The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1907-09-28


pondence Of the Daily News says. Ac-
cording TO the most reliable informat ton
received here the situation in Macedonia
today Is worse than It has been for
rory long time. Murders, robberies and
other crimes are everywhere rampant
and the whole state of affairs Is fast
becoming intclerable. 1t. would seem
from the meeting at Ischli between En-
peror Francis Joseph and King Edward
that the great powers were at length
united In demanding that deforms be
carried out in Macedonia and that the
small Christian Balkan states stop their
racial hbhts.
While muniers and robberies arc re.
ported from nearly every district in
Macedonia. tho southeastern part Of the
country, including Salonica. seems To bs
In a most disturbed condition. Private
lettels from semi official sources in Sa-
lonica give terrible picture Of the sit
uation there. Not single day passes
without a murder and sometimes two
or three, and these not In lonely sub
urbs or outside the city. but in the
busiest and most frequented parts. The
Greeks are invariably the murderers.
They are doing their utmost to terror
70 the other nstionalities. especially the
Bnlgarians, many Of whom are leaving
the country as fast as they can fnd the
means.
Some OF the murders reported were
committed under peculiarly revolving
circumstances. A few days ago a Bal
garian peddler was found murdered on
q road leading out Of the city. His ears
wer missing and the body was fearfully
mutilated. After some days the Turk
ish police arrested two suspects, Greeks,
and put them in prison. One of them
has made a confession directly impli.
eating the Greek consulate at Salonica
in the crime. The mans story is that,
with two other Greeks he was sent for
late one night to come to the ccsulate,
where they met the consul. After much
talking Of patriotism he handed each Of
theam a revolver and dagger and di.
rected them to go to certain place on
a country road early the next morning
and wait for Bulgarian peasant to
coane along with his donkey. They
were to kill the peasant and as a proof
Of having done so to cut off his ears
and bring them to the consulate. One
Of the three weakened, bnt the other
two duly carried out their murderous
commission and broubht the bloody
proofs to the consulate. 1t is difficult,
of course, to ascertain what amount of
truth there is in this mans story, but
it is a significant fact that the consul
suddenly disappeared from Salonica. and
is reported to have gone back to Greece.
From all parts Of the country, in dis
tricts quite remote from Salonica, comes
almost daily reports Of the atrocities
committed by the Greeks Even the
famous monasteries at far-off Mount
Athos, difficult Of access as they are,
have not escaped these murderous at
tacks, The porter, gardeners and other
servants Of, the monks, are mostly Bull
garians, and so many of them have
been kidnapped and murdered during the
last few weeks, that the monasteries
find it nearly impossible to get serv-
antsS Strongly fortified as these places
are the monks have lately doubled their
precautions. The great doors are closed
and barred at I o'clock every evening.
after which hour nobody is admitted.
The Bulgarian monastery at Xagrof. one
Of the largest and richest on Mount
Athos, Is kept closed the whole day and
no stranger can gain admittancs by any
means.
just what value can be placed on
the Turkish authorities efforts to stop
these crimes can be seen from an Incl
dent that has just come to light in con-
nection with the recent kidnapping Of o
young Englishman named Abbot. When
this outrage was brought to the aten-
tion Of the vail, Hilmi Pasha, he thought
that as the abpuctors were certainly
Greeks it would be good thing to EN-.
ploy a Greek spy to trace them and SO
he applied to the Greek consulate and
asked for q reliable man.