i6 
LAND & WATER 
July 13, 1916 
that an alliance with Turkey might be turned to their 
advantage. I heard a"t the time in Constantinople 
about various little incidents, which showed that the 
Bulgarian leaders during those months were taking steps 
to promote an understanding with Bulgaria ; and an 
authority whom 1 have always regarded as almost the 
best informed source of information about Turkish affairs 
was fully convinced, at least as early as April 1913, and 
definitely stated to me in the beginning of May in that 
year, that we should see an alliance between Turkey and 
Bulgaria at no distant date. During those months the 
Bulgarian army was secretly concentrated in large force 
in a great camp not very far from Salonika. Everything 
was done to keep these military preparations secret. No 
stranger was allowed into the country : if he got in, he 
was not allowed to come out. 
I heard of a German of rank, who had business in 
Dede-Agatch, and who went there with the highest 
recommendations, and what seemed apparently to tc 
the strongest authorisation from Sofia. He was not 
allowed to land ; and, when he appealed to the authorisa- 
tion from Sofia, he was informed that, if he landed, he 
would not be allowed to leave. The same treatment 
was meted out to Germans as to all other Europeans. 
No risks were run. Absolute secrecy must be main- 
tained. These facts were known to me in the middle of 
May 1913, but the sudden and treacherous attack made 
by the Bulgarians did not occur till many weeks later. 
Bulgaria's Sudden Attack 
All those preparations led up to a sudden attack by the 
Bulgarians on their allies, at what was understood to be a 
weak point on the northern Hank of the Greek army 
and the southern Hank of the Serbian. No one is in a 
position to prove that these events were caused by Austro- 
German intrigue- ; yet I know no one competent to 
judge who is rot firmly convinced that this was the 
cause. The proceedings were of course secret, and 
can only be guessed. Germany and Austria were the 
gainers ; everybody else lost ; and the old principle 
in judging of guilt, attributed to the lawyer of the Roman 
Republic, " Who gains by it ?" is as certain to be true 
in this case as it ever has been. Of course, I am not in a 
position to prove that the Kaiser actually suggested the 
Bulgarian plan of operations ; the documents were not 
published to the world ; but it is in accord with the 
general guidance assumed by Germany over the operations 
of its allies, that this plan was suggested from Berlin. 
The blow was struck suddenly, without warning or 
declaration of war, at the weak point of the opposing 
line. And it failed disastrously. Here the Kaiser's 
diplomacy showed itself completely successful. A weak 
Bulgaria was what he needed ; the strength of any one of 
the Balkan powers was an impediment in the way of 
Austro-German strategy, which did not want any one 
of these powers to be strong enough to make a bid for 
Salonika, or to be anything but a mere slave of the 
Austro-German government. The way to the /Egean 
harbour must be kept completely under the influence, if 
not actually in the possession of Austria, just as the way 
to Constantinople must be kept absolutely under the 
influence of Germany. 
The Kaiser, therefore, encouraged Greece privately, 
and warned it of the impending, Bulgarian stroke. 
A strategic plan was indicated to the King, and all 
preparations were made by the Greeks to meet the 
sudden blow. Thus it came about that everything on 
the Greek side was ready at the critical moment ; and 
the Bulgarians, in place of attacking an unprepared 
army, peacefully encamped, found an army in the highest 
pitch of carefully prepared strength, ready to meet the 
attack at that particular point. The Kaiser's diplomacy 
was here entirely successful. He relieved Greece, he 
posed as the friend of Greece in that country, just as of 
Bulgaria at Sofia, and of Turkey at Constantinople. 
The weakness of all those Powers is equally necessary 
for the success of German plans. Greece has ever since 
been pluming itself on the generalship which foresaw and 
prepared for the Bulgarian attack ; but the Kaiser gets 
the gratitude and the services of those who knew and 
those who governed Greece. Bulgaria, having once 
put itself in slavery, remains the helpless slave of the 
Kaiser and the bound ally of Turkey. Turkey has 
Verd 
un 
BV EmILE C.-VJIMAERTS. 
La neige saupoudre les coUines, 
La glace frange les ruisseaux, 
Les bois decoupent leurs ombres fines — 
Vert des sapins, brun des bouleau.\ — 
La Terr€ dort sous un ciel sourd. 
La Meuse 
Noire murmure une berceuse . . » 
Et Verdun tient toujours. 
Avril sourit sur les coUines, 
La crue gonfle les ruisseaux, 
Les buissons chantent, les bois s'animent — 
Noir des sapins, jaune des bouleaux^ 
La Terre fait un reve d'amour, 
La Meuse 
Bleue roule ses eaux furieuses . . > 
Et Verdun tient toujours. 
Le soleil inonde les collines, 
Les pres en fleurs et les ruisseaux, 
Sous la feuillee. I'abeille butine — 
Vert des sapins, vert des bouleaux — 
La Terre se pame au bras du Jour, 
La Meuse 
Claire demele ses boucles langoureuses . . •■■ 
Et Verdun tient toujours. 
Lutz est tombee, Kolomca, 
Asiago et Posina — 
La Terre mange ses con(|uerants— 
La Boisselle tombe et Montauban, 
Dompierre tombe et Becquincourt — 
Tandis que, la-bas, la Meuse 
Rouge berce ses eaux trompeuses ' . . , 
Mais Verdun tient toujours ! 
Juillet iqi6. [All Rights Keserved] 
i ' 
suffered most of all ; but the dominant party knows that 
it must obey Germany or be precipitated from pow. r. 
When Austro-German forces attacked Serbia in 1915. 
Greece was ready at the proj^cr moment to join, and 
thus a new Balkan alliance of Bulgaria, Turkey and 
Greece would have come into operation. The inevitable 
result would have been ±0 force Rumania into the same 
boat, for there was no one to help her. 
From this result the world was saved by the foresight 
and energy of France, which, hard pressed at home, 
sent troops to Salonika and induced Britain, slowly at 
first, to join in. But the Kaiser's diplomacy was within 
an ace of achieving a triumphant success. 
An excellent account of recent events in Ireland is pro- 
vided by The Record of the Irish Rehellion, a shilling volume 
published by Irish Life, 43, New Oxford Street, London. 
The events that led up to the rising arc fully detailed, and 
the history of the rising itself, especially in Dublin, is given 
from the accounts of cye-witncsscs and jxirticipants in the work 
of suppression. The officer commanding a machine gun sec- 
tion contributes a description of his work ; the military opera- 
tions as a whole, as far as Dublin is concerned, is for the first 
time given from various reliable sources, and these records 
are supplemented by " Impressions of tlie Street Fighting," 
by a civihan eye-witness who came into Dublin on the morn- 
ing of the beginning of the revolt, and saw a considerable part 
of the fighting— and of the looting. An interesting feature 
is the inclusion of facsimiles of various documents issued by 
the rebel " i;overnmcnt," in whicli the history of the revolt 
can be traced, with the hopes and fears of the leaders, and, to 
a certain extent, their reliance on German aid. 
The record is valuable from the point of view of its pictorial 
contents as well as for its descriptive^ pages. Not only is 
there a fairly complete portrait gallery of the rebel leaders, 
but the scenes of destruction consequent on the Dublin out- 
break are vividly shown, together with the nature of the 
improvised l)arricades in the city and the effects of shell-fire 
on the besieged buildings. 
