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 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.
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 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 explanation, Mr. Gueshoff resigned on June
9.