Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR. 15

‘way question, of which we had heard in July, but it is certain that it provided for the military alliance ‘now perpending, and gave to Bulgaria territorial rewards for her assistance. On 21st September, after the German advance on Serbia Sebi. 21 ‘had begun, M. Venizelos, the Greek rit. Premier, who believed that his country, owing to ‘the terms of her alliance with Serbia, must enter the fray, asked France and Britain for 150,000 troops. That day the first steps seem to have been taken in Bulgaria’s mobilization, though the official order was dated two days later. On the 24th the Western Allies acceded to M. Venizelos’s request, Sept

and that same day Greece began to pt. 24. mobilize, the order having been signed by the King at four o’clock the afternoon before. On the 25th Bulgaria, following the precedent of

Hoss in the wi November, issued Sept. 23. an explanation of her mobilization. She declared she had no aggressive intentions, and mobilized, like Holland and Switzerland, only to defend her rights and independence. Her position was that of armed neutrality. The mobilization order affected four of her first-line divisions—the 1st (Sofia), the 2nd (Vidin), which was at Vratza, the 7th (Rilo), at Dubritza, and the roth (Tatar-Pazardjik). That same evening came the news that Bulgarian cavalry were massing on the Serbian borders.

Rumania, much agitated by the new situation, announced that as yet she would take no decisive step. Her army was already mobilized, and her troops remained concentrated on her frontiers. The Greek mobilization was calculated to produce a strength little less than Bulgaria’s. In 1912 the