The Dayton forum. [volume] (Dayton, Ohio) 1913-1949, 1919-01-03
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Cold-BIooded Butchery by Bulga-
rians Without Parallel
In History.
LEADERS ARE SLAUGHTERED
Attempt ID Exterrinate National
Spirit of Serbia by Killing Of
All Thought Capable Of
Maintaining II.
WARD PRICE
In si1e Chicago Tribune.


vranja, Serbia. Here is a story Of
cold-blooded butcherg perhaps without
equal even in this var. Ti IS the tale
Of deliberate, systematic effort by
the Bulgarlans extending over three
months to- exterminate the national
spirit Of Serbia by. killing everyone In
the parts oS The country they occupied
whom they thought capable of main
tanning IL
have gathered the facts from many
different sources and the information
and evidence establish Bulgarian guilt
beyond all doubt.
After installing Bulgarian mayors,
bishops, tax collectors and military
police the Bulgarians arrested In ey~
cry town and village all the men who
belonged to what may be called the
intellectual class. They chose parlin-
mentary deputies, Judges, teachers,
lawyers, priests and employers of Ia
Dor, formed them into gangs and
marched them away.
5000 Sent TO Slaughter.
Men numbering at least 1000 from
the towns and villages Of the Vranja
region alone were taken In aetach-
ments of about iifty al time To
place which the Bnlgarians chose MS
their slaughter house, and there every
night one party after another from
December. 1915, to March, 1915, had
their throats cut or were stabbed to
death.
One village whose name the Bulga-
rians have made terrible III Il smail
place called surdulitza, 20 miles north
east OF Vranja. near the Bulgarian
frontier. | went there and saw ting
bones, the graves and surviving reia-
tiyes Of $500 victims OF BHlearinn say
agery who there mel their end.
They were locked up Id houses
which saw, and then ut night
marched down gnlIy tied four OF five
together with ropes, they we're stabbed
or bayoneted to death and buried
where they lay by local gypsies col
lected for the work ny the Bulgarians.
Graves of hundreds of them we're
shown to me. Moldy human bones
were still lying about in a little
moldy strenm bed where on one vim
ter's night after another the slaughter
was carried out.
Every night the peasants of Surdu-
itza, who were forbidden to leave
their houses after sunset, heard mems
screams coming from Il nearby wood.
The following morning fierce village
dogs would bring into the streets hu-
man arms md even heads, which they
tore off the bodies Of the murdered
men.
At Ushevtse, n hamlet to tue north
Of Vrania, 100 men, women and chill
dren the entire population we're
killed In one day.
Roasted Over Slow Fires.
At Vladichi all the women were col
lected and some Of them violated The
rest were tied up and left until two
days later, when the Bulgars came
back and completed their work of out
rage.
Last year at Yelashnitsa and Kri-
vafaia innocent peasants were stripped
naked, tied down to braziers and
roasted over slow fires to make them
confess that they possessed hidden
arms.
Lebane and Lesokvaty probably were
the worst martyred towns Of all. AT
the former place 20 persons were beat
en- literally to death.
What is to be done to punish this
eynically planned and brutaiIy exe-
cuted policy Of murder? The names
of the Bulgarian officers directly re-.
sponsibIe for these butcherles are
known. The peasants Of vranja and
Surdulitza utter them with the same
dread as that with which men of the
English west country must have spo-
ken OF Judge Jeffreys after the bloody
assizes.