The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

in time to be of assistance. The struggle was in vain, and the Serbian State, which had resulted from so much fighting and noble selfsacrifice, was crushed by a shameful coalition of its old-time foes and by the treacherous connivance of an ally.

But there remained the Serbian nation, and itsarmy. In leaving the fertile plains of Morava and the lovely hills of Sumadia, they saw before them, rising like an awful menace, the barren, inhospitable Albanian mountains, where unspeakable hardships awaited them, cold, starvation and death. Unflinchingly they drank the bitter cup of humiliation and disaster to the dregs. Their country is again invaded by the same haughty hereditary foe. Serbia’s children are again scattered over the world, and their mothers and sisters outraged by brutal conquerors.

No words can depict the terrible physical pains and moral agony which the Serbs underwent in their retreat through Albania. It was not the retreat of an army, but the exodus of a nation. To the fearful sufferings and privation was added the bitter thought that all this was unnecessary, that the present tragedy was not so much, as in 13889, the result of inevitable circumstances as the result of some grave blunderings in the Cabinets of the diplomats. Had the Allies, after a year of fighting, realised the importance of the Balkan theatre of war,

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