The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-07-15
Atrocities in the East.

Stories of atrocities are coming
out of the war zone in the Balkans
War is bad enough, but the killing
of unarmed men and helpless women
and children is not war but murder
The new contest is not Cross against
Crescent, for the three nations now
battling are nominally Christian.
Hence, Judging by the stories of mas
sacre, things are being done under
the Cross that are as bad as any
the followers of the Crescent did.
1t was inevitable that the victori-
GUS Balkan allies should quarrel
among themselves after the conclu-
sion of the war with Turkey, when
the Unexpectedly large extent of
their conQuests became apparent.
The division of the spoils had been
the subject of an ante-bellum treaty
which practically was rendered nuga-
tory by the determination of the
great powers to establish an antono-
nous Albania, thus depriving Ser
via, Greece and Montenegro OF a con-
siderable portion of their share OF
the loot, while Bulgaria, with GUS
tomary rapacity, stood pat on the
mutual agreement between the mem
bers of the alliance Not content
with her own relatively large indi-
vidual accessions of territory Bulga-
ria insisted on the compliance of her
allies with the strict letter of their
contract and the conveyance to her
of 6 large slice of Macedonia, includ-
ing the city of Sa!onica, captured by
the Creeks, and remote Monastir,
the prize of Servian valor.
The present struggle, which, ac-
cording to Premier Venizelos OF
Greece, is blessed by the Almighty
and was undertaken to deliver their
brothers, just freed from the Turk
ish yoke, from a new tyranny, threat
ems to become a war Of extermina-
ton. The new alignment of the pet
ty powers against Bulgaria accuses
the former ally of seeking by fraud
to appropriate the whole fruits of a
common victory.
The antagonism between Seryia
and Bulgaria had its origin many
centuries age, when the Slavon1c
Serbs successfully withstood the bar
barrie onslaughts of the Tartar Bull
CARS. In modern times 1t found
vent in the Servian invasion OF
Bulgaria and the utter defeat OF the
Serbs at Slivnitza.
''The peace without friendship" of
1885 merely preluded "a truce OF
God in the fierce hatred which
sought only the opportunity of cruel
md barbarous revenge.
The Macedonian committee, with
headquarters at Sofia, existed quite
IS much for the determination of the
Greeks scattered over the Turkish
territory as for the relief of the Bull
yarians under the MosIem flag. In
he war of 1897 between Turkey and
Greece Bulgarian irreguIars cleaned
ID the Greek villages in Macedonia,
burning and torturing
With a fierce cruelty not surpassed
oy the worst excuses of the Basi-
3azouks.
The conflict which has been rag
ng for over two weeks along the
North and South line of 800 miles
las been fiercer and more expensive
n men and material than the whole
recent struggle with Turkey. The
casualties have been enormous, H.
100 Servians falling in one battle.
This fratricidaI strife viii end only
n the utter physical and financial
exhaustion of the eombattants. The
great powers are apparently willing
or it to end that way, but an early
md to it is probable owing to- the
of the former allies to
.aise the wind in any foreign money
market.