SERVIA IN TIME OF WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 184, 21 December 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

SERVIA IN TIME OF WAR

TROOP TRAIN SCENES. (By A. Beaumont, in Daily Telegraph.) Having been accidentally blocked for three days amidst the Servian mobilisation in the very heart of the country, 1 am now able to give some idea of the feverish military activity, which has paralysed all trade and general movement in this laud, from Belgrade to Pirot. The first I learned on entering Servia was that all- the passenger service had been stopped. No private messages were ,- eeeived at the inland telegraph stations, all telephonic communication with Belgrade was stopped, and people who wanted to go to Sofia might do so on foot. This morning, by special permission of the telegraph authorities, at Nish, and after repeated attempts, I was allowed to send some news. My experiences on a mixed passenger and military train are worth recording. Crowds had been waiting at Belgrade for days to get trains for the interior, and when it was annoumod that one was leaving for Nish, and perhaps Sofia, all made a rush for it. I found the station encumbered at 6 in the morning by an excited mob of Serbs and Bulgarians trying to storm the booking office. Hundreds thronged the waiting room with their baggage in bags or'sheepskin kits. Many of the people had spent all night in the station sleaping on the platform.

CROWDED CARRIAGES. By a desperate effort, and by climbing over railings, some of us secured tickets, while hundreds were left without. Our conveyance was a military train composed of six passe agar cars with woodeii seats, and as many vans, capable of carrying 40 men and six horses, as we learned from an inscription outside. Luckily I got a seat in one of the passenger cars, but a seat was all I had. Fresh air was not included. When our coach was apparently full, others still continued to squeeze into every space. Brown and tawny-faced peasants, with all sorts of bundles, and reservists in rough, short «oats of blue Bulgarian cloth, cramme.; themselves into our car. When we seemed full up, boys in ragged coats and trousers crept in where they could, also dragging in their bundles and boxes. Bags, sacks, and bundles' were piled up above ue and below Us, but all was done .gently and smilingly, without any pushing or hurrying. . Dozens of men and boys stood on the carriage platforms and clung to the footboards, and in this way we started on our long journey towards Nish and Sofia. The train started at 7 amid :he regret of hundreds who cou'd not find room, and followed us with longing eyes. No train had left for five days with passengars, and no one knew when the next would go. Mobilisation had the country completely in its grip. The peasants could not send in their produce, and tli-2 villages end towns could not get their usual supplies. We saw at each station men and women who had been waiting five days for a train to travel only 15 or £0 miles.

SLOW TRAVELLING. We went at a snail's pace, stopping at all such small stations as Ripani, Ralia, Vlasea and Palanka. By noon it had taken us five hours to go 60 miles, I also moved on to the platform or stood on the footboards for fresh air, and mixed with the soldiers who occupied half the compartments. Only a few of the reservists had their arms. The others simply wore grey coats as their only' uniform. They were a cheerful lot, not excited or boastful, but enthusiastic, nevertheless, in that mild, gentle way peculiar to Servians. I gradually drew them into conversation. I asked them if they could shoot, and was answered in the negative. "But what will you do?" I asked. "It is not necassary," replied one very confident youth. "Courage we want, and that we have. We shall learn how to shoot in a few days." But some old reservists were more prudent. "What will you do?" I asked one sturdy peasant. "Shoot at the Turks," was his reply. "How mfiny wjuld you be able to beat?" I enquired. "I would meet live any time, but a good many more if they came without arms," was his reply, with a malicious little twinkle in his eve.

SENTRIES ON THE LINE. An empty train now and then passed us. I enquired, and was told that all these trains had taken troops to Nish or other stations, or to the frontier. Day and night these trains have been moving up and down the 'single track railway lines from Belgrade to the frontiers. Every few hundred yards a sentinel was stationed with his rifle. Our train went so slowly that we could exchange a word or a salute with these sentries. Our soldiers raised and waved their round Servian wool caps, and sent thein pleasant greetings, which the sentries returned with a smile. I soon noticed small camps. Near one station groups of reservists or recruits squatted or marched about. Here and there tlie soup pot was boiling over a wood fire, and officers were drilling their companies. There seemed but little cavalry. I saw a few horsemen only near Jagodina. where some troopers started after u$ at a gallop and easily overtook the train.