The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-02-24
TOWNS,
WIPED OUT IN THE WAR
Allied Forces Are Dwindling But a Con-
siderable Army Still Remains in
st. Saloniki-Strange Quiet
Prevails Over Most of
the Land.

Saloniki, Feb. % Correspondence of
the Associated Press) Macedonia at
present strikes one as a peaceful and
well organized country with little or no
population. Many of the villages and
towns which furnished the battle grounds
Of the allied armies and those of the
central powers have been destroyed and
the population scattered, mostly by the
Bulgarians but partly by the necessities
Of the allies.
The allied army of Macedonia, too. is
dwindling and it gives one feeling of
strangeness to travel up and down Mace
donna and see familiar places which once
were populous with allied troops now de.
serted. Camps occupied for two years
by the allied forces and which one had
come to regard "a permanent institutions
now are the feeding grounds only of
focks of crows picking about among the
refuse. All the troops have by no means
left this part of the world and Saloniki
still remains the most important mill
tary base in eastern Europe; but a great
change has come over things and one
now sees the sturdy native on his di-
minutiye donkey riding in places which
for three years were barred to everybody
not in khaki.
The writer passed through Dorian the
other day. 1t once was a pretty little
town, picturesquely situated on the shore
Of the Lake Dorian and during the great
er part Of the war was only few hun
bred yards beyond the British lines, in
enemy territory. OF all the thousand or
more houses. there is not one left that is
more than heap of rubbish and that is
typical of the situation in Macedonia
to-day
The population is slowly fltering back
but the chief things that they find are
the excellent roads made by the British
the best roads in Macedonia since the
days of the Romanos. These roads viii
be invaluable for the future. Macedonia
has large agricultural possibilities and
its population will begin to settle down
again after the ravages of the war as
they have done 80 often before.
The old Macedonian question" still
awaits solution. 1t contained the seeds
of trouble and grief for the whole of hui
manity. Viewed from here, the war
seems to have done absolutely nothing
to settle the problems of the mixed and
warning races in these regions. Age-long
antipathies and praiudices remain appar
emily as firmly rooted now is before the
war But the Austro-German menace
which heretofore overhung the whole re-
gion like a thundercloud now has been
dissipated and the western powers now
apparently realize that there is every
reason for them 10 take keen interest
in what is going on in the Balkans.
1t is generally felt here that Turkey
needs q strong master and the Balkans q
kindly but firm friend who viii ordain
their future on a basis Of right and jus
tee and conditioned partly, though not
wholly, on the parts played by various
nations in the war, on Serbia's unswev-
ing galIantry and loyalty on the great
aid finally given by Greece and the
treachery and cynicism Of Bulgaria.
The allies may not need to grand
mother" the Balkans but it is likely
that they will have to godfather" them.
Otherwise the Macedonian question will
some day come to the front again. The
dead of the British and allied soldiers
who lie in Macedonian soil seem to de
mand that henceforth peace shall prevail
in the land where they fought and died.