A map of the Balkan migrations, with its curved lines leading almost
everywhere, is a bewildering spectacle; but if we study the main
clusters of lines we shall see that the people whose movements they
chronicle have frequently preserved, in a remarkable fashion, certain
common characteristics: thus a stream flowed from the south-west towards
Valjevo in Serbia, and it is interesting to notice how the prominent men
of that region, whose ancestors came from somewhere between Montenegro
and the old frontiers of Serbia, have all of them certain
characteristics--a talent for foreign languages, a subtlety of
reasoning, originality but insufficient observation, and clever but
fallacious minds. Similarly in the Bulgar there are qualities which even
now can be ascribed to the Mongol blood. The Bulgar is more stolid than
the Serb; he is less given to sympathy and on that account can be cruel.
The Bulgar is benevolent because he is urged by kindliness, whereas the
more impressionable Serb is under the influence both of sentiment,
sentimentality and sympathy. These differences of temperament--and there
are others, more or less distinguishable--do not seem to Balkan thinkers
any reason why the two should keep apart. And a couple of months after
the Great War, during which the Bulgars, as their best friends must
acknowledge, were far from irreproachable in occupied Serbia--partly
this was due to the vast number of new posts for which they had no
suitable men--a few months afterwards a Bulgarian engineer was placidly
working among the Serbs at [vC]a[vc]ak railway station, wearing his own
uniform. And a Serbian butcher who emigrated to Bulgaria settled down at
Ferdinand just before the War and has lived there unmolested up to this
day, and that in spite of his not being very highly esteemed--for, as
the police president told me, he had married a woman with more wealth
than good fame; the president had been among her lovers.... One would
not suppose that the contrasting public morality of the two countries
will keep them apart. It is easy enough for us to argue that this
morality is on a pretty low level, because a Bulgarian War Minister saw
fit to sue, under a _nom de guerre_, a French armament firm which
omitted to send him the stipulated commission; because another Minister,
incarcerated on account of felony, could be liberated by the grace of
Tzar Ferdinand and become Premier; because a Serbian Minister used to
buy himself corner-houses, while his Bulgarian colleagues seem to own
most of the houses in Sofia. There was a minor Serbian official over
against whom I took my meals for about a month; one of his ways was to
produce a pocket-knife and cut his bread with it. Certain other parts of
his ritual did not appeal to me, but who knows whether I did not disgust
him by breaking my bread with my fingers? And who knows what sentiments
were awakened some years ago at the Orthodox monastery of Gromirija, in
Croatia, when a foreign guest proposed to wash himself in water, though
by the joyous custom of that house there was no other liquid on the
premises but wine? If there is in both countries, in Serbia and
Bulgaria, a movement against the cynicism which does not clothe its
corruption with a decent Western drapery, that is something; if there is
a further movement in the direction of probity, that is something more.
And, whatever some Serbs may tell you, it is undeniable that honesty has
made important strides in the public life of that kingdom, even without
having added to the Statute Book those rigorous proposals of the
newly-formed Peasants' party, one of which would punish a peculating
official with death. It is, however, apparent that this party has not
arrived at a sense of discretion, for it wants to terminate the practice
of allowing pensions to officials, so that each man is obliged to make
his own provision for old age. Bulgaria, the younger country, has made a
proportionate progress; there is trustworthy German evidence to the
effect that the corrupt Radoslavoff Government was despised by the
people, not in the hour of disaster but in 1916, when the Bulgarian
soldiers changed the words of an anti-Serb song and instead of "Our old
allies are brigands" proclaimed that "the Liberals are brigands." This
German, Dr. Helmut von den Steinen, the correspondent of the
_Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ (in which he was bound to speak
favourably of Radoslavoff) used to deliver propaganda lectures in the
Bulgarian language at Sofia during the War. He was very well acquainted
with Bulgarian affairs and being summoned to Berlin at the end of 1917
he made a speech[120] _in camera_ to a committee of German savants and
artists. In the course of this he lamented that his country had attached
herself to Radoslavoff, who, said he, was hated and would at the next
elections be swept away.
As one must repeat _ad nauseam_, the gulf between Serb and Bulgar has
not been caused by an extreme divergence of their private or their
public morals, academically considered, but by the various incidents
which in the eyes of each of them testified to the other's depravity.
And at the bottom of it all was Macedonia--Macedonia which now, being
wisely administered, will be the foundation-stone of Yugoslavia.
At the end of his book, _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, Mr. Noel
Buxton agrees that such a Yugoslav Federation has become a practical
possibility. But his two alternative proposals with respect to what
should meanwhile be the fate of Macedonia would indefinitely postpone
that Federation. We have already dealt with the proposal of autonomy,
put forward also by Mr. Leland Buxton. As for what Mr. Noel Buxton calls
the ideal solution--"a plebiscite conducted by an impartial
international commission over the whole of the historical province of
Macedonia"--this is aiming no higher than at a perpetuation of the two
distinct countries, Serbia and Bulgaria. We should probably have had
more plebiscites in Europe if more Allied armies had been available, but
the campaign of intimidation and every sort of ruthlessness which
occurred in Upper Silesia and Schleswig make us look rather askance upon
this method of registering the popular will. Mr. Buxton airily asks for
a plebiscite over the whole of the historical province of Macedonia,
ignoring altogether the special difficulty that "Macedonia" means
something quite different to the Serb, the Bulgar and the Greek. He
dismisses likewise the universal difficulty of plebiscites, which is to
be just in laying down the limits of the various regions. But there is
really no need for Mr. Buxton to take us on to those quagmires, since he
knows, and is good enough to tell us, what the result of the plebiscite
will be. "The Bulgarian sympathies," says he, "of the mass of the
Macedonian population are apparent to every inquiring traveller." If Mr.
Buxton were to encounter one of those pretty lawless Karaka[vc]an
nomads, who from the Monastir district wander all over the Balkans, his
recognition of the man's Roman and Thraco-Illyrian descent would be
facilitated by the permanent cheesy odour which pervades his person.
There is nothing so permanent about the Macedonian Slav. His
sympathies, as is natural, have gone out to that Balkan country which
cultivated him and since, as Dr. Milovanovi['c], the Serbian statesman,
says, "the Serbs did not begin to think about Macedonia till 1885," it
would indeed have been extraordinary if the Macedonian Slavs--whose
ethnical position, as scientists agree, is such a vague one--had been
generally drawn to Serbia. One cannot help feeling that in this book Mr.
Buxton does a serious disservice to his reputation as a Balkan expert.
He says that Serbia until the accession of King Peter was Austrophil;
which is, to put it mildly, a very sweeping remark--only that party
which called itself Progressive was identified with Milan's views. He
praises the Bulgars for being devoted to their national Church, and
praises them for producing a large number of Protestants, whose
sincerity, etc., so that one presumes he would have praised them still
more if the whole nation, as was once on the cards, had joined the
Protestant Church. Save me from my friends! the Bulgars might say. What
is perfectly sincere about them is their patriotism; and while some of
those who now change their religion have doubtless no ulterior, personal
motive, the entire country would probably have as little reluctance as
Japan in adopting any religion which, like the Exarchist Church of
to-day, would be an instrument of the national cause. Mr. Buxton's
knowledge of the Balkan protagonists has its limitations; for example,
prior to Bulgaria's entry into the War he was all for the removal of the
British Minister on account of his pro-Serbian sympathies, but he says
no word about M. Savinsky, the Russian Minister, who was left by his
Entente colleagues to play the first violin. This capricious gentleman
was no diplomat, but a courtier. He did not even protest when German
munitions for Turkey passed through Roumania, and far too much of his
time was spent in motoring with pretty girls in the neighbourhood of
Sofia. Many good observers were of opinion that with a more competent
Russian representative, such as M. Nekludoff, who in 1914 was
transferred to Stockholm, the situation would have been saved. In their
memorandum submitted in January 1915 to Lord (then Sir Edward) Grey,
Messrs. N. and C. R. Buxton said that their experience of fifteen years
convinced them that the Bulgarian sentiment of the Macedonians could
not in a short time be made to give way to another national sentiment.
If we rule out, as being slaves of circumstance, all the Macedonians who
now tell you that from Bulgar they have changed to Serb, there is no
reason why we should not credit those who are so weary of the rival
activities of both parties that they wish for peace and nothing else.
They would follow, not the Messrs. Buxton, but the priest of the
Bulgarian village of Chuprenia, who told me that he held that one might
pray to God for the success of the Bulgarian arms, without saying
whether they were in the right or in the wrong. After the end of the war
this priest sent a telegram, which was perhaps a little indiscreet,
advocating that the Bulgarian people should join in Yugoslavia.
To prevent the Southern Slavs being torn by internal strife, it is
necessary between Serbia and Bulgaria that one of them should for a time
be paramount. We may be confident that Serbia will not abuse her
position. In fact it is the opinion of a Roumanian lady at Monastir that
the Serbs were uncommonly rash in taking into their service so many who
once had called themselves Bulgars and now maintain that they are Serbs.
But Serbia has become relatively so strong that she can be indulgent.
She will even satisfy that Bulgarian professor who is said to have
discussed the Macedonian question with the British military attache.
The attache suggested a division between Serbia and Bulgaria.
"No," said the professor; "let the country remain a whole, like the
child before Solomon."
"Would you be satisfied?" asked the attache, "if this question were now
decided once and for all?"
"Yes," said the professor, "if the judge be another Solomon."
Among the Bulgars who are looking forward to the day when their country
will, in some form or other, join Yugoslavia, there are some who suggest
that when comparative tranquillity has been assured upon the Macedonian
frontiers (that is to say, between Macedonia and the Albanians) it would
be as well to garrison the province with Croatian regiments, pending
the employment in their own country of Macedonian troops. Gradually the
time will come when, as one of the units of the Yugoslav State,
Macedonia will enjoy the same amount of Home Rule as the other
provinces. She will then, maybe, decide for herself such matters as the
preservation of her dialects, local administration, police, etc.
* * * * *
Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going to sail from one of
these countries to her neighbour with whom she had recently been at war,
and some of the inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was
presented, amongst other things, with an old gentleman's good wishes,
which he had taken the trouble to express in French and in verse. I
believe that he recited them, but there was a considerable tumult on the
landing-stage. Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of my ears
and began to tell me that they were for detaining him in this country;
three or four natives of the country reported, simultaneously, into my
other ear that he had been letting off his revolver and was altogether a
dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail or not, and
meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore. He waved his passport in my
face. Both he and his opponents were gesticulating with great violence,
and this they continued to do even after I filled their hands with most
of the small and large bouquets which the friendly people had brought
down for me. There was so much noise that the boat's whistle, which the
captain started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly over
those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself from those who
encircled me I caught sight of the old gentleman of the poem--in
appearance he was a smaller edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity;
he was clearly nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he
extended towards me, written on the back of one of his visiting-cards. I
was just then being told by the agitated traveller that he had only been
firing into the air because it was Easter, and that this was his
invariable custom at midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so
satisfactory that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he should sail
and that they should send his revolver on to him by parcel post. They
all shook hands with him. The two nationalities were on excellent terms.
And we may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them and the
other Yugoslavs:
Oh! la belle journee de votre bonheur,
Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-a-l'heure.
Couronne de grands succes du ciel je vous implore,
Allegresse, sante et prosperite je vous augure.