The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-02
War to the Hit.

nltIee yesterday mace lOILIldl OeCldTd-
ton Of war against Turkey and General
Zontchief, president of the committee,
will lead the insurgents. This does not
mean that the fighting which has been
going on in the district called Macedonia
will assume the aspect of regular warfare,
with strict observance Of the rules Of
war; any more than it has since the pres
ent instruction began last winter. There
will be more bushwhacking and massacres
by insurgents and Turks. The latter will
no doubt use more cruel measures of re-
preston and will seek to make a desert
Of the insurgent district The sultan has
been told to keep order and he is doing it,
according to the Turkish notion Of law
and order, the powers having refrained
from any serious interference, altho they
have been, for the last quarter of CEN
fury, bound by the treaty Of Berlin Gwen
tythird article) to give Macedonia home
rule under a Christian governor. The
Christian governor has never appeared
yet and the whole district has, during the
whole period Of the treaty. been subject
to the most abominable treatment the
Turkish government knows how to give
conquered peoples.
The Macedonian insurrection committee
have besought the powers, time and again,
to intervene and fulfill their treaty OBJ
legations, but In vain, and the object Of
the formal declaration of war against the
Porte Is to make the situation 50 dread
f,,l hat mil
vention The sultan has already called
out as many troops as he put in the field
during the war with Greece few years
ago. and will utilize them In the most eff
fect1ve way he can against the elusive
| bands of insurgents who have been both
| ering the Turks after the manner of
| brigands. e. .s.~@ ~. 8.
General Zontchief has no regularly or
| ganized army as Greece had, and he does
not carry about with him the war code,
but will strike as he has opportunity and
! take his chances until the horrors OF
such war will, as he thinks, disturb the
| equanimtty Of the concert of Europe
sufficiently to induce some kind of inter
ference. These same powers, however
stood by and looked with indifference
upon the massacre Of 12o,oOo Armenian
Christians by Turks and Kurds under
orders Of the cowardly scroundrel who is
trembling to-day in his harem in Yildiz
Kiosk. >..s.. -..... -.
Abdul Hamid has been strengthened ir
his abominable inhumanities by the
cowardice of the Concert Of Europe,
which Is afraid to enforce the obligations
laid upon them by their own treaty sigma.
lures. Presumably the Macedonians will
neighboring cousins, the Bulgarans, who
in 1885, had the courage and snap t
smash the treaty Of Berlin to the extern
Of abolishing that miserable concession tx
the Turk, the segregation of the PROVING,
of Eastern Rumelia, and uniting it will
Bulgaria where it naturally and ethicall,
belongs. To be sure, Russia punished
Bulgaria for this daring step by forcing
Prince Ferdinand to abdicate but not {
step was taken by the powers or b,
Turkey herself, the suzerain Of Eastern
Rumelia, to restore that territory to it.
treaty position.
The position Of Turkey is hardly encour
aging to the most hopeful Turk. Unles
the sultan draws troops from his Asiati
provinces he will find his available re
cruitable population an increasingly veal
resource. Even the Albanian Mohamme
dams are found as often fighting the sui
tan as fighting on his side. He must re
cruit from the Mohammedan population
and they do not number over four or fiy
millions. 1t is surprising that the Otto
man power, diminishing quantity /,
southeastern Europe, should have stoo
the drain and storm and stress Of severa
centuries Of wars, revolts and civil com
motions of every kind on the part Of tn
subject peoples as we'll as it has. Euro
pean Turkey has shrunken territorially +
about $4,000 square miles and there ar
symptoms Of further shrinkage in tn
, near future.