Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-19
Exhaustive Inquiry Is
Made into Conditions
And the Result
Reported
Work Of Commission Under The
Carnegie Endowment

New York. May 1S-Results of an
exhaustive investigation into the con-
ditions in the Balkans during and fol-
lowing the wars of 1912 and 1913 with
a view to clarifying public opinion
which has been baffled by conflicting
reports and hegoffed by unauthentie
detail were made public tonight by
the Balkan Commission of Inquiry Of
the Carnegie Endowment for Inter
national Peace
Pessimism based on the terrible NOR
al consequences of war which was
series of unuttera BILE atrocities, char
acterizes the conclusions of the com
mission as to the possibilities of I'M
mediate peace or stability among the
Balkan nations. The situation at pres
ent. in the final judgment of the COM
mission, is hardly susceptible to
pacific solution. Under present condi-
tions,' reads the report. the case
seems well nigh hopeless"
The report which contains seven
chapters and a preface by Nicholas
Murray Butler. is the work Of the
following members of the commission:
DR.. Joseph Redlich, Professor of
Public Law in the University of Wen
ma, Austria; Baron dEstournelles de
Constant and NJ. Justin Codart. lawyer
and member of the Chamber of Depu-
ties, of France; DIR. Walther Schuell-
ing, Professor of Law at the Univer-
sity of Marburg, Germany; Francis w.
Hirst, Editor of The Economist" and
Dr. H. N. Brailsferd, journalist, of
Great Britain; Professor Paul Miliou-
kov Member of the Russian Douma,
and DR.. Samuel T. Dutton, Professor
in Teachers College, Columbia Uniyer-
sity. New York. Copies of the report
may be had upon application to the
Carnegie Endowment, Washington, ID.
c. General distribution is to be made
in a few weeks.
This formidable document carefully
considers every conceivable aspect of
the Balkan situation beginning with a
short history of the Balkan People and
concluding with the moral and social
consequences of the war
Stabbing through the glamor of war
fare which attended the triumphant
rehabilitation of Servian troops and
all the customary Qualifications of the
yictors, the commission found condi-
tons of desolatiou, utter wretchedness
and social and moral disintegration
which defed full portrayal even in its
comprehensive report. This moral and
social chaos is the direct result, ac-
cording to the commission, Of the I'M
speaka BILE practices of the contending
forces The recital of these barbara
ties which forms a principal Part of
the report is the first detailed and col
lective presentation of facts which
have so far been offered to the world
principally in the form OF newspaper
reports, and charge and counter
charge. The list of horrors compiled
from the statements of eye-witnesses
for whose reliability the commission
vouches, is at times more startling
than the unsupported rumors which
were formerly received with increduli-
ty.
In this indictment brought by the
commission against all the contending
forces no one of the Balkan nations
is spared. Atrocities committed upon
the non combatant Moslems il Mace
donia surpassed in many instances the
crimes committed by the race from
which the Christian nations We're sup
posed to have received their education
in the refinements of cruelty. The bar
barous acts and inhuman reprisals per-
formed by Bulgarians. Servians and
Greeks against each other would be
incredible if they were not supported
by unqusstionable evidence. From the
data supplied by the commission it is
impossible to argue that one of the
nations was less violent than another
in its CHASTITY warfare.
The commission gives three causes Of
the war which followed the demand of