Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-08-15 | Page 1 | Crisis is near in Situation in Balkan States

CRISIS IS NEAR 11 SITUATION IN BMIST1TES While Diplomatic Negotia tions Proceed Central States Mass Troops All Along Frontier CONCENTRATION IS ' MENACE TO RUMANIA That Country Again Refuses Re-fuses to Allow Shells to Pass Through and Begins Be-gins Mobilization. LONDON Aug 14 10 40 p m. Af fa rs in the Balkans are approaching a rials. While diplomatic negotiations are proceeding in an effort to induce states still ueutraJ tovast their lot with one side or the other the central pow ers have massed troops on the Balkan frontiers. Their plan It la supposed is to force a wav through to relieve what is believed to be Turkey e need of shells. This concentration, whieh has been followed by an artillery attack on Ser bian positions, is equally a menace to Rumania, which aga n has refused to permit shells to pass through her terri tory to Turkey The rumanian army already is partly mobilized and four new divisions of reserves now have been called out, Bulgaria Inactive. Bulgaria has as yet made no move wh e awaiting the replv of the quad ruple entente to her demand that Ser bia and Oreeee concede Macedonia to her in return for her milltar) support. Th s answer probably will be forthcom ing after the meeting of the Oteek and 6erbian parliaments next week. While the Serbians po nt out what thev eonsider the unfairness of the Bui ganan demand thev show an inclination to make some concessions to obtain the support of their former ally Oreeee la more firm n her refosal, but It Is be keved there may be a change in her view when Premier enizelos returns to power although he has a strong pro-German pro-German party opposed to him and ae cording to a telegram from Berlin to-u to-u ght King Constantino will offer him the premiership only upon the under standing that strict neutrality shall be maintained. iew Is Unchanged This was the poi t upon which the king and M emzelos disagreed when a new cabinet was appointed and par I ament was dissolved. Inasmuch as M Venirelos was supported by the people at a general election it was thought the king might fall into line but the dis patch from Berlin indicates he has not changed his views Should Bulgaria at tack Serbia however Oreece is bound by treaty obligations to support Ser bia as her ally SERBIAN MINISTER SAYS ATTITUDE OF COUNTRY IS CLEAR LONDON Aug 14 9 5' p m The declarat on that Serbia a att tude to ward the cla ms of Bulgaria was clear, and that Serbia never had admitted that the Slavs in Macedonia were Bulgarians waso made today bv M Boskov tch Ser bian min ster in London in reply to claims recently put forward from an luunuiuvtj .DuiKBr an sources, xie sa a This Is shown by the terms of the Serbo Bulgar an treaty of 1912 Sn which Serbia agreed to recognize the right of Bulgaria only to terri tory lying eaBt of the Bhodopes (a cha n of mounta ns n eastern En mel a partly n Macedon a and partly in Thrace) and the Struma river This concession wh ch was made to Bulgar a n 1912 and upon which she attempts to base her pres ent claims was based upon certa n strictly defined conditions which have been nfulfilled This latter fact coupled v th the intervent on of Austria to our detriment and the a d which we rende ed the Bui garions at Adnanople noccs tated our requesting a rev s on of the treaty Attack Unexpected We accepted the Buss an proposal of arbitration which had been pro vided for n the treaty and Bui gana appeared prepared to arbi t ate but unexpectedly attacked s in June 1913 thus precipltat ng the second Ball an war In company w th our ally Greece we beat the Bulgarians back to the r old fron t ers and thus obi ged them to s gn the treaty of Bucharest It is per fectly obvious that this later treaty destroyed the treaty of 1912 and with it Bulgar a s claim to Mace donia It Is quite impost ble to efface the tragic record of 1913 from h s tory Our Bacr f ces forced pon s were enormous We now hold th s territory by the double r ght of onquest and nat onal tv Ft rther t m it be remen bered hat we now are obi ged to regard B lirar a not as a fr en 1 Th s ar se mportant strategical cons lerat ons for ad (Continued on Page Two ) EH AFFAIRS ARE APPROACHING CRISIS t (Continued from Page One ) ministering our present possess ons Any attempt to demand co ess sions on the ground that Mace lonians are of the B lgarian race merely renders the proolem more HIT c It of sol t on Serbia never a knowledged this claim and cannot enter pon an disc sslon based upon such an issu nption If er ta n concessions vere made upon certain conl t ons it could bq onlv for reasons of pol t cal exped ency and in order to ass st (ho gen e al cause of the all es for in o r view it would imply a surren ler of part of Serb a and a populat on of Serbs Concessions Called Tor The existing deadlook calls for concessions on both sides At pres ent Bulgaria wants to take all and give nothing She claims the maxl mum of her territorial pretensions and what is perhais more extraordi na wants to take them mme diatelv Serbia alone is expe ted to mal e a 1 the sac flees Truh that co 1 ha lly be sal 1 to bo fa r pla Bulgar a professes that we need have no con e n for our compensa tlon which rcn lers it all the more necessarv that o ho Id seek to i saf cgi ard our wn li torests B il gar a bus noth ng o await from an I Austro Herman victorv in the Bal kans as the whole of Macedonia with Saloniki woull then pass into the possession of A stria After Serbia and Bulgaria In her t r had been the victims of the Oer mans Turkey would take back st least part of the lost territories in the west That is why Bulgaria oould with good reason be more moderate and take account of what it is possible to do in the present oircumstancss Meantime it is o r business to bold ourselves ready to repel any further Austro German attempt to break through to Constantinople and prevent the successful prosecu tion of the Anglo French offensive aga nst the Dardanelles