un in all directions. In the older parts of the
city, however, the houses remain as they were built centuries ago,
divided out into the many quarters devoted to the residences of the
many races and nationalities that compose the population of Tiflis.
Between most of them is bitter enmity and prejudice, even among those
of the two great religious faiths, Christians and Mohammedans. It
is this diversity of interests, which extends throughout all the
section down into Persia, which has so complicated the situation
on this front. For not only are the two military forces fighting
here, but wherever governmental authority is momentarily relaxed,
there these mutual animosities flare up into active expression and
the most barbarous features of warfare take place, such as the
massacres of the Armenians by the Mohammedans. Neither Turkey nor
Russia has been especially eager to suppress these bitter feuds,
even in time of peace. In time of war there is nothing to restrain
them, and the whole region is swept by carnage infinitely more
hideous than legitimate warfare.

We have now passed over the entire theatre of the battles on the
Eastern frontiers of the war in Europe. The battle grounds are
familiar to us. In the succeeding chapters we will follow the armies
over this war-ridden dominion and watch the battle lines as they
move through the war to its decisive conclusion.

PART IV--THE AUSTRO-SERBIAN CAMPAIGN

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLVI

SERBIA'S SITUATION AND RESOURCES

The first great campaign on the southeastern battle grounds of
the Great War began on July 27, 1914, when the Austrian troops
undertook their first invasion of Serbia. They crossed the Serbian
border at Mitrovitza, about fifty miles northwest of Belgrade,
driving the Serbians before them. The first real hostilities of
the war opened with the bombardment of Belgrade by the Austrians
on July 29, 1914--six days before the beginning of the campaigns
on the western battle fields.

We are now familiar with the theatre of war as described in the
preceding chapters, and will now follow the first Austrian armies
into Serbia.

A stubborn fight excites the admiration of all observers, regardless
of the moral qualities of the combatants. So, wherever our sympathies
may lie, considering the war as a whole, there can be no doubt
that the defense which the Serbians made against the first efforts
of the Austrians to invade their count