Evening star., 1924-03-26

a SpeCial correspondent OF the loi-
don Times was assigned a quite un-
usual beat last January. To carry
out his assignment he had to travel
some hundred miles by motor car.
horse and on foot, through bleak and
desolate mountains in the heart of
the regularly severe winter of Mace
donia. And the object of his assign
ment was to obtain. a rather unique
interview, up in the snow-covered
highlands, from a hunted man, an
outlaw on whose head a price of one
million dinars has been put by the
Serbian government.
The upshot of that exciting inter-
view was the discovery, or rather the
confirmation of the actual existence,
in the mountains of the erstwhile
kingdom of Alexander the Great, of a
powerful revolutionary organization;
of a vast octopus which has its ten
tacles stretched out over most of
southeastern Europe" and which con-
trols the peoples of Macedonia to such
an extent as to have virtually sup
planted the local hostile Serbian and
Greek authorities, as we'll as to be a
supergovernment in itself. And at
the head of this organization thfre
reigns supreme the hunted outlaw,
Todor Alexandroff, a native of Mace
donia, a Bulgarian by race, the man
on whose unsheared head the royal
price is put. "a very remarkable
man" "a born fighter" and "a COM
mander of men," the Times corre-
spondent characteriZes him.
He leads a wandering life," the
correspondent reports, which needs
to be seen to be believed, dedicated to
the creation of an autonomous Mace
donia--with its capital at Saloniki !"
And this man has so far succeeded in
establishing law and order in this
most disordered section of the Bal
kans that "everywhere thriving peas
antry declared that robbery and crime
are things of the past" The people
pay a progressive income tax, which
is exclusively devoted to the purchase
of arms and clothing. They find it
worth while to support the organiza-
tion, for the organization confers
great benefits"
No wonder. then, that the Balkans
are hanging fire. In fact for some
time lately. their never too clear
political horizon has been daily be-
coming more gloomy and more
menacing. Black leaden clouds have
been lowering ominously over the
treaCherous mountain tops Of Mace
donia; chilly wind, not unlike the
breath of death, is sweeping the asi-
tated lowlands, and from time to
time. spitefully kissing sparks escape
through the overcharged atmosphere.
Only the other day the rumbling echo
of a loud thunderbolt reached even
to the shores OF America For on
the 26th OF February the Serbian
legation in Washington was is
suing a meaningful official statement.
With other things ii was said in
it that the Belgrade government is
apprehensive over International trou-
BILE again breaking out in the Bal
kans, because Of the activities of
Bulgarian bands, led by Todor Alex
androff, along the frontiers of Greek
and Serbian Macedonia"
And about the same time, II not
before. Serbian army divisions were
hurriedly being thrown on the Bull
garian frontier all ready to invade
Bulgaria in order to punish her for
the stupendouS achievements of Alex
andrOff; the Serbians and Greeks con-
tending that the Macedonian move
ment is the result of direct manipula-
tion from Sofia. 1t was further as
serted that this time Alexandrofr was
about to carry out general rising
in Macedonia against both Serbia and
Greece In fact he had told the
Times correspondent only two months
before, that in Macedonia alone he
could mobilize approximately 10000
men, and there are some 100000
desperate Macedonian refugees in
Bulgaria, besides. Furthermore. the
correspondent states that the organ
iZation had, at the time of his visit,
a large supply of rifles, bombs and
ammunition, and that 1T was ac-
cumulating bigger reserves of arms
and munitions in preparation for the
general rising.
In a frantic effort to disprove the
joint Serbo- Greek charge of foster
ing rebellion in Macedonia and to
avert the imminent invasion, the Bull
garian government proceeded to carry
out wholesale arrests during the first
week of March. Hundreds of persons