THE COCKPIT OF EUROPE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1902, Page 1

THE COCKPIT OF EUROPE.

Unrest in the Balkans

The “Neae Pres Fee” a Vienna newspaper, recently published a life story of the sinister chief of the Macedonian re* ■volutionists —Baris Sarafoff —who is quite the most romantic figure in Europe. A word from him, it is said, could set the Balkans ablaze, so that he holds the peace of Europe in his hand. His hatred of the Turks was imbued at an ca.'ly ago

| through seeing his father and grandfather tortured, dragged off in chains to a dungeon, and exiled for fif e.n year?. At the age of fourteen he attacked, sing’ehanded, the prison wher .in his father and grandfather were confined, iniending ti liberate them ; but he w s flogged for his pains. The boy swore to devote his life to revenge himself on the Turks. He studied for this purpose, and became an officer of the Bulgarian army. Then in 1895 he formed a band of desperadoes to raid Tuikish territory. Since then he has headed 384 raids in o Turkey, each one hei ig a most daring exploit. Marvellous adventures, foolhardy feat-s, and hair breadth escapes, marked this period of h s life, so that he became the idol of the Macedonians.

Once he captu ed the Tuikish town of Melnik with forty men, putting the garris in to flight. Many of his other achievements resembled this. Saraf.ffis familiar with hundreds of miles of tracks through fore ts and over the mountains of Turkey. His whole aim is the organisation of a vast, rebellion with the object of seiz'ng Constantinople and overthrowing the dynasty and Turkish rule. iflacadonian Insurgents and Turkish Troops. A remarkable meounler between Turkish troops and Macedonian insurgents, which resulted in cam ge altogether disproportionate to the numbers engaged, occurred early in August near Gradsko, a Turkish village near the Bulgarian frontier.

“ihe insurgents were preparing to blow lip the bridge on the railway from Sofia to Uscub, when a detachment of Turkish troops, under Lieutenant Mahmud Nedim surprised them. The insurgents hurriedly withdrew, and entrenched themselves in a strong position wherein they could only be attacked on one side a r d under conditions extremely unfavorable to the aggressors. They numbered sixty-five, armed with good rifles, two machine guns well supplied with ammunition, besides dynamite and nitro-glyeerine explosives, all smuggled from Bulgaria. Meanwhile the Turks brought reinforcements. Two thousand troops ad vanced lo attack the handful of rebels, who, knowing that their adversaries would give no quarter, defended their position with desperate determination. Again and again the Turks pressed forward to storm the position, and time after time the insurgents forced them to retire.

The unequal contest began at four in the afternoon and continued all night and all next day. Finally, after fifteen hours, everyone of ihe sixty-five were either killed or wounded.

The victorious Turks promptly slaughtered the latter, and afterwards hacked their dead bodies to pieces. According to despatches from Kos’endi to the ‘Hirlap’ and other journals, the Turks susta’ned heavy losses. Two accounts received from different sources assess the Turkish casualties at about 350—150 killed and 200 wourded.