rt, or talk about plebiscites, or the alleged nationality of
those who dwell in the wildernesses of Macedonia.

So it is, a people of few words and not much racial ambition is in
power. The old diplomatists and politicians, the "bourgeois," as they
are now called, are all in opposition. Most of the educated and
cultured and rich are out of office and power. They pursue the same
old course of Balkan intrigue, communicating their opinions to you in
stage-whispers, but intrigue merely ends in intrigue and does not lead
to action. The old regime and old politics naturally find allies in
the press which, having been so venal in the past, finds it difficult
to turn to honest journalism. The venality of the press in Balkan
countries is a characteristic which does more harm to nationhood in
these parts than is understood. It springs from the original practice
of giving State subsidies to authors and journalists and newspaper
proprietors, on the ground that the reading public is too small to
support such people entirely. Receivers of subsidies are naturally
chary of writing against their patrons, and a great opportunity arises
for interested parties to buy the press. The advisability of buying
sections of the Balkan press is urged upon foreign Governments. So
journalism and the organs of public opinion become not only physically
debauched but poisoned at heart.

For that reason one need not pay much respect to the recrudescence in
the press of attacks upon Greece. It is true, Bulgaria has lost
Dedeagatch, her southern port, her window on to the Aegean, and a Greek
army is between Bulgaria and Constantinople, but peasant Bulgaria will
thrive quite well without a port; she virtually never used Dedeagatch,
and it would be obvious foolishness to shed more blood for the
possession of this remote harbour. The exit of Varna on the Black Sea
suffices for all the wants of new Bulgaria.

One meets many partisans of Bulgaria. English people naturally like
the Bulgars at first sight. The Bulgar is a good fighting man, and
that makes a strong appeal to the man of the world. He is simple, not
bumptious, gives himself no airs of traditional culture or modern
education, and therefore recommends himself. The cynical and false
opinion of 1914-15 regarding Bulgaria--that she would come in to the
war on the side that bid most money--is forgotten. And the
disloyalties of Bulgaria, disloyalty to the Russia who set her free and
to h