Bulgaria

prevent war correspondents seeing anything of their operations. They wished nothing to interfere with the secrecy of their plans. There were only three British journalists who succeed

ge of their plans, their dispositions, their strategy, and their tactics, from getting beyond the small circle of their own General Staff. Even some of their generals in the field were kept in part

s I should have become familiar with the Headquarters Staff, perhaps with a few regimental officers, but not with the great mass of the army nor with the Bulgarian people generally. But the refusal of facili

e Bulgarians-they were wise and necessary-but with the wild fictions which some

an odd hour with burrowing among a great pile of newspapers in the Censor's office

hase of facts; wheedling Censors to get some few of those facts into a telegraph office; learning then, perhaps, that the custom at that particular telegraph office

blic it was a very good story of a battle. Those men who, after great hardships, were enabled to see the actual battle found that the poor messages which the Censor permitted them to send took ten days or more in transmission to London. W

days after. But it would have been absurd to have waited, since "our special correspondent" had seen it all in advance, right down to the embrace of the Turkish delegate and the Bulgarian delegate, and knew that some of the conditions w

he "Attractive Occupations" series on "How to be a

neral appearance of officers and men. Also learn a few military phrases of their language. Ascer

graph communication with your newspaper. For the rest you may decide

. It will be handy also to have any books which have be

ard not to become enslaved by them. If, for instance, you wait for official notices of battles, you will be much hampered

eld, toasting your bacon at a fire made of a broken-down gun-carriage with a bayonet taken fr

W AT HER HUS

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which he accompanies. His despatches, published in his newspaper and telegraphed promptly to the other side, give to them at a cheap cost that information of what is going on behind their enemy's screen of scouts which is so vital to tactical, and sometimes to strategical, dispositions. To try to obtain that information an army pours

on. They were waging war on "forlorn hope" lines with the slenderest resources, with the knowledge that officers and men-especially transport officers-had to do almost the impossible to win through. Further, they had the knowledge that in some cases the correspondents were representing the newspapers (and the Governments, for newspapers and cabinets often work hand in hand on the Continent) of nations which were at the very moment threatening mobilisation against the Balkan States. To have specially excepted Roumanian, Austrian, and German press representatives from per

e leash to get to the front, waiting and fussing, he was working, reconstructing the operations with maps and a fine imagination, and never allowing his paper to want for news. I think that he was quite prepared to have taken pupils for his new school of war correspondents. Often he would come to me for a yarn-in halt

gh to allow fanciful descriptions of Napoleonic strategy to go to the outer world. But, in

r vexedly about one message

oach to a joke I ever got out of a Bulgarian, for th

ies of the war correspondent was further illustrated to me on another oc

am I to sen

the bulleti

ial account of week-old happenings which are sent

pondent. You can add to t

he wires, though the way was blocked for exact observation. An enterprising story-maker had not very serious difficulties at

the English Censor insisted that they should be read to him aloud; and he re-read them, again aloud, to see if he had fully grasped their significance. Then they could go if they contained no military information and did not mention guns, oxen, soldiers, roads, mud, dirt, or other tabooed subjects. An amusing "rag" was tried on the Censor there. A sorely tried correspondent wrote a letter of extreme warmth to an imaginary sweetheart.

arment used in England.-'A thousand, thousand kisses'-that has nothing to do with the disposition of t

mention of the all-pervading mud which was the chief item of interest in the town's life. Yet you might have lost an army division in some of the puddles. (But s

precautions of a strict Censorship and a general hold-up of wires until their military value (and therefore their "news" value) has passed. If your paper wants picturesque stories h

your imagination leads you too palpably astray? In that case do not venture to be a war corresponden

was no hope of useful work there. The attacking army was at a standstill and a long, wearisome siege-its operations strictly guarded from inspection-was in prospect. I decided to get back to staff headquarters (t

ck-wagon carrying my baggage, an interpreter trundling my bicycle, I riding a small pony. The interpreter was gloomy and disinclined to face the hardships and dangers (mostly fancied) of the journey. Beside the driver (a Macedonian) marched a soldier with fixed bayonet. Persuasion was necessary to force the driver to undertake the journey, and a friendly transport officer

n driver some jam and some meat

erstood, grinned, and gave no great trouble thereafter, though he was always in a state of

PS

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hatalja. But by then what must be the final battle of the war was imminent. Every hour of delay was dangerous. To go by cart meant a journey of seve

train I got to Tchorlu. There a friendly artillery officer helped me to get a cart (springless) and two fast horses. He insisted also on giving me as a patrol, a single Bulgarian soldier, with 200 round

re was again no appearance of Bashi-Bazouks. But thought of another danger obtruded as we came near the lines and encountered men from the Bulgarian army suffering from the choleraic dysentery which had then begun its ravages. To one dying soldier by the roadside I gave brandy; and then had to leave him wi

Armenians"), passing the night at Arjenli, near the centre and the headquarters of the ammunition park. That night

second range which held the Turkish defence. Over the Turkish lines, like a standard, shone in the clear sky a crescent moon, within its tip a bright star. It seemed an omen, an omen of good to the Turks. My Australian eye instinctively sought for the Southern

ustrate this. It was on the Friday night of November 15, and on the morrow we expected the decisive battle of the war. At Arjenli (which was a little to the rear of the Bulgarian lines) was the ammunition park of the artillery, guarded by a small body

ne is strict, but officers and soldiers are men and brothers when out of the ranks. Social position does not govern military position. I found sometimes the University professor and the bank

ng enough and well enough to fight and who had not enlisted. He had become an American subject, I believe, and so could not be compelled to serve. In America he had learned

n as well as my bad French will allow. He is serene and cheerful. His chief care is to impress upon me the fact that in making war the Bulgarians had not been influe

village. A junior officer was sent out to make inquiries. Soon he

guard over the ammunition park. The sentry had fired, had not hit t

rtant military station. But the Bulgarian officers decided to hear his story, and a kind of informal court-martial was constituted.

ad evacuated the district he had not left with them, but had stayed in his old village. That night he had gone out of

rage, and a good "nerve" too. In some armies, I suspect, the Turk would have been shot, or hanged first and left to explain afterwards,

to co