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1912]
THE PROHIBITED AREA
123
States had been completely forgotten by every one, I
received from St. Petersburg instructions to remind
the Bulgarian Government of the rule about the
prohibited area, or in other words to warn it that Russia
would not allow the Bulgarians definitely to occupy
Adrianople and its environs.
These instructions placed the Russian representative
in Sofia in a very awkward position. Bulgarian public
opinion, as I said above, demanded the taking and the
annexation of Odrine. Moreover, the military
operations which were developing in Thrace showed clearly
that if such a formidable fortress, situated at the
junction of the Maritza and the Arda, were left in the hands
of the Turks, the establishment of the Bulgarians on
the shores of the iEgean Sea would become very
precarious. Now, not only were we not opposed to this
establishment, but we even supported it up to a point.
Southern Bulgaria is separated from the ^Egean Sea
by ranges of very high and impassable mountains:
the only practicable road from Philippopolis towards
the shores of the ^Egean Sea follows the valley of the
Maritza in a south-tftfs/ direction as far as Lule-Burgas,
and from there it turns abruptly to the south-zc&s/ and
reaches the sea at Dedeagatch. One could, if necessary,
make the road from Dedeagatch end above Lule-Burgas
but not above Adrianople. During the war and so long
as Adrianople held out, the Bulgarians could not even
make a way round which would connect the two sections
of the Sofia-Constantinople line, as topographical
conditions were too difficult. I could well imagine what
an unfavourable impression our communication on the
subject of the prohibited area would produce, and how
all our enemies in Bulgaria would hasten to profit
by it.
But other reflections were added to this one. It was
evident to every one that the Turkish Revolution of
1908 had not caused the political scales in
Constantinople to turn in favour of England, of France, and still
less of Russia. German influence had issued triumphant
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