An Observer in the Near East

by William Le Queux

Therefore, the policy of Turkey, Greece, and Germany had a common interest, namely, to paralyse the reforms, and became a common enemy to the Macedonians, who, by their Bulgarian majority, were striving for autonomy.

So, united in their action, Greece, and also Servia to a smaller extent, hurled, the one from the South and the other from the North, armed bands into Macedonia, who commenced their destructive work against the Bulgarian element, by killing the leading men and enforcing the country population to recognise Greek or Servian nationality. The Turks cover their action, and the villagers, unprotected and without arms, are unable to defend themselves. They are at the mercy of these bands, aided by the Turkish authorities.

Thus a cruel religious and racial war has sprung up in the heart of Macedonia, under the protection and instigation of the Turkish policy, and also under the benevolent eyes of Germany and Austria.

This terrible situation has been still more complicated by the Bulgarians themselves. The Revolutionary Organisation being shattered in its moral and material power, armed bands were formed after the insurrection, under unscrupulous leaders, who commenced acts of depredation upon the unfortunate Macedonians.

Just now the revolutionary organisation in Bulgaria is undergoing another crisis. It is divided into two principal flanks: the moderate and the extreme. The first-mentioned inclines towards a suspension of active revolutionary operations on account of the exhaustion of the Macedonian[Macedonian] population and the unfavourable political situation in Europe, while the extreme party are urging a continuance of revolutionary action to exasperation. At the annual congress in January last the moderates had a chance to oust the extreme party, but the death of Damian Groueff, the chief of the moderates, who was killed in the village of Roussinovo (vilayet of Uskub) upset all their plans. On account of Groueff’s death they did not take part in the congress, and the result is that the extreme party are now all paramount, and further reprisals may be expected.

Therefore from all sides—from Turks, Greeks, Servians, and even Bulgarians, as well as from an interested diplomacy—the Macedonians are pressed, and their aspirations for the autonomy compromised. And what is the result of all this? Only that the Macedonians are set by the interested Powers before the eyes of the Christian world as a cruel and barbarous population, unworthy of sympathy—worthy only of the tyrannical Turkish rule!

What is the remedy?

There is but one, the one advocated by the kings and princes of the Balkans and the Cabinet Ministers with whom I chatted, namely, to change the present farcical so-called reforms into an administration, under effectual European control by appointing a European Governor-General, responsible to the Powers. Then this terrible situation will change into the peaceful development of a country which is endowed by nature with bounty, but reduced by men’s covetousness to a perfect hell.

That Macedonia to-day is a hell I have seen with my own eyes. And moreover I have been under fire from a Greek band myself. I travelled—contrary to the advice of my friends, who feared the perils of the way—right through the heart of Macedonia from south to north, visiting the Seres and Melnik districts, which only a few days prior to my arrival had been ravaged by Greek bands. In one poor village I passed through, twenty-three women, children, and old men had been butchered in cold blood on the previous day, and I saw with my own eyes some of their mutilated bodies. Upon the women nameless atrocities had been committed.

In Caraja-Kioi, a village not far from Seres, I was told that a fortnight before, nineteen persons, mostly old men and women, had been massacred, and I was informed by eye-witnesses that the Greek band was assisted by the Turks, and that present at the massacre was a Greek metropolitan and a Greek consular employé!