THE BALKAN STATES

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 18

THE BALKAN STATES

A SERIOUS SITUATION.

A MASSACRE OF .CHRISTIANS FEARED. SOFIA, August 10. A party of Bulgarians at Resna murdered the guards who were escorting the mails to Monastir, and secured a considerable amount of money. August 12. The insurrectionary movement has , spread .to Adriancpie aud Makub. ! The insurgents dynamited Giergel's railway bridge. The Bulgarian Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs are inspecting the frontier posts. They are anxious to prevent insurgent bands entering Macedonia. August 13. | Bulgarian officials are pessimistic, fearing an early general massacre of Christians in Macedonia. The Moslems in the Uskub district I are excited, and are congregating in the mosques. This is interpreted- as ominous. It is feared the troops will prove incapable of restraining fanaitical Moslems. Half the recruits in Monastir are raw recruits and unreliable. Practically the whole of Western Macedonia is in the hands of the insurgents, phe Turk's are master cf little more than the ground they stand on. The insurgents captured the Government food supplies in tbe Korista district, and 300 repeating rifles and ammunition at Ivruchoo. Forid Pasha was severely wounded by the Albanians on leaving Ipex with his troops. The Macedonian loss's at Sovovitch numbered 130 killed. Turkish advices state that 26 Moslem peasants were massacred near Perlepe. CONSTANTINOPLE, August 10. Russia is demanding the immediate and exemplary punishment of M. Rostkorsky's assassin, who has been arrested. Augu&t 11. The Macedonian leaders., in rebutting the Turkish accusations, emphasi&e the consistent prohibition under penalty of death of the offering of violence to Turkish women and children or neutrals. The leaders accuse the Turks of destroying the Christian villages of Smelevo, Krouche, and Bolno, in the Monastir district. - Tartarcheff and Tatoff, acting as delegates of the Macedonian Internal Committee, have informed the representatives of the Powers at Sofia that Moslem acts of violence, administration, and persecutions had driven .Christian Macedonia, into armed insurrection, after pacific means to secure European intervention had been exhaiisted, adding that intervention alone would remedy the evil and step the bloodshed. They urge the appointment of a Christian Gover-nor-general acting independently of the Porte and the establishment of an International Collective Board of Control. The Porte is almost in a panic through Russia's demand for the punishment of ]\J. Ro^tovosky's assassin, and has expressed its deep regret for the Consul's murder. The Sultan begged the Czar to be indulgent, promising to punish the , guilty with the utmost severity. Boris Sarafoff, the leader of the Macedonian Committee, has warned the Oriental Railway Company not to i«sue tickets, inasmuch as the revolutionists would deal with all line*. Insurgent bands dynamited the Custom^ office at Zibevochel. Six hundred insurgents, in a fight, killed 100 Turkish troop-. They then fruitlessly attacked Kitehevo, but destroyed the village of Drongovo for , assisting the garrison. j Owing to the Rostovo.-ky incident, the Vali of Monastir and the chiefs of the gendarmeria and police ia Salonica have been dismissed. August 12. The Sultan «ent his .son to the Russian AmbaF«ador with further apologies He also offers £80,000 by way c.f compen tf ation to M. Ro^tovsky's family. Foity-MX Macedonian;) were killed in I the fighting at Okridu. The ir.mrgeitts .surrounded 200 soldiers at Dirdje. ATHENS, August 11. Report 1 , received here .state that many Greeks in Mona.stir have been killed on j suspicion of informing the Turks of the movement's of the insurgents. LONDON', August 11. At the report ttage in the Commons of the Diplomatic and Consular Services vote, Mr Balfour declared that the inMirrectionary band-, were one of the chief obstacles to the success of the modest Au-»tro-Ru-Wcin plan, which it was the duty of Europe to support a> long as they were convinced that it wa<. directed by no ambitious .spirit. The balance of ciiminality, the Prime Minister said, lies rather with the revolutionary bands than with the Turkish troops. Britain would do her utmost to ur^e the Porte to keep I its troops in hand. The Porte was keenly alive to the political necessity of reproving military exce-»<?=. The ta~k was difficult, as the revolutionary bands had deliberately avowed that their objfct, at whatevev cost to the general peace, was to make the condition in Macedonia so intolerable thnt there must be some intervention on the part of

Austria or Ru.ssia 3 or both. That was not the policy Britain desired to foster. What Britain desired to do was to aid Austria and Russia in introducing the elementary principles of sound government as the best plan for dealing in the immediate future with deep-seated evils. August 12. German advices state that Rostovsky, the Russian Consul, was reputed to be a supporter of secret societies. A Bulgarian teacher accompanied him at the moment of his assassination.