Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-19

| cording to nationality. These were the
weakness and want of foresight of
! Turkey; the powerlessness of Europe
| to impose on a constitutional Turkey
| the reforms she had introduced into
! an absolute Turkey; and the con-
| seriousness of Increased strength which
| alliance gave to the Balkan states.
The occupation of Macedonia by
Greeks and Servians ana the threat
ened decapitation of the bulgarian
nation fostered the germs of dtscord
among the Balkan allies which had
not been stified by treaties, the terms
of which were in continual dispute. AL
legged Bulgarian violations of treaties
and Servian transgressions followed
hy mutual demands for concessions
and extensions of frontier, precipitated
a war between the allies which for
wantcn cruelty and wholesale demoh-
ton is almost unparalleled.
The second chapter of the report un-
der the heading of The War and the
Nom Combatant Population" IS re-
cital of these horrors. In a review oil
the acts committed by the Greeks
against the Macedonian Moslems the
commission had at its disposal docu-
ments of undoubted veracity which re-
ported frightful massacres and sys-
tematic prescription of Moslems which
it found typical of the Greeks murder
Gus practices.
Our documents says the report,
, gives particulars, village by village.
| of the Moslems who were killed and
robbed. our experience shows that
lists of this kind in the Balkans are
/ 20 IN villages
these excuses seem to have been the
work of local Greek bands. The most
active Of these bands was led by a
priest and a warlilse grocer who was a
member of the Bishops Council The
Turks indeed accused the Bishop OF
directing all these atrocities
The burning of villages and the ex-
odus of the defeated population is a
normal incident. What they have suf-
fered themselves they inflict on 9TH
ers''
One band, under a certain Doncheff,
a notorious guerilla chief, was said TO
have burned 945 Turkish houses in one
day, shut up the men in mosques and
burned them alive or shot them as
they attempted to escape. volunteer
of the Macedonian Legion who con-
itv stated that while marching through
Gumuljna he saw, among fifty murd-
cred Bulgarian peasants, the DEAD
body of a woman hanging from a tree
and another with young baby on the
ground with their eyes gouged out. In
spite of these acts it is the opinion OF
the commission that "a real effort was
undoubtedly made TO check the law
lessness of the bands and to deal with
maurading on the part of the troops.
In weighing the charges made by the
Greeks against the Bulgarians Which
have already become familiar through
the newspapers, the report says:
THE Greeks as usual suppress all
mention of the provocation which The
Inhabitants had given. the Bulgarian
account is silent as to the manner IN
which their reprisais were carried out.
Both narratives contain inaccuracies
and neither of them tells more than a
part of the truth.
The commission disproved several
eXsravagant stories of the torture,
death and mutilation of certain indi-
viduals by finding them alive and In
good health. 1t also rejected as IN
| herently improbable and unverified &C
| cusations made by some or the dlplo-
matte representatives of Greece in for
eign capitals that the fingers and ears
| of women have been round in the
pockets of captured Bulgarian soldiers
There nevertheless remains. when
these manifest travesties of fact are
brushed aside, a heavy indictment
which rests upon incontrovertiole evil
dence."
This indictment which consists main
" of the events at Doxato and Deml-
Hissar. with the burning of Series, is
carefully weighed and investigated in
the report of the commission, which
says in conclusion:
"Tne case against the Bulgarians
which remains after a critical exami-
nation of the evidence. is sufficiently
grave In each case the Bulgarians
acted under provocation and in each
case the accusation is greatly exagger-
ated, but their reprisals were none the
less lawless and unmeasured.'
The commissions judgment on re-
ported excuses committed by the
Greeks among the Bulgarian peasan-
try was founded on vivid narratives
told by witnesses for whose We
racity the commission holds itself re-
sponsible. An intelligent Bulgarian
boy of fourteen who escaped the on
slought of the Greeks by feigning
death, told the commission that he saw
his mother shot and killed by Greek
cavalryman, that he saw his village
burn, and that Greek trooper had all
but killed him with revolver shot and
sabre cut, the marks of which he
bore The story was corroborated and
it was the opinion of the commission
that the incident was typical.