Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-03-02
WAR DID NOT BLOT
 OUT THE WARL|kE
 SPIRIT OF RACES
Balkans Need Firm Friend to Guide Destinies of
 Mixed Tribes.

odiohlkl, Jan. 15.-(CorrespOndenc of the Associated Press. )-Macedoni at present strikes one as peaceful and we'll organized country with little or no population. Many of the vil- iages and towns which furnished the battlegrounds of the allied armies and those of the central powers have bee,i destroyed and the population scatter ed, mostly by the Bulgarians but part ly by the necessities of the allies
 The allied army of Macedonia too, is dwindling and it gives one feeling or strangeness to travel up and down Macedonia and see familiar places which once were populous with allied troops now deserted Camps occupied for two years by the allied forces and which one had come to regard as per- manent institutions now are the feed- ing grounds only of flocks 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 military base in eastern Europe; but great change has, come over things and ono now sees the sturdy native on his di- Minutive donkey riding in places which for three years was barred to everybody not ill khaki.
 The writer passed through Doiran the other day. It once was a pretty little town, picturesquely situated on the shore of Lake Doiran and during the greater part of the war was only few hundred yards beyond the Brit ish 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 today
 People Returning.
 The population is slowly Altering back but the chief things that they find are the excellent roads made by the British-the best roads in Mace donia since the days of the Romans. These roads will be invaluable in the future. Macedonia has large agri- cultural possibilities And it's popula- tion will begin to settle down again after the ravages of the war as they have done so often before
 The old Macedonian question" still awaits solution. It contained the seeds of trouble and grief for the whole of humanity. Viewed from here, the war seems to have done ab- solutely nothing to settle the problems of the mixed and warning races in these regions. Age-long aitipathies and prejudices remain apparently as firmly rooted now as before the war. But the Austro-German menace which heretofore overhung the whole region like a thundercloud now has been dis sipated and the western powers now apparently realize that there is every reason for them to take keen inter- est in what is going on ill the Balk- ans.
 It is generally felt here that Turkey needs la strong master and the Balk- ans kindly but firm friend, though not wholly, on the parts played by various nations in the war, on Serbia's gallantry 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 ques- tion will some day come to the front again. The dead of the British and allied soldiers who lie in Macedonian soil seem to emand that henceforth peace shall prevail in the land where they fought and died.