THE BALKANS

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 34

THE BALKANS

TURKISH EXTENSION IN THRACE. THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES. FRIGHTFUL OUTRAGES. BUCHAREST TREATY. RATIFIED BY BULGARIA. / ATTACK ON TURKS. BULGARIANS DRIVEN BACK. SOFIA, August 18. The extension of the Turkish occupation in Thrace to the west bank of the Maritza is regarded as indicating the existence of a Turko-Greek understanding, Greece preferring the Turks to the Bulgarians, with a view to safeguarding Greek ecclesiastical and educational privileges. August 19. The Government has been reassured that the Powers are concerting measures to compel Turkey to observe the treaty of London. Roumania has promised to complete her evacuation of Bulgaria by August 28 and to indemnify the population for their losses. She will hand back the railways to-morrow. August 20. The Turks occupied the Kuchukyavak and Gumurjina districts after an engagement with a small Bulgarian garrison. The latter sustained slight casualties. Bulgaria has stopped demobilisation in the districts facing the Turkish positions. Greece has notified her willingness to evacuate Xanthi, Gumurjina, and Dedeagatch to-morrow, and it is suggested that Bulgaria should occupy them on Friday. Bulgaria objects to the shortness of the notice in view of the danger of Turkish occupation. August 22. Bulgaria has" ratified the Bucharest treaty. August 23. The Turks have entered Kirjali, and the population are fleeing to the interior. The Government has protested to the Powers. BUCHAREST, August 20. King Peter of Servia and King Constantine of Greece have ratified the Bucharest treaty. August 22. The disbanded Bulgarian troops at Varna became incensed at the peace terms, and revolted. Sanguinary conflicts with the police resulted. CONSTANTINOPLE, August' 19. Tire withdrawal of two Russian cruisers from the Bosphorus is supposed to indicate an admonition to Turkey that the will of the Powers must be respected, and to signify Russia’s desire to co-operate with the other Powers, especially France and England, to maintain an Ottoman Asiatic Empire and a European Empire on the basis indicated in the identical Note from the Powers. ■

The Jeune Turc believes that the departure is connected with the Sebastopol manoeuvres. The Grand Vizier denies that the Turks are advancing on Lurauljina or Dedeagatch, but he admits the occupation of the light bank of the Maritza and Demotika. August 20. In connection with the exchange of Greek and Turkish prisoners it was found impossible to approximate the number of Turkish captives. The Greeks state that several thousand of their prisoners died during their confinement, but no cause is given. The deaths were probably due to cholera or escapes. August 24. The Powers are sending warships to Dedeagatch. The Bulgarians attacked the Turks at Ortakcuy, but were repulsed, and lost 124 prisoners. - SALONIKA, August 19. A Greek court-martial sentenced to death 18 Turks for the massacre of Christians at Serfidje, and 23 Bulgarian Komitadjis for outrages at Fiorina. August 21. Learning that the town of Melanikon will fall to the Bulgarians as a result of the Powers 1 influence the inhabitants are abandoning it, destroying their vineyards, breaking their wine vats, and firing the town. Owing to a report that the Bulgarians are reoccupying Dedeagatch the inhabitants took panic, and many are quitting the town. August 23. A Turkish fleet is at Saros awaiting the evacuation of Dedeagatch by the Greeks. The commander has warned the consuls that he will bombard the town in the event of a Bulgarian entry'. ATHENS, August 19. Fervent enthusiasm was displayed when King Constantine entered the city on hie return from the front. The streets were thronged with people, who cried “ Long live Constantine, the slayer of the Bulgarians/’ August 23. The Greeks have surrendered Guanuljina, but they refused to surrender Fanthi owing to the refusal of the Bulgarians to sign a regular protocol. VIENNA, August 20 The military attaches report that the fortifications at Adrianoole are nearly re-

stored. An enormous quantity of ammunition and provisions is stored in the city. August 23. It is reported that the Austrian Ambassador at St. Petersburg has resigned. The Neue Freie Presse hints that this is due to his failure to report the existence of the Balkan alliance in 1912 and the responsibility for a misunderstanding over a Russian demobilisation communique in March. ST. PETERSBURG, August 21. Nothing is known here regarding the movement of Russian warships towards Constantinople. It is understood that Russia is satisfied at present to secure a financial boycott, August 24. It is semT-otficially stated that the author of the Daily Telegraph’s story of the atrocities at Adrianople, cabled on August 21, is an ex-official in the - Consular service, and now a newspaper correspondent, but that he was not entrusted with any investigation on behalf of Russia. ROME. August 24. The Russian Ambassador, in an interview which is published in the Giornale d’ltalia, declared that Russia had resolved upon a pacific yet vigorous policy to enforce respect for the treaty of London. BERLIN, August 23. Herr Von Stumff, Director of the Political Department of the Foreign Office, in receiving the Adrianople deputation is reported to have said that Germany had always been Turkey’s friend, and that she would not desert her now. PARIS, August 19. Turkish advices state that Enver Bey commands 400,000 men. Besides defending Adrianople he contemplates extensive operations to the westward of the Maritza. August 21. The Temps states that the King and Queen of Roumania were motoring near Simnitza when robbers ordered the chauffeur to stop He, however, sped beyond the danger. Missiles w T ere thrown at the car, but the occupants escaped scathless. August 24. According to diplomatists the chances of Turkey retaining Adrianople appear to bo growing daily. The prospects of an agreement on a financial boycott are not promising. French investors, who will have to bear the brunt, have already made great sacrifices to further Russia’s political views, and are unwilling to do more. LONDON, August 19. Reuter states that Turkey’s decision to remain in Adrianople is unalterable, and that the Government’s existence is bound up in the city’s fate. Turkey awaits the future calmly, though she does not attempt to minimise the gravity of the situation. Dr Butler, president of the Columbia University, is organising an international commission to inquire into the atrocities during the second Balkan war. The commission will shortly meet in Paris. August 21. The Daily Telegraph’s Constantinople correspondent has obtained a copy of a report by the Russian Government's official who was specially commisioned to investigate the Bulgarian atrocities The report bears out the fragmentary tales of horrors previously published. When Adrianople fell the mosques and private houses were despoiled ruthlessly, and cartloads of so-called war booty were sent to Sofia.

Numbers of corpses of Mussulmans who were hilled during the night, were found every morning. Even now the corpses of Turkish prisoners, covered with wounds, arc found in the public wells. While 200 prisoners were being convoyed to Mustapha Pasha the sick and wounded, who were unable to march, were killed. One group of 60 were set free, but they had hardly gone a dozen paces when the Bulgarians fired, 50 men being killed. The report on Bulgaria’s atrocities continues : What the women of Adrianople suffered passes all imagination. Greek, Jewish, and Turkish women were violated wholesale. Neither social position nor age was respected. The details, in fact, are so terrible that it is impossible to print them. It is sufficient to say that the enormities practised equal, where they do not surpass, anything yet written in history. When the Bulgarian General Veltcheff’s attention was called to what was going on he replied sarcastically : “ One should not deprive the poor soldiers of their innocent amusements.” The French and Russian consuls however alarmed the Bulgarians with open menaces, successfully intervened, and saved many lives.

The conduct of the Servians was in charp contrast to the brutality of the Bulgarians. The former treated the inhabitants courteously, and the Turks, on their return to the city, were welcomed by them. Complete order has been maintained since the Turks’ arrival.

In a further report a story is given by two Turkish prisoners from Starazagora. They relate that on March 13 they were sent to Bulgaria in thousands. All laggards—that is, sick and wounded—were pitilessly bayonetled on their arrival at ITaskovo. Barely 500 were left. At Starazagora 6000 prisoners were corralled within a barbed wire enclosure. Suddenly a battalion of Bulgarians opened fire, and the prisoners were killed or wounded en masse. The survivors hurled themselves against the barbed wire, and the bodies of the victims who fell close to the fence

enabled some to climb over. About 100 escaped from this hell but a party of horsemen sabred many of the fugitives. The rest reached the forest and escaped. St. Petersburg advices state that the tension between Russia and Turkey is increasing. The press are making bitter attacks on Turkey and Greece. August 22.

A semi-official statement denies the Daily Telegraph’s story regarding atrocities. It declares that the report was invented in order to alienate European sympathies. Bulgaria accuses the Greeks of seizing Bulgarian notables, of burning villages, and robbing the inhabitants. Many notables were killed. The statement also asserts that the Turks killed most' of the prisoners who were captured at Kuchukkavak. It is officially stated that Germany and the other Powers except Italy favour a financial boycott of Turkey in order to compel the observance of the treaty of London. Italy is opposed to coercion. August 24.

The Rev. Gentle Cackett, secretary of the Bible Lands Missions Society, and Mr Woodurff, an American missionary in Philippopolis, both of whom rendered aid to the wounded in Adrianople, have visited the Foreign Office to protest against and refute the allegations of atrocities by the Bulgarians. August 25. M. Pierre Loti, a member of the French Academy, in a telegram to the Daily Telegraph, declares that the Bulgarians' are making Thrace a desert. The village of Haouza, which may be regarded as typical of hundreds of others, is in ruins. The Turkish prisoners and wounded were compelled to smash sculptured marbles and mosques with sledge hammers while the Bulgarians harassed them with their bayonets.

Every column in the cemetery has been broken, and dead bodies exposed. The Bulgarians amused themselves by defiling the scattered bones, and casting the violated bodies of women and children into a well. Only 40 out of 1000 inhabitants were not massacred last night. The Bulgarian occupation of Adrianople was terrible. The Greeks were tied together in fours and thrown into the river. The Bulgarians piled loot on carts, and were about to start at daybreak, but they were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the Turks.

Before quitting the town the Bulgarians threw into the wells the few last prisoners, and returned to capture Recbid Bey Fuad’s son. They tore both his eyes from their orbits and severed his arms.

Four thousand Turkish prisoners were herded on an island in the river in order that they might die of hunger. M. Loti saw trees despoiled of bark, which the famished prisoners had devoured. A fortnight after this torture the Bulgarians cut the throats of those who were still alive.