Montenegro, where
their traditions and national spirit smoldered through the darker
periods.

Just how many there were of these various peoples in the Balkans
when Russia invaded the peninsula nearly forty years ago can only be
left to surmise. In no country in the world has the question of
population caused so much bitter dispute as in the Balkans. Because
of racial and national jealousies, census figures have been
deliberately padded and falsified by church and state alike. This is
especially true of that part of the peninsula (Thrace and Macedonia)
which was still under Turkish rule when the First Balkan War broke
out in 1912. Only in what were then Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria
proper were genuine census enumerations made.

Bulgaria claims to have had a population in 1910 of about 4,337,000,
this being increased by half a million after the two wars. Serbia
reported 2,900,000 in 1910, the new territory increasing this by
more than 1,500,000. In Greece the population was 2,730,000 before
the wars and then became 4,400,000. Little Montenegro contributed
another 800,000 Serbs. In Albania the population has been estimated
roughly at 800,000. Add all these figures together, and the result
is the total population of the Balkan peninsula proper, less that
which covers what was still Turkish territory when the present war
broke out.

It is in the proportionate numbers of the various races and
nationalities, however, that the greatest confusion and uncertainty
exists. Nowhere in the world is there such an intermingling of
various and differing peoples. Here official figures are especially
misleading, and should be considered only within the boundaries of
Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece as they were before the Balkan wars.
For the peninsula as a whole the testimony or the reports of
impartial foreigners who have traveled through the country is likely
to be far more trustworthy.

The consensus of opinion would indicate that along the seacoast the
Greeks predominate, and that they are also numerous in the large
towns and cities. In the interior they are not found much north of
Saloniki, and even in that city the majority of the population is
Jewish. As traders, as the business elements in the cities, however,
they are found even up in Varna and Bourgas in Bulgaria.

In the interior there can be no doubt that the Slavs are in the vast
majority over all the other peoples. The names of the smallest
villages, as indicated on Aus