The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-03-07
The Claims of the Greek of
'ThraCe

Just at the time when the Thrac-
ian Greeks in New York were loudly !
protesting the other day against any
that would hand their
hard tried country over the Bulgar-
ian menace, the news comes from
Paris of the impending decision of
the particular committee charged to
investigate the Hellenic claims on
Thrace, to award that province to
Bulgaria which is to keep the Aegean
littoral given her at the close of the
second Balkan war.
It is probably too early yet to fore
cast the finding of the particular
commission which has charge of the
Hellenic claims as submitted to the
Peace conference by Mr.. Venizelos
himself. But even then it is time to
examine under what right Bulgaria
can claim q large part of a territ-
CRY which has never been Bulgarian,
and which passed under Bulgarian
control under the clauses Of the
treaty of Bucharest, shortly after the
close of the second Balkan war.
AS everybody remembers, Bulg-
aria took Thrace by right Of con-
quest in the first Balkan war. When
Greece in turn defeated Bulgaria in
1913, that territory was occupied by
the Hellenic troops, and when the
Bucharest peace treaty was signed,
the necessity of restoring the bal
ance Of power in the Balkans forced
Greece to evacuate that province,
which was in turn reoccupied by the
defeated Bulgarians. When the Bull
CARS in 1915 treacherously attacked
the Serbians, and in 1916 entered the
territory Of Greek Macedonia, they
were, after the hegemony of the Bal
kans, which was to be theirs should
Germany win the war.
With the war lost for Bulgaria, and
al her Macedonian territory brought
under allied control, it would appear
that the Bulgars would lose every
right to territories which they have
been unable to keep. This at least
was the case with Germany and Aus
tr'ia and Turkey, all of which were
Bulgaria's allies and all of which suf-
fered the fate they richly deserved.
Should therefore Bulgaria be en-
titled to the return of territory
which she secured by right of con-
guest, and therefore lost by right of
defeat, precedent would be created
which would not promote Balkan
peace.
One might advance at this point
the argument, that the Thracian ter
ritory claimed by Bulgaria is hers, by
right of the principle of nationality !;
but this assertion on it's face would
be false, as nowhere in all the Bal
kans is the Bulgarian element in such
hopeless minority as in Thrace. The
Bulgarians themselves by their acts
in 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, and
up to the present day have the best
proof of the non Bulgarian character
of Thrace by pillaging and destroying
the country, burning the towns and
villages, and ruthlessly killing and
otherwise terrorizing the inhabitants,
to the point of turing the whole of
the country into desolate waste.
Now it does not stand to reason
that the Bulgarians who claim Thrace
as q Bulgarian country inhabited by
Bulgarians should go on and exter-
inmate population which would
be made up of Bulgarians. Such
course would be simply preposterous
and unreasonable. But we have the
established fact, that the inhabitants
of Thrace have suffered the worst
treatment at the hands of the Bull
garians; we have the facts that en-
tire towns and villages in that pro-
vince have been wiped off by the
Bulgarians; we have more than two
thirds of the whole population of
Ihrace seeking refuge, not in Bull
garia but in Greece. All of which
taken together means that Thrace
is not a Bulgarian country but a
province which the Bulgarians want
to occupy and assimilate against the
will of the population.
Bulgaria therefore cannot have
Thrace or part of it under the prime
iple of nationality or the right of
self-determination of the inhabitants.
A third and last argument in favor
Of Bulgaria's claim is that of the
economic and commercial necessity
Of that country to have an outlet on
the Aegean sea, in the same way as
other inland countries must have
way to reach the sea.
Bulgaria is not on the same foot
ing as the other countries of Europe,
because Bulgaria has at its disposal
all the southern bank of the Dan
ube, from the Serbian border to the
Black sea and all, or nearly all the
Black sea coast from the mouth of
the Danube to the Bosphorous. In
addition to the above, Greece,
through Mr.. Venizelos has already
promised to give the Rulgars the
same right of egress to the Aegean
as he has given the Serbians.
On what reason therefore could
Bulgaria claim Thrace where her acti-