ks, who believed, with almost as
passionate a sincerity as that of the pro-Bulgarians, that the Turk
was the only gentleman in Europe, and that his mild and blameless
aspirations towards setting up the perfect State were being cruelly
thwarted by the abominable Bulgars and other Balkan riff-raff. Good
government in the Balkans would come, they held, if the tide of Turkish
rule flowed forward and the restless, semi-savage, murderous Balkan
Christian states went back to peace and philosophic calm under the
wise rule of Cadi administering the will of the Khalifate.

But pro-Bulgarian and pro-Turk made comparatively few converts in Great
Britain. They formed influential little groups and inspired debates in
the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and published literature,
and went out as missions to their beloved nationalities, and had all
their affection confirmed again by the fine appreciation showered upon
them. The great mass of British public opinion, however, they did not
touch. There was never a second flaming campaign because of Turkish
atrocities towards Bulgaria, and the pro-Turks never had a sufficient
sense of humour to suggest a counter-campaign when Bulgarians made
reprisals. In official circles the general attitude towards Balkan
affairs was one of vexation alternating with indifference.

"Those detestable Balkans!" quoth one diplomat in an undiplomatic
moment: and expressed well the official mind. "They are six of one and
half a dozen of the other," said the man in the street when he heard of
massacres, village-burnings, and tortures in the Balkans; and he turned
to the football news with undisturbed mind, seeking something on which a
fair opinion could be formed without too much worry.

The view of the man in the street was my view in 1912. I can recall
being contented in my mind to know that at any rate one's work as a war
correspondent would not be disturbed by any sympathy for the one side
or the other. Whichever side lost it would deserve to have lost, and
whatever reduction in the population of the Balkan Peninsula was caused
by the war would be ultimately a benefit to Europe. In parts of America
where the race feeling is strongest, they say that the only good nigger
is a dead nigger. So I felt about the Balkan populations. The feelings
of a man with some interest in flocks of sheep on hearing that war had
broken out between the wolves and the jackals would represent fairly
well the attitude of