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i io
i io THE BALKAN WAR, 1912 [chap. ix.
—some extreme patriots who looked on Constantinople
as the natural portion of the Bulgarian people, and who,
like Ferdinand, dreamt of the times of the Tsar Simeon.
In the celebrated military song composed during the
Russo-Turkish War for the use of the Bulgarian militia,
and which has since become the national anthem of
Bulgaria, " Schoumi Maritza," one already read the
line, " March, march—Tzarigrad [i.e. Constantinople]
is ours! " But I have always thought, and I still think,
that the greater part of the Bulgarian " intelligence,"
and more especially the mass of the people, did not
dare, and did not even wish, to aspire to the possession
of the town, which was commonly considered the goal
and lawful portion of the Great Liberator—Russia.
Bulgarian public opinion—I would rather say the
opinion of the Bulgarian people—which was thoroughly
intractable on the subject of Macedonia and of the
famous frontiers of San Stefano, did not aspire to the
south-eastern part of the peninsula beyond Adrianople
and Lozengrad. But these two towns were considered
by the Bulgarians to be theirs by right, although
Adrianople was inhabited principally by Turks, and
Kirk-Kilisseh by Turks and Greeks. The latter had
been in the power of the Bulgarians from the first days
of the war, and Adrianople surrounded and besieged,
it was easy to see that the Bulgarians were determined
to take it at all costs, and to possess definitely this
ancient capital of the Osmanlis (before the conquest of
Constantinople by Mahomet II.).
I knew, on the other hand, that amongst us—or at
least our Headquarters Staff—a rule existed about a
prohibited area round the Straits, within the limits of
which the aspirations of no matter which other country
would not be tolerated by us ; and the Bulgarians had
been warned of this about 1909. Towards the end of
October, when all Russia—not excepting official Russia
—was hailing the Serbian and Bulgarian victories with
enthusiasm, and when the famous threat of the Powers
not to recognise any of the conquests of the Balkan
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