FERDINAND THE CZAR
The Young Turk revolution could only have been viewed by Ferdinand, and
by his master, Franz Ferdinand, as a serious blow to their schemes of
aggrandisement in the Balkans. Their whole pretext for interference was
supplied by the oppression of the Christian nations in Thrace,
Macedonia and Albania by the minions of the Red Sultan. And now the Red
Sultan was no more a Sultan, and the new Sultan was put into power with
the mission of remedying the grievances of these Christian subjects of
Turkey.
Ferdinand was still a vassal Prince, and by the terms of the Treaty of
Berlin bound to remain a vassal Prince. The Provinces of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, by the terms of the same treaty, only existed under the
protection of the Austrian Empire. If the new Turkish administration
should prove honest and successful, the schemers would be hard put to
it for an excuse for the interference they had planned.
But excuses are easily found by men like Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The new
Turkish Ministry gave a dinner in Constantinople to the representatives
of the Great Powers. Naturally they left out M. Gueschoff, the
Bulgarian political Agent in Constantinople, who was nothing but the
servant of Turkey’s own vassal. But Ferdinand took offence at this
slight, and seizing a section of the Orient Express railway, promptly
proclaimed Bulgaria’s independence of Turkey.
In the same moment Austria took possession in full of the provinces of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the breach of the Treaty of Berlin thus
became a huge one. The full nature of the plot was revealed when
Germany, which was bound like all the other Powers signing the treaty
to insist on its observance, backed the position of Austria and
Bulgaria. In the words of the Kaiser, Germany stood by “in shining
armour.” The prospect of a world struggle, since realized, was afforded
to a startled civilization. But it was averted, and the schemers
carried out their plan successfully.
[Illustration: The poorest of royal horsemen, Ferdinand enters Sofia as
Czar for the first time, with two men at the head of his horse for the
purpose of controlling it.]
On October 5, 1908, Ferdinand rode into the ancient Bulgarian capital
of Tirnovo, incidentally falling off his horse in the process, and was
crowned Czar of Bulgaria, the regalia to which allusion has been made
in the course of this narrative having been taken out of pawn and
furbished up for the occasion. The happy peasantry danced the national
dances once more, and the streets of the city afforded a spectacle
seldom seen off the stage of the luxurious musical comedy theatres of
the pre-war era.
The Coronation ceremony took place in the Church of the Forty Martyrs,
and afterwards Ferdinand walked to the Hissar, or castle of the old
Czars of Bulgaria. No more perilous riding for him that day! And there,
in the hall where Czar Simeon and the rest of them used to feast—and
plan to gouge out the eyes of the Byzantine Greeks—he read the
following bombastic proclamation:—
“By the will of our never-to-be-forgotten Liberator and the great
kindred Russian nation, aided by our good friends and neighbours the
subjects of the King of Rumania, by the Bulgarian heroes on February
18, 1878, chains of slavery were broken by which for so many centuries
Bulgaria, once a great and glorious Power, was bound. From that time
till to-day, for full thirty years, the Bulgarian nation, preserving
the memory of those who had laboured for its freedom and inspired by
their tradition, has worked incessantly for the development of its
beautiful country, and under my guidance and that of the departed
Prince Alexander, has made it a nation fit to take an equal place in
the family of civilized peoples, and endowed with gifts of cultural and
economic progress.
“While proceeding on this path nothing should arrest the progress of
Bulgaria, nothing should hinder her success. Such is the desire of the
nation, such its will.
“Let that desire be fulfilled! The Bulgarian nation and its chief can
have but one sentiment, one desire.
“Practically independent, the nation was impeded in its normal and
peaceful development by certain illusions and formal limitations, which
resulted in a coldness of relations between Turkey and Bulgaria. I and
the nation desire to rejoice in the political development of Turkey.
Turkey and Bulgaria, free and independent of each other, may exist
under conditions which will allow them to strengthen their friendly
relations and to devote themselves to peaceful internal development.
“Inspired by the sacred purpose of satisfying national requirements and
fulfilling the national desire, I proclaim, with the blessing of the
Almighty, Bulgaria—united since September 6, 1885—an independent
kingdom. Together with the nation I firmly believe that this act will
meet with the approbation of the Great Powers.”
Then Ferdinand gave the signal and the beauty chorus obliged once more
with the national dances. At last he was Czar of the Bulgarians.
It must have been disheartening to such a whole-souled friend of
liberty and progress to find “the great kindred Russian nation” was
very angry at his duplicity, and accused him of an arrangement with
Austria. This he denied most emphatically, as I have told, and in an
amazing Press interview explained what a misunderstood man he was. He
said:—
“The mission which I am fulfilling here in the Balkans must be
thoroughly understood. I have devoted myself entirely to the people
which I adopted twenty-two years ago. It possesses wonderful virtues.
It is sober, hard-working, proud, jealous of its independence and
freedom. A nation from which is recruited the admirable and large army
that you have seen, and which cheerfully bears the military burdens
imposed upon it by necessity, is one of the strong nations, with a fine
future before it.
“But the Bulgarian, after so many years of servitude, barely liberated
as he is from the Mussulman yoke, still remains concentrated in
himself. He has not learned to look outside his country. All his
universe is contained between his mountains, the Black Sea, and the
Danube. It is I who do duty for him as the watchman, who is incessantly
scanning the distant horizon. It is I who pick up for him rumours from
abroad, who communicate his aspirations, his desires, and legitimate
claims to the foreigner. I am like the lung which breathes the outside
air for him, and which assimilates for him the refreshing breezes which
come from the rest of the world. Owing, above all, to its Sovereign,
Bulgaria does not remain isolated and shut up in herself, and she
constitutes a portion of the European family.”
This was Ferdinand’s way of conveying to the Liberator nation of Russia
that, having got all he could expect from that source, he had taken up
with new friends. The Watchman “scanning the distant horizon” had
discerned the effort that the German nations were preparing to snatch
the mastery of Europe, and had thrown in the lot of the people he had
so kindly adopted with the pirates. But Russia, then and for long
afterwards, was unable to believe that his perfidy was as complete as
recent events have proved it.
Russia continued to exert itself for the freedom of the Slav peoples
from the Turk; for the Young Turk proved to be still the same old Turk,
and the bitter cry of Macedonia was not stilled by the departure of
Abdul the Damned into exile.
The theft of Bosnia and Herzegovina had brought the Austrians right
down on to the border of poor little Serbia, which needed immediate
protection from the ambitious schemes of the heir to the throne, as
much as the Serbians outside Serbia itself needed help against the
persecuting Turk. In such circumstances it was the task of Russia to
unite the Balkan nations by a treaty which would make them mutually
defensive against their foes, and it was such a treaty that Ferdinand
was presently called upon by his Ministers to sign.
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FERDINAND AND THE BALKAN LEAGUE
“_May God preserve Bulgaria from the consequences._”—FERDINAND OF
BULGARIA.
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