Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05

Michailoff was born in Shtip, now IN
Serbian Macedonia. Todor Alexandroff
was born there also. Shtip has given
more men to the comitadji organization
than any other Macedonian city. The
breath and life Of the present organiza-
ton are men of Shtip
After studying at the local school
Michailoff entered the Bulgarian Gym
nasia in Saloniki. But when, in 1912,
the Greeks occupied that city and
closed the Bulgarian schools he moved
on to Skoplje and there entered the
Serbian Gymnasia, from which he was
graduated. He speaks Serbian iuently
and reads all the principal Serbian and
Croatian newspapers, as he does those
of Bulgaria and other countries.
In 1918 young .Michailoff went to
Sofia and there entered the Bulgarian
State University to study for the bar.
Soon afterward however, when Todor
Alexandrof sent his call for the re-
vival of the Imro, which had been
disbanded during the World War,
Michailoff was among the first to leave
the university and answer the call Of
the veteran leader.
IdealiSm to Be Admired.
You may not agree with Michailoff.
FASHIONED chauvinist, whose Judgment
and reason have been dimmed by his
hatred of the Serbians and by mis- fam
ing desire for Macedonian freedom.
But you cannot help adniring his ex-
allied idealism, his readiness to sacrifice
his own life and those of a thousand
others If that will help the cause Of
his country. He will stop at nothing,
Is 1t any wonder then. that this
scholarly looking revolutionist Is blow
ing up bridges and buildings, is always
Matching out new plots for the assas-
sination of generals and statesmen, the
destruction Of foreign property in Mace
donia-all designed, of course, to keep
the Macedonian question burning and
to force the world one day to recognize
its independence? This Is the kind of
insurrectionary activity young Michail-
of advocates and practices. The mere
existence of q revolutionary organiza-
ton is not alone sufficient to keep the
Macedonian question open. Through its
terroristic acts 1t must show the world
that the Macedonian masses are de-
termined to get free or die.
In Turkish days q state of disorder
could be maintained permanently in
Macedonia by the network of comitadji
bands which spans the entire revolu-
tionary realm. Every district, every
county, had its own band and voyvod.
They made assaults on tyrannical beys
and pashas, skirmished with bashiba-
zouks and regular attachments of SOL
diery and otherwise created riot over
the country.
Situation Has Changed.
But now the situation has altered.
Comitadjis cannot rove through the
mountains as safely as they could in
Turkish days and the question of
whether there should be any illegal ac-
tivity at all-and II so, what-has been
the cardinal subject of the postwar
MIRO. There have been those who have
advocated the discontinuance of all ter
roristic methods and the undertaking of
an intensive legal-political campaign of
propaganda abroad. Yet all agree that
the revolutionary organization should
not be disbanded
AS 1t happens, however, one Of the
basic principles which the Imro cherishes
most and which gives it its power and
prestige Is that of the interior. The or
ganization exists on Macedonian terri
tory and jealousy guards its revolution
airy domain, forbidding the co-existence
In 1t OF any other society, legal or other
wise. that is not subject to its authority.
The Imro, therefore, must act inside, 1t
must show life inside, 1t must create I'M
rest on Macedonian territory so that the
world will know that the Macedonians
living In Macedonia are not content
with the treaties decreeing their fate.
Furthermore, since the Imro Is in
every respect q government, the invisible
government of the geographically de-
nned, but politically non existent Mace
DOMAIN state, over which Michailoff
claims to hold an invisible occupation,
it Is also independent.
Guard Against Becoming Dupe.
These two corner stones of the revolu-
tionary organization, then-the basic
principle Of the interior and the prin-
ciple OF ndependence-haVe been its
source Of strength and life and Of its
greatest trouble. While secret agents
are sent to foreign capitals to advance
the Macedonian cause and to lay before
influential statesmen and the press re-
ports on conditions in the homeland,
the Imro must keep its eyes open lest
1t Is duped into becoming a tool in the
hands OF some European power. What
ever arm is extended for political power
In the Balkans, one of the first objects
which 1t invariably encounters is the
Macedonian organization.
AT no time did the hand extended
for influence in the Balkans find the
1mro reader to clasp 1t than after the
peace treaties (the Macedonians say
there are only treaties for peace) when
all hope seemed lost and the fate of
Macedonia sealed. The agents of Mos
COW, alert for an opportunity to COM
munlZe the Balkans. were not slow In
making their tantalizing offer. The
solution Of the Macedonian problem
would be q foregone conclusion If it
were merged with and absorbed by the
broader and nobler one Of the federali-
zation OF the peninsula. Macedonia
would take her place as o political unit
in a Balkan federation Of Soviet re-
publicS.
That Voice Of Gold.
This voice, reinforced with gold, was
one that the group of Macedonian
patriots then at the head of the Imro
could not well afford to leave unheeded.
In 1924 the Macedonian revolutionary
committee temporarily removed its
to Vienna, and there,
after protracted conferences with repre-
sentativeS from Moscow, signed a mani
festo pledging the organization to the
cause Of BolsheviSm.
The three men who then composed
the supreme committee and signed the
manifesto were Todor Alexandroff, Gen.
Alexander Protogueroff and Peter
Tchauleff. BY putting his signature to
the fatal document making the organi-
zation an instrument In the hands of
communism every one Of these three
men sealed his own death sentence.
None Of them Is alive today.
BY this Vienna manifesto the oreani-
cation was transferred from its own
revolutionary territory to foreign soil.
The traditional prir ciple of the interior
was spat upon. 1t sold itself to a
foreign power and turned its back on
another Of its main props, the principle
Of independence.
First to See FalIaev.