The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-06-02
SITUATION IN
THE BALKANS

London, June2.-The troubles of
Mexico and Ulster have wholly over
shadowed public interest in the near
east during recent months. But the
formal ending of the. Balkan war has
brought no rest to that long suffering
region. Thrace. Macedonia and AL
bania are boiling with racial and re-
llgious strife. Stories Of fighting, of
persecution and of massacres come
to the London papers from many cor
respondents, and are printed in small
type with little comment. Europe has
come to accept these conditions as a
matter of course.
The changes Of boundaries and of
sovereignty which resulted from the
peace treaties. and the launching of
Albania as an autonomous state, are
responsible for the new era of struggle
and butchery. Every power concern
ed in the new allotments is trying to
impress not only its laws but its own
state religion upon those who have
become its subjects, if the current his
torians are to be believed.
Forcible conversions" by wholesale
seem the order of the day. Between
the Christian and the Musselman dis
pensations, between Greeks, Turks,
Bulgarians, Romanians, Servians and
Albanians, there is little choice Of
standards of civilization. Much of the
information comes from Athens which
presents events only from the stand
point Of Greek interests; much is dis
seminated by the newspapers of vi
emma, which is a fountain of canards.
The Turkish government is deter
mined to drive the whole Greek popu-
lation from Thrace, according to ac-
L,oa
organized a campaign Of oppression
which is making life impossible for
people of Greek affiliations in the
country about Kirk Kilisse Lulu Bur-
gas and all the land which Bulgaria
conquered in the first war and lost
through the final treaty. BY Greeks
is meant the adherents Of the Greek
church, since nationality is recognized
as following religion rather than blood
in those regions.
The Greeks are pictured as having
as desperate times in Thrace under
the rod of the young Turk, as the
Bulgarians had in Macedonia under
Abdul Hamid. The methods of terror
ism are the same.
Irregular troops, who get their liv-
ing by loot, and bands of so-called
brigands, all supposed to be acting
under inspiration from Constantinople,
are over running the country. Burn
ing villages light the sky, as during
the days of war; cattle and sheep are
driven away; pillage and ravishing go
on. Life is made so intolerable that
Greek inhabitants are glad to escape
to the coast with what bundles they
can carry on their backs. Athens re-
ports that $4,000 refugees have arrived
at Salonika by ships, and that $4,000
more are waiting on the coast to get
away.
The head Of the Greek church at
Constantinople persuaded the British
ambassador to demonstrate with the
Sublime Porte, and orders were tele-
graphed to the local governors to re-
patriate all refugees. Truth" SAYS
that these orders were meant only for
the ambassadors benefit, and that
the governors were given the word Sc
cretly to disregard them. That was g.
familiar strategem of the old Turkish
diplomacy, when pressure from the
Powers became too acute to be ignor-
ed.
The Greek government. on its part,
does not lack enterprise at oppres-
sion, If witness from non-Greek
sources be credited. Restrictive laws
against the Jews in Salonika have
been made so strong that $4,000 are
leaving that once prosperous port. The
battalions of Greeks from Thrace
seeking asylum, and of departing
Jews, number between two and three
thousand persons daily, so that ali
shipping is crowded and the normal
life and business are as much dis
turbed as they were during the days
of the war. An important factor Of
the upheaval is that both the Greeks
Of Thrace and the Jews Of Sa1onika
were the most prosperous people in
those communities, and their expulsion
means disaster and ruin to both.
Meanwhile the new ruler Of Albania,
Prince William of Wied who bears the
title Mpret, is having a troublesome
honeymoon with his domain. Civil
war, which customarily is their chief
Industry Of that more than half bar
oarous principality is proceeding as
usual. The Greeks claim 100000 adj
herents out of the $4,000 inhabitants
of the southern portion of the new ALI
bania. These people of Epirus known
as Epirtes refuse allegiance to the
Mpret. Fierce fighting has been going
on about Koritza. and the rebellion
is said to be led by officers from the
Greek Army. The Epirotes have the
advantage OF an organized army pos
sessed of some artillery. Apart from
q small force OF gendarmes, some L.
500 or 1000, the Albanians rely upon
volunteers recruited from tho southern
Albanian clan. No attempt to mobil-
ize them has ben made and they
scatter along the front, fighting in the
old free and easy way dear to their
hearts, but making the advance of a
regular force an easy task. The Greek
government disavows responsibility
for the Greek officers who have cast
their fortunes with their friends, but
the fued is a religious one, -Mussul-
man against Christian and the ami
mostly is far fiercer than in any mere
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