"Secret Instructions"

Those who profess to believe that the Balkan pot is about to boil over into active warfare were not surprised last week when the Chicago Herald-Examiner (Hearst) printed, exclusively, excerpts from "secret instructions sent from Kemals [Mustapha Kemal Pasha, dictator of Turkey] foreign office to the Turkish minister at Belgrade." This document was "intercepted by a secret agent of one of the Balkan powers." In it, Dictator Kemal outlines his country's moves in the event of a Balkan conflict, as follows:

"In the coming dispute between Italy and Serbia [Jugoslavia], outwardly we have no set policy, sympathy or antipathy toward either one of the disputants, nor to the subject of the dispute--Albania. "We have no allies outside of Russia who definitely have undertaken to come to our defense should the fatherland be invaded. In turn, we shall go to Russia's assistance should that country's territorial integrity be menaced by more than one power. . . .

"It is our belief that Italy will force issue with Serbia as a threat to England, France and Germany--to force them to actively interest themselves in the settlement of her dispute with Serbia.

"You will regard the negotiations with Serbia as a camouflage behind which Italy is planning a sudden descent on our shores. . . .

"It is also our conviction that a war between Italy and Serbia, if Bulgaria and Rumania can be prevented from attacking Serbia, will be a short one. The Serbs are good fighters, and, fighting in their own territory, will administer a stinging defeat to the Italian armies. Italy will not be able to deploy great forces to fight Serbia. . . .

"In the event of Bulgaria attacking Serbia, if found advisable, jointly by Russia and the Turkish republic, we shall attack Bulgaria. A defeated and humiliated Serbia would open a highway to the exuberant Italian armies to march across Bulgaria to our frontiers. That we shall never countenance.

"Should Rumania attack Serbia during the presumed war between Serbia and Italy, there is no question that Russia will invade Bessarabia and perhaps march to

Bucharest. In that eventuality we shall hold in readiness an army of perhaps 100,000 men at the Bulgarian frontier and deploy it to the advantage of our northern ally (Russia). . . ."