He was the chief
Professor of the Military College at Sofia, and judging by the standard
he set, the Military College must have reached a high degree of
efficiency.

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL, SOFIA]

The Balkan League having been formed, and the time being ripe for the
war, Bulgaria was quite determined that war should be. The Turks at that
time were inclined to make reforms and concessions; they had an
inclination to ease the pressure on their Christian subjects in the
Christian provinces. Perhaps knowing--perhaps not knowing--that they
were unready for war themselves, but feeling that the Balkan States were
preparing for war, the Turks were undoubtedly willing to make great
concessions. But whatever concessions the Turks might have offered, war
would still have taken place.

I do not think one need offer any harsh criticism about a nation coming
to such a decision as that. If you have made your preparation for
war--perhaps a very expensive preparation, perhaps a preparation which
has involved very great commitments apart from expense--it is not
reasonable to suppose that at the last moment you will consent to stop
that war.

I was much struck with the wonderful value to the Bulgarian generals of
the fact that the whole Bulgarian nation was filled with the martial
spirit--was, in a sense, wrapped up in the colours. Every male Bulgarian
citizen was trained to the use of arms. Every Bulgarian citizen of
fighting age was engaged either at the front or on the lines of
communication. Before the war, every Bulgarian man, being a soldier, was
under a soldier's honour; and the preliminaries of the war, the
preparations for mobilisation in particular, were carried out with a
degree of secrecy that, I think, astonished every Court and every
Military Department in Europe. The secret was so well kept that one of
the diplomatists in Roumania left for a holiday three days before the
declaration of war, feeling certain that there was to be no war.

Bulgaria has a newspaper Press that, on ordinary matters, for delightful
irresponsibility, might be matched in London. Yet not a single whisper
of what the nation was designing and planning leaked abroad. Because the
whole nation was a soldier, and the whole nation was under a soldier's
honour, absolute secrecy could be kept. No one abroad knew anything,
either from the babbling of "Pro-Turks," or from the newspapers, that
this great campaign was being designed by Bulgaria.

T