Evening star., 1925-08-13
HN .u\IIS Il. WOOD.


BY JUNIUS Il. WOOD.
Special Cores pondcncc ~ The stan and the
Chicago pajly News Foreign Service.
SNILENGRAD. Bulgaria, June "a.
Seated alone in the sunshine near
4 little pile of household odds and
ends at this station. where refugees
from Greece cross into Bulgaria. was
an old man slowly nodding his head
He had been driven from his home
in Macedonia. Had he any children?
No. they had died when the family
had been deported to Crete. How
old was hen More than 100 years
Where had he been born In Greece
He had lived in the same village for
. century. Where had his father
been born? In the same village. on
the same farm. And his grandfather?
The same place all-foretathers. wife,
sous-were buried i'm the cemetery of
tho village which the Greeks had
forced him TO leave.
The families from Macedonia and
western Thrace that are being perse-
cuted until they voluntarily emigrate
are not recent settlers. They have
been there for generations. They
are being driven out because Greece
wants their lands and their chattels.
The fiction of the exchange of minor
iueS and voluntary emigration in the
tveatieS gives the excuse. When the
European powers inserted this pro-
vision possibly they did not realize
the meaning of uprooting more than
2 million people and making them
homeless wanderers.
More Aged Misery
"Eut We have another older man.
volunteered a bright little girl.
she disappeared and in a minute
came running back. followed by a
tottering decrepit man. He leaned
on the long stick which he carried
and demanded that he be permitted
to return home. He was 10. accord
ing to the other men from his vii
IaGe. Like the other centenarian, he
was without q family. In the little
village where he and his family had
lived and died-all except him-he
had home and the other villagers
attended 10 his slender needs. Here
they have not enough for themselves.
Near another pile of rubbish on the
plain was a woman so bent and Grip
pied by age that she could not stand
Then came SprN youn gSteT of so
years. He said he had fought for
Greece in two wars, and thought that
he deserved better treatment than
having his property taken from him
and being expelled from the country.
Al the other extreme We're the chill
dren. Il iS an unusual family in this
part of the world that does not have
at least three. Like the very old folks.
they did not know why they have lost
their homes. 1t is not strange. Even
the adults do not know. The ways of
diplomacy and of statesmen who think
they can make or destroy nations by
drawing lines on maps are beyond the
simple peasant.
The refugees from Greece have been
put over the borders into Bulgaria and
Turkey Turkey is the land of the
Moslcm. and has abundant room for
the 762 200 Turks who have been re-
turned within its borders. The lands
and property of the Greeks expelled
from Asia Minor will care for many
thousands. and the government has
expended 5000 600 more. The aban.
doned property will be appraised in
both Greece and Turkey and the refu-
goes may he indemnified.
Bulgaria is not happily situated. for
II IS small and thic6ly populated. and
100000 refugees have entered since
1908. The Macedonian. though he still
struggles for independence, is akin to
the Bulgar and Bulgaria offers him
haven. But Bulgaria is weak, and can
not insist that other countries treat
its compatriots with justice The ref
ugeeS are unloaded on Bulgaria and
she cannot stop the flood, even if she
were unwilling TO give shelter to the
unfortunates. Thousands are not of
Bulgar stock-Russians so, 900: Jews.
10000; Armenians, 10000; several
thousand Turks and 200 900 Macedo-
mans and Thraeians.
There is no prospect that these viii
be lndemnitied for what they have
lost. Nearly every city and village in
Bulgaria has its refugee quarters.
They are Bulgarians. Russians. Ar
menians. Jews. but outnumbering all
these are those who have been driven
from the Greek portions of Macedonia
md western ThraCe. They are cared