INTERESTING LIGHT ON THE EASTERN CRISIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7536, 9 May 1903, Page 3

INTERESTING LIGHT ON THE EASTERN CRISIS.

An interesting light is thrown on the present situation in the Balkans by a recent traveller's observations on men. women, and Government officials" in some of tha disaffected districts. Mr G. P. Abbbott, author of "The Tale of a Tour in Macedonia." journeyed through the country in search of folklore, but the book he has publishod deals chiefly with tho impressions and incidents of travel. He realised tint he had entered Turkish territory when tha authorities confiscated some newspapers aivi novels in his portmanteau as contraband — a distinction which literature shares with "electric bells, rifles, tobacco, dynamite, patent pills, typewriters, and other c0..\;l modities of a revolutionary character." What ho saw of Turkish officials was quite in keeping with their reputation f.v corruptibility. They never lost a chance, apparently, of screwing money out of th° unfortunate inhabitant?, and wore nono tor. scrupulous as to the methods employed Mr Abbott finds some excuse for them, however, in the fact that every man's pay 13 in arrears. This, be says, is the chriuic crrievance of all officials and the root of thei: proverbial corruption. "Penury b>d power aro two bad schoolmasters, and :t is more than doubtful whether any lm.ii.in official, if placed between the means of easy enrichment on one hand, and ceit.?!n misery on tho other, would long lies--.-, c which of the two alternatives to choope '

Official posts in Turkey, moTcovev, 'ire habitually bought and sold, and tho hol.-lcr knowing that his position is precarious, is anxious to realise a competence as spee'l"lv as possible. As for the other races, although they unite in hating the Turk, ti'.eir animosity towards each other is none the less bitter and deep-rooted. At a uiace called Petriz, for example, Mr Abj.ti: found that "a Greek will on no account sneak to or shake with a Bulgiir. Nor ->v rll a Bulgar patronise a shon kept by a Greek. The antipathy between the two nationalities amounts almost to physical rciu-g----nance. It far exceeds any feelincr of enmity that either of them mat- entertain towards tho Turk, who has ground them both to tho dust during five centuries of the. most unmitigated oppression imaginable." The fitrne racial feuds he sneaks of aro not the least amomr the conflictincr interests which render tho "Macedonian question" such a thorn in the flesh of European statesmen.