Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-08-17
TURKEY ARRAIGNED.

setting forth at great length tne conui-
ton of affairs during the last three
months in Macedonia since the Turkish
government undertook to start the
promised reforms.
The most precise details, dates, places
and names of persons are given IN the
memorandum, the whole constituting
terrible category of murder, torture IN
cendiarism, pillage and general oppres,,
sion committed by Ottoman soldiers ana |
officials. These particulars we're OBJ |
tanned entirely from official sources, such
as the reports of the. Bulgarian consuls
and other agents of the government,
and in many instances reports made by
Turkish authorities. The Bulgarian
government guarantees the absolute
truth of every statement and challenges
the Porte to disproye a single charge
made in the memorandum.
The memorandum begins by stating
that during the last three months the
Ottoman government has taken series
of measures, with the alleged intention
of inaugurating the era of promised re-
form and of assuring peace and traqullity
to the Bulgarian population of European
Turkey, but which have had the
contrary effect of further exasperating
thi. population and reviving the
revolutionary movement. Instead OF
proceeding solely against persons guilty
of breaches of public order, the military
and civil authorities, it is declared, have
sought every possible pretext to persecute,
terrorize and ruin the Bulgarian inhab-
itants alike in the large cities and in the
small villages.
Wholesale massacres, individual MUIR
ders. the destruction Of villages, pillag-
ing and setting fire to houses, arrests,
tortures, arbitrary imprisonment and
Punishment, the closing and disorganiz-
ing of churches and schools, the running
of merchants, the collection of taxes Tor
many years in adyance-such, proceeds
the memorandum, are among the acts
of the Ottoman administration in the
villayets of Salonica, Monastir, Uskub
Adrianople.
The memorandum next relates in de-
tail number of such cases in each villa
vet. Beginning with the vilayet OF Sa-
lonica, it states that in the city of Salon
lea itself, the Bulgarian professors of the
university, the students and shopkeepers,
in fact all the intelligent Bulgarians in
the city. have been castinto prison. One
hundred and twenty soldiers entered the
village of Gorna- Ribuitza May 10 and
tortured TO death five men and two wo'
men.
During the first three weeks of July
25. villages in the district of Tikvesch
were subjected to the depredations of
the Turkish soldiers and bashi-bazouks.
The villagers were beaten and
tortured, the women violated and
the houses plundered while the
administrative authorities looked on.
In the vilayet of Monastir artillery bonn
barded and RACED the fourishing town of
Smerdesch, the 300 houses being left
heap of ruins At the beginning Of July
two Greek bands, with the connivance Of
the authorities, pillaged Bulgarian vii
lagos and murdered many of their in
habitants.
In the villayet of Uskub, it is charged
the entire Bulgarian population has been
Systematically prosecuted since last May.
The director of the normal school at
Uskub was imprisoned because his library
contained the revolutionary works
"Othello" and "Les Miserables."
In the districts of Palanka, Koschani,
Koumanova and GOstigar the prisons are
filled with Bulgarian priests, schoolmas-
tiers and merchants. During June SOL
diers and bashi-bazouks terrOrized the
inhabitants of the Schtif district, tortur-
ing the people with red-hot irons. SINH
lar atrocities perpetrated in the vilayet
of Adrianople are cited.
Altogether the memorandum gives par
ticulars of no fewer than 131 individual
and general cases of outrages committed
by the Turkish authorities. In sum-
marizing the specific details of the out
RACES mentioned the memorandum de-
clares that wholesale massacres were per-
petrated by regular troops and bashi
bazouks in the city of Salonica and the
villages of Baldevo, Banitza. Tchouri-
Ioyo, Karbinza, Moghila, Smerdesh and
Enidje, while the scenes of carnage, pill
lage and incendiarism were eyerW here
terrible
At Smerdesch over 200 Bulgarians
were shot, killed with swords or burned
to death. Over $50 dwellings and the
churches and schools were pillaged and
set on fire with petroleum, the property
being sold by the soldiers and bashi
bazouks in neighboring places. Similar
scenes occurred at the villages of Gorna,
Ribnitza, Igoumenetz, Dobrilaki and
Nikoden.
The villagers abandoned their homes
and fled to the mountains. Over 5000
men, women and children fled from the
sanjak of Seres and even more from the
sanjak of Kirkklisse.
1t is difficult, says the memorandum,
to obtain the exact number of Bulgarians
who were imprisoned, mostly on the
fimsiest pretexts, as when they were re-
leased Others we're Immediately arrested.
The estimates obtainable give for the
vilayet of Salonica 900 prisoners, for
Uskub 500, for Monastir $50 and for
Adrianople $50 grand total of 2, 800.
AS information is lacking from many
districts in these yilayets it is thought
that without exaggeration the number of
prisoners may be placed at even three
times this total.
The YACHT RACE.-The first race of