BULGARIAN POLITICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15321, 23 August 1923, Page 2

BULGARIAN POLITICS.

WHY m. STAIWBULSKI FELL, The new Government of Bulgaria under the Premiership of Professor Zankoff is principally composed of members of the Democratic Party, an entirely bourgeois and to a great extent an intcllieclual organisation. The Democrats, \vith the co-operation of the Military League, overthrow the Stambuliski Government in June last. To those conversant with ttie situation in Bulgaria, the fall of Stambuliski did not come as a surprise, wrote a special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph shortly after the coup. The over-throw of the dictator was in preparation for many weeks, and the conspirators were awaiting only a favourable opportunity to carry it out. Tnis opportunity presented itself when the regular army became alarmed at Stambuliski’s decision to organise a powerful militia out of his own followers. The army saw in this an attempt to get rid of it altogether, and Its .leaders threw in their lot with . the conspirators. Stambuliski fell as a result of his foreign policy. His power in the country was based on the support of the ‘Peasant’ Party, with the help of which he crushed the Democrats and other groups representing mostly the population of the cities. But in Bulgaria, the balance of power is held by the Macedonians, that is, by the representatives of that part of the Bulgarian people who live in the southwestern corner of the country, and to a great extent in Macedonia proper, at present under the rule of the Serbs. The Macedonians are- the most virile and patriotic part of the Bulgarian nation.' They have suppiied more politicians, business men, and intellectuals generally than any other part. Their influence is out of all’ proportion to their numbers. The centuries of their fight against Turkish oppressors have bred in them a spirit of fiery independence and a fierceness of which innumerable deeds of valour, but also .’assassinations, hear /irrefutable evidence. The hatred toward the Turk is equalled in the Macedonian Bulgars only by their hatred of the Serbs and the Greeks, whom ttiey consider as intruders in their land.

The Serbs are trying to subdue Macedonian resistance by a display of considerable military forces, but until now the results of their action have' been insignificant. Stambuiiski had the intention of coming to a permanent peaceful settlement with the Serbs. To do this he was obliged to dissociate himself from the anti-Serbian attitude of the Macedonian lQaders. It Is a curious page of history, which contains the narrative of Stambuliski’s attempt to appease the anger of tile Macedonian leader, Alcxandroff, through the intervention of the Bolshevist envoy in Home, Vorovski. The Macedonians refused to be placarded, and declared war to the knife against Stambuiiski. The bourgeois parties in Bulgaria gladli' allied themselves to the Mace-' donians, because they themselves had been so badly crushed that no fight remained in them. Stambuiiski organised the militia out of his own partisans to light the Macedonian hands. The regular army saw in this a'menace or its existence, and joined in the conspiracy'. '•

The immediate pretext lor Stambuliski's downfall was found in the trial of Malinoff anri' of other 'Ministers arrested a year ago and accused of pro-; longing the war against the Allies. By this trial Stambuliski desired to give the last and fatal blow to the bourgeois parties. It was his intention to obtain a capital sentence and to have it carried out, so as to strike terror into the hearts of the opponents. Europe, has never understood internal Bulgarian .affairs, which cannot be judged by. our Western standards. There is so much spirit of Oriental intrigue and of- ferocity in Bulgarian politics that one has to know local conditions thoroughly before being able to judge what is- happening. Stambuliski took great oare to appear to foreign observers as a real democratic ruler, and in his relations with other States he kept to .the diplomatic forms generally accepted; but at home he was a real tyrant. Bulgarian administration has never been a model of' integrity, but Stambuliski filled it with his supporters ancl allowed them to do j pretty well as they liked. He spent a considerable 'sum of money on propaganda abroad, and published several decrees and laws solely intended to capture the sympathy of the public in Europe, but these were not applied at all in Bulgaria, as, for example, tile decree against Communism. King. Boris was .considered by him as a negligible quantity, ancl removed from all participation, not only in the affairs, hut also in the life of the country. Elections under his regime were a farce, because, especially in the rural districts, nobody could dare to raise his voice in opposition to the dictator. Stambuliski, although he pretended to discourago their activities, was never really the enemy of the Communists. Officially, he menaced them with penalties, but secretly he was on excellent terms with Soviet Russia, and viewed with equanimity the considerable expenditure of the latter on maintaining the Bulgarian Communists and on paying for their propaganda. The Soviet agents, on their side, while using Bulgaria as a base for their activities on the Balkan Peninsula, carefully avoided attacking Stambuliski himself or his regime.