TWENTY YEARS OF BALKAN TANGLE

BYM. EDITH DURHAM.

AUTHOR OF THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS,HIGH ALBANIA,THE STRUGGLE FOR SCUTARI, ETC.

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET,
W.C.1

First published 1920

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE

"And let men beware how they neglect and suffer Matter of Trouble tobe prepared; for no Man can forbid the Sparke nor tell whence itcome." BACON.

MINE is but a tale of small straws; but of small straws carefullycollected. And small straws show whence the wind blows. There arecurrents and cross currents which may make a whirlwind.

For this reason the tale of the plots and counterplots through whichI lived in my many years of Balkan travel, seems worth the telling.Events which were incomprehensible at the time have since beenillumined by later developments, and I myself am surprised to findhow accurately small facts noted in my diaries, fit in with officialrevelations.

Every detail, every new point of view, may help the future historyin calmer days than these, to a just understanding of the worldcatastrophe. It is with this hope that I record the main facts ofthe scenes I witnessed and in which I sometimes played a part.

M. E. DURHAM.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1. PICKING UP THE THREADSCHAPTER 2. MONTENEGRO AND HER RULERSCHAPTER 3. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LAND AND PEOPLECHAPTER 4. SERBIA AND THE WAY THERECHAPTER 5. WHAT WAS BEHIND IT ALLCHAPTER 6. THE GREAT SERBIAN IDEACHAPTER 7. 1903 AND WHAT HAPPENEDCHAPTER 8. MACEDONIA 1903-1904CHAPTER 9. ALBANIACHAPTER 10. MURDER WILL OUTCHAPTER 11. 1905CHAPTER 12. BOSNIA AND THE HERZEGOVINACHAPTER 13. BOSNIA IN 1906. THE PLOT THICKENSCHAPTER 14. 1907CHAPTER 15. 1908: A FATEFUL YEARCHAPTER 16. 1909.CHAPTER 17. 1910CHAPTER 18. 1911 AND THE INSURRECTION OF THE CATHOLICSCHAPTER 19. 1912. THE FIRST DROPS OF THE THUNDERSTORMCHAPTER 20. 1914.CHAPTER 21. THE YEARS OF THE WARINDEX.

TWENTY YEARS OF BALKAN TANGLE

CHAPTER ONE

PICKING UP THE THREADS

It was in Cetinje in August, 1900, that I first picked up a threadof the Balkan tangle, little thinking how deeply enmeshed I shouldlater become, and still less how this tangle would ultimately affectthe whole world. Chance, or the Fates, took me Near Eastward.Completely exhausted by constant attendance on an invalid relative,the future stretched before me as endless years of grey monotony,and escape seemed hopeless. The doctor who insisted upon my havingtwo months' holiday every year was kinder than he knew. "Take themin quite a new place," he said. "Get right away no matter where, solong as the change is complete."

Along with a friend I boarded an Austrian Lloyd steamer at Trieste,and with high hopes but weakened health, started for the ports ofthe Eastern Adriatic.

Threading the maze of mauve islets set in that incomparably blue anddazzling sea; touching every day at ancient towns where strangetongues were spoken and yet stranger garments worn, I began to feelthat life after all might be worth living and the fascination of theNear East took hold of me.

A British Consul, bound to Asia Minor, leaned over the bulwark anddrew a long breath of satisfaction. "We are in the East!" he said."Can't you smell it? I feel I am going home. You are in the

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