An Observer in the Near East

by William Le Queux

Servia and the Macedonian question—A sound Cabinet—England and Servia—Appointment of Mr. Beethom Whitehead as British Minister very gratifying to the Servians—King Peter ever solicitous for the welfare of the people—What the Prime Minister told me concerning the future—The new railway to the Adriatic.

I make no apology for the assassination of King Alexander and his Queen. That matter is a closed page of Servian history. I only can state what I saw and heard in Servia, and explain how I drew my own entirely unbiassed conclusions.

One thing is certain, that Servia is at this moment in a very much more prosperous condition than ever she was under King Alexander. Having met every one of the Ministers, and spent many hours with them, I can safely assert that, headed by M. Pachitch, quiet-mannered, sensible, and thoughtful, they are, one and all, a very strong and intelligent Cabinet, each member of which is doing his very utmost for the commercial development and future welfare of the country he loves so dearly.

There is no poseur or political adventurer among them. Each man is a sound, intelligent, and trustful statesman, whose watchword is, as His Excellency Monsieur Pachitch put it to me, “Servia for the Servians.”

While in Belgrade I had several conversations with members of the Cabinet, and also with Dr. J. Cvijic, the eminent author of that most thoughtful work, Remarks on the Ethnography of the Macedonian Slavs, regarding the all-absorbing question of Macedonia. Mention Macedonia to any Balkan statesman, and he raises his shoulders and shakes his head. It is a problem that nobody can solve. I endeavoured, however, by dint of many inquiries, to discover in what way Servia would like the Macedonian question settled.

Roughly speaking, Macedonia is divided into three vilayets—Kossovo, Monastir, and Salonica. Now Kossovo is essentially Old Servia, and there is no question that its people are still Serbs. Yet here we run up against Austria again. She is doing all in her power to cause the population to emigrate, and in their place attracting Albanians who assist the Austrian propaganda. As regards the other two vilayets of Monastir and Salonica, the inhabitants are Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks, and Mohammedans. Now it is a curious fact, and one which I believe no other writer has noted, that until two years ago nobody spoke of any other people in Macedonia but these. Suddenly, however, Europe was made aware that there was still another people, for the Koutzo-Vlachs were, for the first time, mentioned, and formed a new element in the already mixed difficulty.

Now without doubt this new problem was introduced into the controversy by Germany for two reasons. The first was to create, besides the Mohammedan and Albanian, a Christian Conservative element for the preservation of the Turk in Europe. Germany has therefore an economic propaganda in Turkey, and when the time is ripe it will be followed by a strong political one. She could not count on either Serbs or Bulgars in Macedonia, but by this new intrigue she has courted the support of the Mohammedans.

The second reason of the introduction of these hitherto unheard-of Koutzo-Vlachs concerned the position in Roumania, of which a Hohenzollern is King. Until two years ago the Roumanian patriots were occupying themselves with a propaganda in Transylvania. As, however, it is a great point in German policy to keep Roumania within the confines of the Triple Alliance, and as hostilities had arisen between Austria and Roumania on account of the propaganda, it was necessary for Germany to find a means to occupy in some other way the fantasy of the Roumanian people. And so the Koutzo-Vlachs were pushed forward as a fresh discovery, and the King of Roumania, in a speech to his Parliament, spoke of “their brothers in Macedonia.” Beyond this, all the claims put in by the Koutzo-Vlachs for the expenses of their schools and other things to-day receive the support of the German Ambassador at the Porte.

From the Servian point of view—a view that is shared very widely—it would appear that the best method of solving the very difficult question of Macedonia would be to give the various peoples complete tolerance—that is, to give the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, and Moslems complete liberty to develop themselves for, say, ten years. After this time a plebiscite, under the control of the Powers, might be established with success. This would solve the ethnographical difficulty, which is really the base of the whole question.

The signatories to the Berlin Treaty would do well to take the initiative in this matter, and so end the internal trouble which is for ever a disturbing element in Balkan politics. Servia is very anxious to see England interesting and asserting her power more in the Balkans, and British statesmen might well follow the policy of Palmerston and Castlereagh. The first British representative to Servia was Colonel Hodges, who in 1837 went to Belgrade, and very quickly secured a predominant position in Servian matters, owing to the unselfishness of the British policy in the Balkans and the liberal ideas which England always represents in the world. The Servians therefore still look to England as taking a leading part in the settlement of Macedonia, and the sooner this is done the less peril will exist in the Near East.