The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

the Southern Slav population of the Dual Monarchy by inspiring their already intense national feeling with new faith and power, the Governments of Vienna and Budapest thought that the humiliation and spoliation of Serbia would be the best reaction against the national enthusiasm of the Southern Slavs. Her policy unflinchingly pursued only one aim: Serbia even at the cost of new complications must be humiliated and shorn of any advantages she might expect to acquire from the war.

At that moment the Bulgarian delegate to the Peace Conference at London, M. Daneff, on his way to London spent several days at Vienna. There he assiduously called upon all persons of high official standing, and gave many interviews to the Vienna and Budapest papers. With all his talents and power he courted the favour of the Vienna Cabinet and public opinion for Bulgaria and her aims. Serbia was left in the lurch. While professing his assurances of Bulgaria’s friendship for the Dual Monarchy and of her desire to meet the views of the Vienna Cabinet, he said not one word in favour of Serbia or her strivings to obtain access to the Adriatic. It was evident that Bulgaria cared very little about the interests of her ally and neighbour; she was bent blindly on the achievement of her own aims, and ready to sacrifice Serbia to the wrath of AustriaHungary, in order to facilitate the attainment of the object she had in view.

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