CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface[xi]
CHAPTER
I.A Day on the Danube[1]
II.Belgrade—October, 1912: A View from a Window[10]
III.The Battle of Kumanovo[20]
IV.Macedonia—1912[35]
V.Albania—1912–1913[49]
VI.The Second Balkan War and the Treaty of Bucharest[59]
VII.Two Men Who Died[69]
VIII.“1914” Peace and War[74]
IX.The Neutral Balkan States—1915[84]
X.Sleeping Waters[99]
XI.The Disaster in Rumania—1916[108]
XII.The Russian Revolution and the Russo-Rumanian Offensive—1917[127]
XIII.A Midnight Mass[143]
XIV.“Westerners” and “Easterners”[147]
XV.The Peace Conference at Paris—1919[161]
XVI.Looking Back and Looking Forward[177]

OLD EUROPE’S SUICIDE

CHAPTER I
A Day On The Danube

“When the snows melt there will be war in the Balkans,” had become an habitual formula in the Foreign Offices of Europe during the first decade of the twentieth century. Statesmen and diplomats found comfort in this prophecy on their return from cures at different Continental spas, because, the season being autumn, the snow had still to fall, and would not melt for at least six months. This annual breathing space was welcome after the anxieties of spring and summer; the inevitable war could be discussed calmly and dispassionately, preparations for its conduct could be made methodically, and brave words could be bandied freely in autumn in the Balkans. Only an imminent danger inspires fear; hope has no time limit, the most unimaginative person can hope for the impossible twenty years ahead.

Without regard either for prophecies or the near approach of winter, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece and Montenegro declared war on Turkey at the beginning of October, 1912. The Balkan Bloc had been formed, and did not include Rumania, a land where plenty had need of peace; King Charles was resolutely opposed to participation in the war, he disdained a mere Balkan alliance as unworthy of the “Sentinel of the Near East.”