decided to 

 accept war in place of 

 the terms of the Allies. 

 They were confident of 

 holding the Allies in 

 check if not of driving" 

 them back beyond their 

 borders. Regiment upon 

 regiment of recruits 

 brought up from Asia 

 MinoF passed through I 

 Constantinople crying ' 

 "On to Sofia !" And one 

 of the Turkish newspa- 

 pers boasted that in fu- 

 ture years visitors to 

 Bulgaria would cross the 

 plain of Sofia and say, 

 looking over a desert 

 waste, "This was once 

 the site of the Bulgarian 

 capital." 



Europeans generally,, 

 even military attaches lo- 

 cated at Constantinople,, 

 believed with the Turks 

 that the Allies would fall . 

 back before a terrible 

 Turkish onslaught. For- 

 eigners based their opin- 

 ion on two things — on 

 the name and reputation 

 of the Turk as a fighting 

 man and on the fact that 

 the Greeks had been 



204 



