left without homes at
the beginning of winter. Meanwhile the Austrian and Russian
governments intervened and drew up elaborate schemes of reform, but
their plans could not be adequately enforced and the result was
failure. The Austro-Russian entente came to an end in 1908, and in
the same year England joined Russia in a project aiming at a better
administration of justice and involving more effective European
supervision. Scarcely had this programme been announced when the
revolution under the Young Turk party broke out which promised to
the world a regeneration of the Ottoman Empire. Hopeful of these
constitutional reformers of Turkey, Europe withdrew from Macedonia
and entrusted its destinies to its new master. Never was there a
more bitter disappointment. If autocratic Sultans had punished the
poor Macedonians with whips, the Young Turks flayed them with
scorpions.

Sympathy, indignation, and horror conspired with nationalistic
aspirations and territorial interests to arouse the kindred
populations of the surrounding states. And in October, 1912, war was
declared against Turkey by Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece.

THE BALKAN LEAGUE

This brings us to the so-called Balkan Alliance about which much has
been written and many errors ignorantly propagated. For months after
the outbreak of the war against Turkey the development of this
Alliance into a Confederation of the Balkan states, on the model of
the American or the German constitution, was a theme of constant
discussion in Europe and America. As a matter of fact there existed
no juridical ground for this expectation, and the sentiments of the
peoples of the four Christian nations, even while they fought
together against the Moslem, were saturated with such an infusion of
suspicion and hostility as to render nugatory any programme of
Balkan confederation. An alliance had indeed been concluded between
Greece and Bulgaria in May, 1912, but it was a defensive, not an
offensive alliance. It provided that in case Turkey attacked either
of these states, the other should come to its assistance with all
its forces, and that whether the object of the attack were the
territorial integrity of the nation or the rights guaranteed it by
international law or special conventions. Without the knowledge of
the Greek government, an offensive alliance against Turkey had in
March, 1912, been concluded between Servia and Bulgaria which
determined their respective military