SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1918. BULGARIA SEEKS PEACE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 28 September 1918, Page 4

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1918. BULGARIA SEEKS PEACE.

• The^'brief "extraordinary" message received this morning announcing that Bulgaria has asked for;;an' armistice will cause surprise to the bulk of the people, but. to those -who have followed ;the, course o£ events closely the defection of Germanj's■■.allies has been expected for some time; Bulgaida and' Turkey have, during recent ~ months, received scant help from the German®, and they have not been satisfied with Germany's operation of the Brest iiitovsk treaty, especially regarding the Dobrudja. The power of the German armies was much, advertised in the early days of the; war, and the Prussian war %>rda threw out very broad hints -to Bulgaria and Turkey that they had better join forces with them i£ they wanted later to eha^re an j the ispoilSi - For the enemy to gain Bulgaria's (assistance against Serbia was not very difficult, for Bulgaria1 was not satisfied) with the position in wMoli she was left after the two Balkan \vars, and a considerable amount of jealousy and bitterness existed qw|ng to the boundaries of southern Serbia as decided by the Great Powers. Naturally, Germany blamed Britain for the fixing of the frontier, which in some ways was not in the best interests of the nations concerned, and though Bulgaria had but little other cause &> go to war against the Allies., she thought to gain substantially when the Kaiser's laircniea had crushed Europe. That dream has been fading rapidly, and Bulgaria, seeing that Germany ha® no chance of winning the war and that the whole world is against the Kaiser and his allies,' has had sufficient experience of the Allies' power during the past week to understand that they are determined to continue until Prussianism is defeated. Bulgaria finds that she has everything to lose and nothing to gain by continuing in the war, and she is seeking peace. Of course, it depends upon her attitude whether or not she will secure peace. X she is willing to surrender unconditionally and to accept the-Allies' terms, which will be governed by the prinoiples of reparation, restitution, and future guarantees, providing for the complete independence of the nationalities concerned, then we may be sure that Bulgaria will cease to be our enemy. What Germany will think,of the position will be interesting, for if Bulgaria falls out of the Central Alliance line, then Turkey will be cut off, and it is very probable that ©he, too, will follow Bulgaria'© lead. Again, peace with Bulgaria will give the Allies a.greater opportunity of attacking, Austria, by. way of Serbia, and Austria is heenself in no fit. state to meet a renewal of heavy attacks. It seems T&rv

much as if we have reached the beginning of the end, and i: Bulgaria throws over "Her aUies one feels that, the others will be unable to continue the war for long. Let us hope that Bulgaria has rlefinitely decided to leave herself in the Allies' hands, and that it ma.y bo possible to boring an end to the terrible carnage in at least one theatre of the war. The completeness of the Allied victories is now bearing fi-uit, and the news to-day will make it very difficult for the critics of tlie Salonika force to maintain their arguments.