of the belligerents are free to do so, if they are courageous enough and if they are aware of their duties to the interests of the country. * * The Parliamentary majority and the nation at large are satisfied with the policy of the Government, which consists in preserving a strict neutrality and the peace of the country and in developing meanwhile the patriotic and military spirit of the nation, in order that we may be ready when the time comes to act for the interests of the fatherland.

OPPOSING NEUTRALITY.

From Mir, organ of the Nationalists and of ex-Premier I. Gueshoff, April 26,

1915.

* * *

Greece is hoping to profit from the present situation without any sacrifices, or with as few as possible, and Venizelos fell because the Greek people did not wish to give the Allies the assistance he promised them. In order to explain and justify their stand, the Greeks found an argument in the Bulgarian danger. "Do you want us to prove that we are not willing to play the game of Germany? Here are the proofs: We are ready to shield Serbia against any possible attack from Bulgaria and to help you, not against Turkey but against Bulgaria "-that is what the Greeks said and wrote to the Entente powers. And the chief newspapers of the Allies are full of articles trying to prove that the Bulgarians, under the guidance of Germany and Austria, are endangering the Balkan situation. According to what we learn, Germany is straining every nerve to incite an armed conflict between Greece and Bulgaria. In this way Germany hopes to guarantee Turkey against any possible attack from Bulgaria, and thus promote her own interests. To this fact we most earnestly call the attention of the Bulgarian people.

OPPOSING GREECE, SERBIA, AND RUSSIA.

From the Nationalist Kambana of Sofia, May 4, 1915.

Greece and Serbia are, first of all, threatened by Bulgaria, and they both know that they must step out of Bul

garian Macedonia. The struggle for Macedonia does not date from yesterday or today; this is an age-long struggle, which will end only when Bulgaria shall have assured her frontier, when Greece shall return to her peninsula, and when Serbia shall be entirely wiped off the map of the Balkans. Aside from the Greeks and Serbs, Bulgaria constitutes a danger also for Russia, inasmuch as we do not want to be the bridge for any further Russian expansion. Russian diplomacy has done everything in its power to alienate Bulgarian sympathy and to make us unfriendly to Rumania and Turkey; but Russia is today severely punished for her misdeeds. Russia, Serbia, and Greece are finding themselves in a pretty hard position, and are looking for our help. But we must not hurry. Every day that passes weakens our enemies, and the future of Bulgaria becomes daily brighter.

THE RUMANIAN VIEW.

A PRO-GERMAN OPINION. From the Moldava of Bucharest, organ of the Conservative Party, of April 1, 1915.

For a long time public opinion in Rumania has been lulled into believing that we shall take Transylvania, but not a I word has been said about Bessarabia. We do not know why our political predecessors wanted to create a strong barrier in the face of Russia, behind which live, condemned to perpetual isolation, 3,000,000 Rumanians. That territory which lies between the Rivers Pruth and Bug contains a population of more than 5,000,000, of which 3,500,000 are Moldavians; it comprises, also, the mouth of the Danube, fertile lands, an extended shore, and the City of Odessa itself. The budget of that part of Bessarabia which lies between the Rivers Pruth and Dniester amounts to 250,000,000 lei, ($50,000,000,) or nearly as much as half of the entire budget of Rumania. But this wealth is not used for the benefit of the country which produces it. There are neither schools nor highways nor hospitals in Bessarabria. Ignorance and misery are the sole companions of that population, every national sentiment of

it that the national ideal of Rumania is to live at the mercy of Russia, by abandoning old Moldavia?

FOR A BALKAN UNION. From Le Journal des Balkans of the Liberal T. Jonescu, of March 13, 1915. It is of the utmost importance that the Balkan States get together-quite apart from the present circumstances--for their own vital benefit. No matter what the outcome of the present war will be, the duty of the Balkan States is to act in unison, for mutual support and for the preservation of their future.

Under whatever form constituted, the alliance of the Balkan States is essential to the existence of the countries of Southeastern Europe.

To begin with, a Balkan congress must be called together, which should deal principally with the question of organizing a common network of communication, both on rail and water, strictly Balkan in character, which would contribute to a specific political purpose, and at the same time assure to the Balkan countries the monopoly of East Indian trade.

IN CASE OF WAR. From the Government organ, Indépendance Roumaine, of May 18, 1915. It is most essential that, should neutral countries decide to enter the European war, their first duty should be that of asking beforehand explicit and definite guarantees from the powers that solicit their assistance. Without such guarantees not one of the Balkan States would be willing to enter the war, because there is not a statesman who in like circumstances would plunge his country into an action which, on the face of it, is only an adventurous enterprise.

E

L ULA, (via Damascus,) May 7, 11:40 P. M., (Dispatches to the Berliner Tageblatt.)-The Emden caravan arrived here tonight. In advance, Captain Mücke. We were sitting in high expectation when suddenly some Arabs burst in upon us, calling out "They're here!" A small caravan climbed down from the hills; I Iran to meet it. A big, blonde fellow had already dismounted, and laughed heartily at my welcome. Completely rigged out in full tropical garb and with an involuntarily full beard and the bluest of seamen's eyes, he stood beside his white camel.

"Bath or Rhine wine?" was my first question.

"Rhine wine," the decided answer.

Then we sat down together in the station master's room, and without more ado Mücke began to narrate his Robinson Crusade by water and land. Between times he opened letters. "Have I the Cross?" he suddenly exclaimed, as he found newspapers that brought him the news that he had been decorated with the Iron Cross, First Class, a Bavarian and a Saxon order. He laughed, got red in the face, and was happy as a child over Christmas presents. "It's really too much," he said, "but I am most pleased over the Saxon order; my father also wore it." In between he asked questions about Captain Müller's fate, about the Carpathians and the Dardanelles, and then threw in scraps about the Emden and the Ayesha. Presently another caravan was reported. "I must ride out to meet my men," he said, and we approached a big caravan. Thirty Bedouins, with the Turkish flag at the head of the column; then, all mixed up,

sturdy German blond sailors in disguise, with fez or turban, all on camels, among them dusky, melancholy looking Arabs. "Children!" their Captain called out to them, "you've all got the Cross, and you, Gyssing, have a Bavarian order to boot." "Hurrah!" resounded through the red desert. The German flag was raised. Handshaking all around.

"Children, here is Paradise; come, here flows champagne! And here, these are real railroad tracks!"

"How soon do you want to travel?" a Turkish Major asked.

"In three hours, as quick as possible, through night and day," Captain Mücke replied. Even before he had reported his safe arrival to his parents at home, he files a telegraphic request for a command before the enemy. Never have I seen so much modesty alongside so much glory as among these fifty Emden

men.

new

"Have you papers here?" one of them asks.

"A heap."

"How is it with Germany?" comes a voice from the crowd.

That's what they all want to know. The men bathe, and then look happily at the special train in the desert.

THE SURVIVORS.

TABUK, (via Damascus,) May 8, noon. -They're still asleep. Last night the joy lasted a long while. But I couldn't help admiring the discipline, which did not break down even on that well-deserved joy day. Earnestness, the basic characteristic of the soldier, lay under all their merriment. As the engine was reported to be ready to start, Mücke called out: "All abroad! Youngsters, only once in

my life do I command a railroad train.” Then he and the officers sat down among the sailors. At every station they made jokes, because they were real stations that followed one another automatically and without the danger of adventures!

But all have only one wish to get quickly back to Germany. Mücke wants to shorten all the festivities in his honor; he longs for nothing more than a command in the North Sea. I go down the aisle of the cars and watch them sleeping -comrades held together by the bonds of nine months on seas and desert, and I think how young they all are. None of them over 30, and their commander only 33. Of the officers, only Lieutenant von Gyssing was on the Emden. Wellman joined the party at Padang, Dr. Lang and Lieutnant Gerdts were taken over from the steamer Choising. This steamer of the North German Lloyd, the third and last ship to carry the expeditionary corps of the Emden, took over the men and provisions on Dec. 16, and on the same evening the Ayesha was sunk. On Jan. 9 they left this ship, too, before Hodeida, in the hope of being able to take the overland route through Arabia. After the loss of two months, on March 17, they again had to take a small sailboat of 75 feet length and beat about the Red Sea amid new adventures. All are in good health and spirits; they're astonished, however, and laugh, because they see themselves featured as heroes in the papers.

CRUISE OF THE EMDEN.

OASIS OF MAAN, 620 Kilometers South of Damascus, May 9. As we ride through Arabia, Mücke and Lieutenant Gyssing, the only returning Emden offi

cers, narrate:

"We on the Emden had no idea where we were going, as on Aug. 11, 1914, we separated from the cruiser squadron, escorted only by the coaler Markomannia. Under way, the Emden picked up three officers from German steamers. That was a piece of luck, for afterward we needed many officers for the capturing and sinking of steamers, or manning them when we took them with us. On Sept. 10 the first boat came in sight. We stop

her. She proves to be a Greek tramp, chartered from England. On the next day we met the Indus, bound for Bombay, all fitted up as a troop transport, but still without troops. That was the first one we sunk. The crew we took aboard the Markomannia. 'What's the name of your ship?' the officers asked us. 'Emden! Impossible. Why, the Emden was sunk long ago in battle with the Ascold!'

their cabins,

"Then we sank the Lovat, a troop transport ship, and took the Kabinga along with us. One gets used quickly to new forms of activity. After a few days capturing ships became a habit. Of the twenty-three which we captured, most of them stopped after our first signal. When they didn't, we fired a blank shot. Then they all stopped. Only one, the Clan Mattesen, waited for a real shot across the bow before giving up its many automobiles and locomotives to the seas. The officers were mostly very polite and let down rope ladders for us. After a few hours they'd be on board with us. We ourselves never set foot in nor took charge of them. The officers often acted on their own initiative and signaled to us the nature of their cargo; then the Commandant decided as to whether to sink the ship or take it with us. Of the cargo, we always took everything we could use, particularly provisions. Many of the English officers and sailors made good use of the hours of transfer to drink up the supply of whisky instead of sacrificing it to the waves. I heard that one Captain was lying in tears at the enforced separation from his beloved ship, but on investigation found that he was merely dead drunk. But much worse was the open betrayal which many practiced toward their brother Captains, whom they probably regarded as rivals. 'Haven't you met the Kilo yet? If you keep on your course two hours longer, you must overhaul her,' one Captain said to me of his own accord. To other tips from other Captains we owed many of our prizes. I am prepared to give their names," Captain Mücke added.

"The Captain of one ship once called