operation attended by almost insurmountable obstacles.  The major part of the Bulgarian army was in eastern Thrace and would have to be brought across a country unprovided with either railroads or sufficient highways.  Moreover, the army would have to rely for the transport of provisions and equipment upon slow-moving bullock wagons.  Nevertheless, given time, secrecy, and freedom from interference, the aim might be attained.  The necessary divisions of the army were set in motion in the beginning of May.  So successful were the Bulgarians in keeping secret the route and the progress of the army, that by the middle of June they confidently looked forward to success.  Their high hopes were destroyed by the evil diplomacy of Dr. Daneff in his relations with Roumania.

Russia rewarded Roumania for her splendid assistance in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 by depriving her of her fertile province of Bessarabia and compelling her to take in exchange the Dobrudja, a low, marshy district inhabited chiefly by Bulgarians and Moslems.  And that was not all.  Through Russian influence the commission appointed to delimit the boundary between Roumania and the new principality of Bulgaria put the town of Silistria upon the Bulgarian side of the boundary.  Now the heights of Silistria command absolutely the Roumanian territory opposite to it and the Dobrudja.  The Danube directly in front of Silistria spreads out in a marsh several miles wide, so that it is impossible to approach Silistria from the Roumanian side by bridge.  As a result Roumania has always felt that her southern border was at the mercy of Bulgaria and has always, as one of the chief aims of her national existence, looked forward to the rectification of her southern boundary.  The unfriendly attitude of Russia threw Roumania into the arms of Austria, so that from the days of the Berlin treaty to the Balkan war, Roumania has been considered a true friend of the Triple Alliance.  She viewed with jealousy and fear the rapid growth of Bulgaria in power and in strength.  Crowded in between the two military empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary, Roumania naturally looked upon the development of another military state upon her southern border as a menace to her national existence.  Hence when the Macedonian question became very acute in 1903, and it seemed that action would be undertaken by Bulgaria and Servia against Turkey, Roumania had declared that she would not tolerate an alteration of the status quo.  She did not move, however, when the allies undertook the war of liberation in October, 1912.  But when a month’s campaign changed the war from one of liberation to one of conquest, Roumania demanded from Bulgaria as the price of neutrality Silistria and a small slice of the Black Sea coast sufficient to satisfy strategic military demands.