THE BALKANS CAMPAIGN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4157, 7 February 1916, Page 5

THE BALKANS CAMPAIGN.

IMPEQTURABLE BRITISH.

STORY OF THE SALONIKA AIR RAID.

COULDN’T STOP SOLDIERS’ RACE MEETING.

(Times and Sydney Sun Services.) (Received Feb. 5,5.4 A p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 6. Mr Ward Price, of the “Daily Mail,” says Salonika spent the night in wailing and apprehension, but “the Greeks were-calmer and indignant by daylight, and even the proGerman press - protested against the raid, which did not prevent the British from, holding a, successful little race meeting to break the monotony oF waiting for the enemy. A sergeant-major acted as “bookie” hanging out the sign “The Old Firm.”

The course was crowded with khaki, but several officers who had been through the raid appeared in correct staff costume to the knees, but wore' pyjama trousers and- slippers. Several of the French officers rode in the hurdles and steeples, and one remarked on how the “Bosches” would denounce British frightfulness in heartlessly indulging in. sport while Salonika was burning. Mr Calvert, of the “Daily Chronicle,” reports that a 'bomb struck a mosque which of refugees from Thrace, killing a man. two women and a child and wounding ten. - The Germans bombed warships, in . the harbor unsuccessfully. ,

ROUMANIAN CEREALS.

BIG SALE TO AUSTRO-GERMANS.

(Times and‘Sydney Sun iServices.) (Received Feb. 5, 5.45 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 5. “The Times” correspondent at Bucharest says' arrangements have been concluded for the sale to an Austro-German syndicate of one and a-half million tons of Roumanian cereals at the same price as supplied to Britain. Roumania has called up her 1890 class of men.

A GHASTLY MASSACRE.

FIENDISH BULGAR CRIME

SERBIAN PRISONERS BUTCHERED.

(Reoeived Feb. 6, 5.10 p.m.)

LONDON, Feb.

Mr Ward Price, of the “Daily Mail,” forwards a ghastly story, based on an eye-witness’s account of the Bulgar massacre of Serbian prisoners at Prilep. He says the Bulgars dug a huge grave and brought out 300 prisoners —some boys and others greybeards. They had no idea of their fate until they reached the graveside. Here they were halted for an hour until eighty Bulgar cavalry, -tlieir captain speaking Serbian, ordered each Serbian to bind the eves of his neighbor. It was a pitiable scone, tho youths weeping and imploring pity, and the older men shouting defiance. When, the Serbians had been blindfolded with strips torn from their waistcloths, the Bulgar captain shouted to the prisoners: “Now crouch down!” and the Serbians obeyed. The Bulgars started work at the cry of the captain. . Bulgar infantry formed a large cordon and the cavalry, cantering, rode’ in among the kneeling throng with yells of cruel delight and slashed and thrust mercilessly. The Serbians tried to seize the drip-, ping sabres and now an arm, now a leg, was slashed off. Other Serbians tore off tlieir bandages and seized the legs of the murderers. attempting to unhorse them. Others dashed a+ the cordon of infantry, but these saw red and ran to meet the Serbians, plunging in their bayonets and crying gleefully: “We are doing this for charity—to spare you dying of hunger!” After half-an-hour the captain ordered the infantry to thrust the Serbians into the grave and shovel on the earth, regardless of whether they were living or dead. Mr Ward Price grimly adds: “It is time the Foreign Office realised that the Bulgars have not- reached the normal standard of morality of "Western Europeans.”

RUSSIAN TROOPS MOVING.

RUSSO-ROUMANIAN FRONTIER

CLOSED

(Received Feb. 7, 12.5 a.m.) PARIS, Feb. 6. The Russians have closed the RussoRoumanian frontier owing to the concentration and movement of troops. “Le Temps” Athens correspondent says French aeroplanes on -Tuesday dropped two hundred bombs at Petrich. A Bulgarian communique admits a thousand casualties, 470 'being killed.