Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1918. END OF MITTEL-EUROPA

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1918, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1918. END OF MITTEL-EUROPA

What has happened on the Bulgarian front is not an armistice (technically, " a temporary cessation of hostilities ") but a surrender. It may be that, in a formal way, the signing of an armistice preceded

the signing of the terms of surrender; .but as the latter must have %een . an essential condition of the former, the transaction as a whole must be, regarded not as a mere truce to parley but as a complete submission. " Bulgaria?' according to the High , Commissioner, "surrendered unconditionally, accepting the French terms." The existence of any terms at all appears to be inconsistent with an "unconditional" surrender, yet | the Allies have certainly no need for worry on that point,- so long as their own terms, and all their terms, are the basis ] of the enemy's submission. That this is so there is hardly any room to doubt. It is now reported that the, isolation movement directed against the Bulgarian western army by the Serbs marching on Uskub had succeeded, and the Allied, command would certainly not have failed to gather in such a strategic harvest were it not that negotiation offered the whole as a prize instead of only : the part.Though the messages at time of writing are still indefinite, it is plain enough that Bulgaria, as an army and as a nation, is under her Government's contract for surrender to the Allies, whose political campaign, expedited by military victory, has broken the vital connecting-link of

the enemy "corridor," and, as Mr, Bonar Law points out, has rendered impossible the German dream* "of Mittel-Europa'.. United States diplomacy may hay paved the way, but it was d'Esperey's offensive that precipitated the debacle. And the ultimate effects thereof on the enemy organisation' are almost incalculable. It will.be said that the collapse of " the: keystone of the Central arch "has been the most sudden and dramatic event of the war. This probably is true, but the suddenness is obviously an essential part of the stage-managenient. When the defeatists of Bulgaria;'sandwiched as she is between her Austro-Hungarian and

Turkish allies, first conceived the idea

of deserting, the ranks, they no doubt saw quite clearly that the movement, in order/to succeed, must be rapid. A seceding Bulgaria must make immediate terms with the Entente nations, and

must with equal speed prepare to resist any blow against her Government such as the Germans—either within or without her gates—might be expected to strike. To secure this necessary element of speed, Bulgaria was, according to her Washington Ambassador, prepared even to lay down her arms without waiting for the Allies' decision, and to cast herself on the mercy of the United States. Hay-

ing this reserve weapon in its political armoury, the Bulgarian Government has

literally thrown itself at the Entente nations' heads, and has, in the same action, turned to defend the vitals of its country from, its quondam allies. Yet, after all, are Bulgaria's two immediate neighbours in any mood for retaliation, or in any very strong position to give effect to it? Does Turkey, heavily committed in Asia, and herself wavering on the peace line, feel any keen enthusiasm to convert Sofia? And is Austria-Hun-gary unitedly determined to win back to the fold the sheep that has strayed? This is perhaps the most important question of all, for the attitude of AustriaHungary in this juncture is likely to colour her whole political future, and is certain to affect the war to its very roots. A seceding Bulgaria uncovers Austria-Hungary, and a seceding AustriaHungary would uncover Germany. Will

Vienna stand.firmly by Berlin, or will the Emperor Charles have another and more violent fit of pacifism? Much will depend on whether those punitive reserves, hinted at by Yon Hintze, possess actuality and will.

It is an extraordinary anomaly that though in 1915 Ferdinand espoused war in order to secure Bulgar Macedonia, Malinoff sets out in 1918 to attain by a defeatist policy the same result. Bulgaria's ,new platform appears to be very simple. It is that the Wilson policy of nationality is endorsed by Bulgaria, who undertakes to peaceably prove that the mixed Macedonian people whose loyalty she. claims are predominantly Bulgar in race and sentiment. Therefore/ what cannot be wolt by the sword must, ac-

cording to the Bulgar casa, come to Bui-

garia under the principle of nationality.

At the same time, Malinoff seeks to ap-

pease Serbia, who is Bulgaria's chief rival in Macedonia, by affirming the-jus* tice of a Serbian outlet in the Adriatic Sea. How he. stands with Rumania,

whose Dobrudja country is. partly under

Bulgarian occupation, is another of the absoi'bing questions o£ ,the hour. A

situation «o h-wight with no«*ibiliUca for

every Balkin eou^tfy, v yttiijuJoK foi

s^^7^^"^Tt'^i^»Si»i

major belligerents and for the new Russian Borderland States, could be made a, subject for endless speculation, but events are moving so'rapidly on all fronts that they will probably, in the course of a few .days or even hours, supply their owji answers to the riddles that are arising. One^ thing is certain—the FourPower League no longer exists. The tail of the aninial has parted from its body; there is a prospect of spinal paralysis; and its head and heart are too heavily assailed in front to pay very much attention to".events; in the rear. That it is fast being transformed from

tne- jungle to the menagerie stage is proved by the sounding of a- new note in the German papers, among whom the sabre-rattling Cologne Gazette now blossoms forth as a pessimist: Is this really the same paper as boasted in 1915 that Germany would fight the world—"the more enemies, the more honour"? Taking courage from,the new situation, Vorwaerts orders the German Government to the peace table, not to ratify conquest but to obtain peace " without unbearable burdens." From all these things the Allied peoples, supported by Providence, must and will take heart, and incidentally they will be consoled, to know

that, despite all the controversy between Westerners and Easterners, the blood ,that was shed in the Balkans has not been

wasted, and that the name, of Salonika will occupy no,unworthy place in the history of the downfall of Prussianism.