der their feet the Teutons will probably
evacuate Rumania with only the most perfunctory resistance to the
advancing Allies.

[Sidenote: German prestige in the East crumbles.]

And southern Russia is in much the same case. To-day it is bowed beneath
the Teuton yoke, yet the Teutonic corps of occupation are mere islets
lost in its vast immensity and ruling more by prestige than by physical
power. But German prestige is crumbling fast, and when Turkey's
surrender opens the Black Sea to the Allied fleets, southern Russia,
like Rumania, should be in a blaze. From the Ukraine to the Caucasus the
land is already seething with disaffection. The Don Cossacks have never
been subdued. Will the Germans dare to hold their thin communication
lines till the guns of Entente warships are thundering off Odessa and
Batum?

[Sidenote: Austria's condition is desperate.]

Lastly, there is Austria-Hungary. Bulgaria's capitulation opens the way
for the liberation of Serbia and an Allied push to the Austrian border
on the middle Danube. Beyond lie whole provinces full of mutinous
Jugoslavs and Rumanians. For that matter, all the non-German and
non-Magyar peoples of the Dual Empire are in a state of suppressed
revolt, held down by armies largely composed of their disaffected
brethren. Perhaps the Balkan winter may delay the Allied advance,
perhaps Germany may find enough troops to stifle Austrian disaffection,
but the condition of the Hapsburg realm is at best a desperate one, full
of explosive possibilities.

[Sidenote: Bulgars are disillusioned about Germany.]

[Sidenote: There may be a Balkan confederation.]

These are the major consequences which seem likely to flow from
Bulgaria's surrender. There remains the question of the future attitude
of Bulgaria herself. Will she remain a passive spectator of these
momentous happenings, or will she, striking in on the Allies' side, do
her share toward bringing them to pass? The latter eventuality is more
than possible. The Bulgarians, from czar to peasant lad, are realists,
not given to vain sacrifices. They see that Germany's game is up and
that her Balkan grip is broken forever. They have also been bitterly
disillusioned about Mitteleuropa, and must to-day realize that under
Mitteleuropa whatever Balkan territories might have been colored
"Bulgarian" upon the map, they themselves would have been virtually
serfs of a Germany whose idea of empire was the outworn concept of a
master race lor