BULGARIA AND HER KING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 8 November 1912, Page 4

BULGARIA AND HER KING.

The "Daily News" recently made the following editorial comment on the condition of Bulgaria:—Yesterday Bulgaria began the celebratinos which are to mark the 25th anniversary of King Ferdinand's formal entry upon the task of governing what was then the Priiicipality. The country has every reason to be grateful to the shrewd Coburg prince whom she then invited to fill, what was certainly a, difficult and possibly a dangerous post It was said twenty years after the establishment of Bulgarian independence that crossing the frontier from Turkey was like advancing not twenty but two hundred years in .civilisation.. There has been no falling back since. The progress of Bulgaria has not been one-sided. Material prosperity has been combined with intellectual enlightenmert and owliticil development with military prowess to iin extent which no other State in the Balkans has equalled, and in spite of difficulties greater than any-other, except Servia, has had to face. In her case the friendship of Russia was moro deadly than its enmity. But she was not afraid to face either, and, thanks to the lion-hearted Stamboloff and the diplomacy of Ferdinand, she defeated tho designs, of her great patron upon her freedom. Bulgaria lias shown herself something more than brave. It is a great thing for n small Balkan State to have .withstod Russia.. To have done so without permanently alienating her is a more remarkable tribute to her prudence. In respect to Turkey her self-control is not less conspicuous. The closest relations exist between her people and the Bulgarian-speaking peasants across the frontier in Macedonia, and they are constantly augmented by the stream of refugees escaping from Turk.ish persecution. Yeb in spite of th« massacre of 1903, and of the opportuuity which the Tui-kish revolution of 1908 seemed to offer, the Bulgarian Government has always been able to hold in check the demand for what would cei*tainly be a very popular war. Meanwhilo Bulgaria goes steadily on at the task of building up her credit. Undoubtedly the combination of a national character at once courageous and enduring with the qualities of statescraft exhibited by King Ferdinand has been a fortunato one, which will one of these days count for a great deal in the Balkans.