LIFE IN BULGARIA

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21346, 14 February 1941, Page 8

LIFE IN BULGARIA

THE SPORT OF WAR ALWAYS SECOND BEST The Bulgar is a brigand by nature and circumstances, a farmer by necessity, and a soldier because he born a lighting man. Taking the I armies of the Great War, the Australian was the linest physical specimen, with the Bulgar a close second, says an Australian writer in reviewing “Donkey Serenade,” by Dr. George Sava. To survive the centuries of wars which Fate has thrust upon him, he has to be a tough citizen soldier. His history stretches back to the Ncrman conquest of England, and he has suffered periodical eclipses as Mongols, Turks, Byzantines, Moslems, and modern nations have swept across his mountains and valleys. His homeland is an international and intercontinental highway, across which Caliphs and Crusaders have crowded, the pendulum swinging slowly from Europe to Asia, and back again. Always he has been the sport of war, and ever he has come off second best. He fought Turkey and won, and the Serbs and the Greeks got the plums. He beat the Serbs and the Rumanians gathered the spoil. He assailed the Rumanians, and the Serbs regained what they had lost. Each time an additional slice was snipped off his boundaries. With all his immersion in the full flood of map-making, he remains a rude, somewhat crude, primitive, and if the larger nations would only let him live in amity with the other live Balkan countries he would most likely prove a peaceful and serviceable citizen of the world. Extravagance a Sin As it is, he can give most of them points in personal and national economy. His frugality is proverbial. is an unforgivable sin. To waste is folly and iniquity. Modesty of living is inbred in him. He has not the gaiety of Rumania, the agility of Greece, nor the melody of Italy, and he is a foimidable enemy and a trustworthy friend, which is uncommon in the Old World today. Dr. George Sava has written the most popular books about surgery and medicine, and revealed their adventurous and sensational core, and has now employed his gift of interpretation in operating on the Bulgar after wandering through his picturesque country with Old Vasil and describing what he found in piquant prose.