The Washington herald., 1914-06-08
GREEK LEGATION
RESCARNEG|E
Peace Foundation Is Target
for Attack Because Of
Balkan Report.
CHARGES OF SLANDER
Alexander Vouros Says Commission
Was Unfair to His Nation in Effort
to Shield Bulgars.
CHARGES OF ISLANDER

has as Its task the promotion of univer-
sal peace, is the target Of a sensational
attack by the Greek government in an
official statement issued here yesterday
from the Greek legation. According to
the statement. the foundations commits
sion, sent to Europe to investigate alleged
atrocities in connection with the Balkan
wars. was so pro-Bulgarian that, In an
effort to shield the Bulgars, 1t slandered
Greece through misstatements, dragged
In extraneous matter. ignored documen-
tary evidence regarding the barbarity Of
the Bulgarians, and heaped upon Greece
false charges.
Yesterdays statement. giving to tne
press by Alexander Vouros. the Greek
Charge d'Affairss, replies to statements
contained in the portions of the COM
Missions report already given to the pub
lie, and reads. in part, as follows:
What is ''Provocation"
In the first place. the commissions 8
report charges that in each instance OF
atrocities committed the Bulgarians act
ed under provocation and that in each
case the accusation was greatly exagger-
ated. What does the report mean by
proyocation"
1T is a notorious fact that in Nigrita
more than 400 inhabitants were slaughter
ed and the town was sacked by the
Bulgarians.
In Doiran the Bulgarians killed the
Greek bishop and thirty leading Greek
citizens
Here, the report gives a long list of
other atrocities and burning of cities.
What kind Of provocation did the
Bulgarians have to burn these cities and
commit these wholesale murders? These
crimes were committed when the Bull
garians were compelled to retreat before
the advance Of the Greek armies. What
provocation can be accepted as an excuse
for wholesale destruction of cities in
which there were no armies and which
could not possibly offer opposition to the
Bulgarian troops? And what excuse
has the foundations commission for dar-
ing to excuse butchery of women, chill
dren, and bishops?
The commission has reported that the
charges against the Bulgars were greatly
exaggerated. This finding is entirely and
fatty refuted by the words and state
ments OF trustworthy correspondents,
consuls, and eyewitnesses of the results
of the Bulgarian atrocities. Capt. Trap
man. representing the London Daily
Telegraph, says:
~ have seen Greek officers and
soldiers. friends of mine, whose tongues
had been cut out, and who, after being
q SoNuch' ~Aotc itputslS lfidl tntlE misery
be ended by death at the hands Of their
own soldiers He adds. There is not one
village through which the Bulgarians
have passed which has not been pillaged
and burned and whose inhabitants have
escaped the brutalities of the Bulgarian
troops 1 believe that the Bulgarians
have slaughtered Greeks and Turks.
peaceful men, women. and children. to
the number OF $4,000 or 100000.
Reports Of Atrocities.
Full reports Of Bulgarian atrocities
were made to his government by Georges
Zlatccs. Austro Hungarian counsul, and
his report was made public in the
Paris Temps The Bulgarian atrocities
were also set forth in the reports OF
the counsuls-general OF Italy and Aus
tria stationed at Salonika- The counsel
of the Italian consulate at Series in
formed the consul that fhe Bulgarian
troops had received orders to destroy
Series If the city was lost 10 the Bull
garians.
"All these things are truths. Any un-
biased person must admit their truth
Why, then, IL the Carnegie Foundations
desired to report truthfully,
did it assert that all the eyewitnesses,
consuls, and newspaper correspondents
just quoted were guilty of fabrications
and untruths? Why did II say that the
charge of Bulgarian atrocities were ex-
asgerated? Were not these events suf-
ficiently savage and hideous to be termed
atrocities? What further semblance of
horror did these peace-loving investiga-
tors wish to have given to the outrages
OF women and the murders of children?
Another thing. why is 1t that in the
foundations commission report we find
accusations only against the Greeks? The
report, which was supposed to concern
itself with the affairs of the Balkans |
goes out Of its way to charge the Greek |
in New York City with writing
letters to Queen Eleanor, |
stating that she would be in danger of |
death II she made her proposed trip to |
New York. Why was the Queen Eleanor |
Incident dragged in unless the report was |
written BY prejudiced hand?
The Carnegie report lays stress on the |
fact that Greek accusations against the |
Bulgarians have been quoted in the |
American press. 1t omits that accusa-
tons against the Greeks by King Ferdi- |
nand of Bulgaria were also quoted in |
the newspapers of America, as were |
charges against the Bulgarians made by |
the Servians
THE commissions report asserts that |
the rules of war were violated by all the !
belligerents in the Balkan wars The |
laws of war were violated. but by the |
and not by the Greeks. |
Bulgars Held in Fear.
Some idea of the fear in which the
Bulgarians were held by the noneom-
batants may be gathered from the fact |
that. whenever the Greeks occupied |
places from which they had driven the
Bulgars. the Turkish. as well as the /
Greek inhabitants, invariably hailed the
newcomers as liberators. When the
was to go to Bulgaria by treaty. the
tants abandoned the homes of their birth |
and emigrated to Greece because Of their |
fear of the Bulgarians.
The commission'e report declares that |
the King of Greece announced that he
found himself obliged with profound /
regret to proceed to reprisals.' What
the king actually said was, I shall find |
myself, with profound regret, placed |
under the necessity Of proceeding to re-
prisals in order to inspire in the au-
thors OF such atrocities a salutary fear
and to compel them to reflect before
committing such atrocities This threat
was made merely in the hope that it |
would check the outrages Of the Bull
gars. but ii was never carried to full
The full. detailed statement OF the
Greek government in reply to the abso-
utely unwarranted and baseless charges
and insinuations in the Carnegie COM
report will be widely dissent
mated within the next few weeks and
Will be put into the hands OF the public
men and the newspaper and magazine
hA fod ho