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162 QUARRELS BETWEEN THE ALLIES [ch. xi.
on too long and would lead to acute differences
between the groups of European Powers. My idea,
however, was rejected without appeal: for our Foreign
Office, the temptation to have done once for all with
the Macedonian question, which had bored the whole
world to distraction, was far too great.
When military operations had begun again, and
especially after the fall of Adrianople, it would
doubtless have been still more difficult to bring forward the
proposition of an autonomous Macedonia. But if this
combination could nevertheless have been accepted
and realised, we should have avoided the sad spectacle
of the fratricidal war of 1913; and Bulgaria certainly
would have been less accessible to Austro-German
intrigues. Unfortunately our Foreign Office would not
even go into these considerations; there optimism
reigned supreme under the influence of the victories of
the Slavs and Greeks; it already foresaw the failure of
German policy on the Bosphorus, the question of the
East reduced to that of the Straits, and all this without
any sacrifice on our part! How could one be anything
but joyful ?
About two months later a very distinct threat of a
clash between the Allies was apparent in the Balkans.
But everyone was still optimistic. At first a word from
Russia appeared to St. Petersburg to be sufficient to
obtain the necessary concessions from the Bulgarians ;
if they refused to listen to our kind advice, they would
have all the other Balkan States against them ; and
then instead of a very precarious alliance between
Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, we should have to deal
with the far closer league between Rumania, Greece,
Serbia (with Montenegro), a league which would be
obliged to seek Russian direction and to listen to our
advice.
This idea of a Balkan alliance with an anti-Bulgarian
foundation certainly did not emanate from M. Sazonoff.
who was unaware of it at the beginning. It was
M. Hartwig who, in his sincere indignation against the
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