FOREST FEUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 14

FOREST FEUD.

VALLEY OF ROSES. FIGHT BETWEEN TWO VILLAGES SOFIA. For some years a feud existed between the inhabitants of two villages \ ldm and Gornq Sahrene, near Ihe' town of Kazalnik, in the Valley of Roses over a forest of which both s°des claimed, to be the owners. . F'nally a lawsuit decided the question in favour of Vidin. To prevent further trouble the Court advised that both litigants should abandon the forest for a year or two. Recently a group of men from the village of Vidin went into the forest to cut wood. The news immediately spread to the neighbouring village, where the men. armed with axes, pitchforks, and picks! marched to the forest to attack the intruders. A pitched battle ensued, and several people were badly wounded. The police were forced to arrest a number of the attacking party, and detain them. The women of Gorno Sahrene then formed themselves into a procession and proceeded to the local authorities in the town of Kazalnik with a petition praying for a final solution to the question. For a whole day they waited before the magistrates' office without being received. Many of them had started off without shoes or money.

Seeing that their appeal would not be received by the district court, they decided to continue their journey aii'd appeal to the county authorities at Stara Zagora, some 60 miles distant from Kazalnik. . On their journey they were supplied with food and boots by the inhabitants of other villages through which they passed.

They appealed to the conntv authorities at Stara Zagora to revise the decision of the court and find a new solution to the fetid, which of vital importance to both villages; and by doing so would establish eternal peace between the warring faction^,