Evening star., 1928-11-23
u. S. ASKED FOR AID
IN BALKAN CRISIS
Civil War Threatens as Sofia
Guard Against MichaiIoff
Is Doubled.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SOFIA, Bulgaria, November 23--The
police guard protecting members of the
cabinet was doubled today in the fear
that Ivan Michailoff, leader Of the
belligerent faction of the Macedonian
revolutionary party, might carry out
threats to march on Sofia with his wild
cohorts and murder certain ministers
whom he designated by letter.
The entire country was apprehen-
sive lest Bulgaria plunge into civil war
if Michailoff became more aggressive.
A violent conflict between opposing po-
litical factions before the club of the
agrarian party last night added to
the fears of the people. Brisk fire was
exchanged between the factions before
police arrested many of the belligerents.
u. S. Asked for Help.
Athanase Buroff, foreign minister, in
q statement to the Associated Press ap-
pealed to the United States to rescue
Bulgaria from its present internal crisis.
It is felt generally that Bulgaria's pitt
fully small army would be almost pow
erless to cope with a widespread upris-
ing. King Boris, who has striven con-
stantly to bring about peace, is deeply
disturbed at acts of terrorism which
have occurred
Hundreds of families, fearing murder
at the hands of Macedonian despera-
does. are fleeing toward Sofia from
Petrich, where Michailoff has headquar-
ters.
Reports were current today that
Micl1ailoff himself was in Sofia. He
was rumored to be at the bedside of his
wife. Mencia Carniciu, who is dying
of tuberculosis Mencia Carniciu in 1925
was found guilty of the murder of
Todor Panizsa, an alleged Balkan des-
perado, whom she killed in the Ma
tiorial Thester in Vienna on May 8,
1925.
Marries MichailOff.
Because of her precarious physical
condition she was released by the Aus
trian authorities. She returned to Bull
garia, where Michailoff proclaimed her
his heroine and married her. She is
credited With having devised many of
her husbands revolutionary and ter
roriSt acts.
Foreign Minister Burof in his state
ment said:
II fear that If we do not soon secure
relief, either through the United States
or Europe, Bulgaria must slowly bleed
to death. Let the great United States,
to which 100000 Bulgarians look as
a guardian of small nations, answer.
AS the richest most powerful and most
influential nation in the world. 1t will
be impossible for the United States to
play the role. of passive onlooker in the
face of the tragedy which threatens
Bulgaria.
Bolshevism a Menace.
"Will not the United States save us
before our peasants, crushed with tax
alton, reparations and the high price
of the necessities of life. are forced to
embrace bolsheviSm?"
M. Burof said that the succession of
terroristic acts by illegal Macedonian
bands which had occurred recently
were the indirect result of the crush
ing terms imposed upon Bulgaria by
the postwar peace treaties"
Speaking of the Macedonian revolu-
tionary organizations, the foreign min
lister said: "Bulgarians living in those
parts of Macedonia which were awarded
to Greece and Jugoslavia under the
querors that they cry out to their lead
ers for relief. They neither want to
be Hellenized nor Serbified.
Treaties Prevent Relief. go
Besides these Macedonians, we have
$1,000 more living within our own
borders who sympathize with their
brethren under alien rule and are
clamoring for autonomy. Paralyzed as
we are by the peace treaties, we cannot
give relief either to them or those out
side the frontiers. There can be no
real tranquility in the Balkans while
these conditions endure"
The foreign minister said that If the
Macedonian organization headed by
Michailoff were legal body he would
be the first to stop it. He added that,
unhappily it was illegal and It's de-
signs and movements so elusive and
uncertain that 1t was virtually impoSsi-
BILE to suppress it. The recent demands
of Great Britain and France that the
Macedonian committee be extermi-
mated, M. Buroff said, only enraged and
emboldened members, provoking them
to renew eXceSSeS.
Efforts of the cabinet against the
Macedonians have been impeded by
the fact that the present minister of
war and other cabinet members are in
sympathy with Michailof.