THE NEAR EAST

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 70 (Supplement)

THE NEAR EAST

ARREST OF MACEDONIANS

SOFIA, December 29.

Several Macedonians have been arrested on a charge of plaiting against the -life of Count Lam&dorff, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is now on a visit to Bulgaria.

• A letter received in Wellington from an officer of the Bulgarian army, and dated Sofia, November 2nd, makes the following reference to the Macedonian trouble •. —“ The insurrection in Macedonia this time is - very important. Some of the numerous commandoes'of the insurgents are commanded by officers who have been in service in the Bulgarian army. Of Macedonian origin, they are fighting in the mountains against the bashi-bazouks and the Turkish troops, although the winter has already arrived and the snow is falling. The situation in Macedonia is very serious. About a thousand families (the women and children), violated and menaced by the bashi-bazouks and the Turks, have found refuge in the mountainous country of the frontier in Bulgarian territory. They prefer to die of hunger and cold rather than from the cruelty of the Turks. Colonel Yankoff is a Bulgarian officer, who has handed in his resignation from the Bulgarian army, and has gone to Macedonia, and placed himself at the head of the insurgerits. He is of Macedonian origin, and knows his country well, and consequently the Turks have not succeeded up to the present in dispersing his commandoes. He has already been three months fighting there. General Zontcheff, the vice-president of the High Committee of Macedonia, also went each week to the camps of the insurgents, and placed himself at the head to give battle to the Turkish troops which are pursuing them. In one of these engagements he was seriously wounded, and had to be carried

through the frontier mountains of Bulgaria to Sofia, where he was made the subject of a demonstration on the part of the population. He took part in the Servo-Bulgarian war of 1885 as commandant of a regiment, and was u'ounded there. He held the rank of captain.”