ers call it,
that is to say, a partnership in which one party takes the lion's share
of the spoil, is a very satisfactory arrangement for the lion. But one
wants to be sure before attempting to enforce leonine arrangements that
one is the lion. Bulgaria blundered on into a position which left her
exhausted army to face at once Greece, Servia, Montenegro, and Roumania.

That it was not necessary for her to get into that position I can say
with some confidence. A more judicious handling of her relations with
Servia would have kept the friendship of that kindred nation, and
Montenegro would have followed Servia. The united Slav peoples of the
Balkans would then have been strong enough to withstand any attempt to
enforce unfair conditions by Roumania or Greece. But Bulgaria made no
attempt to conciliate Servia. Between the two peoples there had existed
before the war a very close treaty of alliance. This treaty had arranged
for the division of the spoil of the war on a basis which had not
foreseen that the European Powers would create an independent Albania;
and Servia had not imagined that Turkey would be so weak, and that the
booty in Thrace would have been so considerable. Bulgaria thus had more
than was expected in one quarter, whilst Servia was bitterly
disappointed in another direction. Friends, under the circumstances,
would have struck another bargain. Bulgaria insisted upon the strict
letter of the old bargain.

Servia was thus forced into the arms of Greece; reluctantly, I think. If
she could have made a fair arrangement with Bulgaria she would have
preferred that. But it seemed to be destined that Bulgaria should add
another to the long list of her frustrated hopes.

The early part of 1914 saw the Balkans in the throes of a war which
eclipsed in bitterness and bloodshed the campaign of 1913. Greece and
Servia fought against Bulgaria, and Roumania marched down from the north
towards the Bulgarian capital, her army unopposed because there was no
means of opposing it. Stopping short of entering Sofia, Roumania took
up the position of the chief Power in the Balkans and insisted upon
dictating terms of peace. Those terms Bulgaria, perforce, accepted after
her army had been defeated with terrible slaughter by the Servian and
Grecian forces. She was forced to give up territory in all directions:
to Roumania on the north; to Servia on the west; to Greece on the south.
To crown her misfortunes, the Turks moved up agains