ia
stands out in bold relief. It reveals the high-water mark reached by
those secret, elusive, and decisive influences which swayed so many of
the mysterious decisions adopted by the Conference. As Bulgaria disposed
of an abundant source of those influences, her chastisement partakes of
some of the characteristics of a reward. Not only did she not fare as
the treacherous enemy that she showed herself, but she emerged from the
ordeal much better off than several of the victorious states. Unlike
Serbia, Rumania, France, and Belgium, she escaped the horrors of a
foreign invasion and she possessed and fructified all her resources down
to the day when the armistice was concluded. Her peasant population made
huge profits during the campaign and her armies despoiled Serbia,
Rumania, and Greek Macedonia and sent home enormous booty. In a word,
she is richer and more prosperous than before she entered the arena
against her protectors and former allies.

For, owing to the intercession of her powerful friends, she was treated
with a degree of indulgence which, although expected by all who were
initiated into the secrets of "open diplomacy," scandalized those who
were anxious that at least some simulacrum of justice should be
maintained. Germany was forced to sign a blank check which her enemies
will one day fill in. Austria was reduced to the status of a parasite
living on the bounty of the Great Powers and denied the right of
self-determination. Even France, exhausted by five years' superhuman
efforts, beholds with alarm her financial future entirely dependent upon
the ability or inability of Germany to pay the damages to which she was
condemned.

But the Prussia of the Balkans, owing to the intercession of influential
anonymous friends, had no such consequences to deplore. Although she
contracted heavy debts toward Germany, she was relieved of the effort to
pay them. Her financial obligations were first transferred[333] to the
Allies and then magnanimously wiped out by these, who then limited all
her liabilities for reparations to two and a quarter milliard francs. An
Inter-Allied commission in Sofia is to find and return the loot to its
lawful owners, but it is to charge no indemnity for the damage done. Nor
will it contain representatives of the states whose property the Bulgars
abstracted. Serbia is allowed neither indemnity nor reparation. She is
to receive a share which the Treaty neglected to fix of the two and a
quarter