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i9i3] WARLIKE PREPARATIONS 181
received a letter from him in which he assures me most
explicitly that in Turkey no one is even thinking of the
possibility of a fresh war; that every one is only
concerned with one thing—tending the wounds inflicted on
the Ottoman Empire by the disastrous campaign of last
year."
" But do tell your Osman-Nizami Pasha in answer,"
I exclaimed, using the expression so common in the
East, "that he is the father of lies ! If he writes these
kind of things to you, it is solely in order to lull your
vigilance and to encourage you to a collision by which
the Turks would most certainly profit! "
Danev merely tossed his head and his face assumed
an eminently Bulgarian expression of obstinate
incredulity.
As I said above, King Ferdinand in his telegraphic
answer to the Emperor had in principle accepted the
Russian arbitration, and the Bulgarian Government had
sent its justificatory memorandum to our Foreign Office.
But it was still imperative to carry out the arbitration,
that is to say to make the Bulgarians and Serbians send
their plenipotentiaries in the persons of their two
Prime Ministers to St. Petersburg as soon as possible.
The situation in Bulgaria was becoming daily more
threatening. The troops of the three occupiers of the
country were concentrated at certain points, fortifications
were hurriedly erected in the open country. The former
allies took up their positions opposite each other,
protecting themselves by outposts. To be quite impartial
I must mention that the Serbians were preparing for
the eventual collision far more seriously than the
Bulgarians ; they covered the position of " Ovtche-Polie "
with concrete fortifications and they maintained their
Army at full strength, whereas the Bulgarians released
certain classes in turn so that these could return to
agricultural labour. It does not follow, however, that
the Serbians wished for a collision more than the
Bulgarians did ; occupying nearly the whole of Macedonia
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