reek firm in India, and returned invalided home to
Monastir just before the first Balkan war broke out From him I had
heard of the first joy of the populace when the Turkish army fled
before the invading Serb, and then of the speedy revulsion of
feeling when they found that the Serb came not as a liberator, but
as a conqueror. In January 1914 he wrote: "Hardly a year has elapsed
since Monastir fell into Servian hands, and this very short period
has been enough to turn it into a desert city." And he detailed the
reasons.

In February, 1914, he wrote: "I write from Monastir, or I should
say Bitoli, for there is no city of the name of Monastir in the vast
Serbian Empire whose Emperor, Peter Karageorgevitch is daily wheting
(sic) his sword sharp in order to be able to inflict a death-blow on
the old Austrian Emperor. The conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the creation of a vast and powerful Serbian Empire, even mightier
than that of Dushan, is occupying the minds of all army men. . . .
Travelling from Salonika to Monastir one is struck with the fewness
of the passengers . . . where have all these people gone? The
average number does not exceed ten, against hundreds in Turkish
times. It is roughly estimated twenty thousand persons have
emigrated from Monastir. . . . Taxes are tremendous; this city must
pay a war tax of 1,000,000 francs. We see we have only exchanged a
bad rule for a worse rule. This amount will go to the War Office,
for in Serbia the army has twofold duties--to rule and to fight.
There is hardly any other country in the world where military men
have concentrated such a great power in their hands. The King and
the civil authorities, needs must comply with the wishes of the
officers. The Serbian officer has no respect for any one, and
Albanian subjects, natives of Elbasan and Koritza, are enlisted by
force in the army. And when Mr. ----- interfered on behalf of a man
from Koritza, saying that they compelled people to complain to the
foreign consuls, the recruiting officer replied: 'We shall imprison
every blessed man who steps over the threshold of a consulate. You
mean to say you will go to that big idiot the British consul. That
fool of a consul must think himself very lucky for England is a
friendly power, otherwise we would have killed him!'" He had, in
fact, reported their conduct, and they seem to have been aware of
this. The letter continues: "You cannot but pity us who are ruled by
such men. . .