NEUILLY, TREATY OF The Bulgarian treaty was signed at Neuilly on Nov. 27 1919, and came into force on Aug. 9 1920. In the main it is the same as the Austrian treaty. But there were important differences in the military and naval clauses, and also in reference to reparation and finance.
The only serious territorial changes were to the west and south. The Serb-Croat-Slovene kingdom obtained several strate gic ratifications. The two most important are that the Strumitsa salient in the extreme south-west has been flattened out, the western half being ceded to the Serbs ; also, and more important, in the Nish-Pirot area the town of Tsaribrod has been taken from Bulgaria and a line drawn whereby an advance on Nish would be rendered more difficult. The frontier, however, confers no offen sive advantage on the Serbs. A loss more serious in another sense is that to Greece of the district of Western Thrace, lying between Xanthi and the Maritsa river. This was ceded to Greece on her obtaining Eastern Thrace and Adrianople. Bulgaria, for 'ethnic reasons, received a slight extension of territory west of Adrian ople. The expulsion of Greeks from Adrianople and East Thrace by the Turks did not, however, cause the Allies to change their minds about Western Thrace, which remains annexed to Greece and is denied to Bulgaria.
Bulgaria had always asserted claims to that part of Macedonia now in Serbian hands, and also to Eastern and Western Thrace. In the former area her ethnic pretensions are better founded than in the latter. But Serbian Macedonia is in the hands of a formidably armed and militarily strong nation. Greek Macedonia and Thrace are now populated by hundreds of thousands of Greek refugees from Asia, and contain over 8o% of a purely Greek population. In population Bulgaria lost some 300,00o persons, of whom some are not Bulgars.
country it is practically impossible to get men to leave their farms for 12 years, and the army is always likely to be dangerously below strength, and the less regular formations dangerously above it. The naval clauses do not differ from those of the German or Austrian treaties. All Bulgaria's navy has now been destroyed; and she was left with four torpedo-boats, of which three were damaged, and six motor boats, of which four were damaged.
Part VII. (Reparation.) This contains the most novel and in teresting feature of the treaty, and is, in fact, the only serious attempt to get reparation on to a business basis. It contained three features of great interest.
(a) Contrary to the practice in the German, Austrian and Hun garian treaties, there was no attempt made to seize or distribute the Bulgarian commercial fleet on the 'ton-for-ton" or "class-for-class" principle.
(c) It created a Reparation Commission consisting of French, British and Italian representatives with power to reduce this amount by a simple majority vote (not by unanimity as is the systematic rule), on the suggestion of the inter-allied Commission.
The general scope and powers of the Reparation Commission are drawn in such a manner as to control the finances of the country suffi ciently to obtain reparation, without offensive interference. In the end, the Reparation Commission, after examining the question on the spot, has practically remitted three-quarters of the total of £90,000,000. The annual sum now required to meet the charges on the 550,000,000 gold francs of the debt is well within the capacity of the new Bul garian State, and is being punctually paid. None of the remaining clauses of the Bulgarian treaty have any special features of interest or importance.