Evening star., 1939-05-16
Balkan Disorders Aid
Axis Strategy After .
Danzig Setback
Macedonian Terrorists
Are Again Active in
Dobrudjo Region
BY WALTER DURANTY.


BUCHAREST. May Is (N.AN.A).
The f1areup in the Balkans which
the shrewdest observers in Riga and
Warsaw predicted to me as coun-
terirritant to the axis setback over
Danzig has duly occurred-spon-
taneously. it seemed.
That's the beauty of the Balkans
In times of crisis-incidents can be
counted on to occur without any one
taking the trouble to prepare them.
This incident is simple enough, one
might almost call it regular.
After the World War Rumania
took from Bulgaria the southern
Dobrudja, on the Black Sea coast,
not for its intrinsic value, but to
set the frontier further away from
the important town of Contanza. 1t
is largely populated by Bulgarians,
and banditism flourishes brightly
and smuggling and kindred sports.
The Rumanian government once
had colonizing scheme which made
some money for astute souls, but
never came to much because the Ru-
manians are peaceful folk and the
land is poor and arid.
Bandits Liquidated.
Last week Rumanian gendarmes
managed to trap large group of
bandits and proceeded methodically
to liquidate them. with the usual
story about an attempt at rescue.
Twenty were shot, but three escaped,
and by fortunate chance they knew
the way back across the frontier and
got away clear to Bulgaria, which
has raised a vast piercing outcry
about a crime against honest farm
ers who were guilty of nothing more
heinous than smuggling some sacks.
OF salt. And even that's not proved
the Bulgarians savagely add
So far, no mention of this Incl
dent has been made either in the
Bulgarian or the Rumanian press,
but the Bulgarian foreign Office re-
leased it abroad-"German papers
please copy"-and one may conf
IDENTIFY assume the fire will be duly
famed.
Nor is that all The latest news
In Bucharest is that the Bulgarian
"comitadjis' have come into action
on the Dobrudja border, and that
is very different from bandits. The
word simply means committee
men," but the committee in question
is the Macedonian Revolutionary
Committee, whose name in the
Balkans spelled terror by night.
Yes, and sometimes also by day, in
the broad daylight of French Mar
sellles, where committeeman shot
Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, and
the French foreign minister, Louis
Barthou.
Found Asylum in Italy.
That murder gang was known to
have been harbored before and after
the outrage in Hungary and Italy,
and the notorious Macedonian
Committee chief, Mikhailof, found an
asylum for months in Italy, where
he lived until last Good Friday.
when Italy seized Albania and
loosed Mikhailof like hawk to
hunt fat game for his master.
Mikhailof returned to Macedonia.
and that ancient witches cauldron
at once began to boil.
There has been a row on the
Greek-Bulgarian frontier, and the
sudden tension in Serbia and Mace
donia, and now this incident in the
Dobdudja
Will they call that aggression in
London, or does it come under
French Premier Daladier's reference
to war that is waged without WARP"
AT least, it suits the book of the
axis, and Bucharest, which was in
clined to pooh-pooh it 4S hours ago,
now views 1t with growing concern.
CReleased by the North American
Newspaper Alliance)