Norwich bulletin., 1915-04-20
BULGARIA HAS
 FACED MANY DIFFICULTIES
Hatred of Greeks and BuIgars Has
 Existed Since Middle Ages.
Special to The Bulletin.)

(SpeClaI 10 ~InG BuueL1n.)
 Washington, D. C., April 19.-'sNo country has had to struggle with greater difficulties in the working out of it's destiny than Bulgaria." begins a statement given out today by the National Geographic Society. From the days of the Byantian emperor who felt it his duty to eXterminate the Bull gars, through five centuries of Ottoman rule, down to the present day, the Bull gar nation has enjoyed hardly a placid moment and hardly ever has found an unselfish friend. It has been tested by suffering ever since leaving it's home within the Volga basin for new homes in Europe.
 "The Bulgars, of Finnic stock, began to make their appearance in south eastern Europe around $50 A. D., and, by the end of the 7th century, they had crossed the Danube and taken up their Balkan home. They merged with the Slavontc populations whom they conqueredi and adopted a Slavonic tongue and culture. At the beginning of the 10th century, under their first Tsar, Simeon, Bulgarian glory was at its zenith; and it's territory stretched from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, from Thessaly to the Carpathians. luxurious cities and fabulously rich capital, was finally ruined by Greek cunning, and its men and women were slain by the tens of thousands. The hatred of the Bulgar and the Greek began in the Middle Ages, when the Bufgar and the Byzantian clashed.
 Tn the 14th century, the Turks be- gan their conQuests, and, after 1898, the Bulgarian people fell completely under Ottoman subjection, ceasing to have history of their own until 1878. The crowning event of these 500 years, cror -ioT hor D,1e- her main excuse for going to war with Turkey in 1877. After the war, Great Bulgaria was created by the Treaty of San Stefano, but English fear of Rus sia led to tearing up of this treaty at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, an undoing of the establishment of a Bull garia along ethnic lines, and a perpet- uatfon of discord and atrocities within the Balkans. Without outside help, the Bulgarians have had to defend their they paid for thef sturdy assertion of their nationality :n the Second Bal kan War, 1913. Ii,
 ''Depite their difficulties and their many overpowering opponents, the Bulgarians have builded well in these latter years of comparative peace; so we'll that in the First Balkan War, they were able to bear the brunt of the struggle with the Turkish Empire, and to win the decisive battles that brought triumph to the Balkan Allies The ad- vent of Bulgaria into the present war would bring an army of 50o, ,00o into the struggle, most of them veterans of two wars.
 Following the adjustments made at the conclusion of the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria found herself occupying 43,300 square miles, or a gain of 16 per cent as the result of two years of hostflities. The population of the country, with the establishment of peace, was 4,50o, 600. The public debt was high, but fair% harvests left the Bulgaria is, like the other Balkan countries mainly an agricultural land. The valleys of the Danube and the Marita are the most fertile parts of the peninsula. There are vast forests over the numerous mountain ranges of oak ash, beech and pine In these same mountains are rich mineral lands, be- longing to the State, which produce Iron, coal, copper, gold, silver, lead and salt. The chief exports of the country are grain, animal products, tobacco, fruits, cloth and altar of roses. Bull garia reduces the worlds supply of altar of roses, manufacturing about 5000 pounds a year. This product sells at about $2o0 a pound.
 Bulgaria is a constitutional heredi- tary monarchy. It was proclaimed as such by Prince Ferdinand on October ,, 1903. Bulgarian representatives are elected by universal suffrage, and pol tiles are taken by them and their con stituents with great seriousness The event immediately leading up the proc clamation of the kingdom Is of inter est, as showing the proud character of of the Bulgars. In September of 1908. the Turkish government held a recep- lion for diplomats in ConstantinopIe at which it was neglected to invite the Bulgarian minister, on the grounds hat he was merely the business agent ,f tributary principality. Out of the popular fury which swept Bulgaria at this slight, Prince Ferdinand was able 10 find more than the needed support .or discarding the remaining semblance - of Turkish sway and. for the declara- ion of the Kingdom. He took the title 90 proudly significant in early BuIgar- an history of "Tsar of the Bulgars.'" "