Bulgaria | Page 2

love for Bulgaria,
commonly took a profoundly pacific view of all other questions of
international politics, and would become passionately indignant at the
suggestion that the British Power should ever move navy or army in
defence of any selfish British interest. They were--they still are, it may

be said--the leading lights of what is called the Peace-at-any-price party,
detesting war and "jingoism," and viewing patriotism, when found
growing on British soil, with dry suspicion. Patriotism in Bulgaria is,
however, to their view a growth of a different order, worthy to be
encouraged and sheltered at any cost.
As a counter-weight to these enthusiasts, Great Britain sheltered a little
band, usually known as pro-Turks, who believed, with almost as
passionate a sincerity as that of the pro-Bulgarians, that the Turk was
the only gentleman in Europe, and that his mild and blameless
aspirations towards setting up the perfect State were being cruelly
thwarted by the abominable Bulgars and other Balkan riff-raff. Good
government in the Balkans would come, they held, if the tide of
Turkish rule flowed forward and the restless, semi-savage, murderous
Balkan Christian states went back to peace and philosophic calm under
the wise rule of Cadi administering the will of the Khalifate.
But pro-Bulgarian and pro-Turk made comparatively few converts in
Great Britain. They formed influential little groups and inspired debates
in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and published
literature, and went out as missions to their beloved nationalities, and
had all their affection confirmed again by the fine appreciation
showered upon them. The great mass of British public opinion,
however, they did not touch. There was never a second flaming
campaign because of Turkish atrocities towards Bulgaria, and the
pro-Turks never had a sufficient sense of humour to suggest a
counter-campaign when Bulgarians made reprisals. In official circles
the general attitude towards Balkan affairs was one of vexation
alternating with indifference.
"Those detestable Balkans!" quoth one diplomat in an undiplomatic
moment: and expressed well the official mind. "They are six of one and
half a dozen of the other," said the man in the street when he heard of
massacres, village-burnings, and tortures in the Balkans; and he turned
to the football news with undisturbed mind, seeking something on
which a fair opinion could be formed without too much worry.
The view of the man in the street was my view in 1912. I can recall

being contented in my mind to know that at any rate one's work as a
war correspondent would not be disturbed by any sympathy for the one
side or the other. Whichever side lost it would deserve to have lost, and
whatever reduction in the population of the Balkan Peninsula was
caused by the war would be ultimately a benefit to Europe. In parts of
America where the race feeling is strongest, they say that the only good
nigger is a dead nigger. So I felt about the Balkan populations. The
feelings of a man with some interest in flocks of sheep on hearing that
war had broken out between the wolves and the jackals would represent
fairly well the attitude of mind in which I packed my kit for the
Balkans.
It is well to put on record that mental foundation on which I built up
my impressions of the Balkans generally, and of the Bulgarian people
particularly, for at the present time (1914) I think it may safely be said
that the Bulgarian people are somewhat under a cloud, and are not
standing too high in the opinion of the civilised world. Yet, to give an
honest record of my observations of them, I shall have to praise them
very highly in some respects. Whilst it would be going too far to say
that the praise is reluctant, it is true that it has been in a way forced
from me, for I went to Bulgaria with the prejudice against the
Bulgarians that I have indicated. And--to make this explanation
complete--I may add that I came back from the Balkans not a
pro-Bulgarian in the sense that I was anti-Greek or anti-Servian or even
anti-Turk; but with a feeling of general liking for all the peasant
peoples whom a cruel fate has cast into the Balkans to fight out there
national and racial issues, some of which are older than the Christian
era.
Yes, even the Turk, the much-maligned Turk, proved to have decent
possibilities if given a decent chance. Certainly he is no longer the
Terrible Turk of tradition. Most of the Turks I encountered in Bulgaria
were prisoners of war, evidently rather pleased to be in the hands of the
Bulgarians who fed them decently, a task which their own
commissariat had failed in: or were contented followers of menial
occupations in Bulgarian towns. I