cts the lore
Of nicely calculated less or more."

I confess humbly that I could not see all that in Sofia. But the city
was a welcome surprise, recalling Turin in its situation beneath a great
range of mountains, in its size and its general disposition. With closer
acquaintance, which came to me during the armistice that followed the
first phase of the war, Sofia showed as still clean, well managed,
admirable, but, oh, so deadly dull. The system of partial seclusion of
the women-folk kills all social life, and the absence of a feminine
element in the restaurants and other places of social resort deprives
them of all convivial charm. One could eat, drink, work in Sofia, and
that was all.

Coming first to Sofia just as war had been declared, I was struck by
the evidence of the exceedingly careful preparation that the Bulgarians
had made for the struggle. This was no unexpected or sudden war; they
had known for some time that war was inevitable; for they had made up
their minds for quite a considerable time that the wrongs of their
fellow-nationals in Macedonia and Thrace would have to be righted by
force of arms. Attempts on the part of the Powers to enforce reforms in
the Christian provinces of Turkey had, in the opinion of the Bulgars,
been absolute failures. In their opinion there was nothing to hope for
except armed intervention on their part against Turkey. And, believing
that, they had made most careful preparation, extending over several
years, for this struggle.

That preparation was in every sense admirable. For instance, it had
extended, I gathered from informants in Bulgaria, to this degree, that
they formed military camps in winter for the training of their troops.
Thus they did not train solely in the most favourable time of the year
for manoeuvres, but in the unfavourable weather too, in case that time
should prove favourable for their war. I think the standard of their
artillery arm, and the evidence of the scientific training of their
officers, prove to what extent their training beforehand had gone. Most
of the officers in high command I met at the front had been trained at
the Military College at St. Petrograd, some of them at the Military
College at Turin, and others again at a Military College which had been
established at Sofia. Of this last-named the head was Colonel Jostoff,
who was Chief-of-Staff to General Demetrieff (the great conquering
general of this war), and a singularly able soldier.