BULGARIA'S PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20114, 27 November 1928, Page 8

BULGARIA'S PROBLEM.

The Bulgarian Government is reported to have despatched the regular army to tho Petritch district against Ivan Mikhailoff, the notorious Komitadji leader. Even with so drastic a step taken, the people, according to report, aro not convinced that the Government is in earnest. It is a peculiarly difficult problem for Bulgaria to handle. Mikhailoff is tho leader of one section of the Macedonian Organisation which is supposed to exist to fight the causo of expatriated Bulgarians who live under Yugoslav or Greek rule in consequence of the partition of Macedonia. Tho organisation, however, has been reft by internal dissension, and prosecution of the consequent blood feud has been responsible for murders in tho very streets of Sofia. The assassins, generally supposed to belong to the Mikhailoff section, have escaped unpunished. Ho himself established such a state of terror in the Petritch district that tho inhabitants over a month ago appealed to the Government for protection. There is a suggestion of official procrastination in this matter. The Government is in a delicate position. It is entitled to proceed against those members of the Macedonian organisation who havo made themselves outlaws ; yet if it took such vigorous action that it seemed to be unsympathetic toward tho Macedonian cause, it would rouse all Bulgaria against it. The Macedonian cause is held sacred, and for the authorities to show more zeal in hunting down the leaders of the body which is identified with it, whatever their crimes, than in championing the cause of the Macedonians would be to court disaster. Tt happens, unfortunately, that Bulgaria alone cannot remove the causo of Macedonian grievances. Yugoslavia must co-operato in the movement. Since it has been Yugoslav policy to deny tho existence of a Macedonian question, or that there was any unrest in South Serbia, to meet the true position has not been easy. It is a situation characteristic of the Balkans, and under it the Komitadji movement has flourished. If Bulgaria j and Yugoslavia -were to join forces for the settlement of the Macedonian problem, unrest and terrorism could soon Vie ended. Tfc is the failure to do this that has caused Bulgaria to send regular troops to pacify purely Bulgarian territory.