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Show IS BULGARIA BOUND? Bulgaria has been sn'Xiaa, mysteriously mysterious-ly in all her negotiations with the allien, and they cannot tell whether she has entered into an alliance with Germany, Ger-many, Austria and Turkey, or whether she is still free to make a compact with the entente powers. Bulgaria occupies a peculiar position in the Balkans, not so much on account of her political ambitions as her state of mind, so to speak. Defeated by Serbia, Rumania and Greece in the second Balkan war, she harbors more ill feeling against them than against Turkey. The Bulgarians cannot forget that just when they were about to possess themselves of all that they had fought for the prize was wrested from their g-rasp by the Balkan nations, which are now allied with or friendly to the entente powers. The Bulgarian government and people peo-ple are disposed, therefore, to enter into an alliance with Germany and Austria, Aus-tria, and it may be that their hatred has already resulted in a binding compact, despite the tempting opportunity oppor-tunity of making an alliance with the entente powers that would gain for them even more than they expected when they attacked Turkey in 1912. If an alliance exists already between Bulgaria on the one hand, and the Germanic Ger-manic powers and Turkey on the other, Bulgnria is willfully deceiving the entente en-tente powers for the purpose of helping along Teutonic plans. Germany and Austria are now massing troops along the Danube in the region of the Rumanian Ru-manian and Serbian frontiers. When these new military preparations are completed Bulgaria probably will throw off the mask If she really 1b bound by treaty to the Germanic coalition. In that case Bhe will display ' ' benevolent benevo-lent neutrality" toward Germany and Austria, permitting them to send their armies ai-ross Bulgarian territory to tho aid of Turkey. While Bu Igaria 's position does not closely parallel that of Italy a few months ago, nevertheless the Bulgarians Bul-garians are agitated by similar hopes and fears. Italy found herself irresistibly irresist-ibly impelled to enter the war because be-cause if the entente powers were defeated de-feated Germany would crush Italy, even if Itaiy remained neutral. Bulgaria Bul-garia finds herself being drawn irresistibly ir-resistibly into the war. As in the case of Italy, neither side will be satisfied with strict neutrality. Bulgaria, like Italy, must support one side or the other and take her chances. Should the allies make head against the Turks there would be a clamor throughout Bulgaria to send the army to Constantinople. The task of conquering conquer-ing the Turk then would be easy and the Bulgarians probably would be the first to eater Constantinople. In the settlement Bulgaria would be able to achieve most of her ambitions. In any event Bulgaria is bound to lose by remaining re-maining strictly neutral. Jf the entente en-tente powers win thov will give her nothing, and m ay e v e n take away a great part of what she has. If the Germanic Ger-manic powers win they will wipe Bulgaria Bul-garia off the map unless, meantime, she has helped them to attain the victory. And even then Bulgaria, no matter what she secures from the Germanic powers, may ultimately cease to exist as an independent nation, for she stands in the way of the complete fulfillment ful-fillment of the Germanic expansion programme pro-gramme toward Turkey, the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean sea, the Suez, canal and the Persian gulf. Bulgaria's statesmen are in the same quandary that vexed the statesmen of Italy, but their path is not so clear. The Italian statesmen knew that if war was to be declared Italy's only course was to side with the allies. Bulgaria's Bul-garia's statesmen see that Bulgaria must enter the war either actively or as a "benevolent neutral," but they do not know which side to take. And if they already have cast their country's coun-try's lot with one side as against the other they are still in fear and trembling trem-bling lest they have staked the nation's destiny on the losing card. |