e time, accepted a loan from Germany.
Attempts were made at the time to explain away the political
significance of the transaction by representing the advance as an
installment of a loan the terms of which had been arranged before
the beginning of the war, but the essential fact was that the cash
came from Germany at a time when she was herself calling in all
the gold of her people into the Imperial treasury.

Bulgaria now plainly let it be understood under what conditions
she would join a union of the Balkan neutrals against the Teutonic
Powers. Her premier, Radoslavov, head of the Bulgarian Liberal Party,
whose policy has always been anti-Russian, is one of the most astute
politicians in the Balkans, and this description is equally true of
King Ferdinand as a monarch. These two stated definitely Bulgaria's
price; that part of Macedonia which was to have been allowed to
her by the agreement which bound her to Serbia and Greece during
the first Balkan War; the Valley of the Struma, including the port
of Kavalla, that part of Thrace which she herself had taken from
Turkey, and the southern Dobruja, the whole of the territory Rumania
had filched from her while her back was turned during the two Balkan
wars.

The Entente Powers held council with the other Balkan States, each
of which had taken its share of booty from Bulgaria. In order to
persuade them to consent to Bulgaria's terms, they suggested certain
compensations for the concessions they were asked to make. To Serbia,
which, in spite of her very precarious situation at the time, was
very averse to returning any part of her Macedonian territory,
they pointed out that she could find compensation in adding to
her territory Bosnia, Herzegovina and the other Slav provinces of
Austria, where the population was truly Serb. To Rumania, which was
already willing to meet Bulgaria half way, they promised Transylvania
and Bukowina. To Greece, which had done less and gained more than
any of the other states during the two Balkan Wars and so could
afford to be generous, they held out the prospect of gaining a
considerable area in Asia Minor, thickly populated by Greeks.

These changes naturally all depended on the complete defeat of
the Teutonic Powers, but Bulgaria demanded that at least some,
and especially Serbian Macedonia, should be handed over to her at
once.

This latter demand brought about strong opposition. The other Balkan
States considered that, granting even th