CIVIL WAR

Grey River Argus, 22 April 1925, Page 5

CIVIL WAR

IN BULGARIA Many Communists Arrested OTHERS CAPTURE TOWNS. (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received April 21 at 7.20 pan 1 BELGRADE, 2O. Sixteen thousand Bulgarian Com iiiunists have Iv'en arrested. Fight ing is occurring throughout Ihe connii v. Four Ihou'.tml have been killed. The Commni>ist.q have captured Terno\ :i ami Tsarifod. ARMY INCREASE. I Received April 21 at 7.20 p.m.' PARIS, April 20. The Inter-Allied Commission has re ported that Bulgaria’s request for an increase in her army is justified. SHOOTING OF MINKOFF. (Received Apiil 21 at 720 p.m.') LONDON, April 21. The “Daily Mail’s” Sofia cones pondent states Minkoff was hiding in a friend’s house when tho Gendarmerie arrived. Aiinkoff and five comrades violently resisted them, throwing gren ados. Tho besiegers took cover, and a pot shot killed Minkoff, whoso supporters then surrendered. THE MINORITY PROBLEM. (From “Foreign Affairs”) SOFIA, March 10. What strikes foreigners coming to Bulgaria to obtain first-hand knowledge of how things stand—Al. Vandervelde and AL Albert Thontns bear witness to tliii—is the genuine and ‘‘ervent devotion to the cause of peace shown by all classes of Bulgarian people. This state of mind and heart is asmuch an essential quality of the labouring peasant masses in Bulgaria ns it >s a natural effect of the three devastating wars which Bulgaria passed thru ami which ended in a crushing defeat. Apart from that, public opinion is fully alive to the necessity of friendly relaiions with the neighbouring States as a preliminary condition for the restoration of tho nation’s shattered social and economic fabric. The contin. nous misrule and fatal mistakes of the years of war in the absence of a strong Government, threw a considerable section of the population under the influence of the Communists, obsessed by the idea of a worldwide Bolshevik revolution remedying all social evils. A hard struggle for democracy is going on in the country, the aim being to bring all political parties to take a stand on constitutional ground and renounce methods of violence and con. spiracy. There hardly any doubt that common sense and sane democratic impulses will ultimately prevail and normal conditions will bo re.established. Public opinion in Bulgaria is greatly disturbed by the Greek attitude. It saw in the Geneva Minority Protocol,j a way loading to a Balkan settlement. The solution of tho minority problem on tho basis provided by tho Peace Treaties means pacification of the Balkans. Disarmed ami ruined, with hardly five million inhabitants, Bulgaria could , not be a danger to her thirty million neighbours armed to the teeth. Having resigned herself to her fate, Bulgaria is looking to League of Nations. The practical problem of the day is tha fate of the Geneva Minority Protocol which paves the way to a Greco-Bul-garian understanding. The March session of tho League of Nations Council will have to take its decision on the subject. Will it uphold the prestige of Geneva? Or will it, by sanctioning the Greek action, strengthen the hands of Moscow striving to make the Balkans an outpost of the world revolu-