The San Francisco call., 1903-09-18
GREEKS AND BULGARIANS.

~ indication OF the Greeks aiding the Bulgarians
against Turkey appears in a circular addressed
By the general staff OF the eighth revolutionary dis
the Greek and villages in the vilayet OF
Adranople II expresses pleasure hearing that the
Greeks desire Join their Bulgarian brethren in the
night for liberty and invites the Greeks to send dele
gates 10 confer with the Bulgarians to formulate
Tor joint action The dispatch goes on to add:
he mixed population OF Greeks and Bulgarians in
fifteen villages OF the province OF Kostur have joined
the insurgents"
Those reports strictly OF the kind long since de-
scribed as important if true" Were the Greeks to
join hands with the Bugarians residing in Macedonia
the end Of Turkish rule would be near at hand and
the great powers would have to agree upon a pro-
gramme and get their armies in motion at once if
they wished to save the entire Balkan peninsula from
devastation It is all likely however that any
considerable number of Greeks will aid the Bull
garians for they have aims and aspirations concern
ing Macedonia themselves and those aims would be
seriously compromised by Bulgarian success As a
OF TACT II the Greeks be compelled to take sides
in the contest they will most likely be found on the
side Of the Moslem fighting against their Christian
brethren the Bulgarians
The issue Is OF politics 1t is evident that the
rule OF the Turk in Macedonia and Thrace cannot en-
dure much longer. That vast and important coun-
Try carrying with to the Mediterranean and
TO the Black Sea, control OF the Bosphorus and pos
session OF Consantinople must sooner or later pass
into hands Should they succeed in annexing it
to their country the Bugarians would be in position
TO build up rst-cass power and perhaps in the end
annex Greece to their kingdom. On the other hand
should the Greeks fall heir to the Turk they would
add enormously to the prestige OF Greece and give
her an oOno-fttuifv for national eSoane;o, IIe,oa
between the Bulgarians and the Greeks there is no
more probability OF alliance than there is between
two rival claimants to the heritage Of big estate that
cannot be divided.
Greece has had one tussle with the Turk and has
DO desire for another Bulgaria left her to fight that
battle alone and she will serve Bulgaria in the same
fashion As between the races it is not easy to
decide which is the worthier of the empire for which
they intriguing and struggling It is said that in
Macedonia and Thrace there are about four times as
many Greeks Bugarians and on that showing
they would have.the better right to the land 1t ap
pears, however, that the Bulgarians while in minor
y much more vigorous people and therefore
better fitted to rule. Neither is likely to succeed
against the Turk while acting alone, and in that fact
lies the temporary salvation Of the Sultan
A recent review OF the situation SAYS "If aspira-
tiOns for the political and economic growth of Bull
CARA are ever to be realized the state must touch
some other sea than the Euxine, which is now vir-
tually Russian lake. Access to the Aegean would
once raise Bulgaria in importance and power by
giving II both Black Sea and Mediterranean lit
tora, while the north for hundreds OF miles it
hanked the Danube. Greece already pushed so far
down the Hellenic peninsula that its economic
strength too slight to maintain the burden OF inter
national rvalries would be threatened with suffoca-
ton. and the statesmen of modern Heas are thus
reconciled to the continued domination of the
Turk, Under the heavy restraining hand of Europe,
than to the possible expansion OF rival Christian
state in a region that the Greeks themselves much
covet"
The rivalry between the Greeks and the Bulgarians
has not been concealed on either side 1t was only
short time ago that Of the leading statesmen of
Greece ex-Premier Zanis was quoted as saying that
Greek sympahies with the Turks and that Greece
would Cooperate with the Sultan if necessary to sup
press the Macedonian nsurrection Such are the
facts that give interest the Sofa report that
Der Of Greeks have joined with the Bulgarian nsur-
gents. II IS big news if it be true