When the treaty between Servia and Bulgaria was negotiated, it seems to
have been assumed that the theatre of a war with Turkey would be
Macedonia and that Thrace--the country from the Mesta to the Black
Sea--would remain intact to Turkey. And if the rest of Turkey in
Europe up to the Adriatic {95} were conquered by the two Allies, the
Ochrida-Golema Vreh line would make a fairly equitable division between
them of the spoils of war. But with Albania denied to Servia and
Thrace occupied by Bulgaria, conditions had wholly changed. The
Servian government declared that the changed conditions had abrogated
the Treaty of Partition and that it was for the two governments now to
adjust themselves to the logic of events! On May 28 Mr. Pashitch, the
Servian prime minister, formally demanded a revision of the treaty. A
personal interview with the Bulgarian prime minister, Mr. Gueshoff,
followed on June 2 at Tsaribrod. And Mr. Gueshoff accepted Mr.
Pashitch's suggestion (which originated with Mr. Venizelos, the Greek
prime minister) of a conference of representatives of the four Allies
at St. Petersburg. For it should be added that, in the Treaty of
Partition, the Czar had been named as arbiter in case of any
territorial dispute between the two parties.
{96}
What followed in the next few days has never been clearly disclosed.
But it was of transcendent importance. I have always thought that if
Mr. Gueshoff, one of the authors of the Balkan Alliance, had been
allowed like Mr. Venizelos and Mr. Pashitch, to finish his work, there
would have been no war between the Allies. I did not enjoy the
personal acquaintance of Mr. Gueshoff, but I regarded him as a wise
statesman of moderate views, who was disposed to make reasonable
concessions for the sake of peace. But a whole nation in arms, flushed
with the sense of victory, is always dangerous to the authority of
civil government. If Mr. Gueshoff was ready to arrange some
accommodation with Mr. Pashitch, the military party in Bulgaria was all
the more insistent in its demands on Servia for the evacuation of
Central Macedonia. Even in Servia Mr. Pashitch had great difficulty in
repressing the jingo ardor of the army, whose bellicose spirit was
believed to find expression in the attitude {97} of the Crown Prince.
But the provocation in Bulgaria was greater, because, when all was said
and done, Servia was actually violating an agreement with Bulgaria to
which she had solemnly set her name. Possibly the military party
gained the ear of King Ferdinand. Certainly it was reported that he
was consulting with leaders of the opposition. Presumably they were
all dissatisfied with the conciliatory attitude which Mr. Gueshoff had
shown in the Tsaribrod conference. Whatever the expiation, Mr.
Gueshoff resigned on June 9.