Terrorism m the Balkans

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19451, 15 December 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

Terrorism m the Balkans

(G. AVard Price in Daily Mall.)

IN BRITISH COUNTRIES we smile at secret societies; In the Balkans they shiver. Through the political life of this part of Europe run hidden tentacles of terror. They stretch far he,vend the frontiers of the countries from which they start. One seized upon King Alexander in Marseilles recently; another was waiting for him in Paris. King Boris, of Bulgaria, did not dare to go to Belgrade to attend the funeral of the King who was his guest last month, for not even the feyerish investigations -of the Yugoslav police could ensure that, there was not a murder gang waiting there to add another Balkan monarch to Its victims. Lausanne Is one of the foreign headquarters of these desperate, cold-blooded men who kill not from personal hatred -or for individual gain, but as a measure of Calculated Political Intrigue, The two most powerful of the terrorist societies have been much -mentioned in connection with the murder of King Alexander. They are IMRO and the USTASHI. The assassin Kalemen, or Georgieff, as his real name is now believed to be, was a member of IMRO or “Internal Macedonian Revolutional Organisation.” He bore its badge tattooed upon his arm—a skull and cross-bones with Ihe letters “ Amro,” which -stand for the Bulgarian words, “ Vatrcseluia Makedonska Rcvolulionerna Organisazio." The IJSTA3III society is a post-war creation. The word means “bound by oath,” and the members belong lo that disaffected Croatian intelligentsia which aims at independence from Yugoslavia. One of the conditions which led up to Ihe reconciliation between the Bulgars and Ihe Yugoslavs, which was the dead King’s last political achievement, was that IMRO (.hnuld be dissolved and disarmed by the Bulgarian Government. Until then the organisation had been a recognised power in the land. Even in Sofia the police never dared lo inlcrfeie with ils members. After the world war the operations of IMHO were turned against the Yugoslavs,

Merciless Organisation : Political Intrigues,

to whom the Peace Treaty had transferred most of Northern Macedonia. It's two leaders were General Protegeroff and Mihailoff, who 'had been a minor Civil servant. Protogeroff, whom I once met In Sofia, was much the milder man. He wanted to realise Bulgaria’s aims for territorial expansion by peaceful negotiations. Mihailoff, the extremist, accordingly had his fellowchief shol hy IMRO gunmen. He then sent bis own wife to Vienna to shoot Protogeroff’s right-handi man, Paniza. She killed him in the Opera House, was arrested and tried for murder, but was released from gaol on the ground of being in an advanced state of consumption. In the provinces, and especially in the mountainous district of Djumaya, where he lived in a fortified villa, the leader of IMRO, Mihailoff, reigned as an autocrat. He is a man of about 38, tall, well-built, and unusually handsome. His rule was relentless, although he personally never killed a man. When the little town of Nevrolcop refused a subsidy that he demanded, he raided it, opened up the prison, cut off the electric light and for three nights in succession allowed the escaped-convicts to Rob and Murder Unhindered. Until May of the present year Mihailoff's tyranny in Bulgaria continued unchecked. Every week the dead bodies of his political opponents, or of those who refused his demands for money, would be found in the streets of Sofia or Philippopolis. Then a new Bulgarian Premier, Georgiol'f. came to power, and' lie determined to make friends with Yugoslavia and lo suppress Jinro. The arsenal of the organisation at Petritch was seized and found to be almost as well equipped as that of the Bulgarian Army. The leaders were arrested, except Mihailoff himself, who took refuge in Turkey. it is possible that from Conslaniicpic Mihailoff gave the order for King Alexander’s death, his gunmen required employment, and the King’s policy of rapprochement with Bulgaria threatened to deprive the Macedonian revolutionary .organisation pf its reason for existence