BLEEDING MACEDONIA.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 2773, 23 July 1907, Page 2

BLEEDING MACEDONIA.

A young Greek named Steplian Memos, who has just arrived in London, bears witness, by his own wounds to the blooocft hirst y struggle ever raging between the Greeks and Bulgarians. He and two little sisters are all that are left oi a family of six. One night a Bulgarian band raided his village, murdered his father, mother and brother, and left him for dead after cutting out his tongue. To-day he is a fine young fellow, twenty-four years old, but scarred and terribly maimed. He is unable to speak ; but fortunately he knows the use of a pen, and through this medium all his thoughts are communicated with the further assistance of sad but expressive gestures. Here is his story:

“My villa was called Larincovo, in North Macedonia. My father, being a large farmer, was one of the notables of the place, and, as things go, very prosperous. In all Macedonia I don’t suppose it would have been possible to have found a happier or more progressive community. Yet, a single night’s work and it was wiped out of existence. We had no reason to believe that any special danger was imminent, and all the greater was our ruin because the raid was made while we were at church. Without the lightest warning, a bomb crashed through the roof and killed several people on the spot. The rest of the terrified worshippers rushed headlong into the street where a fate even more dreadful awaited them. As they issued from the church door they were cut down or shot by a Bulgarian band, who had already strewn the street with corpses. My father and brother were shot, and my mother was stabbed to death. Taking my two little sisters by the hand 1 fled, pursued by two Bulgarians. As I was hampered with the children we were soon overtaken. I was seized and thrown to the ground. Clutching at my throat, one of the villains cut out my tongue. 1 think they must have been too busy thinking of me, for they seemed to iiave lost sight of my sisters, who fled and hid in some bushes. I lay for three hours, enduring horrible agony, until a Greek came by with a cart. After placing me in the vehicle, he searched tor and found my sisters. W e were taken to Salonika. where 1 lay for six months.” Memos went to London in order to give the British public, which ho counts among the friends of his country, an account of the sad state of affairs in Macedonia. His sisters are now at Helsingfors. With them he hopes to find an abiding place of shelter in Athens.” i