FERDINAND OF BULGARIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 17030, 3 December 1915, Page 8

FERDINAND OF BULGARIA.

A MAN WHO IS “TAKING THE RISK.”

(By CHARLES E. WHITTAKER, in the New York “ Herald.”)

Tho Romans in the old days were wont to say, “ Falsus in Uno, falsus in omnibus.” It is an apt epitaph for Ferdinand. He betrayed his first wife, he assassinated two Ministers of State, he broke his word to Rumania; he fought against the allies of Serbia and Greece; he found his chief joy in listening to one flatterer after another. Alone as a policy stood his hatred of the Turk, with whose corrupting body he has now linked his country, willynilly. That Ferdinand should be in the company of Enver Pasha is not surprising; that he should have betrayed his oountry into the policy is the greatest betrayal of all. In one act be has set back the dock of advance a half century for his adopted country. Gneshotf, Danotf and Saroff, three builders of modern Bulgaria, have fled from him. His Col’sul in London has renounced him. They have aIL told him bluntly, as Htambuloff did, of the danger to the throne. The leaders of the people’s party have been thrown into prison. As at first Ferdinand ‘‘took the risk,” so now he takes the risk once n»re, selling his soul (which is worth nothing at all) and his country (which is worth a great deal) for a nattering illusion held out by the German agents that he shall be crowned Emperor of old Byzantium in the Mosque of St Sophia in Constantinople. What the Turkish populace would say if they heard of this promise is their concern; what the Young Turks and their German taskmasters know is that Ferdinand has an army and he ia once mope “ taking the risk,*' this time by testing the measure or its loyalty to his> throne and person. The bribe has been flattering enough to please bis neurastbenio vanity; the oountry—like his wife, his murdered Ministers, his son, Ilia neighbour Kings—may all go hanrc in the vain effort of “the spoilt child ” to wear a crown in a new setting

FERDINAND’S PLACE IN HISTORY. Concerning his place in history it is not yet too early to speak. That he will die in his bed is doubtful. Blood is thicker than water, aud the crash of Buigar against Russia will probably damage the Colunger rather than the Slavs. The blood of murdered Stambuloff may not cry out in vain- That Ferdinand should sell his army to fight to preserve the existence of a degraded Turkish Empire in Europe would be almost farcical were it not for the aw* ful tragedy of blood and tears which he now inspires; that he should ask his country to fight against the liberator country is unthinkable to any but that race which dubs treaties mere “ scraps of paper.” , There is no exact parallel to r erdinand of Bulgaria in history; he is s blend of all the bad ones on the earth, (hie might pity him for his folly were it not for bis roguery: one might admire his ambition if lie ware not sa much a fool to himself and a menace to the integrity of the Bulgarians. H« has the cunning of but ht is ns stupid as James 11., of _England,■ and as pretentious as Le Roi Soleil. Inasmuch as titles of nobility do noi exist in Bulgaria, it is brains anc ceaseless industry which have brought men like the great black bearded Daneff and the urbane Gueshoff to the fore. In his way Ferdinand has smiled upon one Minister after the other, yielding now here, now there, in an endeavoui to exalt the throne. It is not impossible that lie may find himself in th< same box a* James II ■, of England, against whom all political parties united and forced a revolution.

BULGARIA’S MINISTERS HONEST. Tfcmeff, Gueehoff, Madjaroff and Tontchetf are as wid'e asunder :« thought as may be, but this much may bo said, that of all parts of the world I know of less political corruption or sacrifice to the pork barrel than in ths Balkan Kingdoms, and. the Balkan statesmen, often misguided, have but a single purpose in mind- —the ndvanoement of their countries. Ferdinand’s latest exploit not only estranges the country of the liberator, but the countrv of the liberated. The Bulgarian army, led by the time-serv-ing J ecoff—Savoff, who won the incomparable victories over the Turks in 19.12, having washed his hands of ths royal mountebank —may fight against the Serbians, hut assuredly it mil not tight against the Russians. "The great leap into the dafk which Ferdinand lias taken can lead' but to hia own undoing. He has put himself in a cleft stick. A settlement of accounts at the end of the war will, at the best., evem in the event of the unthinkable German victory, precipitate a conflict betweeu himself and his liereditarv enemy, against whom he waged the Holy War three years ago. German diplomacy has indeed triumphed in the Balkans; it was necessary that it should triumph there. Already one hears the whisper of mutiny and disaffection in the Turkish army, as ondid at the end of 1912. The Milhelmstrasse has joined the Penitenl and the Impenitent Thief. “My God! How rare MEN are, said Napoleon. He would have looked in vain for what he sought in the person who has arrested the Agrarian leaders in Sofia. Ferdinand’s, character is the very triumph of pettiness. H< lias not even the merit of being a goo' hater; he remains as undecided as ir the days when Stolloff summed him up unstable as water, the curse of Reuben is his present portion and his future lot. ENEMY OF HIS PEOPLE. He will go down to history for ra pacity with John Laokland, of England,' for perversity and perfidy and ignorance with Torquemada. Of certain of his ancestors Crowe’s history describes them as being characterised by “ an imbecility, a dissoluteness, ferocity, mutual hate and an intellect never reaching higher than mere ennAnd the Bulgarian monarch* nearest prototvpe is perhaps another Berdinand, the Seventh of Spain, (4 whom it is written that he was distinguished by a “ selfishness, hypocrisy, mendacity and an utter incapacity to understand patriotism.” It is this failure to understand patriotism that has caused the downfall df other kings. There were no greater patri its than Pym and Hampden; failure to understand patriotism cost Charles I. his life. The sarn<3 failure cost the last Louis of France ms throne; it cost England’s .King his American colonies. And it is Ohe. sam* failure to understand that patriotism to flourish must be free that will lead' to the downfall of the first Ferdinand of Bulgaria, a desperate despot, floundering in the morass of his own conceit, led by the will o’ the wisp o? Byiantium, an illusion that broke Napoleon, an illusion ’he more deadly f<T Ferdinand becauso it is against the aspirations of his kingdom, treacherous to his friends and faithless evefl to th« enemies of his people.