The Balkan Wars: 1912-1913 | Page 6

the other group of belligerents. The only
remaining party to the Balkan Wars is Greece, and the situation of
Greece, though not tragic like that of Servia, must be exceedingly
humiliating to the Greek nation and to the whole Hellenic race.
When the war broke out, Mr. Venizelos was still prime minister of
Greece. His policy was to go loyally to the assistance of Servia, as
required by the treaty between the two countries; to defend New Greece
against Bulgaria, to whom, however, he was ready to make some
concessions on the basis of a quid pro quo; and to join and co-operate
actively with the Entente Powers on the assurance of receiving
territorial compensation in Asia Minor. King Constantine, on the other
hand, seems to have held that the war of the Great Powers in the
Balkans practically abrogated the treaty between Greece and Servia and
that, in any event, Greek resistance to the Central Powers was useless.
The positive programme of the King was to maintain neutrality
between the two groups of belligerents and at the same time to keep the
Greek army mobilized. Between these two policies the Greek nation
wavered and hesitated; but the King, who enjoyed the complete
confidence of the general staff, had his way and the cabinet of Mr.
Venizelos was replaced by another in sympathy with the policy of the
neutrality of Greece and the mobilization of the Greek army.
It was, under all the circumstances of the case, an exceedingly difficult
policy to carry out successfully. Each group of the belligerents wanted
special favors; the nation was divided on the subject of neutrality; the
expense of keeping the army mobilized was ruinous to the country; and
the views and sympathies of the greatest statesman Modern Greece had
ever had remained out of office, as they had been in office,
diametrically opposed to those of the victorious warrior-King and
doubtless also of the Queen, the sister of the German Emperor. This
condition was one of unstable equilibrium which could not long
continue. It was upset on May 26, 1916, by a Bulgarian invasion of
Greek territory and the seizure of Fort Rupel, one of the keys to the
Struma Valley and to eastern Macedonia. The cities of Seres and
Drama with their large Greek Population, and even Kavala are now in
danger, and the Greek people seem greatly stirred by the situation. Mr.
Venizelos in a newspaper article bitterly asks:

"Who could have imagined a Greek army witnessing the Bulgarian flag
replacing that of Greece? Is it for this that our mobilization is
maintained?"
But, while Greece has been invaded by Bulgaria, with the support of
Germany (who, however, has given a written promise that the Greek
territory now occupied shall be restored), Greek sovereignty has since
suffered another severe shock by the intervention of Great Britain,
France, and Russia, who, under the Protocol of London, are the
Protecting Powers of the Kingdom. These Powers demand of the Greek
government that the army shall be completely and immediately
demobilized, that the present cabinet shall be replaced by another
which shall guarantee benevolent neutrality toward the Entente Powers,
that the Chamber shall be immediately dissolved and new elections
held, and that certain public functionaries obnoxious to the legations of
the Allies shall be replaced. And statements from Athens dated June 21
announce that Greece, under the menace of an embargo maintained by
the allied navies, has yielded to these demands. With Greece humiliated
by the Protecting Powers and her territory occupied by Bulgaria, with
Servia and Montenegro overrun and occupied by the
German-Austrian-Bulgarian forces, with Roumania waiting to see
which of the belligerent groups will be finally victorious, with Bulgaria
now basking in the sunshine of the Central Powers but an object of
hatred to all the Allied Powers and especially to Russia, one may be
pardoned for refusing to make any guess whatever as to the way in
which the resultant diagonal of the parallelogram of European forces
will ultimately run through the Balkans. Fortunately also such
prediction has no place in an account of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.
To-day the Balkan nations are the pawns of the Great Powers who are
directly responsible for the deplorable conditions that now exist among
them. Yet in a very real sense their present tragic situation is the
nemesis of the political sins of the Balkan nations themselves. These
sins are those of all undeveloped political communities. Even the most
highly civilized nations may temporarily fall under their sway, and then
civilization reverts to barbarism, as the terrible condition of Europe
to-day actually demonstrates. But the acute disease from which Europe
suffers is more or less chronic in the Balkans, where elemental human
nature has never been thoroughly disciplined and chastened in the

school of peaceful