The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-07-28
WHOLESALE MASSACRES
Are Charged Against Bulgarians in Off
cial Statement.

New 1OTk, July Wv uoltHdlc Hubhsh-
cres of prisoners of war, systematic muir
der of civilians. including women and
children, the torture of whole popula
tons by methods more barbarous than
those of the Spanish inquisition, and the
organized pillaging of nation are the
charges against the Bulgarians during
their occupation of Serbia, in the report
of the interallied commission appointed
to investigate violations of The Hague
convention, which was made public here
yesterday by the Serbian official infor
nation bureau.
In summing up its findings the com
mission reports
"The Bulgarian crimes exceed the or
binary infringements of international
law. They are crimes of common law,
such as assassinations, murders, blows,
wounds, violences, violations, attacks on
personal liberty, pillages, extortions,
fires, etc. The entire Bulgarian regime
bears criminal marks"
The Bulgarian government is held d.
rectly responsible by the commission for
the long record of outrage, torture, mas.
sacre and pillage which the report con
tains. While many of the most terrible
crimes described are laid to the account
of the "comitadjes," or irregular police,
organized from the lowest criminal ele
ments of the Bulgarian population, the
report declares that some of the regular
army officers outrivaled the heads of the
comitadies in the massacres of the civil
ian population" Examples are given Of
la lieutenant who alone killed 10 to Is
persons at one time, of another lieuten-
ant who boasted that he had personally
killed more than 800 people, and of sew.
eral other officers who gave orders for
massacres.
In the beginning of the 1915 campaign,
the report says, the massacre of Serbian
prisoners and wounded became almost
the rule, the slaughters being preceded
| by tortures and mutilations. Whole
groups of prisoners were tied one to an
other and then slashed to death with
swords. In one instance, a group of be-
tween $50 and 200 were butchered with
knives and bayonets.
| In the case of civilians, priests were
the most numerous victims, the number
of clergymen slain exceeding $50. "The
hatred Of the Bulgarians for the Serbian
church" says the report, "was of a
beastly savage nature They profaned
the affairs, stripped the nuns, outraged
the priests and monks Several of the
priests are said to have lostStheir reason,
while others committed suicide
After the priests, the fury of the in
yaders fell upon professors, schoolmas-
tiers, judges, lawyers and merchants, who
were murdered Unfortunately.
| The treatment of Serbian women and
young girls, as described in the report,
was revolving. Boiling and burning alive
were common features of the tortures
| inflicted on men, women and children
alike, and Bulgarian bishop named Me-
lentie is accused of having preached in
church the doctrine that the Serbian
women should submit to the Bulgarian
soldiers. The division of the report which
deals with tortures opens with the state
mept that Gone can say without fear Of
contradiction that no murder has been
committed which was not preceded by
torture" The closing paragraph of the
report says
"The civilized world cannot remain in
| different before such situation. A PEG.
pie capable of hating up to this point, so
blind and ferocious in the expression of
its hate, represents a danger for its
neighbors and disgrace for the epoch
in which we live. 1t deserves severe
exemplary punishment, because that
alone will bring it to reason and make it
understood that in our days crimes and
atrocities deserve no pity and are no
longer profitable enterprises"
The report is signed by delegates of
the French, British and Serbian govern
ments.