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REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION

To Inquire into the causes and Conduct OF THE BALKAN WARS, PUBLISHED BY THE ENDOWMENT WASHINGTON, D.C. 1914 Contents Members

Part -ІІ



Fig. 19,20,21.—Refugees encamped outside Salonica

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Fig. 22.—The Commission listening to refugees in the Samakov square

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At the Islamic Committee one thing only was known, namely that 50 Turkish pounds a day was spent on buying bread. In the last four days, 3,000 men had had their voyage to Anatolia paid for them, and the Committee's resources were at an end. The Greek government, in spite of the promises of money and land lavished to secure the departure of all these people, was doing nothing.

In Bulgaria things were very much the same. The Commission visited various places where refugees were temporarily gathered—Djoumaya, Samakov. The government estimated that as many as 111,560 emigrants fled to Bulgaria. These refugees were divided into .38 cantons. About 50,000 of them came from the parts of Macedonia now belonging to Servia or to Greece; of these only 2,400 were repatriated. Thirty thousand came from parts of Thrace which have remained under Turkish rule. These figures were published on September 12/25 (Echo de Bulgarie). On December 22/January 4, 1914, another Bulgarian paper, the Mir, published more detailed statistics of the refugees under this latter head. Unfortunately, in the course of the events of the last two months, the number of these emigrants from Turkey rose from 30,000 to 51,427 men, women and children. This was the population of 108 abandoned villages and of 10,934 houses. Winter, which was beginning when the Commission was in Bulgaria; has since come on. We learn in the letter from Haskovo, dated October 24/November 6, that those among the emigrants who possessed carts, oxen or camels were sent after the Bulgarian army to Gumurjina, and 6,209 others had to be sent by railway. Were these all the others ? The same correspondent describes them to us as being insufficiently clad and ill-sheltered, exposed to the cold and threatened with pneumonia and with typhus, sometimes lacking bread throughout whole weeks.

While the 80,000 Bulgarian refugees are addressing their supplications to Sir Edward Grey, the telegraphic agency at Athens informs us that 100,000 others, Greeks by nationality, are fleeing from Bulgarian administration. [The Athenian correspondent of the Times gives these figures on August 21; they record the numbers passing the frontier. He himself has them from an "individual coming from Macedonia" who "gave him details on the emigration movement going on in the districts of Upper Macedonia, which the Greek troops are clearing all the time." This agrees with the information received by the Commission from the refugees themselves, at Salonica and Sofia, as to the specific character of this exodus, which was prepared and encouraged by the Greek authorities who offered carts and even motors to those who agreed to emigrate. (See below.)] Exact statistics are not available, and we are aware that reliance can not be placed on figures given by popular meetings, or by official agencies. Nevertheless, it may be believed that we are not dealing here with isolated cases, but with a real exodus; a portion of the picture to be seen throughout the Balkans. The Turks are fleeing before the Christians; the Bulgarians before the Greeks and the Turks, the Greeks and the Turks before the Bulgarians, the Albanians before the Servians; and if emigration is not so general as between the Servians and the Bulgarians, the reason is that these two nations have not, so to speak, en-

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countered on their own soil, while that soil coveted by each, namely Macedonia they regarded as already peopled by men of their own race. [As this chapter is going to press, Queen Eleonora of Bulgaria speaks in the Neue Freie Presse of 60,000 refugees in Bulgaria, destitute of shelter or clothing.] That is why we have to deal here with a mitigated form of the same principle of the conflict of nationalities. The means employed by the Greek against the Bulgarian, by the Turk against the Slav, by the Servian against the Albanian, is no longer extermination or emigration; it is an indirect method which must, however, lead to the same end, that of conversion and assimilation.

One example of these forced conversions during the Balkan wars has become classic—that of the pomaks by the Bulgarians. The pomaks are a people of Bulgarian mountaineers, converted to Islamism by the Turks centuries ago. To the number of some 400,000 they inhabit the high plateaus of Northern Macedonia. The male population of the nearest villages spoke Turkish and had become entirely Mahometan; the women on the other hand continued to speak Bulgarian and remained faithful to certain Slav customs. In the more remote centers, however, among the mountains of Rhodope, or Tikveche, the pomaks remain faithful to monogamy, and to their national songs; the Slav type was even purer there since they only intermarried among themselves. Unlike the Slav aristocracy in the Balkans, they had not become subject to Islam in order to safeguard their social position. It was a peasant population, although throughout two centuries the young men had served in the Turkish army, and they still preserved its warlike and fanatical spirit. Traces of forced conversion to Islam may sometimes be perceived in certain proper names of places, such as Mehrilote or Hibili (in Eastern Rhodope). There, too, the places pointed out called in Bulgarian "Delen" or "Setchen," that is to say, the place where those were "separated," who agreed to pass over to Islam, and those massacred who refused. Unhappily the modern conqueror has revived these remote historical recollections.

To revive a consciousness of lost nationality in the minds of their kinsmen, the Bulgarians employed force and persuasion, persuasion of a type as brutal as force. The Commission is unable to cite any individual instance, but there is no reason for doubting those recorded in accounts emanating from Greek or Servian sources. The story of a witness returned from Macedonia is quoted in a despatch of August 21, transmitted by the Athenian correspondent of the Times:

The Moslems were ranged in groups. Each group was given some baptismal name, generally a name honored in the Bulgarian church or in Bulgarian history. An exarchist pope then passed from group to group and took aside each of his catechumens sui generis; and while sprinkling his forehead with holy water with one hand, with the other he compelled him to bite a sausage. The holy water represented baptism, the piece of

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sausage renunciation of the Moslem faith, since the Koran forbids the eating of pork. The conversion was completed by the issue of a certificate adorned with a picture of the baptism of Jesus, the price of which varied between one and three francs. A friend who arrived today from Thrace told me that what is happening in Macedonia is also happening there. He showed me two baptismal certificates. He added that the converted were obliged to give up their fez, and the converted women to walk in the streets with their faces uncovered.

In an official report to the Sub-Prefect of Kavadar, on March 2, 1913, a petty Servian official, Mr. Drakalovits, says:

At Pechtchevo (Maleche plateau) a special committee has been formed, with the Bulgarian Sub-Prefect, Chatoyev, as its President, and among its members John Ingilisov, the director of Bulgarian schools, and the priest, Chatoyev, the brother of the Sub-Prefect. This committee was instituted to convert all the Turks of Maleche to Christianity. By order of the committee, 400 peasants of the place were armed with muskets and sticks; they attacked Turks of the neighboring villages and forcibly led them into the church at Verovo, where they were all baptized. Finally on February 17, baptism was carried out at Beloro, where there were ten Turkish families and ten Bosnian (Servian) Mahometan families. Pechtchevo alone was spared, the reason being (so we were told) that the Sub-Prefect would not allow violence in the town. A Turk from Pechtchevo told us that every Turkish house had to pay two pounds for its protection. Four Turks who could not pay such a sum hanged themselves in despair in their houses. In the other Turkish villages conversions were not exacted, because the population was too poor, whereas the Turks at Pechtchevo were known to be rich.

The Commission more than once had opportunity to discuss these conversions with the Bulgarian civil and ecclesiastical authorities. They were not denied by either, although they unanimously regarded them as an outrage on humanity and a grave political error in the case of people who were to be Bulgarian subjects. The following judgment, which is no less severe than anything written even by the enemies of Bulgaria, is commended to the attention of the reader. It is that of an intellectual, the Bulgarian writer, A. Strachimirov:

Those who stand for the thought and the honor of our country ought to know that our authorities have, in the countries on the frontier inhabited by the pomaks and recently liberated, acted in a way which is a disgrace to their country and to humanity. One aim alone was kept in sight—that of personal enrichment. Conversion was only a pretext. It did not save the poor pomaks from atrocious treatment except where the priests with whom they had to deal were conscientious men. Such cases, however, were rare. The ecclesiastical mission was beneath criticism. High rewards were paid, but the priests sent to carry out this task in the pomak villages were drunkards and criminals who could not be kept in Bulgaria. The behavior

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of the police was monstrous. In Bulgaria no one has and no one can have any idea of the atrocities committed by prefects, heads of police, and priests Yet at first these pomaks showed the most absolute submission to our army. In the last two decades they had conceived a hatred for Turkism. Their principal grievance was the defective condition of their mountain roads am the burden of annual duties. They knew that this state of things had been largely remedied in Bulgaria, and they held to the idea that the Bulgarian government would at least give them roads. At Dary-deri a pomak, an officer in the reserve of the Turkish army, came before the authorities and had himself baptized because he was fired by the idea that the Bulgarians brought nothing but good with them. He was at last disillusioned, and he and his children were massacred by their neighbors.


Nevertheless the Bulgarian government is not ignorant as to the steps which should be taken to satisfy the population of the annexed region and secure their gratitude. It has itself declared in a manifesto addressed "to the inhabitants of the newly liberated region, published the day after the conclusion of the Treaty with Turkey, September 16/29, 1913,"—most formal orders are given to the Bulgarian civil and military authorities to display the greatest kindness to the inhabitants of the annexed territories, to respect their faith and their nationality, to refrain from any attack on their personal liberty, and to maintain the inviolability of their houses and their property. The citizens of new Bulgaria are to enjoy, without distinction of religion or nationality, the same rights which are secured by the constitution of the kingdom to all its citizens. Respect for religious freedom and for education is enjoined, and also respect for the religious beliefs and usages, the mosques, cemeteries and other holy places of all citizens alike.

If only these maxims could be applied today and "the tragic recollection of bloody events which have involved the contending nations and their subjects in misfortune could forever disappear in the triumph of peace, love and concord!"

As a matter of fact, an understanding between Bulgaria and Turkey, based on these fair promises, is by no means impossible. Many Turks have been under the Bulgarian regime since the origin of the kingdom; they seldom had to complain of their new masters. They were always on the side of the government. On the other hand, the principle of religious and educational liberty, although rejected by the Young Turk government, is an ancient Turkish principle, to which there would be prudence in reverting, after so many trials and defeats. The fact that very few Bulgarians are left in Turkey would facilitate such a reversion. There is thus reason for hoping that the treaty of Constantinople may bring together two governments who have no longer any ground for dispute and who might find themselves in agreement, as regards the rights of their kinsmen. A happy beginning has been made in Thrace. It is now necessary to create an efficient administrative apparatus—it is far from being in existence as yet, unfortunately—to put these excellent principles in practice.

One can not say as much, unfortunately, of the work of the treaty of

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Bucharest. The lines of demarcation therein laid down are far from being natural or consonant with the national tendencies of the peoples. The third treaty of Bucharest has sown a new seed of discord in its violation of the sentiment of nationality: it divides the Balkan territories on the principle on which the treaty of Vienna divided the national regions of Europe in 1815. This historical example suggests that here, too, national reaction will follow on the work of diplomatic and political reaction.

It only remains to set out the facts, or rather to complete the outline sketched in Chapter I, to afford convincing proof of this. What has become of Macedonia, so often the apple of discord, now that the work of concord appears to be completed? It displays nothing but violence, and suggests no hope of ultimate harmony.

2. Servian Macedonia (a)

A comparison of the ethnographic and linguistic maps drawn up by Mes-sers Kantchev, Tsviyits (Cviyic) and Belits, with the new frontiers of the treaty of Bucharest reveals the gravity of the task undertaken by the Servians. They have not merely resumed possession of their ancient domain, the Sandjak of Novi-Bazar and Old Servia proper (Kosovo Pole and Metchia), despite the fact that this historic domain was strongly Albanian; they have not merely added thereto the tract described by patriotic Servian ethnographers as "Enlarged Old Servia" fan ancient geographical term which we have seen twice enlarged, once by Mr. Tsviyits and again by Mr. Belits) ; [See chapter I, p. 29.] over and above all this, their facile generosity impelled them to share with the Greeks the population described on their maps as "Slav-Macedonian"—a euphemism designed to conceal the existence of Bulgarians in Macedonia. And their acquisitions under the treaty of Bucharest went beyond their most extravagant pretensions. They took advantage of the Bulgarians' need to conclude peace at any price to deprive them of territories to the east of the Vardar, for example, Chtipe and Radoviche, where Bulgarian patriotism glowed most vividly and where the sacrifices accepted by Bulgarian patriots for the sake of freeing Macedonia, had always been exceptionally great. This was adding insult to injury.

Mr. Skerlits, a Servian deputy and member of the opposition, closed his speech in the Skupshtina on October 18/31, 1913, with these memorable words: "We do not regard territorial results as everything. Enlarged Servia does not spell, for us, a country in which the number of policemen, tax collectors and controllers has been doubled. New Servia, greater Servia must be a land of greater liberty, greater justice, greater general well being. May Servia, twice as great as she was, be not twice as weak but twice as strong."

Unfortunately these generous words are but pia desideria. For some time the government hesitated. Nevertheless, Mr. Pachitch must have understood

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that the question whether Servia's acquisitions were to make her twice as weak or twice as strong depended on the policy pursued in Macedonia. During the days spent by the Commission at Belgrade the question was debated. There were two antagonistic views. One, represented by Mr. Pachitch himself, wanted a "liberal" regime in Macedonia and the avoidance, at any price, of a "military dictatorship." The population of the new territories was to be left to express its loyalty spontaneously; to wait "until it realized that its new lot was sweeter than the old." Military circles, however, did not share this view. They were for a military administration, since a civil administration in their view, "must be incapable of repressing the propagandism sure to be carried on by the Bulgarian?." [See the Stampa, August 13/26. The contents of these communications came to our knowledge at Belgrade itself, from reliable, first-hand Servian sources.] True, the "liberal" regime as projected by Mr. Pachitch was not so liberal as the Bulgarian manifesto to the inhabitants of the annexed countries had hoped. The new citizens were not to possess the franchise for fear lest a new "Macedonian" party should thus be brought into the Skupshtina to upset all the relations between the contending parties in the kingdom and form the mark of common jealousy. Some sort of local franchise or self-government was considered. A kind of compromise was suggested in the shape of military administration with a civil annex and representatives of the departments at Belgrade, on the familiar plan employed in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the 1908 annexation. In any case, the question of the administration to be erected in Macedonia displayed so wide a divergence between the views of Mr. Pachitch and his colleagues, apart from the military group, that Mr. Pachitch's resignation was talked of.

Mr. Pachitch neither resigned nor insisted on his own standpoint. Silence fell on such isolated voices as that of the President of the Skupshtina, Mr. Andre Nicolits, who protested in the foreign press against the exceptional regime in Macedonia and asked for constitutional guarantees. The Piemont, the organ of the military party, declared that such notions were "opposed to the interests of the State," and assured the Servian public that "the population of Macedonia had never for a moment thought of elections, or communal self-government," etc.; that "nothing save a military regime could be entirely just, humanely severe and sufficiently firm to break the will of individuals or groups hostile to the State."

Macedonia had thus to be viewed as a dependency, a sort of conquered colony, which these conquerors might administer at their good pleasure. In the course of the debates on the address in the Skupshtina (November) this attitude found highly definite expression in a reply of Mr. Profits, a member of the cabinet, interrupted by a member of the opposition. "The question," said Mr. Profits, "is—are we to apply to Old Servia the constitution created by the Servian Kingdom and which has had happy results?" Mr. Paul Marinkovits—

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"But Old Servia is the Servian Kingdom."—"No, it is not the Servian Kingdom."

Such was the spirit in which the Servian government on September 21/ October 4, issued a decree on "public security" in the recently acquired territories, which amounted to the establishment of a military dictatorship, and called forth cries of horror in the foreign press. The document is so characteristic and so important that, despite its length, we quote it in extenso:

Article 1. The police authorities are authorized, in case of a deficiency in the regular organization for securing the liberty and security of persons and property, to ask the military commander for the troops necessary for the maintenance of order and tranquillity. The military commander is bound to comply immediately with these demands, and the police is bound to inform the Minister of the Interior of them.
Article 2. Any attempt at rebellion against the public powers is punishable by five years' penal servitude.

The decision of the police authorities, published in the respective communes, is sufficient proof of the commission of crime.

If the rebel refuses to give himself up as prisoner within ten days from such publication, he may be put to death by any public or military officer.

Article 3. Any person accused of rebellion in terms of the police decision and who commits any crime shall be punished with death.

If the accused person himself gives himself up as a prisoner into the hands of the authorities, the death penalty shall be commuted to penal servitude for ten or twenty years, always provided that the commutation is approved by the tribunal.

Article 4. Where several cases of rebellion occur in a commune and the rebels do not return to their homes within ten days from the police notice, the authorities have the right of deporting their families whithersoever they may find convenient.

Likewise the inhabitants of the houses in which armed persons or criminals in general are found concealed, shall be deported.

The heads of the police shall transmit to the Prefecture a report on the deportation procedure, which is to be put in force immediately.

The Minister of the Interior shall, if he think desirable, rescind deportation measures.

Article 5. Any person deported by an order of the Prefecture who shall return to his original domicile without the authorization of the Minister of the Interior shall be punished by three years' imprisonment.

Article 6. If in any commune or any canton the maintenance of security demands the sending of troops, the maintenance of the latter shall be charged to the commune or the canton. In such a case the Prefect is to be notified.

If order is restored after a brief interval and the culprits taken, the Minister of the Interior may refund such expenses to the canton or the commune.

The Minister may act in this way as often as he may think desirable.

Article 7. Any person found carrying arms who has not in his possession a permit from the police or from the Prefect, or who shall hide arms in his house or elsewhere, shall be condemned to a penalty varying from three months' imprisonment to five years' penal servitude.

Anyone selling arms or ammunition without a police permit shall be liable to the same penalty.

Article 8.Any person using any kind of explosives, knowing that such use is dangerous to the life and goods of others, shall be punished with twenty years' penal servitude.

Article 9. Anyone who shall prepare explosives or direct their preparation or who knows of the existence of explosives intended for the commission of a crime shall, subject to Article 8, be punished by ten years' penal servitude.

Article 10. Any person receiving, keeping or transporting explosives intended for a criminal purpose shall be punished by five years' penal servitude, except where he does so with the intention of preventing the commission of a crime.

Article 11. Any person who uses an explosive without any evil intention, shall be punished by five years' penal servitude.

Article 12. (1) Anyone deliberately harming the roads, streets or squares in such a way as to endanger life or public health, shall be punished by fifteen years' penal servitude.

If the delinquency be unintentional the penalty shall be five years.

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(2) If the author of the crime cited above causes danger to the life or health of numerous persons, or if his action results in the death of several individuals (and this could be foreseen), he shall be punished by death or twenty years' penal servitude. If the crime be unpremeditated the punishment shall be ten years.
Article 13. Any attempt at damaging the railway lines or navigation, shall be punished by twenty years' penal servitude. If the attempt is not premeditated the punishment shall be for ten years.

If the author of such attempt has endangered the life of several individuals, or if his action results in death or wounds to several persons, he shall be punished by death or twenty years' penal servitude.

Article 14. Any person injuring the means of telegraphic or telephonic communication shall be punished by fifteen years' penal servitude. If the act is not premeditated the penalty shall be five years.

Article 15. Generally speaking the concealment of armed or guilty persons shall be punished by ten years' penal servitude.

Article 16. Anyone who knozus a malefactor and does not denounce him to the authorities shall be punished by five years' penal servitude.

Article 17. Those instigating to disobedience against the established powers, the laws and the regulations with the force of law; rebels against the authorities or public or communal officers; shall be punished by twenty-one months' imprisonment up to ten years' penal servitude.

If such acts produce no effects, the penalty may be reduced to three months. Article 18. Any act of aggression and any resistance either by word or force, offered to a public or communal officer charged with putting in force a decision of the tribunal, or an order of the communal or police public authority, during the exercise of his duties, may be punished by ten years' penal servitude or at least six months' imprisonment, however insignificant be the magnitude of the crime.

Any aggression against those helping the public officer, or experts specially called in, may be punished by the same penalty.

If the aggression offered to the public officer takes place outside the exercise of his official duties the penalty shall be two years' imprisonment.

Article 19. Where the crimes here enumerated are perpetrated by an associated group of persons, the penalty shall be fifteen years' penal servitude. The accomplices of those who committed the above mentioned misdeeds against public officials shall be punished by the maximum penalty, and, if this is thought insufficient, they may be condemned to penal servitude for a period amounting to twenty years.

Article 20. Those who recruit bands against the State, or with a view to offering resistance to public authorities shall be liable to a penalty of twenty years' penal servitude.

Article 21. Accomplices of rebels or of bands offering armed resistance to Servian troops or the public or communal officers, shall be punished by death or by at least ten years' penal servitude.

Article 22. Persons taking part in seditious meetings which do not disperse when ordered to do so by the administrative or communal authorities are liable to terms of imprisonment up to two years.

Article 23. In the case of the construction of roads, or, generally speaking, of public works of all kinds, agitators who incite workmen to strike or who are unwilling to work or who seek to work elsewhere or in another manner, from that in which they are told and who persist in such insubordination, after notification by the authorities shall be punished by imprisonment from three months up to two years.

Article 24. Any soldier or citizen called to the colors who does not follow the call, or who refuses in the army to obey his superiors, shall be condemned to a penalty varying from three months' imprisonment to five years' penal servitude.

Soldiers who assist any one to desert from the army or who desert themselves, and those who make endeavors to attract Servian subjects to serve with foreign troops, shall be punished by ten years' penal servitude.

In time of mobilization or war the penalty for this delinquency is death.

Article 25. Anybody releasing an individual under surveillance or under the guard of officials or public employes for surveillance, guard or escort, or setting such person at liberty, shall be condemned to penal servitude for a maximum period of five years.

Where such delinquency is the work of an organized group of individuals, each accomplice shall be liable to a penalty of between three and five years' penal servitude.

Article 26. The Prefects have the right to prescribe in their name police measures to safeguard the life and property of those subject to their administration. They shall fix penalties applicable to those who refuse to submit to such measures.

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The penalty shall consist of a maximum period of three years' imprisonment or of a pecuniary fine up to a thousand dinars.
The edicts of the Prefects shall come into force immediately, but the Prefects are bound to communicate them at once to the Minister of the Interior.

Article 27. The crimes set forth in the present regulations are to have precedence of all other suits before the judicial tribunals and judgment upon them is to be executed with the briefest possible delay.

Persons indicted for such offences shall be subject to preventive detention until final judgment is passed on their cases. Within a three days' delay the tribunal shall send its findings to the High Court, and the latter shall proceed immediately to the examination of this decision.

Article 28. The law of July 12, 1895, as to the pursuit and destruction of brigands, which came into force on August 18, 1913, is applicable to the annexed territories, in so far as it is not modified by the present regulations.

Article 29. Paragraphs 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 302 b, 302 c, 302 d, (so far as concerns paragraphs b and c) 304, 306, and 360, and Section III of the penal code which do not agree with the present regulation, are null and void.

Article 30. The present regulation does not abolish the provisions of paragraph 34 of the penal military code, in connection with paragraph 4 of the same code, paragraphs 52 and 69 of the penal military code and paragraph 4 of the same, which are not applicable to civil persons.

Article 31. The present regulation is in force from the day of its signature by the King and its publication in the Servian press.

We order our Council of Ministers to make the present regulation public and to see that it is carried into effect: we order the public authorities to act in conformity with it, and we order each and all to submit to it.

Executed at Belgrade, September 21, 1913.

PETER."
In the words of the Socialist Servian paper, Radnitchke Novine, "If the liberation of these territories is a fact, why then is this exceptional regime established there? If the inhabitants are Servians why are they not made the equals of all the Servians; why is the constitutional rule not put in operation according to which 'all Servians are equal before the law'? If the object of the wars was unification, why is not this unification effectively recognized, and why are these exceptional ordinances created, such as can only be imposed upon conquered countries by conquerors? Moreover, our constitution does not admit of rules of this nature!"
As a matter of fact, if one did not know what Macedonia is, one might guess it from the publication of these ordinances. Clearly Macedonia was not "Old Servia" unified, since the population is treated as "rebels in a perpetual state of revolt." What the ordinances had in view were not isolated criminals,— they had accomplices and people who would hide them everywhere. To punish the culprit? That was not enough while his family remained; his family must be deported and the friends who were unwilling to "denounce" the culprit, his "associates," who seized the opportunity of "setting him at liberty" when he was "under surveillance, guard or escort" by officials or public employes—they must be deported too. In short, a whole population was "recalcitrant," and to resist it there were only these "public or communal officers" invested with extraordinary powers. What were they to do, when the population, not content with offering passive resistance, became "aggressive." This population, called to the colors, refused "to obey the call." When asked to "work" on the "con-

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struction of roads" or on any communal works, they struck, they preferred to work "elsewhere or in some other manner." Finally, each one "refused to give himself up as a prisoner," always holding himself ready to attack the public officers, "to resist them if not by force at least by word!" This last crime is punished by the ordinances by "ten years penal servitude, or at least six months imprisonment however insignificant be the words or the deeds" The hope openly expressed to the members of the Commission from the first half of August onwards, was that thanks to these measures an end will be made of the resistance of the alien population in Macedonia in five or six years!

The military party knew what it was about when it insisted on the publication of this Draconian edict, which was but a quasi legal sanction given to the actual activities of the powers in occupation in Macedonia. But such a formal admission on paper (in a document immediately published in the foreign press) frightened more than the members of the Servian Opposition. Thus, on October 15/28, the Servian government, after three weeks' reflection, published certain changes in the ordinances of September 21. The obligation laid upon the troops for coming to the assistance of the civil power became less general. It was now only in the case of "grave and serious trouble" that they were to do so. But the right possessed by the Minister of the Interior not to charge the population "if order was reestablished quickly" (see Article 6) was limited by the control of the Council of Ministers.

The scandalous Article 26, giving legislative power to the Prefects, was amended by the addition of the following clause:—"On condition that the ordinances of the Prefects accord with existing ordinances and the laws." The extent of the sanction contemplated in Article 26 (imprisonment up to three years and a fine up to fr. 1,000) was reduced to one month and fr. 300. But these amendments merely confirm the rest of the edict, and they were clearly insufficient. The opposition press continued to attack the government and to demand the reign of law for the population of the annexed territories and the extension to these territories of the constitution of the kingdom. "If deputies for the annexed territories had seats in the Skupshtina," said the Pravda of November 13/26, "the foreign press, which is at present ill-disposed towards Servia, would no longer be able to retain the credence which its malicious inventions have won in Europe as regards the Servian atrocities." "A nation can not be conciliated," it added a few days later, "by giving it an inferior position under the law." Another paper, the Novosti, tried to harmonize these objections with the official theory of a Servian Macedonia. "A military regime," it said, "is perfectly adapted to a conquered country whose population speaks a different language, but this is not the case with a country whose population is entirely Servian. That is why," the Novosti concluded, "the introduction of a constitutional regime in the new territories is absolutely justified."

The government could not admit that it was precisely this condition of

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identity of nationality which was lacking in Macedonia. The ministerial organs were reduced to saying "that the level of culture" was not sufficiently high among the Macedonians, and that their "State consciousness" was not sufficiently developed to permit the immediate grant of full political rights. Finally on November 23/December 6, the government decided to announce the draft of an abridged constitution for Macedonia, which was to be put in force for a period of ten years. This constitution did not sanction the liberty of the press nor of meetings; it conferred the right neither to elect nor to be elected. Rights of self-government were not given to the electoral assemblies of the prefectures, sub-prefectures or communes; the magistrates were not irremovable and the courts of criminal justice did not include juries. The death penalty, abolished by Article 13 of the Servian constitution, was reestablished by the simple omission of this article in a simplified "constitution." In a word, it could be said that the Turkish "law of vilayets," in combination with the ancient rights and privileges of the Christian communities, granted to the different nationalities by treaties and firmans, gave far better assurance of mutual toleration, and even a more effective rein on the arbitrary power of the administration, than was afforded by this new draft constitution, which, from the administrative point of view, did nothing to abolish the measures laid down in the ordinances of September 21.

The opposition press did not fail to point this out. On November 28/ December 11, the Pravda asked, "Are the people of the annexed territories to have fewer rights now than they possessed under Turkish regime?" The Novosti said:—"The population has no rights, only duties." The Pravda pointed out that it is better to follow Cavour than Bismarck, and suggested (December 1/14), that these "dictatorial paragraphs" were on the high road to Zabern.Finally, despite the assurances of the official organ, the Sammouprava, to the effect that the new constitution guaranteed the personal property of the individual in every case, as well as the moral and economic development of the country, the world refused to believe it—and rightly, as we shall see.

As a matter of fact, if it was desired to make "Servian" Macedonia a reality instead of allowing it to remain what it was,—a national illusion in which aspirations were translated into accomplished facts,—it was necessary to understand, however little one might approve, the tactics of the government. If the opposition were to be logical they must renounce their national view. If they insisted upon that, they must admit that for the real attainment of their object of an ethnic "unification," everything remained to be done. To admit the end was to sanction the means, i. e., the extermination, or at least the elimination of alien elements, and above all of the Bulgarian element. It was the existence and the permeation of these elements which throughout decades constituted the essence and, so to speak, the Gordian knot of the Macedonian problem. To endeavor to escape

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from the problem by pretending not to know its essential elements, was to elude difficulties instead of solving them.

The Servian government and the military party to which the task of making an end of the difficulty was entrusted, marched direct to the attainment of their end. They made. on a truly imposing scale, a sociological experiment w ariima vili, which governments and nations far better equipped than the Servian kingdom could not have carried through with success.

We have seen the beginning of this work of assimilation through terror. It was not until the beginning of the second Balkan war gave the signal for putting everything which still bore the Bulgarian name into the melting pot, that means were employed to carry out this object which surpassed anything seen hitherto. Let us look first at the steps taken by the Servian government against the heads of the National church in Macedonia.

The members of the Commission were profoundly moved by the depositions which the six dignitaries of the Bulgarian church were good enough to make before them during their visit to the Holy Synod at Sofia. These dignitaries were the Archbishops Auxentious of Pelagonia (Monastir-Bitolia), Cosmas of Dibra (Debar), Meletius of Veles, Neophyte of Uskub (Skopie), Boris of Okhrida, and the Archbishop of Dibra's Vicar, Ilarion Bishop of Nichava. All the prelates came to enter a formal protest before the Russian Ambassador at Sofia against the declaration made by the Servian embassy at St. Petersburg, to the effect that the Bulgarian Archbishops of Macedonia had themselves asked to leave their dioceses. "If the Servian government," they said in their written protest, "really never intended to drive us forth we are ready to return as soon as it may be possible to guard the flocks whose legitimate pastors we are."[The Servian declaration was published on August 12/25, in the St. Petersburg paper the Novoye Vremia. The reply of the Archbishop S. E. M. Nekloudov was signed on August 29/September 11, at Sofia.]

We have seen that the Servian and Greek governments had taken all possible steps to isolate these pastors from their flocks. When the second war was about to break out, the Bulgarian Archbishops regarded themselves as prisoners within their Metropolis. Their visitors were watched, questioned, loaded with blows and put to the torture. The priests were not even allowed to see their superiors except at church, and divine service was the only opportunity which these Archbishops had of showing themselves to such persons as were still bold enough to enter a Bulgarian church. June 17/30, the day on which the outbreak of hostilities became known, was the term of their residence in Macedonia. Each in turn, they eagerly told us of their last impressions. Mr. Neophyte of Uskub had, on the evening of the 17/30, been shut up in his own house, and throughout two days his cook alone was allowed to go out of the Metropolis to purchase food. A most thorough investigation then took place, after which the cook herself was kept prisoner for two days. The Archbishop had no food save bread passed in to him through the window by his neighbors, at great

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personal risk to themselves. The cries of the cook drew the attention of the police, and she was once more allowed to go out, this time under escort. On June 24/July 7, the head of the police came and suggested to the Archbishop that he should go to Salonica, his personal security and respect for his inviolability being guaranteed (this, as we shall see, was not superfluous). Mr. Neophyte refused; he was there by the will of the people and there he intended to remain. "To what end, since you can not exercise your functions?"—"For example, in my private capacity, to purchase Turkish houses, if you please," he replied. An hour later they returned to the charge. The prefect regretted that he had not been obeyed, for he could no longer answer for the Archbishop's safety. Finally, in the evening the comedy came to an end; the Archbishop was made to read an indictment under twelve heads. He had said prayers for four monarchs, instead of for King Peter alone; he had not said prayers for the Servian Archbishop; he had busied himself with civil matters, ordering a priest from the village to come and see him in the Metropolis, etc. When Mr. Neophyte refused to sign, he was given two hours in which to prepare himself for departure, and then sent through Niche to Smederevo, on the Danube, whence he departed for Bulgaria.

At Veles the officials of the Archbishopric were arrested and the archives were ransacked so early as January 24/February 6. The Suffragan Bishop was obliged to leave Veles after another attack on the Metropolis on February 4/17, in which an official of the Metropolis, Mr. Mikhilov, was beaten and maltreated to such an extent that he lost consciousness. On March 28/April 10, Archbishop Meletius returned to Veles. He was closely watched by the police, and during his whole sojourn at Veles he was only allowed to see three priests and one instructor. On June 17/30, he, like Mr. Neophyte, was made a prisoner in his own house. On June 24/July 7, he was told in his turn to leave the town. Thinking that this was a temporary measure, he agreed on condition of remaining at Uskub until the end of the war. He signed a document to this effect. On the 25th he was told that Mr. Neophyte had left Uskub and that he had an hour in which to follow him. Mr. Meletius then asked for a written order. "The order will be sent to you at the frontier" (this was a lie). We will say nothing of the incidents of the voyage. Mr. Meletius rejoined Mr. Neophyte at Smederevo, and they were both sent through Raduivatz to Roustchouk.

The other three Archbishops, from Monastir, Okhrida and Dibra, did not get off so easily. They were sent via Salonica to Constantinople. On June 17/30, the police arrived, accompanied by officers and soldiers, to arrest the staff of the Archbishopric of Monastir. In the course of the perquisition which took place, rough drafts of reports of acts of violence committed by the Servians on the Bulgarian population were discovered, addressed to the Metropolis at Salonica and the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Sofia. Here the sequestration lasted up to the 24 h, on which date the authorities proceeded to a sort of inquiry.

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Stress was laid "on relations entered into with a foreign government," and the article of the criminal code relative to this form of crime, prescribing a penalty of twenty years imprisonment, was read out. After having thus prepared the ground, the authorities returned in the afternoon. "You will start tomorrow for Bulgaria." "Impossible, it is too soon." "Papers found upon you have annoyed the military authorities; we are ordered to bring you before a court-martial. A court-martial, as you are well aware, does not at this moment always observe the laws; it often judges as seems fit to it and the sentences passed are executed on the spot; well, to save you from such a fate, the prefect is being so kind as to make himself responsible for the Archbishop's departure tomorrow in the morning." "Agreed." "First of all, a little formality has to be gone through. Here is the draft of a letter. Be so good as to transcribe it in Bulgarian, and state over your own name that, 'owing to the hostilities between Servia and Bulgaria, it is unpleasing to you to remain at Monastir.' What? You refuse? Then there is the court-martial. Let us see." Mr. Auxentius signed, though his conscience protested. On the next day he was sent to Salonica, and thence made his way to Bulgaria via Constantinople and Odessa.

The case of Mr. Boris of Okhrida is similar. The papers found in the Metropolis of Monastir also included reports from the Archbishop of Okhrida to the Ministry at Sofia. The chief commander at Uskub was immediately informed of this and telegraphed the order for the Archbishop's arrest. On June 25/July 8, he was roused at three o'clock in the morning and given ten minutes in which to prepare himself to depart for Monastir. He had hardly time to take a shirt and an overcoat with him. At Monastir the same prefect, Mr. Douchane Alimpits, played the same little scene. The books of the law were brought, Mr. Boris was questioned, a protocol was read to him in which the existence of a revolutionary committee, preparing a rebellion against the Servian authorities, was inferred, and of which Mr. Auxentius was accused of being the president and Mr. Boris his assistant. Its members were the deacons and inspectors of the Archbishopric, the secretaries, priests, schoolmasters and notables. In vain did Mr. Boris endeavor to prove that this accusation was simply the fruit of an overheated imagination. Mr. Alimpits went on repeating accusations of "treason," deserving the penalty of death by shooting, etc. He then displayed a most active desire to see Mr. Boris saved from the death which threatened him, and out of his pocket he drew a paper written in Servian. Thereupon, Mr. Boris read the sketch of a declaration somewhat as follows: On the outbreak of the fratricidal war he regarded his mission as fulfilled, he renounced of his own free will the dignity of exarchist Metropolitan of the diocese of Okhrida, and asked for a permit to Salonica and an escort to accompany him thither. Mr. Boris replied that the whole Bulgarian population of the diocese had chosen him as their spiritual chief; he could not renounce his charge on any pretext; he regarded such a demand as an outrage, while the

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declaration could not be valid even for the end they had in view. The prefect, with some annoyance, repeated the order, adding that it was the desire of a higher commander, and that in case of refusal all preparations were made for bringing the Archbishop before a court-martial and destroying him as a traitor in the interests of the State.

"As for me," so Mr. Boris stated to the Commission, "I recalled the fate of victims who had been slain and of whom no traces had been left; the death of the schoolmaster Luteviev, slain by the soldiers at Prilepe, after the banquet at which he had ventured to sing the praises of the Bulgarian army and propose the health of King Ferdinand; of Stamboldgiev, a citizen of Monastir, who was sacrificed with his whole family. Further, I recalled the inhumanity of these wretches, who compelled their own Archbishop Michael to leave his diocese. I recalled likewise that these were men not given to joking, men who tore their princes and their kings to pieces, and * * * with profound bitterness, and in the depths of my soul something of shame, I obeyed the order of this brute of a captain, an order which I could not recall." * * * On the 26th Mr. Boris left for Salonica and rejoined Mr. Auxentius there. Two days later the regent of the Archbishopric of Dibra, Bishop Ilarion of Nichava, arrived there likewise. He was less fortunate than the others, for at Salonica he was imprisoned and remained there in confinement for twenty-seven days. The reason was that the Greeks, having no Bulgarian bishops among their prisoners, were already sorry that they had let Messrs. Auxentius and Boris go. They therefore kept Mr. Ilarion as a hostage, and did not set him at liberty until two days after the conclusion of peace.

The departure of the bishops was the end of the exarchist church in Macedonia, the end of the official and recognized existence of Bulgarian nationality. The powers in occupation were not slow in drawing conclusions thus harmonious with their desires. We know in fact that they did not even wait for their departure to set to work on the complete destruction of "Bulgarism" in Macedonia. During the first months of occupation, September, October, and even November, it was still possible to explain what happened as the result of misunderstanding, and as the abuse of power by irresponsible elements or by local authorities; later, however, this explanation became untenable. From the commencement of 1913 we have to deal with a systematic persecution of the Bulgarian nationality, more particularly in the regions assigned by the treaty of February 29. 1912, to Servia. After March, at which date it became clear that Servia was not going to secure an outlet on the Adriatic littoral, and after the Bulgarians, on the other hand, had succeeded in taking Adrianople (March 13/26), there was no longer any concealment of the preparations which were being made for the complete annexation of all the occupied territories in Macedonia. The conclusion of peace with Turkey (May 17/30), and the speech delivered by Mr. Pachitch in the Skupshtina, were the signal for beginning

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preparations for conflict between the allies, the search for arms held by suspects the call to the colors of all those on whom it was thought reliance could be placed. Two weeks later, every one in Macedonia was saying war with Bulgaria was imminent, and acting on that belief. On July 17/30 the decisive moment arrived.

For six months, while waiting for the allied armies to take up arms, the Servians had been carrying on guerrilla warfare in Macedonia, side by side with the regular army. They armed their old bands, whose captains and soldiers wore military uniform. At Uskub, a central committee of "national defense," with branches in other Macedonian towns, was formed side by side with the higher command, upon the arrival of the troops. The population of Uskub called their station behind the house of Weiss, near the Russian consulate, "the black house," from the name of the league itself, "the black hand."[The Belgrade Tribune published ("Serb. Cor." November 18/December 1) revelations by an anonymous officer who had been a member of the secret organization of "the black hand." The object of this organization, formed on the principle of the Carbonari, was, according to him, the liberation of the Servians from the Turkish yoke. Later on, the comrade by whom he had been initiated, told him that owing to the incapacity of the radical government it was necessary to replace this organization by another which was to be composed of members of other political parties. He clearly regarded the "black hand" as being formed of government partisans.] The worst crimes were committed by this secret organization, known to all the world and under powerful protection. It was of distinct advantage for the regular government to have under its hand an irresponsible power which, like this, soon became all powerful, and which could always be disowned if necessary. There were so many things which were not crimes, but which, from the point of view of Servian assimilation, were worse than crimes. Such, for example, as being too influential a citizen, wise enough, while remaining an ardent Bulgarian patriot, not to contravene the orders of the authority, and whose past called for vengeance; the Bulgarian flag, a business house, a library, a chemist shop kept by a Bulgarian, or a cafe, not amenable to the prohibition of public meetings, etc. The man was taken, one evening he was led into the "black house" and there beaten; then for whole months he lay ill, if indeed he did not disappear completely. Our records are full of depositions which throw light on the sinister activities of these legalized brigands. Unhappily all the names can not be cited. * * * Each town had its captain who soon acquired fame. At Koumanovo there was a certain Major Voulovits and his assistant Captain Rankovits; at Veles one Voino Popovits, a Vassa, a Vanguel, etc. Where complaints were made to the regular authorities, they pretended to know nothing of the matter, or if the person complaining was obscure they punished him. If he were a personage, as for example in the case of the Archbishop of Veles, his complaint was met by sending the bands from the town of Veles down to the villages * * * only to replace them immediately afterwards by bands from Uskub.

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It was in the villages that the activity of these bands assumed its most fatal form. In the towns the regular authorities kept up appearances and did not concern themselves with the bandits; but lower in the administrative scale, in the village, the responsible and the irresponsible mingled and were lost in one another. This was the easier that from the end of 1912 on the administrative posts in the villages were filled by men of the type already described in Chapter I—paid representatives of national minorities, Serbo-manes, or Graeco-manes, who very often had served as spies with the Turks. * * * These people, while possessing a highly intimate knowledge of affairs, had their own scores to wipe off * * * they had only to utter the name of one of their enemies, and the bands arrest him, leave him to find a ransom, beat him or even kill him with impunity. This is the regime of anarchy summed up in a letter published in the Manchester Guardian and given below.[After citing the Servian ordinances of which we have spoken above the English paper goes on: "This is the theory of Servian coercion. The practice is worse. Servia is .not a country with a large educated population. It has indeed some 80 per cent of illiterates. It has to supply rulers for a conquered territory which almost equals it in extent, and the abler men regard life in rural Macedonia as exile. Unworthy agents are invested with sovereign powers. The consequences are vividly, if briefly, described in a personal letter which arrived recently, and is translated below. The writer is a man of high character and a minister of religion—it is safer not to indicate his church. He is a native of the country, but has had a European education, and is not himself a member of the persecuted Bulgarian community:

The situation grows more and more unbearable for the Bulgarians—a perfect hell. I had opportunities of talking with peasants from the interior. What they tell us makes one shudder. Every group of four or five villages has an official placed over it who, with six or seven underlings, men of disreputable antecedents, carries out perquisitions, and on the pretext of searching for arms steals everything that .is worth taking. They indulge in fiogging and robbery and violate many of the women and girls. Tributes under the form of military contributions are arbitrarily imposed. One village of 110 families had already been fined 6,000 dinars (£240) and now it has to pay another 2,000 (£80). The priest of the village, to avoid being sent into exile, has had to pay a ransom of £T.50. Poor emigrants returning from America have had to pay from ten to twenty Napoleons for permission to go to their homes. The officials and officers carry out wholesale robberies through the customs and the army contracts. The police is all powerful, especially the secret service. Bands of Servian terrorists (comitadjis) recruited by the government, swarm all over the country. They go from village to village, and woe to anyone who dares to refuse them anything. These bands have. a free hand to do as they please, in order to Serbize the population. Shepherds are forbidden to drive their flocks to pasture lest (such is the excuse) they should supply the Bulgarian bands with food. In a word it is an absolute anarchy. We shall soon have a famine for the Serbs have taken everything, and under present conditions no one can earn a living. Everyone would- like to emigrate, but it is impossible to get permission even to visit a neighboring village."]

What were the results secured by this implacable system at the time of the beginning of the Serbo-Bulgarian war? A Bulgarian schoolmaster has described them as follows: "Even if one were an European one would declare oneself Servian, if one were alone, without support, in that state of unrestrained brigandage, fostered by the legal power." The end, however, was not yet attained, and, on the outbreak of the second war, the powers in occupation seized the opportunity to undertake new measures of repression which made an end of the open existence of Bulgarian nationality. Progress of this repression in different parts of Macedonia can be traced in the depositions taken by

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the Commission at Sofia from Bulgarian intellectuals, refugees from Macedonia, and completed by the reports of the Bulgarian ecclesiastical authorities.

It was to be expected that those territories in Macedonia which were, according to the treaty, to remain Servian, should receive the most serious attention. Uskub, Koumanovo, Tetovo, Gostivar, in a word the whole northeast corner of Macedonia, was to feel the first brunt of Serbization. At Koumanovo the priest Yanev, the Archbishop's vicar, was driven out on March 11/24, after a violent scene with one of those Servian chieftains who became officers, one Liouba Voulvits. He pulled the priest by the beard, beat him and finally said to him that "he would not kill him, because the Servians were a civilized nation, not savages like the Bulgarians." "I give you up to this evening to clear out of Servian territory, otherwise, dog, you shall be killed." The violence used by this same Voulvits in the villages whose population he was persuading to become Servian, not to read Bulgarian books, etc., may be passed over in silence. This same Voulvits employed the same tactics for the vicars of Kratovo and Palanka, and for the population of the villages. As a result, the towns of Koumanovo, Palanka, Kratovo, Gostivar and the surrounding villages, the nehie of St. Nicolas, and the villages of Uskub and Tetovo, were formally proclaimed Servian at the moment of the outbreak of the war. Schoolmasters and priests who were unwilling to submit fled and took refuge in Bulgaria. The only places left to resist were the towns of Uskub and Tetovo.

To terrorize the population of Tetovo was easy. Tetovo had been in a state of panic since May 23/June 5. The municipal authorities, followed by bands and a crowd of Turkish children, harangued the inhabitants, inviting them to become "volunteers" against the "worst enemy" of the Servian state. These processions took place daily for three days, but the end not being secured, they were followed by repression, domiciliary visitation and the persecution of suspected citizens. A certain Pano Grantcharov, or Gherov, tried to commit suicide to escape being entered as a Servian volunteer. Greater success was gained in the villages, after beating the inhabitants, as was done at Stentche, Volkovia, Jiltche, Raotintsi, Lechok. On May 29/June 11 the priest Anguelov, the Archbishop's vicar, was incarcerated and the prefect told him that all those calling themselves Bulgarians were regarded as rebels against the authority. They were evidently in a hurry to make an end of Bulgarism, and on June 6/19, all the presidents of communes and all village priests were summoned together in a Serbized monastery. The representatives of Servian temporal and ecclesiastical power were present, and after a long discourse in honor of the historic glories of Servia, it was proposed to the assembled priests and heads of communes, "that they should become Servian and send a telegram to King Peter." A single priest saved himself by flight and two village priests were absent.

At Uskub, under the eyes of the foreign consuls and in the presence of "the higher commander," difficulties were met with in the execution of official

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Serbization. But "the black hand" supplied what was wanting in official activity, and several of its exploits are known to the Commission. [It was this band which beat Methodius. See Chapter I.] The state of mind of the soldiers quartered at Uskub may be illustrated by a little story.

On March 7/20, towards 6 o'clock in the evening, a Bulgarian, Demetrius Gheorghiev, was standing at the door of his house on the Vardar bridge. A little distance off, at the door of another house, there was a Servian officer, Major Boutchits. At this moment the Bulgarian General Pitrikov entered the town, and his orderly, one Igno, passing along the road, greeted Dimtche. Mr. Boutchits at once makes a, sign to him to draw near, pushes him into the corridor of his house, kicks him with his feet, turns him twice over on the ground, cracks his skull and finally is trying to suffocate him, when his father coming up with soldiers saved his life. All the time Mr. Boutchits accompanied his blows with cynical oaths upon his "mortal enemies," the Bulgarians.
2. Servian Macedonia

(b)

In January the Uskub government made a first attempt at patriotic statistics. The sub-prefect, Boro Milanovits, ordered the heads of the communes to enter the Bulgarian population as Servian on pain of fine and imprisonment. This time the schoolmasters and priests were also invited to proclaim themselves Servian. But the matter did not go off smoothly. On March 16 the peasants of the village of Nerezi complained to Archbishop Neophyte. When he spoke to Tserovits, the prefect, the latter pretended that the thing was being done by "stupid officials" for whom he excused himself before the Archbishop. He then summoned the village priest and forbade him to visit his parishioners until he had obtained the permission of the Servian Archbishop. The villagers of Nerezi were arrested as they came out of the Bulgarian Metropolis and were cast into prison. From this time on the peasants from the villages were afraid to go to their Archbishop. Next, the same thing was tried with the inhabitants of the town; terrorization went on throughout Passion week, and it was hoped that the result would be that they would be too much frightened to come to the Bulgarian church on Easter day. The Archbishop again complained at the Russian consulate and at the prefecture, and the Bulgarian population, that is to say the great majority of the Christian population at Uskub, took advantage of the last opportunity which it was to have of going to its own church and taking part in the religious procession of the second Sunday. Resistance on the part of priests and schoolmasters in the town went on despite every kind of persecution up to the end of May. On May 11/24, the national festival of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the population disregarded the order forbidding shops to be closed. A number of domiciliary perquisitions took place on the morrow, with the object of discovering a new revolutionary organization.

At the end of May opportunity for a new demonstration of independence was afforded by the enrolling of volunteers. As at Tetovo, the enrolment took

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place by force and on May 26/June 8, all those enrolled were gathered together at Uskub. Almost all the "volunteers" told the military authorities that they had been brought there by force. Their relations came with them and made statements before the consuls. Some people were fined and imprisoned, but the government was obliged to abandon the use of force and from the whole prefecture at Uskub there remained but fifteen or sixteen genuine "volunteers." In the course of the following days there arrived at Uskub volunteers from Tetovo, Gostivar, Kirtchevo, Dibra and Okhrida, and Albanians from Katchanik, in all some 500. All these new comers heard what had happened and thereupon declared that they too were unwilling to serve. They were all sent back except some Bulgarians, who being accused of having stirred the volunteers to resist, were shot.

On the heels of these events there followed the fatal day of June 17/30. The arrests began at midday and continued until the evening. On the 18th some 200 schoolmasters, officials of the Metropolis, priests, notables and other suspected citizens were imprisoned. Ninety-nine selected from among them were incarcerated in the Mitrovitza prison, the most remote spot possible from the theater of the war. At Uskub arrests went on continually. There were three hundred selected prisoners, some of whom came from the villages. Some were beaten, others paid their guards to escape beating. At Tetovo, at the same time, as many as 200 persons were arrested; at Koumanovo—a pacified town—there were 150 arrests, while some hundred of those arrested at Palanka were sent to the prison of Prechovo. Three villagers from Palanka, unable to march, were killed by the soldiers on the Koumanovo road, like true prisoners of war,— Balkan war.

Now at last it seemed that victory might be celebrated. On June 25/July 8, after the departure of Archbishop Neophyte, several priests and notables were called upon to proclaim themselves Servians, and when they gave an evasive reply, they were "permitted" to hold a meeting in the court of the Church of St. Demetrius. It was a trap. Fifty or sixty persons arrived, but instead of being allowed freedom to discuss together, they were addressed by the chaplain attached to the "higher command," who ended by inviting them to sign a declaration which he brought out of his pocket. With full hearts and tears in their eyes they signed. The authorities summoned the public criers, who proclaimed in the streets that a reconciliation had taken place, that the exarchists had recognized Servian nationality and the Servian church. On the morrow the Cathedral church of the Holy Virgin was thrown open and the Servian and Bulgarian priests thanked God together for reuniting them in a single nation and a single church. The Belgrade papers published congratulations and the official agency communicated the news to the foreign press.

By way of completing the victory thus gained, an emissary was sent, under pretext of taking clothes to his relations, to Mitrovitza to persuade the notables

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under arrest there also to proclaim themselves Servians. They were given Servian papers to read, full of glorifications over the event. Many hesitated and they grew to be a majority. The soil thus prepared, a clerk attached to the military command appeared before the prisoners. In his hand he had a list of the "Uskub Bulgarizers," but he said he was not sure of it and wanted to verify it. Clearly there was some mistake, for the whole body had been noted down as "Bulgarizers," according to the declaration of the first to whom the question had been put. As a matter of fact, it was only the schoolmasters, the officials and a few town dwellers who were "Bulgarians." The others were ready to declare themselves Servians. They were given another week for reflection. Then the same clerk brought them a declaration to sign, in which they made formal renunciation of the exarchy and asked to be set at liberty. Most of them signed; those who entered themselves as Bulgarians were declared rebels and convicted agitators. Nevertheless, both classes were kept in prison until the conclusion of the treaty of Bucharest, July 29/August 11. On their return to Uskub, the schoolmasters were invited to remain in the Servian service, or in the event of refusal to go to Bulgaria. Forty-two signed a declaration to the effect that they preferred to be sent back, and by August 6/19 they had arrived at Sofia, coming by way of Niche and Pirotus. A few days later they were followed by two other bodies of schoolmasters from Uskub. The Serbization of the Uskub prefecture was an accomplished fact.

At Veles—the first object of Servian pretensions "beyond the frontier" agreed upon by the treaty—we find the same methods employed and the same stages in the process of Serbization. The name of the captain of the legalized band who chased the successor of Archbishop Meletius from Veles on February 4/17 after the usual savage scene, was Voino Popovits, and that of his assistant, Douchane Dimitrievits. An interim, lasting down to the turn of Meletius on March 28/April 10, was employed in seizing the Bulgarian monasteries and churches in the town. At the end of February the schoolmasters were invited to become Servian officials, and when they refused, they were threatened with persecution. The local "black hand'' made one or two examples, and the schoolmasters were compelled to stay at home or at least to refrain from exchanging greetings in the streets, on pain of being maltreated. Here on the eve of Easter the local bands sent into the villages were replaced by bands from Uskub, which the consuls had asked to have sent back. In order to spoil the national festival of St. Cyril and St. Methodius (May 11/24), the administrative authorities ordered the population to repair the streets.The inhabitants of Veles did not obey; disregarding the wishes of the authorities they shut their shops to celebrate the festival. [This is perhaps the origin of Article 23 of the Ordinances of September 21.]

On June 17/30 a particularly large number of arrests took place at Veles. All the schoolmasters of the town and villages were arrested, as well as all

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the priests and officials of the Metropolis, and between 150 and 200 inhabitant of the village. This was a form of recognition of the strength of national feeling in this little town, which had been one of the most active centers of the Bulgarian national movement, ever since its beginning. Martyrs too were no lacking. On June 18, in the evening, a priest, John Avramov, was dragged ou of prison and taken with five young men from the Koinik quarter into the "black house." The priest's throat was cut and his body thrown over the bridge into the Vardar. The current carried his corpse down and threw it up by the side of the stream, where near the shore, the water is almost stagnant. His beard had been plucked out. Nobody dared to take up or bury the body. Or the morrow it had disappeared. The five young men were killed together and their relations failed to find their bodies.

These measures may serve as typical. On the 28th two priests, D. Antonov and G. Mikhilov, were set at liberty with a number of notables. The intention here was quite plain. They were assembled in a sort of gathering which passed a resolution renouncing the exarchy, recognizing the Servian church, and declaring themselves Servians. This declaration was followed by a solemn service. A month later, on July 25/August 7, all the inhabitants and schoolmasters remaining in prison were likewise set free, after declaring themselves Servians. On August 5/18, a proposal was made at the prefecture to all the schoolmasters and mistresses, that they should either become Servian teachers or leave the town. With a single exception (Mr. Brachnarov) they all consented.

At Monastir (Bitolia), the chief place of the vilayet, and likewise coveted by the Servians "beyond" the frontier, the counting of the population was begun by the middle of December. Special commissions were sent into the villages with the object of persuading the population to declare itself Servian, by forcing the churches and the schools to become Servian. After that the disarmament of the population followed.

From the second half of February on the situation grew worse. Bronislav Nouchits, the well known Servian dramatist, who was the prefect, was regarded as too moderate, and replaced by someone more sympathetic with the views of the military party and of "the black hand." Acts of violence against individuals and the arbitrary imposition of fines became of more frequent occurrence. The Metropolis felt its isolation growing. A panic was created in the population by the case of the Stambouldjiev family, which was massacred within doors without the discovery of any traces of the criminals. [See above Mr. Boris' reference to this case.] The persecution of Bulgarians became more violent after the declaration made by Mr. Pachitch. Individual priests and schoolmasters were compelled to yield and to declare themselves Servians. Those who were recalcitrant were dealt with by the method of "disarmament," accompanied by domiciliary perquisitions and torture.

In the course of the days June 17 to 19 (June 30 to July 2) more than

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600 persons were arrested at Monastir. They were kept in strict confinement until July 13/26, when the Bulgarian defeat had become perfectly well known. Then the less turbulent among the peasants and artizans began to be set free, on condition of taking no part in national agitation. At the same time the less prominent inhabitants were invited, according to the quarters in which they lived, to sign the declaration, the text of which was afterwards published in an official Servian paper in Bitolia, Opchtinske Novine.The text, which may serve as a specimen of what was asked of the Bulgarian population and of what it was endeavored to make them believe, is as follows :

In order that, once for all, the question of our national feelings may be firmly established, and that a serious error may, at the same time, be wholly refuted, we, Slavs from Bitolia, hitherto attached to the exarchy, do today, being assembled in the orthodox church of St. Nedelia, state as follows: (1) That we are familiar from history that we have been Servians since ancient times, and that the Turks conquered the countries which we now inhabit from the Servians five and a half centuries ago. (2) That there is no difference either in nationality or in faith, or in language, or in customs between us and the Servians, as is proved by many remembrances and by the Servian schools, which were the only ones in existence in these lands up to the time of the Turco-Servian war of 1876-78. (3) That our ancestors were, and that we are, called Servians, but that under the recent influence of Bulgarian propaganda, and above all under the terror caused by the comitadjis, we have, in quite recent times, begun to turn our eyes to the Bulgarians, in the hope that, thanks to their preponderance in what was once the Turkish kingdom, they would be better able than the Servians to free us from our servitude. (4) That in the last war with the Turks, the Bulgarians instead of assisting and freeing us, appropriated Thrace and liberated non-Slav populations. (5) That the Servians have, by superhuman efforts and enormous sacrifices, taken these lands unassisted and so put an end to our servitude. (6) That both before and after the war the Servians treated us really as their brothers, while on the contrary the Bulgarians were at pains to separate us from our liberators. (7) That on the 17th of last month the Bulgarians attacked the Servian army, which shed its blood for them before Adrianople; an attack for which the whole civilized world condemns them. (8) That the Bulgarians desired to expose the people of these countries to new misfortunes and to destruction by their attempt at sending hither bands of brigands to burn the villages and pillage the people. Wherefore, we declare our entire solidarity with our Servian brothers and liberators: with them we will work in the future, shoulder to shoulder, to strengthen our country—Greater Servia.

When the signatures even of the most obscure and timid of the inhabitants had thus been collected, with the assistance of the police, the commander summoned a meeting of notables. An old merchant, Piperkov by name, when invited to sign, replied: "T am an old man, sixty years of age. My father always told me that my grandfather was Bulgarian. Therefore we do not con-

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sent to sign, and nothing but force can compel us to do so." The commander then gave him twenty-four hours for reflection. They met to the number of eleven in a private house; two of the number were inclined to submit to the Servian power. The other nine remained inflexible and were arrested. Their wives went to the Russian and Austrian consulates, whereupon they were again set at liberty and given a new period of twenty-four hours in which to sign. They then did sign (using their Bulgarian names, ending in ov, not in itz which was in itself an act of defiance) a declaration drawn up by themselves in which they described themselves as "Ottoman subjects free from Turkish rule by the victorious Servian army who would, in the future, remain faithful to their liberators, whose subjects they regarded themselves." The individual who told us this story at Salonica, added that these unfortunate men could not at this moment admit the possibility that Monastir might become Servian: they were as yet entirely ignorant of the issue of the war.

On July 10/23, the schoolmasters were called before the commander, and by order of the general staff the proposition was made to them with which we are already familiar, namely, to renounce the exarchy and become Servian officials by at once signing individual requests to this effect. They were promised higher salaries and assured that the years they had already served would be taken into account in estimating their pension. The schoolmasters declared that they were unwilling to go against their consciences; they asked to be allowed to live as private individuals and Servian subjects until the political situation of the country was decided. They were told that in that case a circular from the general staff would order their expatriation on the next day. Their statements that they were natives of the country, that most of them were married and had children, that they had property and other local ties, and that the question of the expatriation was one for their own private judgment, were entirely disregarded. Here as elsewhere the irrevocable decision had gone forth,—whosoever calls himself a Bulgarian must betake himself to Bulgaria. The final argument produced by the authorities was as follows: "The exarchy pays you, that is to say Bulgaria pays you; we are enemies of Bulgaria and that is why we treat you as agents provocateurs of an enemy power." No attention was paid to the protest that the salaries of most of the schoolmasters had been paid by religious communities. On July 13/26 they were escorted, to the number of thirty, through Prilepe and Veles, and thence through Uskub, where they were joined by the other protesting teachers from Prilepe (seventeen) and from Kesen (six), to Smederevo. On July 28/August 10 an Austrian Danube steamer landed them at Lom (Bulgaria). It is unnecessary to lay stress on their sufferings upon the way.

At Monastir the end was gained. On July 7/20, divine service was held for the solemn celebration of "unity, concord and love," in which service the Bulgarian priests who had just renounced their exarchy officiated jointly with

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the Servian clergy. After the service a meeting took place at which Mr. Tavetkovits, the moving spirit of Servian administration in Monastir, made a speech on the reconciliation of the people and their return to the bosom of Servia. After his speech the declaration with which we are familiar was read out, and the meeting terminated amid cries of "Long live Servia! Long live the Servian army! Long live King Peter! Long live Prince Alexander, the liberator of Monastir!"

There is little to add about the other towns in the Monastir prefecture. We have in our possession an interesting document about Prilepe, "the town of Mark Kralievits," the legendary Servian hero, in the shape of a proclamation issued by the commander of the place, Mr. Michael Menadovits, dated March 6/19. This shows that Mr. Menadovits had lost any illusion as to the "love and concord," of the liberated population. Prilepe, it should be said, was, like Veles, one of the strongholds of Bulgarism in Macedonia, and so Mr. Menadovits learned to his cost. "I can no longer recognize," he writes, "the people of Prilepe of whom I was so proud! Agitators and enemies of the Servian people (who are well known to me) have stirred up such a ferment among the peaceable and honorable citizens of this town, that I no longer know my old Prilepeans. What! Do you repay my love for you by plots against my life? Is this your gratitude for my kindness that you conspire in your houses to cut my head from my shoulders? My patience is at an end. The Bulgarian army whose arrival you await so impatiently from day to day, is not coming. You will be sorry to hear that it is never coming; do you understand ? That I can assure you of, with all the weight of my name and my position! Even to wish for it is a disgrace. If you want to know to whom Prilepe belongs, go up on to the heights of Monastir, to the mountain of Babonna, Bakarno Goumno, and ask your question of the graves of the sons of Servia which are there. * * * I address myself for the last time to the honorable men of Prilepe: Remember that the secret society called Nodnykra is a more dangerous enemy to you than to me. To you, cowardly agitators, I cry, 'do not play with the lives of peaceful citizens ! * * * Massacre Servian soldiers and officers if you like, but remember that the payment for their deaths is a far more terrible death!' "

The Servian commander of Resen (Resna) was equally dissatisfied with the state of feeling in that town, which was a republican center, and the birthplace of the Turkish Major Niazi-bey, who started the revolution in 1908 there. On December 9/22, 1912, he had called the notables of Resen before him to accuse them of being disloyal subjects, and of fomenting discord between rival nationalities. He added that it was in his power to have them all killed and hanged without distinction, great and small, and even old men with white beards (by which he meant the Archbishop's vicar) if they did not improve and hand over to him the Bulgarian propagandist leaflets. (The leaflets in question were the declaration of war by King Ferdinand and the proclamation by the Bulgarian

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Red Cross which had been left with the vicar by some travelers from Bulgaria.)

On December 14/27, all the schoolmasters of the towns and villages were summoned, and told by the commander that "everything taken by the Servian army would be kept by Servia," and that in future their salaries would be paid them from the Public Instruction office at Belgrade. In reply to the question, "Were there no private schools in the Servian kingdom?" the commander at first said nothing. Then, "Pardieu," said he, "I do not know, but you may be quite at ease about what I told you, since Turkey no longer exists." On March 15/28, they began taking the census, in which there was no heading "Bulgarian”. Special commissioners went from house to house, meeting resistance everywhere. In the lists the Bulgarian designation ending in ov was successfully preserved and only five households entered themselves as Servian. Since, however, the official list included no heading but "Servian," the papers published the figures as being the totals of the Servian population. "Disarmament" began in July, accompanied by the usual violence. The numerous examples of such violence found in our documents may be passed over in silence.

On June 17/30 between forty and fifty citizens and 250 and 300 villagers were arrested at Resen, and kept in confinement for a month. A village priest was offered his liberty, on condition of praying in the church that God might give victory to the Servians. After a few moments' hesitation, the priest replied to his interlocutor, "I can not pray to God except for the end of the war.” On July 10/23, the schoolmasters were brought out of prison and offered the usual alternative—"Sign a request to be nominated as Servian officials, or you shall be expatriated as Bulgarian agitators and spies." Some signed, the others first hesitated and then withdrew their request, after a categorical protest against expatriation had been made by a professor. He declared that it was illegal, as applied to native persons who had committed no criminal act and possessed a perfect right to live at home as private individuals. He with five others was, as we have seen, dispatched to Uskub. On July 11/24, the priests of the town and the villages were compelled to renounce the exarchy and recognize the Archbishop of Belgrade as their spiritual head. On July 26/August 18 some notables were summoned, to whom the declaration signed at Monastir was read out. They protested against it. "The exarchy," they said, "is not a form of propaganda; the exarchy is the work of the people, who constituted their church at a representative assembly of all the towns in Macedonia. The Bulgarian comitadjis did not teach us to be Bulgarians, but the Servian and Greek comitadjis do claim to teach us to change our nationality." A new form of declaration was then proposed: "Seeing that the exarchy and the orthodox church are one and the same, we declare ourselves Servians." When the notables again refused their approval they were all sent to prison and dispatched to Salonica, "in order," so they were told, "that the Greeks may massacre you." There they spent eighteen days under arrest, in a little room with eighty other Bulgarians. They were then sent to Bulgaria via Constantinople and Bourgas.

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Krouchevo (the third town of the Monastir prefecture) shows the same extortions, under color of requisitions, and the same acts of violence and domiciliary perquisitions under pretext of a search for arms. On the 17/30, the Servian soldiery left the town and their place was taken by a band with one Vanguel of Uskub at its head. Since the reputation of the acts of violence committed by the band had gone before it, five former Bulgarian comitadjis, living in the town, formed a band of their own and took to the hills. On June 19/July 2 all the notables were arrested. The prison was in the basement of the government building, and through the bars of their windows the captives overheard the sub-prefect, Evto Bekrits, delivering a harangue from the balcony to a newly formed band of vlach (Roumanian) and Grecizing (Romanize)inhabitants, on June 22. "In the absence of the army you are authorized to act. Since Bulgaria has declared war, you are authorized to do as you please with anyone calling himself a Bulgarian." On the next day, Vantcho Iogov, one of these recruits, beat a Bulgarian merchant, Demetrius Krestev, in the open market because the latter had a Bulgarian sign. On the merchant's complaint the sub-prefect issued a notice ordering the removal within twenty-four hours of all signs in the Bulgarian language: they were ordered, on pain of court-martial, to be replaced by Servian signs. (The same facts are repeated everywhere, at Uskub, Veles, Prilepe, etc.) We need not mention the other acts of violence committed under pretext of domiciliary perquisition. Even women were beaten and imprisoned for calling themselves Bulgarian. On June 29/July 12, the birthday of King Peter, all the prisoners were brought into the government hall. The sub-prefect promised them an amnesty if they would agree to admit that they were Servians. Two of them replied in the name of all the others that it was solely as Bulgarians that they could be loyal subjects of Servia and useful to the State. They were immediately taken back to prison where they remained for another month. On July 17, Vantcho Belouvtcheto, chieftain of the Bulgarian band, was killed by the soldiers of the Servian band, after two hours of real fighting. His head was cut off and carried in triumph all round Krouchevo. Towards evening it was put on the threshold of the prison, the door having been thrown open for the purpose. "So shall heads of all those who call themselves Bulgarian be treated," said the sub-prefect. On the next day he summoned the Archbishop's vicar, and ordered him to sign the written declaration. The vicar, terror stricken, signed without reading, and so lid the other priests. Two schoolmasters followed their example, but two others refused. An hour later, they were sent under escort via Prilepe to Uskub, where they remained for two more weeks imprisoned, until peace was concluded. On August 4/17, they were expatriated; their families meanwhile remaining in Macedonia.

Even greater resistance was met with in the assimilation of the places on he western frontier of Macedonia, at Okhrida and Dibra (Debar) on the borders

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of Albania. We find here, as everywhere else, the ordinary measures of "Serbization"—the closing of schools, disarmament, invitations to schoolmasters to become Servian officials, nomination of "Serbomanes," "Grecomanes," and vlachs, as village headmen, orders to the clergy of obedience to the Servian Archbishop, acts of violence against influential individuals, prohibition of transit, multiplication of requisitions, forged signatures to declarations and patriotic telegrams, the organization of special bands, military executions in the villages and so forth. The numerous arrests effected on June 17/30, extended impartially to all classes. At Okhrida, too, the threat of expatriation was successfully used to compel priests and professors collectively to renounce the exarchy. The imprisoned professors were compelled to accept their salary from the Servian Ministry of Public Instruction and to sign its receipts. Yet, up to the middle of September, the spirit of the people was not altogether broken. At Debar, external submission hardly concealed feelings of revolt. The exarchist clergy (forty priests) in the month of May formally renounced the exarchy by a solemn process of retractation, followed by an oath upon the Testament. As at Resen, the schoolmasters proved more recalcitrant. They were arrested on June 17/29 and kept in prison until the middle of July. Their ultimate fate is unknown to us. We do, however, know that during the months of August and September, the idea of resistance remained alive in the population. There was a great deal of talk of a scheme of "union" with the Holy See, as a means of preserving nationality after the abolition of the exarchist church. This idea appears to have originated spontaneously in the minds of the population of Monastir. Preparations were also being made for armed resistance, with the definite design for claiming Macedonian autonomy. The Servian government laid great stress on the fact that the Bulgarian comitadjis, under the direction of the voyevodas, Milan Matov, Stephen Khodjo, Peter Tchaoumev and Kristo Traitchev, had taken no part in the Albanian insurrection. In fact we know from an interesting story told by one of the initiated, and published in a Bulgarian paper, [See Izgreve of October 24/November 6—"The truth about the Albano-Macedonian insurrection."] that Mr. Matov had organized a band at El Bassan and prepared an appeal to the Bulgarians and the Moslems in conjunction with the Albanians. Owing to the refusal of the Albanian government this appeal failed, but Matov had behind him private assistance and support. He was in communication with the chieftain Tchaoumev at Okhrida, and with the Albanian and Bulgarian population in the villages. The little Servian garrisons, taken by surprise, had to beat a retreat, and for several days Okhrida, Struga and Debar were in the insurgents' hands. There was even talk of organizing a provisional Macedonian government at Okhrida.

These events were bound to react on the state of feeling of the populations of Western Macedonia. But at Prisrend and Diakovo, as well as at Debar and

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at Okhrida, the Servians soon made an end of the Albanian insurrection. The Albanian population to the number of some 25,000 souls took flight after defeat. Those who remained underwent the familiar treatment at the hands of the Servians. The Bulgarians also suffered severely. All the notables were imprisoned or shot. A number of mixed Albanian and Bulgarian villages were burned in the regions of Dolna-Reka, Gorna-Reka and Golo Urdo. After this the official "classification" of Macedonia might be regarded as completed.

In August, when the Commission went through Belgrade (August 10/23, to 12/25) the struggle was still going on as we see. In the occupied territories the Bulgarian population was still contending, and at Belgrade Mr. Pachitch was still unwilling to yield to the military party on the question of Macedonian administration. Since the crisis was not settled, the Commission might prove an inconvenient witness. This was probably one of the reasons why it was not desired at Belgrade that the Commission should move about freely. This apprehension was betrayed when a Belgrade paper accused a member of the Commission of seeking to distract the Commission from its principal object by arranging for them to visit Uskub, Veles, Mitrovitsa, Prisrend, Monastir, Tetovo, etc. [Balkan, August 13/26. The Commission had not had any such intention, because the time at its disposal and the itinerary drawn up before its departure from Paris did not allow of it. As regards Mr. Pachitch, it should be noted that the most substantial reason given, by him, for his refusal to the Commission, was that "the army would resent" the presence of one member in the interior. The campaign directed against the presence of this member of the Commission is still going on in the Servian press. The Paris correspondent of the Politika, of Belgrade, reports in the issue of November 11/24, that this member had offered a sum of fr. 40,000 to the Russian photographer, Tchernov, in the name of the Carnegie Endowment, for the purchase of photographs in his possession of “Bulgarian atrocities”, in order to withdraw the said photographs from publicity. This offer Mr. Tchernov was alleged to have refused. The truth is that two members of the Commission went to see the photographs which Mr. Tchernov exhibited in the Grand hotel of Paris, as evidence not of Bulgarian "atrocities," but of "war atrocities" in general. They found the photographs very interesting and quite authentic, and ordered some of them for the Commission, which Mr. Tchernov agreed to print at a stipulated price. Such is the manner in which falsehoods are spread.]

True, it was stated that there was no general objection to visits from strangers.Only they must be controlled. In our manuscript chronicle of events in Macedonia, we find under the date of February 10, a remark by the Vicar of Koumanovo: "Yesterday evening three Europeans, Englishmen, arrived in our town. According to the Servians they were sent to study the condition of the population. They were put up by the vicar of the Servian Archbishop. Today they made a tour of the town and went to see the authorities. A number of Bulgarians (among them the wife and brothers of Orde Yovtchev, who has disappeared) endeavored to interview them, but the government admitted nobody. Only a body of Turks were received and questioned as to the actual conditions of their life. Having been terrorized in advance, they stated that they 'lived well.'" Sufficient honor has been done the Commission to admit that it was not so easily satisfied as these simple tourists.

Is the work of false pacification, as revealed by our documents, definitive

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or lasting? A doubt is suggested by the ordinances of September 21. All that the Commission has since learned confirms such doubts.

True, the Servians are optimistic, to judge from the articles which have appeared in their press. This optimism, however, is sui generis, and satisfied with very little. Take the patriotic and militarist paper Piemont, which rejoices over the condition of affairs in Chtipe at the end of October:

In Chtipe things are like old Servia. People are getting busier and go about and work freely, there is no longer anyone who calls himself a Bulgarian, and if you happen to say the word Bulgarian before the citizens you are seized and sworn at. Everywhere in the streets people sing only Servian songs and dance Servian dances. Vicentius, Archbishop of Uskub, who arrived on the 5th/18th, was received at the Bregalnitsa bridge by the population of all creeds, Turks and Jews. In the last few days the first betrothals have taken place according to our custom; our photographer, Kritcharevits, has got married; the orchestra of the Fourteenth Regiment played at the wedding amid indescribable rejoicings. The young women of Chtipe are pretty; they are a trifle prudish, but that fault will mend.

Here is another correspondence sent from Monastir to Vienna via Salonica on October 14:

The town of Monastir is almost surrounded by a military cordon. The measures taken by the Servians in apprehension of any movement among the Bulgarians grow more and more Draconian * * * The authorities desire to compel the Bulgarians to send their children to the Servian schools (the Bulgarian schools are closed). To this end policemen go from house to house warning people that those who do not send their children to the Servian schools will be fined—the fines being, fr. 100 for those who do not send their children to school at all, fr. 200 for those who send them to non-Servian schools (there are some vlach (Roumanian) schools), fr. 600 for those sending them abroad without the knowledge of the authorities. Young people between nineteen and thirty are not allowed to leave the country.

Here is another correspondence from Monastir, published in the Bulgarian paper Mir, of November 29/December 12:

On November 12/25, fifty-one Bulgarian peasants were killed in the Boumba quarter, and another at Tchenguel-Karakole, by the authorities themselves. The policemen make a practice of pillaging the peasants as they return from making their sales and purchases at market. A number of peasants from the villages of Ostriltsi, Ivanovtsi, Rouvtsi, Bala-Arkava, Vocheni, Borandi, have disappeared. At the village of Krouchevo five persons (whose names are given) were beaten; at Ostriltsi nine; at Ivanovtsi, eight; at Berantsi, nine; at Sredi, seven; at Obrachani, four; at Padilo, three, etc.

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At Okhrida, after the retreat of the comitadjis at the beginning of October (see above) a panic seized the whole population. There was no village without its victims, chief among them being priests and schoolmasters. In the beginning of October alone three priests, five teachers and some 150 villagers, Bulgarian citizens, were killed, without counting 500 Turks and Albanians. Whole quarters were destroyed on the plea that they belonged to rebels; the houses of the families of the chieftains Tchaoulev, and Matov, were among those destroyed. All the young men of any intelligence, to the number of fifty, were imprisoned. They were tortured at least once a day, and often left without food for three days. All the priests were arrested because on December 14 and 15, they had prayed in the churches for King Ferdinand and Archbishop Boris; when interrogated they replied that such was Tchaoulev's order. [Correspondence of October 16/29 in the Politika, and that of December 19/January 2 in the Vosrajdanie.]

At last the Servians themselves are beginning to admit that things are not going as they should. Here, as in Bulgaria, the organs of the opposition press lay the blame and the responsibility on the personnel of the administration. The Balkan declares that this personnel is in no way different from that of the Turkish regime. The government press makes excuses but can not deny the fact: "There are not enough trained officials. The conditions of life in the conquered countries are too difficult to call forth a sufficient supply of competent candidates." [See the controversy between the Balkan, the Pravda, the Novosti, the Odjek and even the Piemont. on the one hand, and, on the other, the Sammouprava in December.] The real difficulty, however, the state of feeling of a population subjugated but not subdued—was not remedied. Measures were taken to combat such opposition as was left. They were not quite sure of the clergy, still less of the teachers who had taken the oath. In Belgrade itself the Commission heard the question discussed whether it would not be better to send the Bulgarian officials, although they had submitted, into really Servian regions, such as Metohia and Kosovo Pole. The favorable impression to be produced outside by these quasi-voluntary acts of submission, which also were useful in assisting to hide the complete lack of candidates for administrative posts, led at the moment to the simple registration of Bulgarian officials among the Servian staff. Later, conditions changed. On October 19/November 1, a Bulgarian paper speaks of eighty-eight schoolmasters who had come from old Servia (Kosovo and Metohia) and were nominated to former Bulgarian schools (twenty-one to Uskub, nineteen to Monastir, seven to Prilepe, ten to Koumanovo, six to Okhrida and twenty-five to Veles). On November 11/24, the Serbische Correspondenz speaks of 200 professorial candidates from Croatia and Hungary, ready to take their places in "new Servia." If reliance can be placed on the correspondence published in the Bulgarian press, the attendance at the new schools is not great, despite the fines for absence. Nevertheless, the number of Servian schools increased, although they were inferior to the Bulgarian

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schools, both in number and in quality. [See the interesting report by a Servian professor Mr. T. M. Yakovlevits, on “The condition of Bulgarian schools at Macedonia in comparison with Servian schools," published October 16/29 in the Serbska Zastava.] According to official Servian statistics (SerbeCorr. November 29/December 12), there are now 395 schools where there were 193, with 350 teachers, where there were 240. What is being taken over is the Bulgarian inheritance. At Uskub a training school for teachers has even been opened. But among the 380 students, 260 come from Old Servia and only 120 from the conquered territory, according to the Servian authority.

The most serious difficulty which remains to be overcome, is the state of mind of the population. The latest reports in our possession do not show any improvement. The same steps continue to be taken for dealing with discontent, which is general, by means of terrorism, which is not growing less. The Mir of December 23/January 5, contains an Albanian correspondence, from which we quote:

At Kritchovo, 150 peasants were beaten in the presence of the authorities : seventeen persons killed by blows and the corpses burned. The others too were seriously wounded and thrown into the stable without any sort of medical aid. At Novo-Selo five peasants were beaten by the Servian gendarmes. At Plasnitsa we found six peasants killed by a Servian patrol, forty peasants killed in October, five houses burned. Gvayace was attacked by a Servian band, forty peasants were killed and their corpses thrown into the wells. In October, in the same village, 200 peasants were killed and 800 Turkish books carried off. Toukhine was pillaged by a Servian band. At the same time a Servian theater was being opened at Uskub, and the Minister of Public Instruction intrusted Professor Hits to collect popular songs in the annexed territories; and it was cited by the Minister for the Interior as proving that "the fullest liberty of conscience was granted to all confessions in the practice of their religious observances," that the Moslems were permitted to hunt on their feast days (Serbische Correspondenz).

The most elementary condition to be fulfilled before toleration towards a conquered country can be claimed, is clearly that formulated by the Greek delegates at the peace conference at Bucharest, and extended to all belligerents by the Bulgarian delegates, but rejected because of the refusal of the Servian delegate: "Whereas war against the Ottoman Empire has been undertaken by Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Servia, in order to guarantee to all the nationalities the conditions of free development; whereas it is impossible that this noble inspiration should not have survived the events that have since separated the former allies * * * Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Servia recognize with the newly annexed territories autonomy for the religious communities and freedom for the schools." [See the Proces-verbal No. 10 of the Bucharest Conference session July 26/August 8, 1913. Likewise rejected was the proposal of the representative of the United States at Bucharest, Mr. Jackson, to insert into the peace treaty a provision according full civil and religious liberty to the inhabitants of any territory subjected to the suzerainty of any one of the five Powers or which might be transferred from the jurisdiction of one Power to that of another, "with the same recourse to 'the public law of the Constitutional States represented' which would have afforded the consecration of long usage."] Had this condition been accepted, we might indeed have be-

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lieved in "the establishment of friendly relations between the four States," and the possibility of "insuring to the populations called upon to dwell together an era of justice and wide toleration." The Servian delegate, however, replied that "the question, in so far as it concerns new Servian subjects, is regulated by the constitution of the Servian kingdom"—a statement which, as we have seen, was not true. The results of this refusal have been seen. It has been easier to conquer than it will be to keep the fruits of conquest. The Servian press is full of apprehension as to the true sentiments of the conquered population, and is constantly envisaging some rising danger from outside. Today it is Albania preparing new disorders for the spring; yesterday the Bulgarian comitadjis were crossing the Roumanian frontier with false passports to get somewhere in Macedonia. (Serbische Correspondens, November 26/December 11). Another day America is allowing Macedonian conspirators from Tetovo or Doiran to organize committees for the recovery of the autonomy of their enslaved country (Tregovinski Glasnik) in New York, Chicago, Portland or St. Louis. A new emigration is at hand with its army of between 15,000 and 20,000 Macedonian workmen, who can not be brought under any ordinances. The Pravda is evidently right in thinking that it will not be necessary to wait twenty-five years for a Zabern. But, we repeat, the condition is "autonomy for the religious communities and freedom for the schools,"—a return, that is to say, to the minimum of liberalism which did up to the last few years exist in fact, guaranteed by international treaties, even in old absolutist Turkey.
3. Greek Macedonia


The documents in the possession of the Commission are less complete for Greek than for Servian Macedonia. But the data at its disposal are sufficient to establish the conclusion that here too the same situation is repeated, down to the smallest detail, of the assimilation of the Bulgarian population in Southern Macedonia (Vodena, Castoria, Florina). The procedure is quite analogous to that employed to assimilate the same population in the north. As to the alternative system, which consists in the extermination of the Moslem population, it was repeated on the eastern frontier of Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace, like the analogous Servian system on the western frontier on the confines of Albania. The only difference is that the two methods of assimilation and extermination are here pursued with even more system and even less humanitarian sentiment. Is it indeed a "human" race, this "dirty" (sale) Slav? They are not anthropi. They are arkoudi—bears. The word recurs frequently in our depositions, and corresponds perfectly to the Bulgarophage, sentiment that was

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consciously being developed in the army and among the populace by means of patriotic verse and popular pictures, of which specimens will be found in the Appendix.

We begin with Salonica, the natural center of Greek Macedonia. The Commission received no great facilities on the part of the Greek government for inquiry into the facts that interested them at Salonica. All the same, the members took advantage of the fact that they were free to come and go in the town, to investigate the available sources of information. True, the indigenous population with some few exceptions hid away, the Greeks out of hostility towards the Commission (as their articles in the local press well show); the Jews from fear of responsibility. The foreigners remained and although the very name of Bulgaria had been proscribed, there were still some belated Bulgarians. From Bulgarian governesses about to embark the next day, a member of the Commission learned the details of the days, June 30, July 1 (June 17, 18), of the Bulgarian downfall, which took place soon after the beginning of the second Balkan war. Later the Commission was able to test their evidence by that of others; on its return the highly important written evidence of the Bulgarian prisoners liberated at the end of the year 1913, was added to the oral testimonies and confirmed and corroborated it. The most important place among the later testimonies belongs to the recollections of the commander of the Bulgarian garrison at Salonica, Major Velisar Lazarov, which appeared in the Bulgarian paper Politico, in November.

Without lingering over the numerous incidents that took place between the actual masters of the town and those who aspired to take their place, we may draw the general conclusion that relations between the Greek and Bulgarian military living side by side in Salonica, were extremely strained during the whole time of common occupation. After April, 1913, there were but three companies of the Fourteenth Macedonian regiment whose status was regulated in May by a special convention between the two governments. This little garrison was quartered in some dozen houses situated in the different quarters of the town, Hamidie street, Midhat-pasha street, Feisli street, etc. Every day as many as sixteen pickets were set to guard the official institutions and the lodgings of the high military, civil and ecclesiastical Bulgarian officials. The Bulgarian military force was thus distributed in the eastern portion of the town.

On June 17/30, General Kessaptchiev, representing the Bulgarian government at the. Greek quarter general, left Salonica because of the opening of hostilities. Some army officers who accompanied him to the station were persuaded that the Greeks were preparing an attack. Mr. Lazarov then went in all haste from the station to the Bulgarian General Staff, opposite St. Sofia, to warn his officers and men. Thence he went to Feisli street, to the Turkish school-house, where most of the Bulgarian soldiers were quartered. A letter from the Greek commander, General Calaris, followed him thither. The general in-

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formed him that hostilities had been opened by the Bulgarian army and proposed to him to leave Salonica with his garrison within an hour, after giving up his arms. At the expiration of this delay, the Bulgarian army in Salonica would be regarded as hostile and treated accordingly.

General Kessaptchiev's train started at one o'clock. Air. Lazarov received Calaris's letter before three. Half an hour before, at 2.30, the Greek soldiers had begun the attack on the Bulgarian pickets. Mr. Lazarov wrote his reply amid shots. In it he asked permission to communicate with his superiors by telegraph. At five o'clock, after two hours of steady firing, the Greeks gave the order to cease. There had been a misunderstanding. Then the French consul, Mr. Jocelin, arrives and wishes to speak with Mr. Lazarov. "Very good," is the reply of Mr. Calaris. After five minutes waiting this is the reply that came: "The conditions are refused." Mr. Jocelin departed. The fusillade began again on both sides. The French consul had been told that Mr. Lazarov would not see him. The last hope of preventing the catastrophe disappeared. Towards evening cannon and shell began to speak. Night came on; an hour after midnight the Greeks again ordered, "Give up arms!" Mr. Lazarov's reply was the same. He asked permission to communicate with his superiors. Fighting began again, with redoubled fury. Many houses were in flames, some were destroyed by cannon, about eighty peaceable citizens and nearly a hundred Bulgarian soldiers were killed. The night ended and Mr. Lazarov himself this time offered to surrender on condition of keeping arms (without bayonets), baggage and money. The conditions were accepted; then on the pretext that the Bulgarian soldiers might have tried to keep the bayonets, refused. The Bulgarian soldiery were arrested unconditionally.

On the morning of June 18/July 1, two merchant steamers, poetically named Mariette Ralli and Catherine, were ready to convey the prisoners to Greek fortresses. There were no arrangements for the comfort of the prisoners on these boats, and no intention of making them. The soldiers were shut up in the hold of the boats, near the engines and the coal, in an insupportably thick atmosphere. The officers, to the number of twenty, were lodged in a cabin with two beds. Neither officers nor soldiers were allowed on the bridge. The only drink they were given was stale water mixed with brine, and on the second day, some mouldy biscuit as their only food. Yet the officers were soon to see that their lot was not the worst. After the soldiery, persecution of the Bulgarian civil population at Salonica began, under pretext that they were all comltadjis.

The members of the Commission of Inquiry heard horrible stories of what happened at Salonica in the streets and in the Bulgarian houses on July 18. But there again it is not always convenient to cite the names of those who suffered, still less of those who gave evidence. We shall begin with a foreigner, at once victim and witness, who was taken for a Bulgarian and consequently for a comltadji. His story, which we shall cite in extenso, will serve as an example.

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John (Jovane) Rachkovits, Austrian subject, born in Dalmatia, was a merchant in Salonica. On June 17/30, he came out of his shop to go to the Austrian post office, where he had an order for fr. 300 to cash. He had the sum of ninety francs in his pocket. A spy pointed him out to the police as a Bulgarian comitadji. This was enough to cause him to be arrested, brought before the police, interrogated, and his reply being doubted, put on board the steamer and shut up in the coal bunker. There he spent three days and three nights, in company with seventy-two Bulgarian prisoners. All that he had was stolen from him and when he tried to protest, in his quality of Austrian subject, his Austrian passport was snatched from him and torn in pieces. Some soldiers were shot during the crossing, and he "suspected" that some one had been thrown into the sea. [We shall see that this suspicion was well founded.] No bread was given out, only biscuits. The drinking water was brackish. When they arrived at Trikeri (the prison at the opening of the Gulf of Volo), they were given bread, olives and onions. There was no doctor at Trikeri, and the prisoners died at the rate of five to seven a day. After protests from the Austrian consul, Mr. Rachkovits was sent back to Salonica, but he suffered even more on the return voyage. His hands were tied so tightly behind his back that his chest was strained. Afterwards water was poured on the cords to make them tighter still. Ten days after his arrival at Salonica a member of the Commission saw his swollen and diseased hands; part of the skin had been taken off and the marks of the cords could still be clearly seen.

Here is the fate of another civil prisoner, this time a real Bulgarian, Spiro Souroudjiev, a notable known in Salonica. He had already been arrested, questioned and set at liberty. A week later he was arrested again and sent to Trikeri. He was a rich man, and his wife succeeded in seeing her husband again by paying the sum of ?T500 (the figure was given to a member of the Commission by people who knew). But in what a state did she see him! The poor man was half dead, and could not speak. At his second interview with his wife, he could only just pronounce the words "We have been horribly beaten." His clothes smelled of excrement. For seven nights he had not slept, having been fastened back to back with another prisoner. On his wife's insistence he was transported to the French hospital of the Catholic sisters, but the next day he was transferred to the cholera barracks, where, after two injections, he died.

Here is a third case, and one of a kind that will not be forgotten. The victim is the vicar of the Bulgarian Archbishopric at Salonica, the Archimandrite Eulogius, who by duty and conviction alike represented the national Bulgarian cause throughout the whole vilayet. This time we have a declared enemy of Macedonian Hellenism. A member of the Commission made his acquaintance during his journey to the Balkans in January, 1913. He was a highly educated man, having studied at an ecclesiastical high school in Austria Hungary, and then

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in Paris; an enlightened and ardent patriot of noble and elevated views. He was subjected to persecution by the Greek authorities even at this time, and took great pains in the use of the Bulgarian language in the teaching of the Episcopal See, which the Greeks frequently tried to prevent. The Bulgarian soldiers lodged just in front of the Episcopal house; and it was thanks to the protection of the temporal power that the spiritual maintained its existence. But with the extinction of this last dream of Bulgarian sovereignty, the Archbishopric was at an end. The Archimandrite Eulogius lived his last on June 18/July 1. During the night attack he escaped by hiding under the staircase; in the morning he was taken and put on board the steamer Mariette Ralli, where Commander Lazarov and Dr. Lazarov, a doctor at the hospital, joined him and conversed with him. Their two depositions have now been published,[The story of Commander Lazarov in the Politico of November 14/27, 1913 (in Bulgarian) and that of Dr. Lazarov as an appendix to the Refly to pamphlet by the Professors of the University of Athens—Bulgarian Atrocities in Macedonia, by the professors at the University at Sofia, p. 115.] and it is important to compare them with the assertion of the agency at Athens, that "It appears from the public inquiry that Eulogius was at the head of Bulgarian comitadjis at Salonica, who fired on the Greek troops which were trying to reestablish order. Eulogius was killed at the moment he fired on the Greeks."

Unfortunately it is not true that Eulogius died in defending himself against the Greek soldiers who were "reestablishing order" by sacking the Bulgarian Episcopal palace. About midday on the 18th the two brothers Lazarov saw him on board the Mariette Ralli. Towards evening on the same day he was transferred on board the Catherine. On the 19th at half past two the Catherine took to sea. Three hours later, Eulogius was no more. Here again eye witnesses confirm what the Commission heard said in Salonica. F. Doukov, a Bulgarian prisoner, just returned to Varna from Greece, says for example:

He was arrested on June 17 about midday, and incarcerated in the post office at Top-hane. At seven o'clock, four soldiers from the bank picket were brought to the post office also, and with them the cashier of the bank, Helias Nabouliev, and Jankov, the accountant. On the next morning all the Bulgarians who had been taken were gathered together, Nabouliev was called, stripped and deprived of fr. 850. The others were also pillaged. Before noon all the prisoners were put on board the steamer, Nabouliev and Jankov a little later. On the same day towards evening, the vicar of the Salonica Archbishopric, the Archimandrite Eulogius, was brought with his deacon, Basil Constantinov, and George Dermendjiev, the Metropolitan archvicar, his secretary, Christian Batandjiev, being put on another steamer. Before noon on the 19th several Greeks from Salonica came on board the boat and jeered at and beat the prisoners. The Archimandrite was maltreated in the most shameful way. In the afternoon at half past two the steamer started. When it passed the big promontory of Kara-Bournon, the Archimandrite was thrown into the sea. Three shots were fired at him and he

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drowned. J. Nabouliev, Jankov and Nicolas Iliev were put to death in the same way. [Politica. October 20, 1913 (old style).]

Another witness is Basil Lazarov, the forester of Kazanlik, who says:

On June 19, at half past three in the afternoon, 223 soldiers, eight men employed on the railway, Ghnev and Vatchkov, officials at the station, Tordanov, the physician of the Fifth Hospital, Mr. Nabouliev, cashier of the Bulgarian National bank, Mr. Jankov, the accountant of the same bank Eulogius, vicar of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Salonica, and many other Bulgarians and a large number of peaceable citizens of the Macedonian countries occupied by the Greeks, were conveyed on board the steamer Catherine to the Island of Itakon. After a voyage of three hours, near Cape Kara-Bournon, we saw a man being put to death; the Greek soldiers threw the Archimandrite P2ulogius into the sea, and fired three shots at him for fear he might escape drowning. On June 21, about seven in the evening, Jankov the accountant, Nicolas Iliev the courier, and Nabouliev the cashier were called up to the bridge. When they went up the exits of our prison were shut by means of planks, and we were told not to try to get out. At this moment the three persons whose names I have just given had already been cast into the sea.

Another eye witness, the soldier, G. Ivantchev, described the scene of the murder of Rev. Father Eulogius in the following words :

We were a number of soldiers on board the steamer. I happened to stand a little apart. The Greek soldiers ordered our people to go down into the hold. When I found myself alone I was afraid of being thrown out of the ship and held my breath. At this moment the Vicar of our Archbishopric, the Rev. Father Eulogius, was brought up and two Greek soldiers having hastily robbed him transfixed him with their bayonets and threw him into the sea. I saw his long black hair floating for some time on the water, and then everything disappeared.

The Bulgarian Telegraphic Agency actually gives the names of the Greeks at Salonica who came on board the steamer on June 19/July 2 to see Eulogius maltreated. "The President of the Greek revolutionary committee, a fanatic called Cherefa and Dr. Mizo Poulos" were the people "who came on board the Catherine where the andarte hit the Bulgarian prelate twice and even kicked him in the shins.

After such scenes of refined barbarism, it is hardly necessary to record the numerous stories of domiciliary perquisitions and arbitrary arrests which took place at Salonica during the days between the 17th and the 19th, which have come to the knowledge of the Commission. The picture may be completed by mentioning that avarice as well as cruelty played its part in all this. The victims were systematically robbed before they were put to death, and frequently

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money was taken as a ransom for life and liberty. Money was taken from the soldiers who were sent to Trikeri, but most of them kept something back. The device employed by the Greek guards to compel their prisoners to give up what they had kept back was as follows :[This story was heard by the Commission at Sofia, and they are acquainted with the names of the Bulgarian prisoners who witnessed it.]

Twenty-eight prisoners were transferred from the ship to the shore in a little boat. When they got near land, the Greeks made holes in the bottom of the boat and it began to fill with water. The prisoners were then asked to give up their money on pain of being drowned. Our witnesses say that the threat was not vain; two prisoners who had no money were drowned. All the others gave what they possessed.

Even at Salonica people who did not want to be sent to prison or shut up paid the police agents who took them. When in the first instance the arrest was made by officials of a lower grade, the business was easier and cheaper. Thus at Salonica names are given of people arrested and set free the same day at the police station. Once the prisoner was transported to the central prison, it became more difficult and troublesome; but all was not yet lost. Thus the Dermendjievs, father and son, paid ?T100, Mr. Piperkov, fifty pounds, and Mr. Kazandjiev an amount not known. The case of Mr. Karabelev, a Stamboulist deputy from Plevna, and proprietor of the Grand Hotel, is more complicated. Being arrested eleven days before the catastrophe of June 30, he handed over the key of his strong box to the Russian consul. A proposal to set him at liberty at the price of twenty-five Napoleons was made. The police then appeared to make a legal perquisition in his strong box. It was too late; the police found the strong box broken and the whole contents, diamonds, bonds and some thousands of Turkish pounds disappeared!

But a simple plan open to any Greek soldier was to appear in a Bulgarian-house and say: "Your money or your life." A story is told by a Bulgarian in the documents of Mr. Miletits. [Documents on the Greek atrocities extracted from the book by Professor L. Miletits, Greek Atrocities in Macedonia, p. 65.] "On June 20/July 3, two soldiers came into our house and threatened to kill G———, as they had already killed many other Bulgarians. You can imagine the fear and horror which filled the house. The soldiers then said that they would not touch him if he gave them fr. 500. G——— had a hundred francs which he offered them, but the soldiers refused it. G—— then told them to wait while M—— went to get some money from Yosko M—— found two Cretan policeman who suddenly appeared, told them what was going on and brought them to the house. The soldiers made off and the incident was thus at an end."

To the knowledge of the Commission these brave Cretans more than once turned what might easily have become a tragedy into a farce.The Cretan

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police often had to defend the Bulgarian population at Salonica against the tacit complicity of the evzones and the Greek soldiers with the Greek population. Here is another scene in the Commission's documents: After June 18 one of the two houses occupied by the Bulgarian girls' school remained unhurt. The schoolmistress, Ivanova, came to lock the house up. She found Greek soldiers feasting before the door. Seeing Miss Ivanova shutting the doors, the Greek inhabitants suggested to the soldiers getting in by the windows. Soldiers and inhabitants climbed up to the window and pillaged the property of Miss Ivanova: they then asked for her keys to make legal perquisition. The schoolmistress complained to the Cretans. They asked her to show them the Greek houses in which the stolen goods were to be found. She went from house to house with the police, finding here her cushion, there her clothes, and in another house her wardrobe, which a Greek soldier had sold for five francs.

The abuses committed in such an atmosphere may readily be imagined. Worse, however, than these abuses was the use of legal force. The notion of having to deal always with comitadjis became a kind of obsession. The prisons of Salonica were overflowing with Bulgarians, arrested in the town itself and in the vilayet, for having dared to proclaim themselves Bulgarians. It was reckoned that between 4,000 and 5,000 had been sent to Greece while as many as a thousand were shut up in the prisons at Salonica (at Yedikoule, at Konak, and in the "new" prison). We shall have another opportunity to return to the condition of these prisons and their inmates and to the violations of the Red Cross conventions during the memorable days of the 17th, 18th and 19th of June. We may, however, quote here the case of a witness who was heard by the Commission, to show the way in which people who had committed no crime but that of being Bulgarians were being treated at this time. This was a scholar of the Salonica Realschuli, Demitrius Risov, a youth of seventeen. On June 17, he was walking in the street when he was arrested and led "before a captain." The latter asked him, "Who are you ?" He replied, "I am Bulgarian." He was searched and a photograph of his father, a Bulgarian officer, found upon him. "What is that?" Without waiting for a reply, the officer hit him and sent him to prison under the guard of a soldier. There were seventeen policemen and soldiers who beat him for five or ten minutes, until he lost consciousness. He was thrown down from the top of a step-ladder, and since the ladder had no steps he fell against the wall and lay there for some time in the mud and wet. In the evening as many as thirty other civil prisoners were brought in, and since there was very little room below the ladder, Risov had to stand on it. In this position he heard a Cretan policeman boasting of the massacres of civilians. By way of proof one of the policemen produced a paper in which there was a severed human ear, which Risov said that he saw less than a yard off. Everybody laughed at this proof of courage. At the end of about an hour and a half, they saw Risov sleeping as he stood. Somebody pushed him and he fell down.

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A soldier came down after him and said, "Only wait two or three hours and we will send you all to sleep for good." Some peasants among the prisoners began saying their prayers and making the sign of the Cross, when they heard these words. Forty-eight hours passed thus, during which no food was given them, despite their complaints; then the door opened again and Risov was pointed out and again interrogated. To frighten them, he said that when he was arrested he had been to the American consulate before starting for America. He was set at liberty. But the way was long and Risov knew that Bulgarians found in the streets were being killed every day. He asked for a written passport, or a soldier to take him home. The officer refused; Risov went out alone and taking precautions returned to his family. Alas, he found his mother in tears, for his father, an old man of sixty-five, was in prison. Thence he was sent to Greece. His younger brother, who had been severely beaten, was very ill; his elder brother, a deaf mute, had also been beaten, for they had taken his infirmity as a device. A week later the Cretans visited the house again. They looked for somebody or something. They took hold of the deaf mute and pulled his tongue to make him speak. They found nothing, and left the house, threatening, "If you do not become Greeks in three days, we will water your deaf mute with petrol and burn him with the house." The mother, in despair, threatened to go out of her mind. Risov then remembered that the mother of one of his friends was a Frenchwoman. He asked her to get the consulate to intervene. Salvation thus came at last from France. After a new perquisition the Risov family was left in peace.

The Commission could quote other witnesses of the same kind, but it seems that what has been said is sufficient to enable the reader to draw his own conclusions.

The country behind Salonica is inhabited by a yet more mixed population, from the nationalist point of view, than that of Northern Macedonia (see the ethnographic map). Apart from the Hellenic population, which occupies a narrow strip to the south of Macedonia, the Tchataldjic peninsula, and the coasts, which constitutes a more or less important part of the town population, you meet Bulgarians, Turks, Wallachians (Vlachs or Roumanians), Albanians, Jews, Gypsies. At the end of the two wars and the oppressive measures of which we shall speak, the ethnographic map of Southern Macedonia had undergone profound changes. But we have a recent picture of the state of things before the war in the ethnographic map just published by Mr. J. Ivanov, of the University of Sofia—in 1913. [Ethnographic map of Southern Macedonia, representing the ethnic distribution on the eve of the 1912 Balkan war, by J. Ivanov, lecturer at the University of Sofia. Scale 1:200,000. Explanatory notes. Sofia, 1913, p. 8. The author employed the Turkish electoral lists and the Salnames, Greek statistics made in 1913 by Mr. Kalixiopoulos; the unpublished returns of the detailed statistics undertaken by the 1912 Exarchate, and the new Roumanian statistics of A. Rubin & Co. Noe, etc., and "verified all information at his disposal on the spot." The map shows all the towns and villages in proportion to their size, and marks the proportions of the various nationalities in color.] The total numbers belonging to the various nation-

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alities in a territory a little larger than the portion in the same region ceded to the Greeks by the Turks was as follows:

Bulgarian.............................................................................................329 371
Turks .................................................................................................314 854
Greeks ...............................................................................................236 755
Wallachians ......................................................................................... 44 414
Albanians............................................................................................. 15 108
Gypsies ................................................................................................25 302
Jews .....................................................................................................68 206
Miscellaneous .........................................................................................8 019
Total :.......................................................................................... 1 042 029

The statistics accepted by the Greeks differ considerably from these. To give some idea of the difference, the figures of Mr. Amadou Virgili are reproduced (in brackets) with those of the Messager d'Athenes of February 2/15, 1913, quoted in a recent work by Mr. Charles Bellay, L'irredentisme hellenique (Perrin, 1913), as representative of the Greek point of view:



SANJAKS (Divisions of vilayets) Servia Salonica Serres Drama Total
Orthodox greeks 111 000 (119 466) 224 000 (233 508) 92 000 (96 513) 46 000 (47 852) 473 000 (497 339)
Exarchist Bulgarians 1 500 75 000 (70 096) 121 000 (98 586) 2 000 (2 120) 199 500 (170 802)
Moslems 59 000 (80 702) 200 000 (189 600) 118 000 (122 303) 105 000 (124 100) 482 500 (516 705)
Wallachians 760 (1 460) 6 000 (3 928) 1 350 (980) 8 110 (6 368)
Jews (43) 61 800 (65 730) 1 400 (3 005) 63 200 (68 778)
Gypsies 900 7 500 250 8 650
Serbs 1 400
Miscellaneous (3) (2 314)
172 260 (201 674) 569 100 (565 176) 341 250 (321 387) 153 250 (174 072) 1 236 360 1 262 309

Clearly, in the Greek statistics, the Moslem total is swollen by the addition of the pomaks (Bulgarian Moslems), from whom, in the Bulgarian statistics, the Turks are separated. In the Greek figures the "orthodox" Greeks include the patriarchist Bulgarians and Wallachians, whom they call "Bulgarophone Greeks" or "Wallachophones" (Roumanianizers). With these exceptions, the difference is not considerable, when it is remembered that the territory is not quite the same; and it may be admitted that if language rather than the religion is used to determine nationality, Mr. Ivanov's figures are or were nearer the truth. The polemics of the Servian press put the number of "Slavs" annexed by Greece at 260,000; a figure which the Greek press reduced to 120,000. The secret Greek-Bulgarian treaty, as we know, contained no indication as to the frontiers on which the two parties had agreed. This was one more incitement to "Hellenic irridentism." In Greece, as in Servia, two opposing tendencies were af work after the first successes of the Hellenic army. Like Mr. Pachitch, of Belgrade, and Mr. Guechov, of Servia, Mr. Venizelos was for moderation, seeing therein the sole means of safeguarding their common creation, namely,


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the Balkan alliance. The discontent of the military party grew more and more outspoken, and as in Servia so in Greece, found a leader and interpreter in the person of the heir to the throne. The Greek diaspora was a much stronger and older organization than the scattered colonies gathered round the Servian schoolmasters and band leaders. Here the patriotic organization was based on a considerable settlement of really Greek population, and was accustomed to obey the word of command from Athens. From the months of January and February onwards, a regular campaign was organized, with addresses, memoranda, telegrams, congress resolutions, etc., despatched to the Ambassadorial Conference in London and to the Hellenic government, all demanding annexation by Greece. On March 1/14, one of these memorials was presented to the Hellenic chamber in the name of the "Hellenes of Thrace and of Eastern Macedonia, who constitute almost the whole of the Christian population of these regions." The petitioners "proudly proclaim that Hellenism alone has, in the present war, made more moral and material sacrifices than any other of the allies or than all the allies together"; and demand their national regeneration through union with their mother country, Greece. [See this and the sixty-two other memorials published in the appendices to the interesting and instructive work of Mr. Charles Bellay, L'irredentlsme hellenique, cited above.] Mr. Venizelos entered an interpolation here, and his reply afforded a remarkable example of a political wisdom, soon to find itself swept away by the chauvinistic passion of the dominant party: "Necessarily," said the initiator of the alliance, "Greek populations and groups composed of these populations will pass under the domination of our allies. And the reason is not that these countries have been conquered by our allies, or that our allies demand it, but the force of geographical considerations. This is so true that even were our allies disposed to allow us to extend our frontiers towards their regions, and encompass the Greek populations, I at least, in my capacity of responsible Minister, would never accept a line of demarcation which for us is full of peril. If we are to go on extending in unbroken continuity along the sea, to encompass all the Greek population of Thrace, Greece thus extended and without any vertebral column, would be weaker than if its frontiers were rounded off differently. * * * I hope that no one from these benches will encourage resistance on the part of these disturbed and troubled populations." When he was violently attacked for these words, Mr. Venizelos added: "A similar declaration was made three or four weeks after the declaration of the war of liberation. * * * From that time on I have stated that I was making the sacrifice of a large part of Hellenic Thrace. * * * I felt it my duty to communicate this statement to the Chamber because * * * I knew that a movement was being worked up among their Greek populations which are destined to remain inside of Greater Greece. * * * Those who are urging such an attitude upon them are the true enemies of their country."


Nevertheless, while speaking against the procedure of the patriotic Hellenic

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organizations in Thrace, Mr. Venizelos said nothing about Eastern Macedonia, which came within the scope of the "Deliannis formula," nor about Southwestern Slav Macedonia, at whose expense it was evidently hoped to accomplish the "rounding" of the Greek frontiers. As a matter of fact, the common Greek-Servian frontier had been already discussed in the "Salonica-Monastir train,” and it is clearly in this sense that Mr. Venizelos understood the division among the allies of which he spoke in the chamber. This idea of a "division" of the territories in condominium among all the allies has already been substituted for the idea of Serbo-Bulgarian "arbitration." Some days after Mr. Venizelos's declaration, the heir. Prince Constantine, became King of Greece (March 6/19).

The effects of this change made themselves felt on the relations between the Greeks in occupation and the indigenous population. We may begin our examination of these relations with Castoria. From the beginning of the occupation, the authorities there pretended to ignore the very existence of the Bulgarian population. It is true that Prince Constantine's proclamation on November 14/27 announced that in the occupation regions the Greeks would respect the language and religious customs of the nationalities. That however did not affect the Bulgarians, who evidently were no more than "Bulgarophone Greeks" in the eyes of authority. Announcements and appeals to the population were published in Greek, Turkish and Yiddish, exactly as though the Bulgarian language did not exist, and Bulgarian remonstrances remained unheeded. To make the reality harmonize with this theory, the occupation army had recourse to the acts of violence which we know. After a sufficient demonstration had been made by the population, of the fate awaiting those who persisted in calling themselves Bulgarians, formal retractations began to be demanded. These declarations, which the villagers were forced to sign, conformed in the Castoria region to tv/o types. According to one of the two declarations, the people were made to say that they had been Greeks from the most ancient times, but had called themselves Bulgarians under the influence of Bulgarian propaganda. According to the other, they were made to say that up to 1903 the population had been Hellenic, but that between 1903 and 1906, they had been forced to call themselves Bulgarians by the threats of the Bulgarian bands and comitadjis. The two models ended with the same declaration, namely, that immediately on the army's arrival the population felt its Hellenism and asked to be received into the bosom of the "Great Church of Jesus Christ." The Bulgarians were not "Christians" in "our sense." The Greek bishop of Castoria received the deputations sent to him from all the villages, and was in fact the center of this active assimilation. The evsones played the part of apostles in this conversion at the bayonet's point. As examples we may cite the villages of Gabreche, Drenoveni, Tchernovitsa, Tourie, Ragoritchani, Dembeni, etc. In the villages of Breznitsa, Gorno and Doino Nestrame, all the inhabitants were thrown into prison and driven thereby to call themselves Greeks. The reply given to a man who said he was a Bulgarian was: "Wast thou born at Sofia; there are no Bulgarians in

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Macedonia; the whole population is Greek." To maintain this principle, a passport was given to those few natives who had to be admitted to be Bulgarians, declaring them to have been born in Bulgaria. The Commission knew of a passport of this kind given to the incumbent of the Bulgarian diocese of Castoria, although the man was born at Resen (in Macedonia) the Greek passport stated that the place of his birth was in Bulgaria. He was in fact permitted:

nameiaqh eiV Qessalouikgu kai ekeiqin eiV ihu boulgariau ex aV katagetai.

and this was not an isolated case. The Mahometan pomaks of the village of Gerveni were also entered as Greeks by the enumeration commission; from the moment at which they spoke Bulgarian and not Turkish, they were revealed as Greeks.

Victory secured in the villages which were disarmed, then came the turn of the intellectuals, the Bulgarian clergy, schoolmasters and officials. A number of persons whose names and cases are cited in the documents in the possession of the Commission, were arrested, beaten, put in prison and even killed. The Bulgarian Metropolis of Castoria was, at first, ignored by the authorities so far as its legal institution went; then cut off from the population under severe penalties for any communication; and finally, about the beginning of June, formally blockaded by twenty or thirty soldiers and searched by the police. Afterwards, by order of the government, all the officials and schoolmasters were shut up in their own houses until further orders. At this moment the Greek papers were already talking of the war as imminent. The Embros, in a letter from Salonica, said on June 14/27, "the great struggle for the existence of Hellenism will begin in a few days." On June 14/27, Proodos said, "We are on the eve of war. * * * On his departure for Salonica the king took his field uniforms with him. * * * The war proclamation * * * is ready." War began on the 17/30, and the Greek citizens of Castoria were singing before the Metropolis verses inviting "A draught of Bulgarian blood." On July 31, after the conclusion of the treaty of Bucharest, the frourarque of Castoria summoned the head of the diocese, the officials of the Metropolis, and the schoolmasters, and told them "By order of the new government I give you forty-eight hours delay, in which to quit Greek territory." The expatriated, all natives of Macedonia, were given certificates to the effect that "they were returning to Bulgaria, where they were born." "He who goes to live in Bulgaria," was the reply to the protests, "is Bulgarian. No more Bulgarians in Greek Macedonia."

We have also sufficiently complete data on events at Vodena (now called Edessa). Our informant there, as at Castoria, remembers how the Hellenic army entered in triumph on October 18/31, amid cries of joy from the population. Each house harbored ten to twenty soldiers, freely and without asking pay, and the town distributed gratuitously 6,000 okas of bread per day. The

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time had not come of forced requisitions, without receipt, demanding everything without allowing any merit to the giver, who had to obey. Ten days later the Greeks were beginning to say, '"We shall cut your tongues to teach you to speak Greek." They began confiscating private property, and sending things they liked to Greece; furniture, cattle, etc. The churches and schools were immediately taken, the Slav inscriptions destroyed, the offices burned, the priests beaten and driven out. Then began the arrest of influential persons in the different villages, such as Vestchitsa, Tsarmarinovi, Piskopia, Arsene, St. Elvas, Vettecope. The soldiers said to the notables in prison in Vestchitsa, "If you want to be free, be Greeks."

War once declared—June 20, 21/July 3, 4, as many as 200 Bulgarians, the vicar, priest, notables, schoolmasters, inhabitants of the town and of the villages, were arrested. They were beaten and sent in fours to Salonica. On June 30 the last Bulgarian church was confiscated; the Slav national images of St. Cyril and St. Methodius were burned and their ashes covered with dung. (The Greeks and Servians regarded these images, symbols of the independence of the Slav church, with special detestation.) At the beginning of July the population was asked to sign the following declaration: "Under compulsion from the exarchist propaganda, and terrified by the comitadjis, we became Bulgarian. We now confess the true orthodox faith and our Hellenic nationality." Emissaries v/ere then sent to Salonica to offer liberty to the prisoners from Vodena if they would declare themselves to be Greeks. "We remained pure," Mr. Atanasov, one of these prisoners, records, "our consciences immaculate, and we were all thirty-three freed without making any engagement on August 7/20. [See the story of Mr. G. Atanasov, published in the Mir, September 30/October 13.] But a Bulgarian schoolmaster from the village of Palati, who became a Greek, wrote in a Greek paper, Imera, that the prisoners had not suffered in any way and that "not a hair of their heads had been touched." He only forgot one thing, according to Mr. Atanasov: that had they remained in prison a month after this, not one would have come out alive. Mr. Atanasov gives a picture of the Salonica prisoners, which is known to be unhappily too correct. "There were 130 of us in a single room," he said, "and often we had to stand throughout a whole night, waiting our turns to lie down. For fifty days we remained in this same room without crossing the threshold. The air we breathed can be imagined. There were others who had been there 100 days and more without having been interrogated. Their shirts were indistinguishable from their coats. In addition to this filth and to the infection of the air, our food was ill-cooked bread, full of impurities. We were as though buried alive, waiting for death to set us free. I intentionally omit the moral suffering caused by the soldiers who were let in for the purpose. Among us there were wretched prisoners from Gumundje, Yenidje-Vardar, Florina, Castoria and Salonica. After a delay of five to six days at Salonica, they were sent into exile. Some were sent directly from the

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station to the steamer; on embarkation their money and watches were taken from them; they were ill-treated; sometimes they were thrown from the top of the ladder into the hold. A man from Gumundje had his ear cut open, another his head broken; some had bayonet wounds, and all had been struck with the butt. end of musket or stick."

We have before us also depositions of witnesses as to what happened at the Kailare sub-prefecture. Situated between Vodena and Castoria, it was naturally treated in the same way. There, too, Bulgarians were forced to become Greeks, and the peasants made to sign a declaration testifying that they had become Bulgarians only fifteen years ago and under compulsion from the comitadjis. The Slav offices were destroyed; the Bulgarian clergy were not allowed to administer the sacrament until they had been ordered to do so by the Greek bishops; the schoolmasters were driven out and the scholars forced to attend Greek schools under threats of punishment for the parents. Soldiers were billetted on the Bulgarians, and requisitions made without either payment or receipt; andartes, placed in control of the administration, persecuted the Bulgarian population in every way, killing the men, outraging the women and burning the houses with impunity. We could give names of the persons and villages which suffered. The villages most often mentioned are Embore, Rakita, Biriatsi, Kontsi, Debretse, etc.

Despite all these persecutions, it may be said that in Greek Macedonia the simple fact that the ethnic difference between conquerors and oppressed is greater than in Servian Macedonia did serve to protect the Bulgarian population against assimilation. Although the victors were satisfied with having changed names and statistics and teaching the peasants to say "Good morning" and "Good evening" in Greek instead of in Bulgarian, there was no real change in national consciousness.

There was indeed one thing which hampered the assimilation by the Greeks of the Slav element, namely, the presence of that same element in the immediate neighborhood. True, in Servian Macedonia the elements which outside still call themselves Bulgarian, are forced to give themselves out as pravi srbi,— true Servians. But that does not prevent the conservation of the sentiment of Slav affinity. In the allied Servian government, this sentiment found expression in a tendency to desire the conservation and protection of the Slav element in Greek Macedonia. It is interesting that the first news received from Salonica by the Commission of the Greek drownings, was given by a citizen of the allied nation which had just taken precautions against the importunate curiosity of the Commission as to its own relations with the "Macedonian Slavs." The oppressed Slavs in Greek Macedonia in their turn seemed to look more favorably on the oppressors of their brothers in Monastir and Okhrida. If they may not have Bulgarian schools, some of them are ready to ask for Servian ones,—so long as they may keep their Slav school. The only objection of the Greek ally to the

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Servian ally is that the latter does not reciprocate by tolerating Greek schools in Servian Macedonia, or, if he allows them to be opened, forbids school children to attend them. Tit for tat. The Greek papers only disagree as to the number of Slavs with a moral right to protection by the Slav ally. Recognition of the very existence of the Slav element, although reduced to 120,000, is thus implied beyond dispute.

This is not the case with the Moslem element, though equally numerous in Greek Macedonia. True, our documents prove that at the beginning of the occupation, when it was a question of ferreting out the Bulgarian committees, the help given by the Turkish element was highly appreciated by the andartes. Their end once accomplished, however, and especially after the treaty of Bucharest, the tactics adopted towards the Moslems were entirely changed. The Jeune Turc seems justified in its complaints of the lot of its co-religionists in Macedonia. "Mass arrests of Turks and Jews," it states towards the middle of October, "take place daily in Salonica on the most ridiculous grounds. Espionage is widely developed and persecution is attaining revolting dimensions." Unhappily the truth is worse. Another Turkish paper, Tasfiri Efkiar, [These two quotations are from the Mir, of October 24 and November 2 (old style).] adds that persecution extends from town dwellers to simple villagers. "The Moslems of the neighborhood of Poroi (between Doiran and Demir-Hissar), were shut up in forty wagons and conveyed to Salonica. The Greek authorities also persecuted the Moslems of Langadina (northeast of Salonica); on pretext of disarmament all the young people were conveyed to Salonica and ill treated. At Saryghiol (near Koukouche), all the men were conveyed to Salonica and the Greek soldiers then outraged the women and young girls. At Sakhna, at Serres and Pravishta, conversion was carried on with such success that in the case of Sakhna not one Moslem is left." "The number of Turkish prisoners in the Salonica area amounts to the enormous total of 5,000," adds the Echo de Bulgarie (December 20/January 2). Some months later, Mr. Ivanov remarks in his "Explanatory Notes" that "the Turkish groups of Saryghiol (south of Kailare), Kailare and Ostrovo, strong in numbers and prosperity, were particularly severely tried after the Greek invasion. All the towns and the villages of the region were laid waste and the population sought safety in flight. Flight, too, was the resource of the Moslem population of the towns in the Yenidje valley, especially Voden, Negouche (Niansta), Karaferia (Veria), Yenidje-Vardar. This last town suffered most of all; the whole market and the Moslem quarters were laid in ruins."

We must now glance at Eastern Macedonia, of which we spoke in chapter II, and whence the Bulgarian population fled en masse to Bulgaria, the Turks and Greeks taking the road to Salonica. Documents not hitherto mentioned complete the picture of what is almost a total extermination. As the most authoritative document for the violence with which the Turkish population was treated

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by the Greeks, we publish in Appendix A, 13 a, a complete list of persons killed and pillages effected in one casa in Pravishta (O. de Kavala). The original document was given to the Commission in Turkish; it is an official proces-verbal, drawn up and sealed by the Moslem community of Pravishta. It contains names and facts solely; but these names and facts have a dreary eloquence. "Of the 20,000 Turks of this casa only 13,000 remain." "Among the persons killed there are unhappily many imams, Turkish notables and men of education. This shows that the Greeks were pursuing a definite object." Here is the picture of the central city of Pravishta, taken by the Bulgarian comitadji, Voyevoda Baptchev, but where the Greek Bishop, presiding at the improvised tribunal, pronounces the sentences of death executed by Baptchev, while protecting the young Turkish girls and the mosques against the fanatical chauvinism of the Archbishop."

As to atrocities committed by the Greeks in the northern part of eastern Macedonia (principally populated by Bulgarians), the Commission collected at Sofia a portion of the depositions afterwards published by Professor Miletits. [See his Greek Atrocities in Macedonia during the Greek Bulgarian war, Sofia, 1913, and Documents, extracts from this book, published with certain changes in style, Sofia, 1913.]

Out of all our documents we select as a specimen the story of a merchant, Nicolas Temelkov, which gives a general picture of the state of the country after the retreat of the Greek army, which as regards the whole region traversed between Strumnitsa and Djoumaya, was picturesquely characterized by another witness in the phrase "There was not a cock left to crow." Mr. Temelkov, whose evidence is not included in Professor Miletits's document, allows us to give his name. Towards the end of August (old style) he was returning from Bulgaria with some refugees. He crossed the Kresna Valley, in the upper Strouma. In the village of St. Vratche there were only some men feeding on the corn which had fallen on the road from the military convoy. The women did not dare to appear; they remained hiding in the mountains. The priest of the village, Constantine, and five notables, had been killed, and no one knew where their bodies were. Passing through the village of Lechnitsa you met nobody. The village of Sclara had been burned, but twelve or thirteen families were left. The other families were still in the mountains, in fear of another Greek invasion. All the women of the village between the ages of ten and fifty had been collected by the Greeks in the house of Mito Konstantinov, and divided among the soldiery one woman to every thirty soldiers. A girl of eighteen years old, Matsa Andone Pantcheva, who had finished her school time, would not give herself up. She offered them money to give to the women of the streets if they would leave her in peace. The soldiers got sixty Turkish pounds. When, after that, they still tried to outrage her, she resisted, crying, "I had rather die honest." She was killed by bayonet thrusts.

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Mr. Temelkov and his companions then passed through the villages of Khotovo and Spatovo. There was nobody there; the population still kept to the hills. The villages had been burned to the ground. They passed through Mandjovo and Tchiflitsi, which the Greek press stated had been burned by the Greek population, who would no longer live there under the Bulgarian regime. Mr. Temelkov, like the other witnesses, states that the town had not been burned; only the military casino, hotel and post office (in the same building as the casino), had been burned. The Greek houses were empty; the Greeks had taken their furniture with them. Mr. Temelkov was told that the Greeks emigrated by the express orders of the Greek government; the order being given when it was known that Melnik was to remain Bulgarian. Automobiles and carts were supplied to enable the Greeks to take all their goods with them to Demir-Hissar. The men were beaten to make them take the carts and go. The same order was given and executed at Nevrocope, where force had to be employed to make the Greek inhabitants depart. By order of the officers, all the contents of the big Bulgarian shops in Melnik belonging to Temelkov Nadjiyanev (the father of Temelkov), and Constantine Pope-Tachev, were seized. The little Bulgarian shops and private houses were left to be pillaged by the population.

Mr. Temelkov had news from his father and mother, who remained in Melnik, while he fled to Bulgaria. The military authorities sent for his father and said to him, "What are you going to do now ? We want men here, not bears. Become a Greek, if you want to live here." Mr. Temelkov's father, an old man of sixty, replied, "I was born in this country and I shall remain here without changing my nationality." He was summoned a second time and asked, "Where are yonr sons?" "They are in Bulgaria." "You must give up their property." "They have none." Then some officers ransacked the house and found the dowry of Mr. Temelkov's wife, which amounted to ?T250. This money was seized. Then Temelkov, the father, a rich merchant, was asked for 400 pairs of empty sacks for aniseed, and 100 for cotton, which had cost him eighty Napoleons. Then Mr. Nadjiyanev was taken to Ormane-Tchflik and to Livounovo, under pretext of taking him before the commander. When they arrived at Ormane, he was threatened with death and asked for money. He promised to give it and the same Greek officers took him back to Melnik. He paid them ?T180. He however possessed another property at Scalve. All his corn, wheat and barley were seized (30,000 and 40,000 okas) and his sixteen bullocks. For all that ?T200 was paid him. Finally on the Greeks' departure, it was decided to kill him and his wife. But a Greek friend, Nicolas the bazardji, [Coppersmith.] warned him, and advised him to flee with the Greeks without delay, since within a few hours they would come to look for him. He agreed, took flight and hid in the Bulgarian village of Kaikovtsi. While he was being searched for at Demir-Hissar, he escaped on horseback across the Pirine mountains. But he did not return to Melnik. Worn out, he stopped at Scalve, and died there of exhaustion.

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Counting the Bulgarian villages whose burning he remembers, Mr. Temelkov names: Marikostinovo, Morino Pole, Koula, Kapatovo, Kroumidovo, Dzigvelia, Mandjovo, Tchiflitsi, Khotovo, Ladarevo, Laskarevo, Sclave, Spatovo, half of Livounovo (after the departure of the general staff), Ormane Tchiflik, St. Vratche, Polevitsa, Khrsovo, half of Vrana, Katountsi, Spantchevo, the upper and the lower town. He told us that only the mountain villages are left. The whole of the furniture, cattle and grain was taken by the Greeks. But the last stroke certainly was the destruction of the town of Strumnitsa, almost under the eyes of the Commission. An Austrian officer, Mr. Br—, tells us that he was taken by the population of Strumnitsa for a member of the Commission, when, after the end of the war he was making his way on horseback between Sofia and Salonica in company with a German officer, Mr. de R. T. Mr. Br— published his story in the Vienna Reichspost, and sent a report to the Austrian consulate at Sofia. This is his story, which thus falls within the scope of the Commission's inquiry:

On July 28 (old style), peace was concluded. On August 8 [the day before he started on his journey], that is to say, ten days after the conclusion of peace, the Greek military element began burning and pillaging the town. The method of incendiarism was as follows: benzine was poured on the different buildings, they were then set on fire and blown up with pyroxiline bombs. I have never been able to discover the chemical composition of these bombs. They did not explode until thrown upon the fire. I sent a piece to the Austrian Legation at Sofia. At the same time the Greek soldiers compelled the inhabitants to hide in their houses, and cut off all the water pipes and fountains, so that there were no means of putting out the fire. Throughout the whole time, between August 8 and 15, motors came and went three times a day to carry off the stolen property. Everything was carried off that the people had not succeeded in hiding, even chairs, boxes, frames, portraits, beds, etc. Anything that could not be taken was destroyed. All the cattle of one of the biggest proprietors in the region, the Moslem Nasif-effendi was stolen, and his house burned after his wife had been so outraged that she died of it. His child was taken from him and not found again. All the goods of the Jew Novak Koze were taken from him, and his wife outraged. A rich merchant, Bandesev, had all his goods taken, and motors came and went for two days to take everything out of his house. His wife, too, was outraged, "and so on."

Mr. Br— left Strumnitsa on August 24 (old style). But the Commission has highly trustworthy evidence from a person who was at Strumnitsa August 15/28—i. e., who saw the end of the fire. The evidence of another witness, a Strumnitsa governess, Miss Itcheva, who remained in the town throughout this time, has been published by Mr, Miletits. [Documents, pp. 166-168. We have also the evidence of a Bulgarian schoolmaster, who reached Strumnitsa on August 19.] From all these sources we know

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that the destruction of Strumnitsa was but the execution of part of a plan drawn up at the conclusion of peace by the Greek authorities. "From July 27 on," says Miss Itcheva, "the Greeks began a propaganda among the Greek population, and invited them to leave the country. They put into their minds the fear of being tortured or even killed by the Bulgarians. They promised the people to build them a 'new Strumnitsa' in the town of Koukouche. [Vladevo, a village near Vodena, has actually been called "New Strumnitsa."] The Greek king himself was going to look after the population. As a matter of fact it was known beforehand that after the forced expatriation of the Greeks, Jews and Turks, the town itself was dedicated to destruction like Xanthi, Gumuldjina, and 'the other places in Thrace.' The foreign consuls at Strumnitsa thus informed, consulted together and telegraphed to their representatives to make representations at Athens. The Greek government agreed to keep all these places until the arrival of the Bulgarian army. But this news was received at Salonica on August 8/21, the very day on which the fire began in Strumnitsa. During the ten previous days the Greek inhabitants had come and gone in the town at their leisure, carrying off their goods in motors put at their disposal by the government. The Turks and Jews had been compelled to follow them. This operation completed, the Greeks set fire to the markets in the southwest portion of the town, near the house of the Greek doctor, Rixopoulo. The idea was that the news being spread in Salonica before the catastrophe, international opinion might be made to think that the population had set fire to their own houses, out of fear of remaining under the Bulgarian yoke. The population of the Bulgarian quarters (but a quarter of the whole), seeing the market on fire, came out into the empty streets, and during the night of the 8th and 9th they succeeded in putting out the fire. They thought then that the Greek army was gone; in reality it was only hidden. On the morning of the 9th, the Greek soldiers appeared and threatened to kill the Bulgarians. From that time the Bulgarian population retired to its houses and did not dare to come forth and put out the fire. It was then that the Greeks cut the water pipes and broke the fire engines. In the evening the fire was relighted, and during the night the Greek and Turkish quarters began to burn. The Greek soldiers no longer hid—a great number of witnesses saw them at work. They had bombs in their hands, which they put under the buildings, and in a few minutes the houses were in flames. Six or eight soldiers were seen setting fire to the barracks three times before they got it going." A vlach told our witness that a uniformed Greek policeman had awakened him and his family and told him to come out at once, as his house was going to be burned, and would be as soon as they had cleared out. This lasted a whole week, until by the 15th the entire town, with the exception of the two Bulgarian quarters, lay in ashes. Three days later the Bulgarian army arrived. One of our informants told us that

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an attempt was made to get the Bulgarian Lieutenant Colonel sign an official declaration to the effect that the houses had been burned by their owners. The Bulgarian officer refused.

The Strumnitsa affair throws a vivid light on a number of similar events where the intention and preliminary organization are not so easily discernible. If it seems to transcend all the instances hitherto given, this is simply due to the fact that we have been better able to follow it up. In concluding this part of our report with this act of unqualified horror, we have only to set down the moral conclusion.

The events described above serve to afford one more confirmation of an ancient truth, which it is useful to recall. That legitimate national sentiment which inspires acts of heroism, and the perverted and chauvinistic nationalism which leads to crime are but two closely related states of the collective mind Perhaps indeed the state of mind is the same, its social value varying with the object to which it is directed. We regard as just and legitimate, we even admire the deeds, the manifestations by which nationality defends its existence. We speak constantly of the "good cause" of oppressed nationalities, or nationalities struggling against difficulties to find themselves. But when these same nationalities pass from the defensive to the offensive, and instead of securing their own existence, begin to impinge on the existence of another national individuality, they are doing something illicit, even criminal. In such a case, as we have seen, the theory of State interests and the State feeling or instinct, is invoked. But the State itself must learn to conform to the principle of the moral freedom of modern nationalities, as it has learned to accept that of individual freedom. It is not nationality which should sacrifice its existence to any erroneous or outworn idea of the State. In applying this sound maxim to the facts of the second Balkan war, the conclusion is forced upon one, that in so far as the treaty of Bucharest has sanctioned the illegitimate claims of victorious nationalities, it is a work of injustice which in all probability will fail to resist the action of time. Would it not be more in consonance with the real feeling of solidarity of peoples to re-cast the treaty, than to wait for the development and ripening of its evil fruit? The question of the moment is not a new territorial division, such as would probably provoke that new conflict which the whole world wishes to avoid. Mutual tolerance is all that is required; and it is justified by the fact that the offence is mutual. The confused tangle of Balkan nationalism can not be straightened out, either by attempts to assimilate at any price, or by a new migration. But in the question of the Macedonian Slavs in Greek Macedonia, each national group needs the protection of some neighboring State,—the Roumanians, the Bulgarians, the Turks, the Greeks, even the Servians. The way to arrive at such mutual protection is simple enough—a return to the Greek-Bulgarian proposals so wrongly rejected at the Bucharest Conference. All that is needed is an effective mutual guarantee of religious and educational autonomy. If there

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be any utility in the grave lesson of the events we have described, it must be to lead the allies of the day before yesterday, the impassioned foes of yesterday, the jealous and frigid neighbors of today to solidarity tomorrow in their work for the welfare of the Balkans. The treaty of Bucharest needs to be revised an completed in this sense, if it is not to be broken down by some new caprice of history.
CHAPTER V
The War and International Law


Our whole report is an answer to the question put in this chapter. That answer may be summed up in a simple statement that there is no clause in international law applicable to land war and to the treatment of the wounded, which was not violated, to a greater or less extent, by all the belligerents.
This chapter is not, however, a mere recapitulation of what has been already said. We have reserved for this stage some questions touching more nearly on the domain of international law in time of war. As for the questions already considered we shall use the opportunity of adding supplementary notes and quoting certain documents not referred to in previous chapters.

1. Before speaking of the war, let us look first at the question of treaties. We have seen that the Balkan war was the result of the violation (an extraordinary violation, be it said) of a treaty which was itself the basis of common action crowned with success, and a treaty which assumed the continuance of common action for eight years. We have seen, it is true, that Servian politicians plead not circumstances which did not extenuate (since they did not recognize what they did as a misdeed), but which would have authorized their violation of the treaty of February 29/March 13, 1913, with the Bulgarians. They recalled a clause of which much has been said in international law to the effect that treaties are to be observed—pacta sunt servanda—only if there is not change in the condition of things—rebus sic stantibus. After the statesmen [In Chapter I, reference was made to a book by Balcanicus (pseudonym of one of the Members of the Cabinet) which opened the campaign for treaty revision in the government journal Sammouprava in April, 1913. His book consists of the collected articles that appeared in the paper.] came the professors to prove, on scientific data, the sound foundations of these patriotic claims. Dr. Mileta, Dr. Novakovits and Dr. Lazar Markovits (who translated Balcanicus' book into German,) published in the Belgrade Diebo two articles in which they had recourse to Keffler, as authority Bluntschli, Jellinek, Martens, and above all a recent study by Mr. Erich Kauffmann, professor at Kiel University, Das Wesen des Volkerrechts und die claudula rebus sic stantibus (Tiibingen Mohr, 1911, p. 231) to prove that Servia had a right to demand revision of the treaty and, in case of refusal, to regard it as abrogated. [See the reprint of the articles by Novakovits and Markovits (in Servian) Srpsko-bourgarski ongovove so glediehta medjunarodnog prava.(The Serbo-Bulgarian treaty from the standpoint of international law.) Belgrade, 1913.] On the authority of Professor Kauffmann, the Servian professors cited as precedents, the Russian declarations of October 29-31, 1870, on 'the Black Sea, and of June 13, 1886, on Batoum; the refusal of Prussia and Austria Hungary in 1864 to conform

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to the London Protocol of 1852; the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The authors of the articles add the revision, in 1912, of the Franco-Spanish treaty of 1904 on Morocco.

This report is not a legal study, and we may leave to specialists the task of deciding whether the clause rebus sic stantibus can be applied to the question of revision and to the breach of the treaty. The Commission expressed its opinion (Chapter I) when they showed that the allegations of a change in the circumstances was but a pis aller, to which recourse was had upon the failure of the attempts at giving a forced interpretation to the terms of the treaty and thereby proving that the Bulgarians had been the first to violate it. What makes the violation particularly odious, is that a condition vital, nay essential, to one of the contracting parties, indispensable to the conclusion of the treaty, was violated by another party as soon as the common end had been attained. The Servians did not show what the English call "fair play." It is true that on both sides the question was regarded as one of "force"—(eine Macht-frage). If formal right was entirely on the side of the Bulgarians, they lost their moral right in so far as they transformed the war from one of liberation to one of conquest (see Chapter X). But even so the moral right of Macedonia remained, guaranteed by the treaty, violated by the war, and abolished by the treaty of Bucharest. If the clause rebus sic stantibus could be applied to the loss of the Adriatic and the acquisition of Adrianople, why could it not also be applied to the Roumanian occupation? If the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty ceased to be in force from the moment when there was no longer any real force to defend it, why should the treaty of Bucharest stand after the occupation ceased? Such are the dangerous conclusions that could be drawn from the Servian application of the clause,—and above all from its method of application. It may be said, with Jellinek, that there is not only no international treaty, but even no general law to which the clause rebus sic stantibus may not be applied. There could be no progress were there no means of adapting legislation to changing circumstances. But it does not follow that the series of necessary adaptations can be understood as a series of breaches of the law {Rechtsbruche). One law is changed by another law. A treaty must be changed by another treaty. This principle is formally recognized in one of the cases cited as "precedents" by the Servian professors, that of Russia's refusal in 1870 to regard herself as bound by Articles XI and XIV of the treaty of Paris of 1856. In a note of November, 1870, Lord Granville protested categorically against such a violation of the principle of the obligatory force of treaties. Italy and Austria Hungary supported the English protest. A new conference was summoned in London on January 17, 1871, and on Lord Granville's motion it began its sitting with this unanimous resolution: "The plenipotentiaries of North Germany, Austria Hungary, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and Turkey, this day joined in conference, recognize that it is an essential principle of the law of nations that no Power can release itself from its treaty obligations, or modify their provisions, without

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the consent of the contracting parties reached by friendly understanding." This is a principle which can not be abrogated by any precedent or sophistry, if international law is to be a reality at all.

2. The question of the opening of hostilities is regulated by the Convention of the Second Hague Conference, the first article of which lays it down that "hostilities between the contracting Powers can not commjence without preliminary notice, of no equivocal kind, which must take the form either of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war." The Conference however rejected, on the ground of "the exigencies of modern war," the Netherlands' amendment which tried to insist on twenty-four hours' delay after the declaration. [See the discussion on this subject at the Second Hague Conference. Lemonon, 344-345.]

Much was not asked therefore, and the little that was asked did not rule out surprises or the use of military ruse. But the case of course was not foreseen of a State's opening hostilities without itself knowing clearly whether it wished to begin war. It is true that there could be no surprise, since the Servians and Greeks had regarded war as inevitable from the beginning of time. They were in fact in a much better state of preparation, from a military point of view, than the Bulgarians. The latter in beginning war were "without being aware of it, playing the Servians' game," as Mr. de Penennrun well observes. [Cf. up. cit, p. 72. Mr. de Penennrun published a fac-simile (pp. 32 and 48) of an order taken on a Bulgarian officer and dated June 16/29, with dispositions for the commencement of hostilities on the morning of the 17/30. The Bulgarians on their part have published a fac-simile of the war proclamation prepared in advance by the Servians with the date June 18 inserted in writing in the printed text (see the Mir of June 28). The printed proclamation ran—"Our Greek allies" and "our Montenegrin brothers march with us against the Bulgarians."]As for the Greeks, we have seen that King Constantine left Athens for Salonica on June 14/27, with the war manifesto in his pocket and "grounds for supposing that war would that week begin all along the line from Pirot to Elevtera." [See Chapter IV, the article by Proodos of June 14/27.]Were General Savov's telegrams haply known to the Greeks? Anyhow the element of the unexpected in the opening of hostilities was evidently taken thoroughly into consideration by the adversaries. But this does not prevent the judgment that the steps taken by the Bulgarians did formally contravene international endeavor to make appeal to mediation or arbitration, which in this case was provided for in the treaty. The undertaking to this effect in the Serbo-Bulgarian treaty was formal. A mutual undertaking was made in Article 4 of the secret annex, in terms that admitted of no tergiversation or misunderstanding: "Any difference that may arise as regards the interpretation or execution of any one of the clauses of the treaty, of this secret annex and of the military convention, shall be submitted for definitive decision to Russia as soon as one of the two parties shall have declared that they regard it as impossible to reach an understanding by direct negotiation." The Servians had consented to the execution of this clause and their reservations were in no sense obligatory on the

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arbiter. Had the Bulgarians, after this, violated the clause while continuing to invoke it, they would have sanctioned the violations which the Servians had allowed themselves in Macedonia, and dealt a final blow at the legal existence of the treaty. This is why, while recognizing that Servia's violation made conflict inevitable, the responsibility of formal breach must lie with the Bulgarians.

The element of ruse was not lacking either. The Servian papers have published stories of a banquet given by Bulgarian officers to Servian officers, at which they were photographed together a few hours before the battle; and told how, as they took their visitors home, the Bulgarians measured the distances and observed the dispositions of the advance guard. The Servians also accused the Bulgarians of having tried to prejudice international opinion by instructing their Ambassador at Belgrade, Mr. Tochev, to enter a protest against an alleged act of Servian aggression eight hours after the nocturnal attack of June 16/29-17/30. If as there is reason to suppose, although Mr. Tochev denied it in the press, he was one of those who pressed on the war and was au courant with the events that were to take place, this action is all the more blameworthy. But to accuse Mr. Tochev of not having been in a position to know what was happening on the Bregalnitsa at the moment when he was making his remonstrance at the Ministry at Belgrade, is excessive. The telephone was there; thanks to it, Mr. Hartvig could accuse Mr. Danev, on June 9, of "protesting" against Servian agreement to Russian arbitration; and it must have been in equally good working order a week later. [M.T. Tochev has denied these revelations which Mr. Hartvig himself said were incorrectly reported by his interviewer, Mr. Gantchev. See the Mir, November 13/30, 1913.]

3. We are on much firmer ground when we pass to the law and custom of land warfare, violated by all the belligerents despite the existence of an international convention signed by them all: namely, the "Convention concerning the laws and customs of land warfare," and the annex accompanying it, elaborated at the Second Hague Conference in 1907, which have replaced the Convention of July 29, 1899, signed by the Powers after the first Hague Conference. Bulgaria, it is true, made certain reserves on the question of an amendment changing the 1899 Convention. This amendment forbade any belligerent to force the members belonging to the nation of his opponents dwelling in his territory, to take part in operations of war against their own country, and provided further that if the said belligerent invaded the enemy's country he might not compel the inhabitants to give information about the opposing army and its means of defence. But with this exception, Bulgaria, like the other representatives of the Balkan States, signed the Convention.

In its first article the Convention lays it down that "the contracting powers shall give their armed land forces instructions in conformity with the regulations * * * annexed to the present Convention." Since by Article 3 the belligerent party was made "responsible for all acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces" (and under "armed forces" the regulations com-

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prised, over and above the regular army, the "militia" and "volunteer corps"), it might have been expected that the governments signing the Convention would feel a particular interest in seeing that their army knew their obligations. Was this done in the Balkans? In particular, were any such notions introduced into the military instruction of soldiers and officers? The Commission's information on this important head is incomplete, owing to the lack of aid from the Greek and Servian governments in their inquiry into the war. Indirectly, however, the conclusion may be reached that the 1907 Convention (and likewise that of 1899), remained unknown to the Balkan armies generally, with the possible exception of one or two isolated officers. All that was known was the Geneva Convention, more or less. Today, as in 1900, "the conscientious exercise of the Hague Convention by the governments signing it, is still to come. They must give their armies instruction in conformity with the Convention. It is desirable that such instruction should form part of the compulsory teaching in military training establishments and in the instruction of the soldier. Only on this condition can the application of the Hague Convention be seriously guaranteed” [See preface to a book by Mr. F. de Martens, La Paix et la Guerre. Paris, 1901.] In the Balkans these words of Mr. Marten's are at this day a puim desiderium as they were ten years ago. As far as the Commission is aware, exception can only be made, and that to a limited extent, in the case of Bulgaria. The Commission learned that the Convention of Geneva, at any rate, was taught to the officers in training, not to the soldiers. Only in Bulgaria was the Commission able, after repeated attempts and through a private source, to procure documents showing that during the last war at least some efforts were made by the heads of the different army corps to stop crimes against the laws and customs of war. These documents possess such interest in view of the Commission's object, that they are here translated verbatim, with regret that they are the only ones we can quote:

I
Order to the Twenty-second Infantry Thracian Regiment of his Royal Majesty Charles Edward Saxe Coburg Gotha N. 93. October 14, 1912, Pekhtchevo Camp

I have noticed that certain soldiers of the regiment, after crossing the frontier, commit arbitrary acts which become serious crimes in time of war. I see with great regret that the heads of companies consider these acts lightly as of no weight, and permit them to be done under their eyes. Thus in the camp at Tsarevo-Selo, I saw some soldiers leave the camp and go into the neighboring village, which had been abandoned by its inhabitants, to pillage, each for himself, forgetful of his duty of remaining at his post. I have also seen, in camp, soldiers taking from somewhere unknown goods and cattle in order to make themselves a meal different from the company's. Thus a large number scattered. This shows either that the soldiers are too greedy or that their superiors do not look after their food. I have also seen some soldiers either through negligence or by intention, destroying the telegraph lines, doing damage to houses left vacant by the people and even going into Bulgarian houses. [Here there is a small lacuna in the MSS.] Some of them behaved ill to the wounded and captive enemy soldiers. It might seem superfluous, but it is necessary to recall to the captains of companies that it is their duty to explain to the soldiers the provisions of the laws and the responsibility of anyone offending against them. I order that the following instructions as to foraging and the penal laws be conveyed to all the soldiery :

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1. All factories, furnaces, workshops, military depots, transports, provisions State and communal banks within the sphere of our army are military booty. The property and provisions of individuals are not to be touched. If the population has left the town or village, but the authorities remain, their property also is inviolable. Even in cases where there are no public powers, private property is regarded as belonging to the State or the commune. Military booty is State property. This is why the appropriation of objects of military booty is regarded and punished as a theft of State property.

When a regimental detachment enters an inhabited place where there are goods forming military booty, the head of the detachment must take steps to preserve these objects and if possible remove them after making a report to the general staff of the regiment but he must not take anything without express orders. The head of a detachment may not take goods he needs except in case of extreme necessity, or when permission has not arrived in time.

When a detachment gets no supplies of food, the head may make requisition himself of what is necessary to feed his men and fill up his reserve, if broken into. In such a case he must send in a report. Receipts must be given for goods requisitioned.

Soldiers are absolutely forbidden to prepare their food themselves. The ration allowed is more than sufficient. It should be remembered that it is one of the most important of the captain's duties to know how to make good use of local food supplies.

2. The soldiers must be made to understand that the Turkish telegraph lines are necessary for our communications, and they must not destroy them.

3. It must be remembered that military honor, the laws and customs of war and international conventions oblige us to treat the peaceful population of the enemy's country well and prisoners of war the same. It is not becoming in a soldier to show courage against a disarmed enemy, incapable of defending himself. Prisoners are in the power of our government, not of the individuals and corps who have captured them. Ill treatment ofprisoners is forbidden; to assassinate an enemy soldier who has given himself up or been taken, is to commit a murder. To pillage dead or wounded soldiers and prisoners is also a crime according to our laws.

4. The following articles of the military penal code are to be read to the soldiers :



Article 241. Those guilty of pillaging the dead on the battlefield are committed to a disciplinary company for six months to one and one-half years, with confinement in cells and transference to the second conduct grade.

Article 242. Those guilty of pillaging the wounded or prisoners are committed to a disciplinary company for two to three years with confinement in the cells and transference to the second conduct grade. If the pillage has been accompanied with violence the punishment is death.

Article 243. Anyone guilty of having intentionally burned or otherwise destroyed munitions of war or other objects of defence and commissariat, in places being defended against the enemy, or of destroying or damaging the telegraphs, water pipes railways, bridges, dykes and other means of communication, shall be punished with death.

Article 246. Those guilty of premeditated murder, of outrage, pillage, brigandage and premeditated arson, shall be punished with death. Seal of the Regiment.

Commander of the Regiment,colonel savov.

Adjutant Major,captain ghigev.



II
Army Order No. 69, Losengrad (Kirk Kilisse), December 13/26, 1912

Information has reached the general staff which, to our great regret, causes us to suspect that certain individuals and corps allowed themselves to commit with impunity various acts of pillage and violence against the peaceable population of the conquered countries. Since actions of this kind, highly blameable and inhuman, compromise the Bulgarian name and the Bulgarian nation in a high degree, and on the other hand sap the confidence of our future subjects (especially the peaceful Moslem population) in our power to guarantee their honor, property and life, I order:

1. That the commanders of the armies and the military governors take severe and prompt measures to open an inquiry on actions of this kind committed in the zone of occupation of the army under their charge, and to bring the culprits immediately before a tribunal in accordance with the law, without distinction of rank or class. * * * The

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members of the Military Hierarchy are notified that they must be severe and show no clemency in suppressing actions of this kind; they must not forget the weight of responsibility resting on them if they do not observe this conduct.

2. That the most stringent measures be taken to introduce order and discipline in the rear guard of the army. The persons not belonging to the army, and those who while belonging to the army, do not behave worthily, are to be sent immediately into the Kingdom.

3. That the military as a whole be warned that the peaceful population of the country occupied is placed without distinction of creed or nationality under the protection of our military laws, and that in conformity with these laws any unjustifiable severity, any violence and any injustice will be punished. I invite the military and civil authorities to devote themselves to the attainment of the end proposed.

4. In conclusion, let it not be forgotten we have undertaken the war in the name of an elevated human ideal—the liberation of this population from a regime made insupportable by its severity and its injustice. May God help the valiant sons of Bulgaria to realize this noble ideal, may they assist in restraining one another from compromising this great and glorious work in the eyes of the civilized world, and of their dear native land!

The Aide-de-Camp of the Commander in Chief.

general lieutenant of the general staff savov.

It is with the sense of moral well being that one pauses, in the midst of the horrors which we have been compelled to describe, to read these lines, so different in their spirit from the august threats which speak in the well known telegram of King Constantine: "To my profound regret I find myself involved in the necessity of making reprisals in order to inspire their authors (the authors of the ‘Bulgarian monstrosities'), with salutary fear and to cause them to reflect before committing similar atrocities." To compare the conscientious spirit which animates these men, full of desire to preserve the high character of their mission, with the boastfulness based on hatred and reproach for "barbarian hordes" who "have no longer the right to be classed in the number of civilized peoples," is to be prepared to see a change in the standard of values.

Alas, in the actual practice of the "laws and customs of war," the contrast grows less. The sublime and the hateful, heroism and barbarism, come near together. Nevertheless, the desire to remain just and noble is a merit which we desire to note. It is a tendency we have only found among Bulgarian officers and intellectuals. It will certainly cause us satisfaction if, after the publication of this report, the information lacking to us shall be produced in the shape of similar documents, which not satisfied to make a candid avowal were equally anxious to apply a remedy. Unhappily, other indications prove that even the consciousness of having committed faults and crimes is wanting.

Faults and crimes are found in profusion everywhere. We will recapitulate them, comparing the sad reality with the fine resolutions taken in the Hague Convention of 1907, which were signed by the belligerents. In our classification, we will follow the order of the articles in the Convention. We begin with the important question "Prisoners of War."


Article 4. Prisoners of war are in the power of the enemy government, but not of the individuals and corps who have captured them. They are to be treated with humanity. All their personal possessions, except arms, horses and military papers, remain their property.

Article 5. Prisoners of war may be subjected to imprisonment in any town, fortress,

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camp or place, with the obligation of not going outside certain fixed limits; but they may not be imprisoned unless the security of the State urgently demands it, and then only during the continuance of the circumstances necessitating this step.

Article 6. The State may employ prisoners * * * with the exception of officers on works. These works shall not be excessive, and must have nothing to do with the operations of war * * * Work done for the State shall be paid for according to the military rates in force * * * The Government * * * is charged with their maintenance. As regards food, sleeping accommodation and clothing prisoners shall be treated on the same footing as the government troops * * * Prisoners escaping may be subjected to disciplinary penalties.

Article 23. To kill or wound an enemy who having laid down his arms, or having no means of defence, has yielded at discretion, is forbidden.

What a gulf between these generous maxims of an enlightened age and the realities of the Balkan war! Inspiration in the one case is drawn from the principle of Montesquieu: "The whole right which war can give over captives is to secure their person so that they can no longer do any harm."

In the other case we go back almost to the maxims of Germanicus and of antiquity as a whole: "Make no prisoners." Their fate here is decided by revenge and cupidity, the sole difference being that instead of being carried into slavery, people are pillaged and killed, or else killed and pillaged. Prisoners are still made, but very few on the battlefield, and those taken are often not left to live. The overheated mind of the soldier can not understand that the disarmed and wounded enemy whom he finds lying on the ground is a prisoner of war, whom he ought neither to kill nor to wound in accordance with Article 23 of the Convention quoted, and Article 2, of the revised Convention of Geneva (1906). [See for previous changes Armand du Payrat: The Prisoner of War in Continental Warfare. Paris, A. Rousseau, 1910, pp. 133-135.] In the Balkans they kill their man. If he is made prisoner, disapprobation from very high quarters is sometimes incurred. "What is the use of dragging this rubbish about?" Such was the phrase reported to the Commission by a Bulgarian prisoner who said he had heard it spoken by a high Servian official, when the ambulances were carrying the Bulgarian wounded.

As to the Bulgarians, numerous cases are quoted in our Chapter III, on the assertion of documents collected by the Servian general staff. For the Greeks we have, in the first place, the admissions made in the famous letters and reports of their soldiers. "We only took (during an attack) a few (prisoners) whom we killed, for such were our orders!”

It is still more horrible that when the battle is over, any prisoners that are made are not kept: it is preferred to make an end of them. Here are some more terrible admissions from Greek letters. "Out of the twelve hundred prisoners made at Nigrita, only forty-one are left in the prison." * * * "We took fifty (Bulgarian comitadjis) whom we divided among us. For my part I had six and I did 'clean them up.’ I was given sixteen prisoners to return to the division, but I only brought two back. The others were eaten in the darkness, massacred by me." We can not quote any admission on the part of the other belligerents equal to these. But, acts of this sort, fewer in number perhaps, must

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be imputed to all. The following is a Servian story published by the Servian Socialist paper Radnitchke Novine (No. 162, August 12/25) :

We imprisoned 300 Bulgarian soldiers. We were ordered to put up a machine gun in a valley. I guessed the object of these preparations. The Bulgarian prisoners watched us at work and seemed to guess what was awaiting them. We put them in a line: then our machine began to work along it from one end to another. * * * When we buried them we found in the pocket of a non-commissioned officer Le Messages Ouvrier and a detailed journal of the war. Probably he was a socialist democrat.

Assassination of prisoners on the march is also found among the Bulgarians. But the motives are different. Those who can not march or who tried to escape are killed (contrary to the provisions of Article 6 of the Convention, which imposes "disciplinary penalties").The mass massacre of Turkish prisoners by the Bulgarians at Stara Zagora is explained (but naturally not justified) by a panic produced by rumors announcing the arrival of the Turkish army.


A Turkish prisoner at Sofia, Mr. Haki-Kiamil, of the fifth regiment of sharpshooters, told us of an episode whose detestable character admits of no doubt, although here again it was a question of panic. He gave himself up to the Bulgarians in the neighborhood of Adrianople. Soon afterwards a panic arose and the Bulgarian officers ordered all prisoners to be killed. They were put at the bottom of a wall and all shot. He himself received eleven wounds but was saved by the ambulance. Captain Noureddine and Lieutenant Nadji were also killed at Adrianople on the day of the capture of the town, after having given themselves up. They were escorted by non-commissioned officers. The soldiers said to them, "You have done us a lot of harm with your machine guns; now you are going to pay for it." And they began to kill the prisoners—twenty soldiers and two officers. Before the end of the slaughter, a Bulgarian officer arrived and saved the life of the witness, of one Medmed Begtchete, and another soldier. The third prisoner told us that a body of 157 prisoners was taken from Erikler. The soldiers beat these prisoners and pushed them with their sticks. Three prisoners wounded in the feet could not march fast enough; they were bayoneted.

The few among the wounded who did not die under such horrible treatment were, once they reached the hospital, on the whole well treated by the sanitary staff. It is true that sick enemy soldiers occupying the same room often behaved in a most unworthy manner towards them, especially in the earlier days. Later, an improvement almost always took place; thanks to the hospital staff (mostly foreigners), the rights of humanity were restored. The members of the Commission found this to be the case wherever they have happened to visit the hospital.

As regards the next stage, the treatment of healthy prisoners incarcerated in various spots, the divergence from the prescriptions of the Convention, was not

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Fig.23.-A Bulgarian Red Cross Convoy


Fig.24.-Roumanian Ravages at Petrohan

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wide in Bulgaria or in Servia. Generally speaking, despite mutual recriminations in the press, prisoners did not suffer severely either at Sofia or at Belgrade. A Bulgarian officer, Mr. Kissditzy, told us at Sofia that the quarters for officers and particularly for soldiers were bad at Belgrade; for example, there were as many as a hundred persons in a room which only held thirty. The medical treatment was insufficient; the Servian doctor, our friend, Mr. Vasits, came rarely. The other doctor, a Greek from Gumurjina teased the prisoners so that they themselves asked not to be attended by him. The Turkish prisoners we saw at Sofia looked tolerably well, but they complained of the bad quality of the food. The Greek prisoners did not criticize the food, which they said was mediocre. A Servian prisoner in flight from Bulgaria, a farmer, said: "There was enough bread; they (the Bulgars) gave us what they had themselves." As to prisoners' work (allowed by the Convention) the Bulgarian government states that those employed on State works were remunerated at the same rate as the Bulgarian soldiers, that is to say, they got no money but were lodged, fed and clothed. Those working in connection with private enterprise, "ought" to receive a stated daily wage. The Minister admits that malversion was possible, but knows no case of it. The Turkish soldiers explained to the Commission that they were forced to work on the fortifications against Knjazevac (contrary to the Convention) and that they received no pay.

All this, however, is nothing in comparison with what the prisoners of war endured in Greece. Contrary to the Convention they were shut up in prisons, not temporarily but permanently. These Greek prisons ("the Bastilles of the twentieth century" as the Patris called that at Athens, May 29) were horrible. Bulgarian prisoners returning in October from Priekes, from Ithaca, and from Nauplion, told appalling stories. We select one which is very well substantiated as a specimen. [Mr.Lazarov's story was published by the Mir, October 24/November 6.] The author, Mr. Lazarov, was captured on board the steamer Catherine, on which the horrible scenes of drowning which are described in Chapter IV took place.

On June 24/July 7, we arrived at the Island of Ithaca. The soldiers were the first to disembark. They were all searched and shut up in the prison. Then the civil prisoners were taken off and beaten one after the other, before being shut up. We heard agonizing sobs from children and old people of seventy. The prison is constructed in the middle of the sea, [In the official Greek denials a great deal of fuss is made because the stories of the Bulgarian prisoners allude to the "uninhabited islands" of Ithaca and Trikeri, whereas Ithaca is inhabited by 20,000 inhabitants, and Trikeri is not an island but a big town at the extremity of the Volo peninsula. As regards Ithaca, Mr. Lazarov replies that the prison is clearly situated near the channel of the island. Trikeri was taken by the prisoners for an island, probably because they could not see behind the mountain, the lower portion of which unites it to the continent.] on a plateau of 3,100 m. c. of which 2,000 are occupied by the building. The prison is damp and gloomy. There we spent a month locked up, during which time we only had three hours a day to breathe the open

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air in the courtyard. At the end of the month we were let out, but for this fifty centimes were taken from each of us. Nevertheless the civilians continued shut up until October 22/November 4. The only people who saw the country were those who were led into the town to work as street porters. Before going into the prison, the 223 soldiers had taken from them 108 pairs of boots, ten belts, a pair of trousers, eight razors, five watches, four purses, thirty francs, and a cross which had been given as a reward for courage. We sent a written protest to the Commander of the Island of Ithaca. He returned it to us saying that he could do nothing since he did not know the culprits, although we had named them in our report. From the civilians there were taken fr. 3,882 (a thousand francs being taken from Nabouliev alone, the man who was drowned), without counting coats and shoes. Their protest was equally unavailing. Although there was spring water in the town, well water was brought to us in barrels: it was stony and tasted detestable, indeed it was hardly drinkable, and we could not use it for cooking our soup which consisted exclusively of beans. We were fed mainly on chick-peas, lentils, haricots, rice, potatoes, stinking and rotten olives, bad fish, poor cheese and raisins. Out of 226 dishes only twenty-two were meat dishes. And this meat was goat, which even dogs will not touch with us. For three days, June 18, 24 and 25, we had no food at all and ten times we were only given one meal in the twenty-four hours. There was absolutely no medical attention. Men who were grievously ill were left without attention. The dampest room in the prison was assigned for a hospital, and the sick were left there without medicine, food or medical attention, that they might die, not that they might recover. We had, in fact, to look after ourselves. Those among us who belonged to the ambulance service, secretly visited the hospital to see the sick people and make out prescriptions, which we sent into the town in wine bottles. We had to pay ten times too dear for our medicine and our pockets were empty. Collections had to be made to buy milk, eggs, etc., for the sick. Those who had toothache had to put up with the services of the town barber, who made extractions at two francs a tooth. Our ambulance people had even to look after the Greek sanitary staff, who complained that their doctor understood nothing, and refused to look after them; that they could not get medicine and that the chemists would not give the State credit. Throughout the time of our imprisonment we had fifteen soldiers sick, without counting civilians.The principal diseases were fever, diarrhea, stomatitis, angina, erysipelas, etc. A typhoid patient in a delirious state came out of his room, which was two yards from the sea, and drowned himself. I myself suffered from rheumatism for two months and a half; not only was I never attended by a doctor, I was not even given a mattress, but had to lie on the damp boards. After enduring great sufferings on September 13/26, we sent a request to the commander asking him to remove us from the damp prison and place us in houses suitable for prisoners of war, to treat us as prisoners of war and not as convicts; to give us blankets as many of us had no cloaks; to allow us to write to our relations, and to go out into the town to buy necessaries; to provide us with water fit for washing instead of dirty water. Only this last request was granted. Our allowances were paid us regularly, one franc, fifty centimes per month for a soldier, three francs for a corporal, nine francs for a non-commissioned officer of low grade, fifteen francs for a higher grade non-commissioned officer and for a sergeant

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major. Two days after our departure we were asked to sign a declaration in Greek to the effect that we had been well treated, and took away with us all that we had brought. Not to sign was impossible. We signed making, however, a reservation by adding two letters upon which we had agreed: O. M., private opinion, which they did not see (ossobaye mneniye).

The captive officers were no better treated, as may be seen from the story of Major Lazarov, commander of the Bulgarian garrison at Salonica. Mr. Lazarov describes their sufferings on the steamer, their four days stay at Piraeus, in a damp and dirty prison, where they slept on boards in an unwholesome atmosphere, were ill fed, not allowed to go out except to be photographed, and then were exposed to the insolence of the crowd and the curiosity of journalists. After their departure, these journalists stated in the press that the Bulgarian officers had been received in the best families, had mixed in high society, visited theatres and cinemas, but that since they had abused their hospitality they had finally been sent to Nauplia, because one young officer had been incorrect in his behavior to some ladies of the high society of Piraeus. Mr. Lazarov, after his return to Bulgaria, sent the following telegram to Mr. Venizelos:—

The captive Bulgarian officers of the Salonica garrison protest energetically against the way in which they were treated during their captivity in Greece. They were robbed of their baggage and most of them of their money, thrown into a medieval prison, where they were buried alive in a dungeon in the fortress of Nauplia, deprived of air and light, deprived also of any communication with their families. The doctors not excepted, they endured every humiliation and every form of suffering that the most refined cruelty could invent.

Here we do not speak of the "civilians," although their sufferings, especially in the dungeons in Salonica, were even greater. In their case the point of view taken was that they were rebel Greek subjects. It may be noted that generally speaking the term, "prisoner of war," was interpreted too widely in the Balkans. At Sofia, the Commission was greatly astonished to see old men of eighty years and children pass before it in the guise of "prisoners" returned from Servia. We questioned these good people, who were dressed as peasants, and discovered that they belonged to the population of villages in remote regions, and had endured a form of temporary servitude in the middle of the twentieth century. The 1907 Convention demands that there should be "a fixed distinctive mark recognizable at a distance," to show who is "belligerent."At a distance it is easy to see the age of these old people and to see therefore that they could not be called "prisoners of war." (The photographs in the possession of the Commission of a "review of prisoners" at Sofia, prove clearly enough that one could see from a long way off the sort of people with whom one had to deal.)

By Article 23 of the 1907 Convention, "It is forbidden * * * to use arms, projectiles or other material likely to cause needless suffering."

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With regard to the "needless suffering," we already know that there wen a thousand ways of causing it. The fundamental principle of the introductory Article (22) of the chapter on the "methods of injuring" was interpreted in the Balkans in an inverse sense, and the maxim there employed ran—"Belligerents have an unbounded liberty of choice of means of injuring the enemy." As regards forbidden arms and projectiles, the rules of the Convention remained a dead letter. It is known that during the first Balkan war expanding or "dum-dum" bullets were used by the Turkish soldiers. It will be seen that the same projectiles were used by Christian soldiers.

As regards the Bulgarian army, the Commission is in possession of official Servian reports to the general staff of Uskub, from Tsrny Vrah on July 13, and from Bela-Voda on July 21, 22. General Boyovits wrote from Tsrny Vrah (No. 2446) that "the enemy is using 'dum-dum' bullets, a fact confirmed by the doctor." Eight days later, Colonel Marinkovits (Choumadia division, second reserve, No. 2070) sends specimens of these bullets and of dynamite projectiles to the general staff, with some observations communicated to him by the commander of the Tentli Regiment, Second Reserve. The commander's remarks are as follows:

During the fighting with the Bulgars it was observed that in each combat they employed a quantity of "dum-dum" bullets. Herewith are sent five bullets and a portion of one. In addition, it was noticed that they used ammunition with dynamitic contents; this was specially remarked during the engagement at Bosil-Grad, where the majority of the wounded, even though slightly wounded, died very soon. As an example, there may be cited Milovan Milovanovits, fourth company, third battalion of this regiment, who comes from Bresnitsa, district of Liubits, department of Rudnik. He was wounded in the leg and although immediately attended by the army doctor, he died within an hour. I shall receive accounts of the use of these bullets from the commanders of the Tenth Regiment, first reserve and the third surplus regiment, first reserve. I know of a case in the Tenth Regiment, first reserve, where a sergeant was wounded by a bullet of this kind and had his whole face destroyed.

The testimony of the doctor was sent by Colonel Marinkovits on the same day, July 21 (No. 2079), to the general staff: "In connection with the report, No. 2070, today's date, I beg to submit the report of the commander of the Third (Auxiliary) Regiment, first reserve. On perceiving in the course of the engagement with the Bulgars on July 15 and 17, that the enemy's bullets had a totally different effect from hitherto, I consulted the army doctor, whose statement is as follows:

I have not much experience of dum-dum bullets, but according to the accounts of the wounded and of all the participators in the combats of Preslata, with the Albanians, I beg to state my opinion to the commanders

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that the Bulgars have a certain amount of these bullets at hand, and especially used them at night. The action of these bullets consists in their expansion when striking a body; thus the wounds are deformed and heal with greater difficulty. I beg that this be verified on the patients, and that attention be drawn to the fact in appropriate quarters."

On the following day, July 22 (No. 2085), the statement of the army doctor, Mr. Mihilovits, was sent to the general staff. It was countersigned by Colone! Marinkovits:

In connection with the reports, 2070 and 2079 of yesterday's date, I have the honor to send you the following report of the army doctor of the Tenth Regiment, first reserve.

In reply to the commander's question whether the Bulgars employed dumdum bullets, or bullets of a dynamitic nature, in the combats along the Vlasina frontier, the doctor made the following statement:

I beg to state that I found eight cases among the wounded of our first battalion, who fell in the combat of the 7th inst., where the injuries had been caused by firearms of small caliber. In each case the flesh looked as though it had been dragged and torn with a pair of tweezers. There were two openings in each case, where the bullet had penetrated and emerged, i. e., it passed right through. These holes were both disproportionately large. One of these eight cases of injuries caused by dum-dum bullets is very characteristic, namely, that of Sergeant Krasits, of the first battalion. He has the right side of his upper lip cut and the whole of his face and throat are covered with burns about the size of a five para piece [this is about the size of an English penny]. Sergeant Krasits was brought to the hospital three hours after he had been wounded. His head was much swollen, especially his face and eyes. His lids were swollen to such an extent that he could not see. His eyeballs were uninjured. In my opinion, Sergeant Krasits's injuries were caused by a rifle bullet of dynamitical or other explosive contents. It is quite obvious in his case. In several other cases of injury, it may be stated with certainty that they were caused by dum-dum bullets. Many of the wounded whom I attended that day told me that the Bulgarian bullets explode a second time when they enter the body.

As for the Greek army, the Commission received a proces-verbal signed on July 21/August 3, at Sofia, by Dr. Toramiti (head of the Austrian Red Cross mission), Dr. Kohl (head of the Princess Elizabeth of Reuss' mission), and Dr. Mihilowsky (head of the Clementina hospital at Sofia). On the request of General Savov, these officers formed a special commission to determine whether or no dum-dum bullets had been used in the Servian army. Their conclusions are as follows:

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A packet was put before them composed of four samples, the ends of which had obviously been artificially filed with a view to assisting the action of the bullets, contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention. The samples do not appear to represent something specially manufactured, but rather something improvised; they are something half way between an ordinary bullet and an explosive bullet. The wounded men examined by the Commission, Peter Khristov, of the sixty-second infantry regiment, and Michael Minovski, of the second regiment, showed more serious wounds than are produced by normal bullets in steel cases, wounds that may be attributed to explosive bullets. Similar wounds, however, might be produced by a bullet meeting a rigid object on its way, and so entering the body out of shape.

The following is a copy of the verbal note sent by the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs to the embassies of the six great Powers at Sofia, July 24/ August 6 (No. 2492), on the employment of the dum-dum bullets by the Greek army:

In the course of recent actions, the Greek troops used bullets against the- Bulgarian soldiers which have the ends cut and carry incisions of two millimeters in diameter and 4-5 millimeters in depth, in the middle of the grooved portion: the ravages produced by these bullets in the human body are ten times worse than those made by ordinary bullets. While the wounds made by the ordinary Greek bullet passing through the human body show a diameter of 6.5 millimeters—equal to the caliber of the Greek rifle,—those produced by the bullets with their ends cut are as much as seven centimeters in diameter, that is to say, the wounds are ten times as bad. The doctors attached to the army operating against the Greeks bear witness to the existence of hundreds of cases of this kind. Three doctors, two being foreigners, in fact drew up a statement ad hoc.


The effect of bullets cut in this manner and incised in the middle of the grooved portion, may be explained as follows: As. a result of its impact on the human body the cut bullet alters its shape while continuing its movement, while the air in the cavity formed in the middle of the grooved portion is compressed and, tending to recover its normal density, acts as an explosive, at the moment of the deformation of the bullet in the human body. The result is terrible wounds.

The use of bullets of this kind having been prohibited by Article 23 of the Regulations of the Laws and Customs of Land Warfare, drawn up by the Second Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907, the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs protests against the infraction of this provision committed by the Greek troops, and begs the Royal Imperial Embassy of * * * to be so good as to bring the above facts to the knowledge of their government.

The military authorities are in possession of three cartridges containing the bullets in question.

Photographs of these Greek cartridges were shown to the Commission; on them Greek letters can be seen— and . The filed

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Fig.25.-Shortened Greek Cartridges

ends can also be seen very distinctly. Before judging the facts alleged in the document cited, the reserves made by the doctors consulted at Sofia must be remembered. The bullets in question are "improvised," and not officially manufactured; moreover, a certain number of the wounds explained by the action of dum-dum bullets are capable of another explanation. This certainly does not change the nature of the offence, but it may change its degree, and leave in suspense the question of guilt. The governments concerned ought to make it their interest to make inquiry among themselves with a view to discovering the explanation of the facts established, instead of merely denying them, which would lead to a suspicion of their guilt.

4. Article 23 f.

The undue use of the white flag is forbidden.

Article 32. It (the white flag) enjoys inviolability, as do the trumpet, the bugle and the drum, the standard bearer and the interpreter who accompany it. A captain to whom a white flag is sent is not compelled to receive it in all circumstances. He may take all the necessary steps to prevent the white flag from taking advantage of the opportunity to reconnoitre. In case of abuse he has the right to retain the white flag temporarily.

Generally speaking proper respect for the white flag was lacking in the atmosphere of mutual distrust, a distrust perhaps justified in part by the con-

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tempt for moral obligations and formal rights to which this report bears witness. The parties accused each other mutually of attempts at "undue use." This however, can not justify the direct attacks on bearers of the white flag, which indubitably took place. A telegram from Uskub, published in the Servian press [See the Odyeke of July 22/Augnst 4.]records the following fact. The commander of the Servian troops besieging Vidine at 11:30 in the morning of July 18/31, sent an officer and three horsemen to inform the commander of the garrison at Vidine of the conclusion of an armistice, and to begin pourparlers on a line of demarcation. The bearer of the flag of truce was on the road, the trumpet was played and a soldier carried the white flag. When the flag was thirty paces from the village of Novo Seltsi, the Bulgarians opened fire. The envoy was not wounded, but his two companions were hit. The telegram does not state what followed, but the Bulgarians evidently ceased to fire and the bearer of the flag of truce completed his task.

The Servians were guilty of even more serious violation of the Conventions regulating the use of the flag of truce. On June 18/July 1, an order was given to the Bulgarian army to cease the offensive. For forty minutes the Bulgarians ceased and some officers were sent as bearers of the flag of truce. This, as we know, was the last opportunity on which it was still possible to avoid war, since the government at Sofia had disavowed the orders given by General Savov, and he had been obliged to beat a retreat. We possess the stories of those who bore the flag of truce, which show the reception given by the Servians to this attempt to stop the hostilities which had hardly begun. Lieutenant Bochkov was arrested; his eyes were bandaged, and he was led first before the commander of the regiment, and then before the commander of a division. Contrary to the Convention, he was told that he was taken prisoner. He refused to remove his bandage himself, and was thereupon told that he was regarded as a spy. The affair was reported to Prince Alexander, the heir to the throne, who replied that he refused to negotiate with the Bulgarians, or to receive envoys from them. Here he was, of course, within his rights, but he had transgressed them for the two following reasons, in declaring the man Bochkov prisoner: (1) the Bulgarians had not declared war; (2) he had not got full power. Nevertheless, Mr. Bochkov had been sent with a flag of truce by the commander; and when the heir-apparent accused him of being a spy, he replied that it was not usual for spies to appear with their eyes bandaged. Alexander's sole reply was to push him brutally with his hand. His photograph was taken and published in the Servian papers as that of a Bulgarian spy. With his own eyes he saw a Bulgarian peasant shot by the order of the heir to the throne, who accused him of being a spy. He himself was led off on foot behind a horseman who was charged to take him to Uskub; he had to sleep on the street while his escort lay under a roof. Throughout the journey to Belgrade,

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he was insulted and mocked at. Another bearer of a flag of truce, Reserve Lieutenant Kiselitsky—of whose imprisonment we have already spoken,—reports the same fact. "We had two white flags (with Mr. Bochkov). The Servians took us prisoners and again began firing on our lines." Mr. Kiselitsky saw a Bulgarian soldier thrown out of his litter to make room for a Servian soldier, on the order of the heir to the throne. He saw Bulgarian prisoners being pillaged all along the way. He himself was insulted and made the mark of dubious jokes. The Commission heard a third witness, Mr. Maguenev, an officer of the 31st Regiment of Reserve. He was one of the bearers of a flag of truce, who was asked to give his full authority. He replied that he was ordered not to enter upon pourparlers, but to inform the Servians that the Bulgarians had received orders to stop firing. The Servian Lieutenant-Colonel Solovits then took his revolver, cartridges, etc., but stopped when Mr. Maguenev said that if he did so he would blow his brains out. He was then sent to the general staff and the firing began again. They tried to pass him off as a comitadji. The prefect of Niche swore that he knew him, that he was one Stephen Yovanovits, born at Veles. Although this attempt failed, the Servian policeman who took him to Belgrade shouted to the crowd which assembled at every stop: "Behold the Bulgarian spy." He was insulted like the others.

An even more serious case is that of Captain Minkov, of the general staff, who was also sent to the Servians as the bearer of a flag of truce. When he reached the Servian line, Minkov asked to be led before the commander. The commander, an old man, interrupted him and without leaving him time to explain himself said, "We are no longer in 1885. You may have an order to stop hostilities but we have an order to go straight on to Kotchani." With these words, he struck Mr. Minkov with his riding whip, and said, "You are my prisoner." Four soldiers siezed Mr. Minkov, and as they moved the commander shouted the order again. The witness of this scene, Petko Ivanov, a Bulgarian non-commissioned officer, who accompanied the captain and told us the story, could not understand the words spoken at this point, but he gathered their general sense, the more that at that moment the soldiers fired and he saw Captain Minkov fall. He saw the captain stretched on the ground, struggling for a few minutes in convulsive agony; then he was led off himself. The tragedy of this scene was enhanced by the fact that at the moment of its occurrence the Bulgarian army had received the order to cease the offensive.


5. Article 27. During sieges and bombardments, all necessary measures shall be taken to spare as far as possible sacred edifices, hospitals and places in which sick and wounded persons are collected, so long as they are not at the same time being employed for directly military purposes. It is the duty of the besieged to indicate such edifices and places by special visible marks, to be notifed in advance, to the besieger.

Article 21. The obligations of belligerents as regards the service of the sick and wounded are regulated by the Convention of Geneva.


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We have here two of the Articles in the legislation agreed upon between belligerent nations with which compliance was clearly very easy, and most important for the belligerents themselves.Nevertheless, even this Article was. violated. The places and circumstances are precisely indicated in a report by a. Russian doctor at the Bulgarian hospital at Serres, Mr. P. G. Laznev. [Dr. Laznev's report is published by Professor Miletits in his collection "Documents, etc.," pages 107-140. The passages quoted are taken from a copy of it in our possession.] Mr. Laznev took over the direction of the hospital after the departure of the Bulgarian troops on June 23/July 6. Side by side with the Red Cross flag-which already floated there, he caused the Russian national flag to be hoisted. Mr. Laznev's story is as follows:—

On the next and following days, the members of the Greek revolutionary committee repeatedly presented themselves.They took away arms belonging to the sick, which had been placed in the cellars of the hospital. They did not indulge in any other acts of violence; on the contrary, they offered their services. The women of the town stole some of the goods belonging to the cholera patients. After the arrival of the Greek troops, as before, Apostol, the Greek Bishop of the town of Serres, was at the head of the municipal administration. He told us that the stolen goods would be restored to the soldiers, and the women thieves executed; their names were known. The stolen goods were not restored, and not one of the thieves was punished.

On June 28, the Bulgarian infantry and mountain artillery appeared on the heights above the hospital. A combat took place between the Bulgarians and the Comites who were hidden behind the hospital. The Comites were compelled to retire, and the Bulgarians were in possession of the hospital. This, however, lasted but for half an hour, since more powerful detachments of Greek infantry and cavalry came up. An uninterrupted fusillade and cannonade took place between the enemies and lasted from three to six o'clock in the evening. As before, the hospital was the center of the fray, since it served to cover the Greeks, as it had but now covered the Bulgarians. Many windows in our hospital were broken and we were obliged to place the sick on the ground near the wall, to protect them against stray bullets; as it was, one of our patients was wounded in the ear by a ricochetting bullet. I tried in vain to show the Greeks, as before the Bulgarians, that the hospital should not be chosen to cover the enemy's troops. They would not listen.

Evidently the inviolability of the hospital was abused by both sides, with the effect that the sole condition under which the hospital was inviolable, was annulled. No account at all, in fact, was taken of war legislation. The combat over, violence followed. Let us quote further from Mr. Laznev:

The victors then arrived worn out and exasperated by the battle. They could not be said to enter; they forced the doors of the hospital. They then threw themselves on the soldier belonging to the ambulance service who barred the way; he was clad in his white hospital apron and carried the
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red cross on his left arm. This did him no good for he was cruelly beaten. They then forced the doors of the rooms reserved for the wounded, their rifles in their hands. They threatened them all with death, because "the Bulgarians had burnt the towns." [For this alleged "fire" see the evidence of Dr. Laznev himself and his colleague, Mr. Klugmann, in Miletits and in our 'Chapter II.] I and my assistant, Kamarov, tried to defend the wounded to the best of our power, by means of course of persuasion, not of arms. Kamarov received several blows on the chest and the shoulders from the butt ends of muskets. The nozzles of the muskets were turned towards me. Raising my voice, I told them, through my interpreter, that I was neither a Bulgarian nor a Greek, and that they had no sort of right to do any acts of violence where the red flag and the Russian flag were floating. I succeeded in persuading them, and they went off. The patients got off with a serious fright. At this moment, I heard a noise in the upper story in which were the kitchen, the dining room and my room. I went up to see what was going on. I found some Greek soldiers busy pillaging, under pretext of searching for arms. Each was taking what he could lay his hands on, glasses, towels, sugar—nothing escaped. I found my room in a state of frightful disorder. Some dozen soldiers were busy, forcing the locks of my boxes and trunks, and rifling them. All the things had been thrown out and were lying about everywhere. Each was taking what pleased him—cigarettes, tobacco, sugar, my watch and chain, my linen, my pocket book, my pencils—nothing was beneath their notice. I was very much afraid, because in my hand bag there was both my money and that of the hospital; luckily, however, the Greeks did not see it. An officer appeared and seeing the Russian national flag and that of the red cross affixed to the balcony, had them torn down, despite our protestations, and hoisted the flag of the Greek navy. Until nightfall the Greek soldiers went on coming in groups, each of which had to be appealed to not to maltreat the patients. This day, June 28, was the worst for the Serres hospital. From June 29 onwards, they began sending us Greek cholera patients, and little by little looked upon us with more favorable eyes.

The Commission was informed of a case in which the sick found in hospitals by the Greeks were even more .cruelly treated. Dr. Tauk was a Turkish doctor, attached to the hospital in the town of Drama. When the Greeks took Drama, they found five sick Bulgarian soldiers in the hospital. They ordered the doctor to give them up. The doctor refused. The Greek authorities thereupon had the wounded taken out of the hospital, and these five were conveyed to a barracks outside the town. Our witness, whose name we are not able to give, states that these wounded men were massacred.

At Vidine, the Commission had the opportunity of finding that the Servian army could not be altogether exonerated from behavior of this kind. The Bulgarian hospital in this town seems to have served as a mark for the Servian artillery during the siege. The proof is a proces-verbal signed by the director of a hospital, by the priest of Vidine, Mr. Nojarov, by the departmental doctor, Boyadjiev, and two other members of the medical corps. The Commission visited the spot and was able to verify these statements in the proces-verbal.

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This day, July 17/30, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the Servian artillery directed a violent fire against the walls of the Vidine hospital Round the hospital there fell more than twenty shells, in the court and in the street. One shell struck the infectious ward, in which wounded soldiers and other patients were being treated; it destroyed two walls and exploded in a room, wounding the patient, George Trouika, from Iassen, in the Vidine canton. The red cross flag was hoisted near the demolished part of the building. Another shell struck the main ward, piercing the cornice under the roof below the red cross flag without exploding. But the fall of the projectile created a panic among the wounded, and even those in a serious condition and those who had lost limbs, threw themselves on to the staircase. The above mentioned facts are confirmed by photographs taken by Mr. Kenelrigie, an English engineer, and Mrs. Kenelrigie.

The firing on the hospital by the Servians was intentional; they knew that many wounded people were being treated there. The flags served as targets. The hospital is situated outside the town, and is visible from ten miles off, especially from the position occupied by the Servian artillery. Moreover, two white red cross flags, one two meters square, the other one meter, eighty, were floating from the walls of the hospital.

6. Article 25. It is forbidden to attack or bombard, in any way whatsoever, houses villages, dwellings or buildings which are not defended.

Article 28. It is forbidden to hand over a town or place, even when taken by assault to pillage.

The most important instance of violation of Article 28 would, if the accusations made against the Bulgarians were true, be that of Adrianople. But we have seen that the commander did all that was in his power to put a stop to pillage (begun by the population itself), as soon as the town was taken. This can not be stated with equal certainty as regards individual soldiers, who attempted to take part in the pillage. Unfortunately, the case was different at Kniajevats, where it is evident that the military authorities connived at pillage, which assumed extraordinary proportions. The Commission will not refer to the treatment of Salonica by the Greeks, because that episode belongs to a period previous to the Commission's inquiry, and has not formed the subject of any special study.

The cases where villages were pillaged are so numerous that we can not go into them at this point. It may, however, be stated, that it was almost normal in the case of certain localities referred to in this report.

Cases of bombardment of undefended places, in violation of Article 25, are also known to the Commission. An Englishman named R. Wadham Fisher, who at first watched the progress of the war and afterwards took part in it as a lieutenant in the fifth battalion of the Bulgarian militia, stated to us that the Turkish fleet had bombarded places situated on the shores of the sea of Marmora, namely, the little town of Char-Keui (Peristeri), and the village of Mireftchi (Myriophyto), although they were not fortified and had no artillery. At Char-Keui, it is true, there had been some Bulgarian militia, which was driven off by the Turkish attack on January 26, 1913. According to Mr. Fisher, the Bulgarians

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left seventeen wounded there. Three days later, January 29/February 11, when they returned, they found that they had all been killed by the Turks. "I saw," said Mr. Fisher, "the dead body of a child of fifteen years, stretched out on the ground near the fountain whither he had come to draw water, with a jug in his hand. A girl of twelve years old, who bore the marks of twelve bayonet wounds, had been outraged by four Turks. She soon died. S;ix old women of about seventy-five years old had also been killed. Two young girls, the daughters of the priest, had been carried off by the Turks on their steamers. So much for ‘pillage.’" * * *

7. Let us now to another order of facts: the relations of the conquerors and powers in occupation, to the inhabitants of the occupied territories. Here the mass of facts is so enormous that to recapitulate them, after what has already been described, would be superfluous. We may, however, pause a moment to touch upon a class of misdemeanors which may be said to have been of daily occurrence, in order to make. the picture of the violations of the laws of warfare complete, and once again confront the text of the law with the tragic reality.

Let us begin with the contributions and requisitions to which all the inhabitants were subjected, and which were foreseen and regulated by the terms of the Convention of 1907:

Article 48. If the power in occupation, within the occupied territory, raises taxes, duties and tolls for the advantage of the State, it is to do so as far as possible in accordance with the scale and distribution in force in the country. * * *

Article 49. If * * * the power in occupation raises other taxes in money in the occupied territory, this is only to be done to meet the needs of the army or of the administration of the said territory.

Article 51. Contributions are only to be collected by the authority of a written order * * *. A receipt shall be given to the contributors.

Article 52. Payments in kind and services requisitioned * * * shall be proportionate to the resources of the country. As far as possible they shall be paid for in ready money, if not, receipts shall be given.

The Commission has in its possession a number of proofs which show that the regulations were not carried out by the Powers in occupation, Servians and Greeks; especially not by the latter. Among the documents in the Commission's possession there is occasionally mention of a number of receipts for goods requisitioned, but the documents are generally valueless. The Commission heard of cases in which, instead of writing the value of the goods taken upon the receipt, oaths or jokes were written upon it; for example, so much "rubbish" was taken; or there were simply illegible words. Corn, hay and cattle, to the value of fr. 30,000, was taken from an old man of seventy years of age, Mitskov by name, of Krouchevo, in return for which a receipt for fr. 100 was offered him. As he was courageous enough to protest, he was shut up in the dampest cell of the dungeon at Krouchevo. Next day his son was summoned, compelled to accept the hundred francs and sign the receipt. More often, however, no receipt was given the villagers. Sometimes some excuse was made, but this was compara-

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tively rare. The excuse generally given was, that "Turkish" property was being taken, not that of the Slav inhabitants. One particularly interesting instance may be quoted in full:

A Servian soldier, Milan Michevits, arrived in the village of Barbarevo (canton of Kratovo), with several men belonging to his company. He made requisitions in every house, and arrested a man called Guitcho Ivanov, to compel him to declare that his corn is Turkish corn. Another individual, Arso Yanev by name, is beaten and tortured during the whole night, to compel him to say that his sheep are Turkish sheep. With the same object he arrested, beat and tortured Guiro Yanev; he beat Ordane Petrov to make him call his cow Turkish property; he tortured Mone Satiovsky, an old man of eighty years of age, by stripping him to the skin and making him stand the whole night on a hill, to force him to state that the fifteen goats taken from him are Turkish; etc.

We frequently find that goods thus taken were sent to Servia or Greece. We know of cases in which Servian officers obtained "subscriptions" for the red cross; and others in which the resources of the area were absolutely exhausted by the repeated levy of contributions, etc. In fact, it goes without saying that where pillage is organized in this way and left thus unpunished, no respect for established rules regarding requisition and contribution can be expected.

8. Article 47. Pillage is formally forbidden.

Article 45. To compel the population of an occupied territory to take the oath to the enemy power is forbidden.

Article 46. Family honor and family rights, the life of individuals and private property, religious convictions and the practice of worship, are to be respected.

The reader need only recall Chapters II to IV of this Report, to reach the conclusion that in the Balkan war pillage was universally admitted and practiced. So far as we know, the orders above, published by the Bulgarian military authorities, represent the sole attempt made to recall to the soldiers the opposing principle of international law as applied to warfare. And even this order proves that the principle was violated and that subalterns enjoyed an indulgence which encouraged rather than prevented crime. Nevertheless the operations of the Bulgarian army were carried on in regions where the mass of the population was composed of kinsmen. The time was insufficient to allow of "reestablishing and securing order," in accordance with Article 43, of the Convention of 1907. The forces "in occupation" were the Greek and Servian armies; it was into their hands that "the authority of legal power" passed for the most part in the regions conquered from the Turks. We know that their first act, in their capacity as "Power in occupation" was, as soon as the cession had taken place, to compel the population to "take the oath" and to recognize themselves as Servians or Greeks. According to the treaties the occupied territory ought to have been regarded as possessed in "condominium" by all the allies. But we have seen

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that all the relations between the population and the occupying army were. from the very beginning, perverted by this tendency to appropriate the occupied territory and to prepare for its annexation; this created a relation as between conquerors and conquered. Thus the solemn words of Article 46 have all the effect of sarcasm.

"Family honor and family rights, the life of individuals and private property * * * are to be respected." In reality, no one is astonished by outrage; they forget even to look upon it as a crime. In this connection, the Bulgarians are probably less guilty than the others. More patriarchal or more primitive in their ideas, they preserve the feeling of the soil, and are more disciplined than the others. The mocking Greek women call them "girls in great-coats." This certainly could not have been said of the Greeks.

"Individual life" was certainly rated cheap during these months of war, and "private property" at nothing. Theft was as common as outrage, and both represented infringements of the law of warfare. This was the so-called "peaceful occupation," as carried on most notably by the Roumanian army. Some acts of destruction carried out by the Roumanians at Petrohane, the highest point on the road between Sofia and Vidine, are fresh in the memory of the Commission. The little villa in which the late Prince of Battenberg used to spend the night when he came there for hunting, was destroyed, and the meteorological station ruined, the splendid instruments broken and the observation records, the work of many years, torn up and burned. In comparison with this the unfortunate scientists of the observatory thought nothing of the young women outraged in the neighboring village, or the food and cattle taken and not paid for; they sank into insignificance in comparison with this irreparable loss. This was "peaceful" occupation. Previous chapters have shown what occupation by force was like.

Was any tenderness shown for "religious convictions" and "the forms of worship"? Unhappily not. We have described the destruction of mosques and churches, the ruin of sepulchral monuments, the profanation of tombs. One party began: the other came to take revenge; it was a form of tit for tat. We have verified and partly confirmed Mr. Pierre Loti's description of what happened at Havsa, while drawing his attention to the events of a neighboring Christian village. For Mr. Loti's edification, another example of Turkish sacrilege may be given. We read in a Greek report of July 9/22 as follows:

Yesterday about three o'clock in the afternoon, the sailors of the Turkish warship, which has been anchored at Silivri for the last four days, went to the cemetery of the orthodox Greek community and overthrew all the crosses on the graves there.

Against this there may be set a Turkish complaint, sent by Colonel Dr. Ismail Mail to the commander of the garrison at Stara Zagora, where he and a great number of Turkish soldiers were held captive. "Several days ago," writes

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Dr. Ismail Mail, on April 3/16, "a captive soldier came here and told us that various means, advice, promises, threats, had been employed to compel him and his compatriots, 'Moslem pomaks,' to conversion. * * * I replied by telling the soldier not to be worried, since such a thing seemed to be impossible. Today however, I learn that some 400 prisoners, all Moslem pomaks, have been led away into an unknown place." * * * Dr. Ismail Mail protests because of the risks of "contagion." As to the result of his complaint we are ignorant, but we have already had occasion to say that the Bulgarians themselves admit that, in their relations with the pomaks of the occupied countries, the principle of Article 46 was not observed. Moreover, the mere fact cited above affords an instance of the violation, or of the intention to violate, Article 18: "Every latitude is left to prisoners of war in the exercise of their religion."

To sum up, there was, as we said at the beginning of this chapter, no single article in the Convention of 1907 which was not violated, to a greater or lesser degree, by all the belligerents. International law as governing war exists, and its existence, if not always known, is at least guessed at by all the world. Yet, although all the belligerent States had signed the Conventions in question, they did not regard themselves as bound to conform to them.

It should, however, be added that the mere fact of the presence of the Commission in the Balkans has already done something to recall the nature of their obligations to the belligerents. Where, as in Eastern Thrace, the Commission was expected, a Bulgarian paper observes that "the atrocities have diminished." On the Albanian frontier, on the other hand, where atrocities were beginning again, the journey of the Commission was opposed. In this connection a question was raised by a Servian paper which deserves notice, whatever be the motive for their action. On the very day of the forced departure of the Commission (August 13/26), the Trgovinski Glasnik tried to justify the action of the Servian government by stating that an international inquiry, claiming juridical powers, was going to be undertaken in the Balkans, whereas such powers belonged exclusively, in an independent and sovereign country, to the government. The establishment of such an inquiry was, according to the paper, a limitation of sovereignty and an interference with the rights of the State. In so far as the State does not consent and grant special permission for inquiry to be made, the mere nomination of such a Commission constituted by itself "an act of international arbitration."

The organ of "the mercantile youth of Belgrade" indubitably went rather far. The function of the Commission was in no sense "juridical," and its conclusions (to some extent foreseen by the paper referred to), are in no way analogous to intervention by international diplomacy. The Commission only represented pacificist public opinion, although in the course of its work it frequently received assistance from the States concerned. This was the case in Bulgaria, where it had the opportunity of interrogating official personages on the

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facts which interested it; where it received information not only from private persons but from the government itself; and where it was permitted to search the archives (the Greek letters) and to communicate with State institutions (the government departments, the Holy Synod). This was also the case in Greece to some extent.

Nevertheless the question raised by the Trgovinski Glasnik is not superfluous, and the Commission deals with it here. Were it possible for there to be a commission of inquiry with the belligerent armies, during war, not in the shape of an enterprise organized by private initiative, but as an international institution, dependent on the great international organization of governments, which is already in existence, and acts intermittently through Hague Conferences, and permanently through the Hague Tribunal,—the work of such a body would possess an importance and an utility such as can not attach to a mere private commission. Nevertheless, the Commission has succeeded in collecting a substantial body of documents, now presented to the reader. It has, however, met with obstacles, in the course of its work, which have cast suspicion on its members. A commission which was a permanent institution, enjoying the sanction of the governments which signed the convention, could exercise some control in the application of these conventions. It could foresee offences, instead of condemning them after they had taken place. If it is stated, correctly enough, that conventions can not be carried out so long as they do not form an integral part of the system of military instruction, it may be stated with even more force, that they can not be carried out without a severe and constant control in the theater of war. Diplomatic agents and military attaches are given a special place with the army in action. Military writers have already mooted the idea of establishing a special institution for the correspondents who follow the army. Attention ought, therefore, to be given to the control which could be exercised by an international commission, not there to divulge military secrets, but as the guardian of the army's good name, while pursuing a humanitarian object.

If the work we have done in the Balkans could lead to the creation of such an institution as this, the Commission would feel its efforts and its trouble richly rewarded, and would find there a recompense for the ungrateful task undertaken at the risk of reawakening animosity and drawing down upon itself reproaches and attacks. May their task then be the prelude to a work destined to grow!
CHAPTER VIIThe Moral and Social Consequences of the Wars and the Outlook for the Future of Macedonia

In the first war there was much of that cheerful response to the call to arms, that fearlessness and that heroism which have been sung by poets in all time, and which the world has ever approved. Centuries of oppression and suffering at the hands of the Turks, the unpromising outlook for good government in Macedonia because of hostile factions in the Turkish government, and the possibility of the alliance of Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria in what seemed a just and holy cause, were felt to fully justify the concerted movement against the Turks. The peasants who cheerfully left their homes and their families, while the government took their animals and their carts for purposes of transportation, went forth in a glow of national feeling and patriotism not unmixed with the thought of liberating their brothers in Macedonia. Though the instincts and motives which inspired them were primitive, they were nevertheless real and genuine and belonged to that class of better human traits which war is believed by many to call forth.

From first to last, in both wars, the fighting was as desperate as though extermination were the end sought. However glorious the public accounts appeared, the Turkish war and the war of the Allies constituted a ghastly chapter of horrors. Both among the regular troops as well as the irregular bands which accompanied the armies, there were many of low, criminal, and even bestial type, with no human feeling and no care for civilized standards, who were ready at all times to do atrocious deeds; and the history of the first war, however lofty in purpose it may have been, is tarnished by many burnings, slayings, and violations for which no possible excuse can be given. There is evidence to show that in some cases these acts were committed by soldiers acting under orders. It is to be feared that many a young man learned for the first time to commit acts of violence and crime not permitted in civilized warfare.

We have to do with the second war chiefly, and it is here that moral results and consequences are the most terrible. The nations which had been in alliance and had invoked the aid of Heaven in a war of deliverance suddenly awoke to fierce hatred of each other. National jealousy and bitterness, greed for territorial expansion, and mutual distrust, were sufficient to initiate and push forward the most uncalled for and brutal war of modem times. Those who fought side

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by side at Tchataldja and Adrianople were now ready to kill, mutilate, and to torture each other.

To the man who sits at home, or to the casual observer, war assumes a certain glamor. It seems to be the open door to glory and renown. The Commission witnessed at Belgrade, at the close of the second war, the return of some of the crack Servian regiments and the celebration of the victories, with processions of soldiers, triumphal arches, banners, flowers, and music. The King, Crown Prince, distinguished officers and the populace all entered into the spirit of a grand holiday. Similar scenes were enacted at Sofia, Salonica, Athens, and Bucharest. It would be difficult to say which caused the greater joy,—the victories over the Turks or those over their former allies, the Bulgarians. In the speeches made on these occasions there was, we venture to say, little mention made of the fact that nearly one hundred thousand young men, more or less, were lost to the nation, either through death, wounds, sickness, or massacres. The mothers and sisters of the lost soldiers who, in mourning dress, were scattered numerously through the crowds, received, we venture to say, little public notice. Each of the three nations which fought, and Roumania, who seized an auspicious moment to steal a choice piece of her neighbor's territory and force her to sign a treaty at the point of the bayonet, posed before the world as those that had defended a righteous cause.

We also saw the demobilization of the Servian troops, for we met in our slow journey of two days from Belgrade to Uskub more than thirty military trains loaded with men, horses, oxen, carts, cannon, equipage, and, I fear, much property unlawfully taken from the homes and shops of noncombatants. Often the railway carriages were decorated with flowers or branches of trees. Now and then one could hear patriotic songs. Thus the going and returning of the soldiers was attended with patriotic ardor and joy.This is the brighter side of the picture; but it is the reverse side, so dark and sinister, which we are compelled to examine. Upon this picture only one ray of light seems to fall.

We visited the great military hospitals at Belgrade and Sofia and the smaller Greek hospital at Drama. In the midst of maimed, sore, and suffering humanity devoted women, some of them from other lands, some persons of high station—for example, the wives of the Servian minister in London and the Greek minister at Athens, both of American birth, and Queen Eleonora of Bulgaria— were ministering patiently and sympathetically, not only to those who were recovering, but to the dying as well, and in all cases there were a few, a very few, of the enemy receiving apparently the same care as the others. We heard also of instances of self denial and magnanimity on the battle field, and we wished that there had been more of them.

In considering the moral effects of the atrocities which have already been so fully described, we must take account of the sufferers as well as those guilty of committing them. When a band of soldiers or comitadjis, either under

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orders or, as was many times the case, under the impulse of hatred greed and lust, surrounded and attacked a village, the very doors of Hell seemed to be opened. No language can describe the tortures and griefs which followed. Repeated instances of death by fright of girls and young children attest the horror of the orgy of crime which was enacted. In one house in Doxato, to which fifty persons had fled for safety, all but one little girl, Chrisanthe Andom, were slaughtered like beasts in the shambles. In the same town a well to do family of thirteen owned and occupied one of the best houses. After extorting ?3,000 from the head of the family on the promise that they would be spared, the Bulgarians and Turks proceeded to kill them all. These are typical instances of the many which are found in the depositions contained in the appendices. Can we estimate the moral effects of such atrocities upon the survivors? They are often stunned by the enormity of their losses. Despair is written on their faces. This was true of a Bulgarian and his wife in the village of Voinitsa. They stood beside a wretched shack in which they were trying to live, while a few meters away were the ruins of their once attractive home, which contained the savings of a lifetime, and which the Servians had destroyed. Widespread and almost universal maltreatment of women and girls by the soldiers of the three nations has left behind moral consequences which can not be estimated.

But what shall we say of the reflex influence upon the perpetrators? When before, in modern times, have troops been commanded by their officers to commit atrocities? That this was done is shown by letters of Greek soldiers captured by the Bulgarians and copies of which are to be seen in Appendix C. Greek officers on the other hand claim to have captured evidence that Bulgarian commanders were guilty of permitting and directing atrocities in Greek towns. The moral effect upon hundreds and thousands of young men, who either participated in or were cognizant of these crimes officially sanctioned, can not easily be effaced. Acting upon a people who have not obtained the stability of character found in older civilizations, the moral loss is irretrievable.

To this list of primary consequences must be added the long series of reports and instances of torturing, mutilating, and slaying of wounded soldiers collected by the Foreign Office at Belgrade, each report containing the names of the victims, the name of the person making the report, and properly attested by the commanding officer. Then there are instances of ill treatment of prisoners, especially of Turks by Bulgarians and of Bulgarians by the Servians and Greeks. No less serious were the sufferings of Turkish refugees, more than 200,000 in number, who were either driven out by the Greeks or who, from fear of the Bulgars, fled from the territories about to be occupied by them. We saw thousands of those refugees in and near Salonica, and thousands more at Drama and Kavala. They were always a pitiful sight, camping as they were on the open ground, without shelter, the children often being nearly naked, with winter approaching, and not knowing where they would find a home and safety.

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They had left their farms and their crops, taking with them only some animals, which were often stolen from them, or which they were compelled to sell for a mere pittance. We saw some of them embarking on steamers for Asia Minor, where it is to be feared that many will die from hunger and exposure the coming winter. More than 135,000 Bulgarians were fugitives from territory newly occupied by the Greeks. This list includes priests, schoolmasters, and leading citizens whose interests and sympathies are known to be Bulgarian.

It is sufficient to refer to what has already been said about nationalities. There could be no more appealing picture of moral and social confusion than that of metropolitan bishops, schoolmasters, and notables who have been arrested, maltreated, and imprisoned without due process of law. If permitted to live, they were driven from their homes and compelled to leave behind the churches and schools which they had cherished, as well as the property belonging thereto or to them personally. Often they were prevented from communicating with their families before they were driven away. These supreme acts of intolerance on the part of Greece and Servia toward educational institutions, which had long been a saving grace in Macedonia, may find some defense in the militant nature of the national propaganda which priests and schoolmasters carried on; but such coercion and ill treatment employed by one set of Christians against another, all adherents of the same orthodox church, can not hope to escape the censure of the civilized world. They were fiendish, both in their conception and in their execution, and were appropriate only to the times of the Spanish Inquisition.

Statistics showing the number of Bulgarian, Servian, and Greek schools and teachers in Macedonia before the new alignment of territory are impressive, as showing Bulgarian enterprise in education, and in suggesting the vast moral and social harm which is wrought in their destruction. Here again the moral consequences are far reaching, for they affect 60,000 pupils and 1,600 teachers and strike a blow at the educational and social advancement of the communities involved. They also convict the Greeks and Servians of mal-administration and intolerance at the very beginning of their avowed work of reconstruction. Recalling that under the Turks there had been a high degree of liberty in education and worship, is it strange that large populations are now wishing that the Turks were again in control? In some respects, at least, war for the deliverance of Macedonia has brought to the people of that country a new set of sufferings and trials. The vice-rector of a Real Gymnasium in Salonica, attended and supported by Bulgarians, told one of the Commission of his own experience. After twenty years of service as director of science in that institution, during which time he had organized physical, chemical, and zoological laboratories equal, if not superior, to any others in that region, he had been compelled to see his work utterly destroyed. Standing in the street a few days before, he had witnessed the systematic looting of the entire building by soldiers and others, and the destruction of whatever was not carried away.

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A daily journal called The Independent, published in Salonica, in its issue of September 4, publishes an interview with Mr. Tsirimocos, the Greek Minister of Public Instruction and Culture, in which he sets forth elaborate plans for primary and secondary education in Macedonia. No mention, however, is made of the schools which have been destroyed and of the hundreds of teachers who have been driven away or of his plans for filling their places.

Reference has already been made to the reflex psychological effect of these crimes against justice and humanity. The matter becomes serious when we think of it as something which the nations have absorbed into their very life,—a sort of virus which, through the ordinary channels of circulation, has infected the entire body politic. Here we can focus the whole matter,—the fearful economic waste, the untimely death of no small part of the population, a volume of terror and pain which can be only partially, at least, conceived and estimated, and the collective national consciousness of greater crimes than history has recorded. This is a fearful legacy to be left to future generations. If we look for palliating causes of these gross lapses from humanity and law, we must find them in the extreme youth of these nations, the immaturity of national and civic character, as well as in the conditions which have beset them during their long period of vassalage. Life was cheap; nothing was absolutely safe or sure ; deeds of injustice and violence were common facts in their daily lives; and danger of some kind or other was generally imminent. Events, however revolting, are soon forgotten by the outside world and it is in the inner consciousness of moral deterioration and in the loss of self respect that the nations will chiefly suffer.

There is one other fact, partly economic but distinctly social, which should not be overlooked. Including Turks, upward of a million and a half of men have been under arms during the past year. For those who have been demobilized and have returned to their homes and vocations there is little to be said in this connection, but to the large contingents which are kept in the service, composed mostly of young men, there is a probability of permanent harm. To be withdrawn from useful productive labor is bad enough; but life in the barracks, with much idleness in the streets of cities and large towns, is sure to be demoralizing and harmful. The Commission in its wanderings seemed everywhere to be enveloped by soldiers, who went to increase the number, already large, of those who thronged the cafes and places of amusement. War causes many kinds of human waste and this is one of them. The life of the recruits who are kept in service under present conditions in the Balkan States is unnatural and not favorable to moral growth.

The next portion of our inquiry relates to present social conditions in these countries and the future prospects for Macedonia. To what extent have Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria shown themselves competent to administer their new domains? What are the guaranties of their future growth in good government and the arts of civilized life? Each nation is working out its destiny under a

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constitutional government in which the people are duly represented. While there is a certain instability caused by the number of political parties, there is the free play of popular will and opinion. Undoubtedly the most promising safeguards and the most important means of progress are found in the systems of education which the several nations have established. Each has its university, technical, secondary and primary schools, and all have taken steps to organize all of these forms of special education which are considered essential in modern times. Greece, by reason of her longer period of independence, has been able to extend and broaden her system and to connect it somewhat with the economic interests of the people. For example, she has a good number of agricultural schools distributed in her several provinces. Servia has also shown worthy attempts to make her schools of social importance through the study of agriculture and domestic economy. The fact that not more than seventeen per cent of the people of Servia can read and write indicates, however, that the system has not been efficiently applied so far as the elements of education are concerned. As one friend of the nation has expressed it, "Education in Servia is strong at the top and weak at the bottom."

Bulgaria, in her thirty-four years of independent existence, has made rapid progress in organizing an efficient school system. The reduction of illiteracy in Bulgaria has proceeded so rapidly during the last ten years that it is possible to predict that before many years the people will all substantially be able to read and write. Similar results may properly be expected in Greece. Bulgaria is considerably in advance of her neighbors in the relative number of schools and teachers provided, in the literacy of both males and females in the entire population, in the number of recruits who can read and write, and in the provision for secondary education. But the efficiency of school systems can not be judged by statistics alone; it is necessary to inquire concerning the results of education as seen in the social and economic life of the people. We may properly ask whether education has been effective in improving healthfulness, thrift and good taste as seen in .the homes; in modernizing commercial and industrial methods; and in raising standards of public health and sanitation.

In the capital cities, especially in Sofia, Athens, and to some extent Belgrade, we see well paved streets, a system of public water, partially constructed sewers, and many indications of civic enterprise. The beginnings in these directions are found also in some of the large towns; but in the villages, in which dwell the majority of the people, there is still a large amount of squalor, dirt, and confusion, which have been transmitted through the centuries with little change. There is too much complacency on the part of officials, too low a standard of human comfort and welfare among the masses. This conservatism and backwardness whereby the people cling to the methods of their ancestors, can only be overcome by more vigorous methods of social education than have yet been applied. Every schoolmaster and every schoolmistress should become a working agent for social regeneration, not only in the old sections of these States, but

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especially in the new. They should not only train the children in habits oi cleanliness, health, and neatness, for which the studies in the official program make provision, but they should try to reach sympathetically and helpfully the parents as well. They should tactfully suggest better plans for making the homes convenient and comfortable, by the use of proper floors, simple but useful furniture, better provisions for health and decency, and the planting of grass, shrubbery, and trees. They should also encourage a healthy rivalry in these and other directions, so that the whole village may become interested in the idea of freeing itself from all obnoxious sights and smells, and in keeping its streets smooth and clean, so that every citizen may be proud of his home and its surroundings.

The relatively low place held by women in the Balkan States, as shown by the high rate of illiteracy of females, is emphasized when so large a proportion of the peasants are under arms and the hard labor in the fields must be performed by women, frequently without the aid of animals. Examples of loyalty and devotion thus afforded do not compensate for the physical and social loss. A people can not rise high in the social scale while women are permitted to bear the heaviest burdens and perform the hardest labor. The greatest social need in the Balkan States today is the raising of the standard of home life among the peasants and the elevation of women by education which is both cultural and practical.

The conditions in Macedonia make it necessary that broad, considerate, and helpful administrative methods be applied. Those forms of coercion, intolerance, and anti-social management, to which reference has been made already, give to Greece and Servia a bad name before the world. Nothing short of complete, generous provision for education undertaken along social and vocational lines will make amends for the evil done. The situation is serious and far from hopeful; something more than military force is needed. The Commission has met several governors, civil and military, in new Greece who, possessed of real sympathy, are endeavoring to help a distressed and long defrauded people to repair their losses and to enter hopefully upon a new era of security and peace. Any attempt to revert to former methods of national propaganda through bands of more or less irresponsible adventurers should be discountenanced and vigorously opposed. Such brigandage is worse than war, for it promotes incessant fear and insecurity and renders civilized life impossible.

In the older civilizations there is a synthesis of moral and social forces embodied in laws and institutions giving stability of character, forming public sentiment, and making for security. In some notable cases there is the re-enforcement. of the Church in its teaching of righteousness and charity and in its practice of social service. This is largely wanting in the Balkan States. The Church does not systematically teach either morals or religion; its bishops and priests are the employes of the State and they are the propagandists of nation-

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ality. Conversion with them means a change from one nationality to another, whether accomplished by persuasion or force. Religious conviction or faith have nothing to do with it. As typical of the methods of conversion employed, a Bulgarian teacher from Macedonia reported that one Sunday the Servian soldiers surrounded a Bulgarian church. When the worshipers came out at the close of the service, a table stood before the door upon which were a paper and a revolver. They were to choose between these; either they were to sign the paper, signifying that they thus became Servians, or were to suffer death. They all signed. But what a travesty upon the true mission of a church and what a perversion of the idea of human government!

The Commission, from what they have seen and heard, indulge in no optimism regarding the immediate political future of Macedonia. Servia is now at war with Albania, Bulgaria is brooding over what she regards as her unjust treatment, and Greece is not yet sure of her tenure in some parts of the new territory. None of these nations can reduce their armies to a peace footing, for their neighbors are as ready to break treaties as they are to make them. Doubtless the greatest menace to the moral and social welfare of the Balkan States is the increasing tendency to militarism, whereby they become a prey to the agents of the makers of guns and other war material, involving enormous expenses and leading to national impoverishment. Where the economic interests of a people are mainly along agricultural lines and where scientific farming is not largely developed and where most of the people are relatively poor, there can be only a moderate annual surplus. If this is required to pay interest on the national debt, as well as to provide for the abnormal cost of occasional wars, national progress will be retarded and enterprise will be throttled. What the Balkan States need today more than anything else is a long period of assured peace so that industry and education may have a broader and richer development.

This suggests a final inquiry concerning the relations of the Balkan States to the new world movement for international cooperation and justice. The bearing of international law upon the conduct of war and the treatment of people and of private property by belligerents has already been discussed. It is the larger moral question which is here raised, for upon it depends the future destiny of the Balkan peoples. If the treaty of Bucharest had been in accord with fair play and justice, or if the question of boundaries could have been referred to mediation, there would have been stronger hopes that the interrelation of the Balkan nations could be improved and strengthened, that through cultural exchange, trade, and friendly intercourse these peoples would begin to learn what other nations have discovered, viz., that their interests are mutual, that in a high human sense they are one, that they injure themselves by trying to injure one another. Under present conditions, which this report has fully disclosed, the case seems well nigh hopeless; and yet, in each country, were found men and women of rank and education who expressed the most fervent

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wish that hatreds and jealousies might be removed and that good will and cooperation might take their place. What then is the duty of the civilized world in the Balkans, especially of those nations who, by their location and history, are free from international entanglements? It is clear in the first place that they should cease to exploit these nations for gain. They should encourage them to make arbitration treaties and insist upon their keeping them. They should set a good example by seeking a judicial settlement of all international disputes. The consequences of the recent war, economic, moral, and social, are dreadful enough to justify any honest effort by any person or by any nation to alleviate the really distressing situation.

The recently dedicated Peace Palace at The Hague stands as a witness to the new and larger patriotism. As in the long past individuals have brought precious gifts to their favorite shrines, so have the nations of the earth from the East and West brought to this temple their offerings in varied and beautiful forms, thus pledging their belief that through justice peace is to reign upon the earth. The Commission has performed as well as it could a serious and trying duty. In reporting to the world its findings it has felt obliged to use plain words, to make revelations which are at once startling and painful; but its members feel like appealing to the world for sympathy and aid on behalf of nations which have heavy burdens to carry and hard lessons to learn, among which is the supreme value of peace and good will.
CHAPTER VIIThe Moral and Social Consequences of the Wars and the Outlook for the Future of Macedonia

In the first war there was much of that cheerful response to the call to arms, that fearlessness and that heroism which have been sung by poets in all time, and which the world has ever approved. Centuries of oppression and suffering at the hands of the Turks, the unpromising outlook for good government in Macedonia because of hostile factions in the Turkish government, and the possibility of the alliance of Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria in what seemed a just and holy cause, were felt to fully justify the concerted movement against the Turks. The peasants who cheerfully left their homes and their families, while the government took their animals and their carts for purposes of transportation, went forth in a glow of national feeling and patriotism not unmixed with the thought of liberating their brothers in Macedonia. Though the instincts and motives which inspired them were primitive, they were nevertheless real and genuine and belonged to that class of better human traits which war is believed by many to call forth.

From first to last, in both wars, the fighting was as desperate as though extermination were the end sought. However glorious the public accounts appeared, the Turkish war and the war of the Allies constituted a ghastly chapter of horrors. Both among the regular troops as well as the irregular bands which accompanied the armies, there were many of low, criminal, and even bestial type, with no human feeling and no care for civilized standards, who were ready at all times to do atrocious deeds; and the history of the first war, however lofty in purpose it may have been, is tarnished by many burnings, slayings, and violations for which no possible excuse can be given. There is evidence to show that in some cases these acts were committed by soldiers acting under orders. It is to be feared that many a young man learned for the first time to commit acts of violence and crime not permitted in civilized warfare.

We have to do with the second war chiefly, and it is here that moral results and consequences are the most terrible. The nations which had been in alliance and had invoked the aid of Heaven in a war of deliverance suddenly awoke to fierce hatred of each other. National jealousy and bitterness, greed for territorial expansion, and mutual distrust, were sufficient to initiate and push forward the most uncalled for and brutal war of modem times. Those who fought side

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by side at Tchataldja and Adrianople were now ready to kill, mutilate, and to torture each other.

To the man who sits at home, or to the casual observer, war assumes a certain glamor. It seems to be the open door to glory and renown. The Commission witnessed at Belgrade, at the close of the second war, the return of some of the crack Servian regiments and the celebration of the victories, with processions of soldiers, triumphal arches, banners, flowers, and music. The King, Crown Prince, distinguished officers and the populace all entered into the spirit of a grand holiday. Similar scenes were enacted at Sofia, Salonica, Athens, and Bucharest. It would be difficult to say which caused the greater joy,—the victories over the Turks or those over their former allies, the Bulgarians. In the speeches made on these occasions there was, we venture to say, little mention made of the fact that nearly one hundred thousand young men, more or less, were lost to the nation, either through death, wounds, sickness, or massacres. The mothers and sisters of the lost soldiers who, in mourning dress, were scattered numerously through the crowds, received, we venture to say, little public notice. Each of the three nations which fought, and Roumania, who seized an auspicious moment to steal a choice piece of her neighbor's territory and force her to sign a treaty at the point of the bayonet, posed before the world as those that had defended a righteous cause.

We also saw the demobilization of the Servian troops, for we met in our slow journey of two days from Belgrade to Uskub more than thirty military trains loaded with men, horses, oxen, carts, cannon, equipage, and, I fear, much property unlawfully taken from the homes and shops of noncombatants. Often the railway carriages were decorated with flowers or branches of trees. Now and then one could hear patriotic songs. Thus the going and returning of the soldiers was attended with patriotic ardor and joy.This is the brighter side of the picture; but it is the reverse side, so dark and sinister, which we are compelled to examine. Upon this picture only one ray of light seems to fall.

We visited the great military hospitals at Belgrade and Sofia and the smaller Greek hospital at Drama. In the midst of maimed, sore, and suffering humanity devoted women, some of them from other lands, some persons of high station—for example, the wives of the Servian minister in London and the Greek minister at Athens, both of American birth, and Queen Eleonora of Bulgaria— were ministering patiently and sympathetically, not only to those who were recovering, but to the dying as well, and in all cases there were a few, a very few, of the enemy receiving apparently the same care as the others. We heard also of instances of self denial and magnanimity on the battle field, and we wished that there had been more of them.

In considering the moral effects of the atrocities which have already been so fully described, we must take account of the sufferers as well as those guilty of committing them. When a band of soldiers or comitadjis, either under

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orders or, as was many times the case, under the impulse of hatred greed and lust, surrounded and attacked a village, the very doors of Hell seemed to be opened. No language can describe the tortures and griefs which followed. Repeated instances of death by fright of girls and young children attest the horror of the orgy of crime which was enacted. In one house in Doxato, to which fifty persons had fled for safety, all but one little girl, Chrisanthe Andom, were slaughtered like beasts in the shambles. In the same town a well to do family of thirteen owned and occupied one of the best houses. After extorting ?3,000 from the head of the family on the promise that they would be spared, the Bulgarians and Turks proceeded to kill them all. These are typical instances of the many which are found in the depositions contained in the appendices. Can we estimate the moral effects of such atrocities upon the survivors? They are often stunned by the enormity of their losses. Despair is written on their faces. This was true of a Bulgarian and his wife in the village of Voinitsa. They stood beside a wretched shack in which they were trying to live, while a few meters away were the ruins of their once attractive home, which contained the savings of a lifetime, and which the Servians had destroyed. Widespread and almost universal maltreatment of women and girls by the soldiers of the three nations has left behind moral consequences which can not be estimated.

But what shall we say of the reflex influence upon the perpetrators? When before, in modern times, have troops been commanded by their officers to commit atrocities? That this was done is shown by letters of Greek soldiers captured by the Bulgarians and copies of which are to be seen in Appendix C. Greek officers on the other hand claim to have captured evidence that Bulgarian commanders were guilty of permitting and directing atrocities in Greek towns. The moral effect upon hundreds and thousands of young men, who either participated in or were cognizant of these crimes officially sanctioned, can not easily be effaced. Acting upon a people who have not obtained the stability of character found in older civilizations, the moral loss is irretrievable.

To this list of primary consequences must be added the long series of reports and instances of torturing, mutilating, and slaying of wounded soldiers collected by the Foreign Office at Belgrade, each report containing the names of the victims, the name of the person making the report, and properly attested by the commanding officer. Then there are instances of ill treatment of prisoners, especially of Turks by Bulgarians and of Bulgarians by the Servians and Greeks. No less serious were the sufferings of Turkish refugees, more than 200,000 in number, who were either driven out by the Greeks or who, from fear of the Bulgars, fled from the territories about to be occupied by them. We saw thousands of those refugees in and near Salonica, and thousands more at Drama and Kavala. They were always a pitiful sight, camping as they were on the open ground, without shelter, the children often being nearly naked, with winter approaching, and not knowing where they would find a home and safety.

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They had left their farms and their crops, taking with them only some animals, which were often stolen from them, or which they were compelled to sell for a mere pittance. We saw some of them embarking on steamers for Asia Minor, where it is to be feared that many will die from hunger and exposure the coming winter. More than 135,000 Bulgarians were fugitives from territory newly occupied by the Greeks. This list includes priests, schoolmasters, and leading citizens whose interests and sympathies are known to be Bulgarian.

It is sufficient to refer to what has already been said about nationalities. There could be no more appealing picture of moral and social confusion than that of metropolitan bishops, schoolmasters, and notables who have been arrested, maltreated, and imprisoned without due process of law. If permitted to live, they were driven from their homes and compelled to leave behind the churches and schools which they had cherished, as well as the property belonging thereto or to them personally. Often they were prevented from communicating with their families before they were driven away. These supreme acts of intolerance on the part of Greece and Servia toward educational institutions, which had long been a saving grace in Macedonia, may find some defense in the militant nature of the national propaganda which priests and schoolmasters carried on; but such coercion and ill treatment employed by one set of Christians against another, all adherents of the same orthodox church, can not hope to escape the censure of the civilized world. They were fiendish, both in their conception and in their execution, and were appropriate only to the times of the Spanish Inquisition.

Statistics showing the number of Bulgarian, Servian, and Greek schools and teachers in Macedonia before the new alignment of territory are impressive, as showing Bulgarian enterprise in education, and in suggesting the vast moral and social harm which is wrought in their destruction. Here again the moral consequences are far reaching, for they affect 60,000 pupils and 1,600 teachers and strike a blow at the educational and social advancement of the communities involved. They also convict the Greeks and Servians of mal-administration and intolerance at the very beginning of their avowed work of reconstruction. Recalling that under the Turks there had been a high degree of liberty in education and worship, is it strange that large populations are now wishing that the Turks were again in control? In some respects, at least, war for the deliverance of Macedonia has brought to the people of that country a new set of sufferings and trials. The vice-rector of a Real Gymnasium in Salonica, attended and supported by Bulgarians, told one of the Commission of his own experience. After twenty years of service as director of science in that institution, during which time he had organized physical, chemical, and zoological laboratories equal, if not superior, to any others in that region, he had been compelled to see his work utterly destroyed. Standing in the street a few days before, he had witnessed the systematic looting of the entire building by soldiers and others, and the destruction of whatever was not carried away.

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A daily journal called The Independent, published in Salonica, in its issue of September 4, publishes an interview with Mr. Tsirimocos, the Greek Minister of Public Instruction and Culture, in which he sets forth elaborate plans for primary and secondary education in Macedonia. No mention, however, is made of the schools which have been destroyed and of the hundreds of teachers who have been driven away or of his plans for filling their places.

Reference has already been made to the reflex psychological effect of these crimes against justice and humanity. The matter becomes serious when we think of it as something which the nations have absorbed into their very life,—a sort of virus which, through the ordinary channels of circulation, has infected the entire body politic. Here we can focus the whole matter,—the fearful economic waste, the untimely death of no small part of the population, a volume of terror and pain which can be only partially, at least, conceived and estimated, and the collective national consciousness of greater crimes than history has recorded. This is a fearful legacy to be left to future generations. If we look for palliating causes of these gross lapses from humanity and law, we must find them in the extreme youth of these nations, the immaturity of national and civic character, as well as in the conditions which have beset them during their long period of vassalage. Life was cheap; nothing was absolutely safe or sure ; deeds of injustice and violence were common facts in their daily lives; and danger of some kind or other was generally imminent. Events, however revolting, are soon forgotten by the outside world and it is in the inner consciousness of moral deterioration and in the loss of self respect that the nations will chiefly suffer.

There is one other fact, partly economic but distinctly social, which should not be overlooked. Including Turks, upward of a million and a half of men have been under arms during the past year. For those who have been demobilized and have returned to their homes and vocations there is little to be said in this connection, but to the large contingents which are kept in the service, composed mostly of young men, there is a probability of permanent harm. To be withdrawn from useful productive labor is bad enough; but life in the barracks, with much idleness in the streets of cities and large towns, is sure to be demoralizing and harmful. The Commission in its wanderings seemed everywhere to be enveloped by soldiers, who went to increase the number, already large, of those who thronged the cafes and places of amusement. War causes many kinds of human waste and this is one of them. The life of the recruits who are kept in service under present conditions in the Balkan States is unnatural and not favorable to moral growth.

The next portion of our inquiry relates to present social conditions in these countries and the future prospects for Macedonia. To what extent have Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria shown themselves competent to administer their new domains? What are the guaranties of their future growth in good government and the arts of civilized life? Each nation is working out its destiny under a

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constitutional government in which the people are duly represented. While there is a certain instability caused by the number of political parties, there is the free play of popular will and opinion. Undoubtedly the most promising safeguards and the most important means of progress are found in the systems of education which the several nations have established. Each has its university, technical, secondary and primary schools, and all have taken steps to organize all of these forms of special education which are considered essential in modern times. Greece, by reason of her longer period of independence, has been able to extend and broaden her system and to connect it somewhat with the economic interests of the people. For example, she has a good number of agricultural schools distributed in her several provinces. Servia has also shown worthy attempts to make her schools of social importance through the study of agriculture and domestic economy. The fact that not more than seventeen per cent of the people of Servia can read and write indicates, however, that the system has not been efficiently applied so far as the elements of education are concerned. As one friend of the nation has expressed it, "Education in Servia is strong at the top and weak at the bottom."

Bulgaria, in her thirty-four years of independent existence, has made rapid progress in organizing an efficient school system. The reduction of illiteracy in Bulgaria has proceeded so rapidly during the last ten years that it is possible to predict that before many years the people will all substantially be able to read and write. Similar results may properly be expected in Greece. Bulgaria is considerably in advance of her neighbors in the relative number of schools and teachers provided, in the literacy of both males and females in the entire population, in the number of recruits who can read and write, and in the provision for secondary education. But the efficiency of school systems can not be judged by statistics alone; it is necessary to inquire concerning the results of education as seen in the social and economic life of the people. We may properly ask whether education has been effective in improving healthfulness, thrift and good taste as seen in .the homes; in modernizing commercial and industrial methods; and in raising standards of public health and sanitation.

In the capital cities, especially in Sofia, Athens, and to some extent Belgrade, we see well paved streets, a system of public water, partially constructed sewers, and many indications of civic enterprise. The beginnings in these directions are found also in some of the large towns; but in the villages, in which dwell the majority of the people, there is still a large amount of squalor, dirt, and confusion, which have been transmitted through the centuries with little change. There is too much complacency on the part of officials, too low a standard of human comfort and welfare among the masses. This conservatism and backwardness whereby the people cling to the methods of their ancestors, can only be overcome by more vigorous methods of social education than have yet been applied. Every schoolmaster and every schoolmistress should become a working agent for social regeneration, not only in the old sections of these States, but

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especially in the new. They should not only train the children in habits oi cleanliness, health, and neatness, for which the studies in the official program make provision, but they should try to reach sympathetically and helpfully the parents as well. They should tactfully suggest better plans for making the homes convenient and comfortable, by the use of proper floors, simple but useful furniture, better provisions for health and decency, and the planting of grass, shrubbery, and trees. They should also encourage a healthy rivalry in these and other directions, so that the whole village may become interested in the idea of freeing itself from all obnoxious sights and smells, and in keeping its streets smooth and clean, so that every citizen may be proud of his home and its surroundings.

The relatively low place held by women in the Balkan States, as shown by the high rate of illiteracy of females, is emphasized when so large a proportion of the peasants are under arms and the hard labor in the fields must be performed by women, frequently without the aid of animals. Examples of loyalty and devotion thus afforded do not compensate for the physical and social loss. A people can not rise high in the social scale while women are permitted to bear the heaviest burdens and perform the hardest labor. The greatest social need in the Balkan States today is the raising of the standard of home life among the peasants and the elevation of women by education which is both cultural and practical.

The conditions in Macedonia make it necessary that broad, considerate, and helpful administrative methods be applied. Those forms of coercion, intolerance, and anti-social management, to which reference has been made already, give to Greece and Servia a bad name before the world. Nothing short of complete, generous provision for education undertaken along social and vocational lines will make amends for the evil done. The situation is serious and far from hopeful; something more than military force is needed. The Commission has met several governors, civil and military, in new Greece who, possessed of real sympathy, are endeavoring to help a distressed and long defrauded people to repair their losses and to enter hopefully upon a new era of security and peace. Any attempt to revert to former methods of national propaganda through bands of more or less irresponsible adventurers should be discountenanced and vigorously opposed. Such brigandage is worse than war, for it promotes incessant fear and insecurity and renders civilized life impossible.

In the older civilizations there is a synthesis of moral and social forces embodied in laws and institutions giving stability of character, forming public sentiment, and making for security. In some notable cases there is the re-enforcement. of the Church in its teaching of righteousness and charity and in its practice of social service. This is largely wanting in the Balkan States. The Church does not systematically teach either morals or religion; its bishops and priests are the employes of the State and they are the propagandists of nation-

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ality. Conversion with them means a change from one nationality to another, whether accomplished by persuasion or force. Religious conviction or faith have nothing to do with it. As typical of the methods of conversion employed, a Bulgarian teacher from Macedonia reported that one Sunday the Servian soldiers surrounded a Bulgarian church. When the worshipers came out at the close of the service, a table stood before the door upon which were a paper and a revolver. They were to choose between these; either they were to sign the paper, signifying that they thus became Servians, or were to suffer death. They all signed. But what a travesty upon the true mission of a church and what a perversion of the idea of human government!

The Commission, from what they have seen and heard, indulge in no optimism regarding the immediate political future of Macedonia. Servia is now at war with Albania, Bulgaria is brooding over what she regards as her unjust treatment, and Greece is not yet sure of her tenure in some parts of the new territory. None of these nations can reduce their armies to a peace footing, for their neighbors are as ready to break treaties as they are to make them. Doubtless the greatest menace to the moral and social welfare of the Balkan States is the increasing tendency to militarism, whereby they become a prey to the agents of the makers of guns and other war material, involving enormous expenses and leading to national impoverishment. Where the economic interests of a people are mainly along agricultural lines and where scientific farming is not largely developed and where most of the people are relatively poor, there can be only a moderate annual surplus. If this is required to pay interest on the national debt, as well as to provide for the abnormal cost of occasional wars, national progress will be retarded and enterprise will be throttled. What the Balkan States need today more than anything else is a long period of assured peace so that industry and education may have a broader and richer development.

This suggests a final inquiry concerning the relations of the Balkan States to the new world movement for international cooperation and justice. The bearing of international law upon the conduct of war and the treatment of people and of private property by belligerents has already been discussed. It is the larger moral question which is here raised, for upon it depends the future destiny of the Balkan peoples. If the treaty of Bucharest had been in accord with fair play and justice, or if the question of boundaries could have been referred to mediation, there would have been stronger hopes that the interrelation of the Balkan nations could be improved and strengthened, that through cultural exchange, trade, and friendly intercourse these peoples would begin to learn what other nations have discovered, viz., that their interests are mutual, that in a high human sense they are one, that they injure themselves by trying to injure one another. Under present conditions, which this report has fully disclosed, the case seems well nigh hopeless; and yet, in each country, were found men and women of rank and education who expressed the most fervent

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wish that hatreds and jealousies might be removed and that good will and cooperation might take their place. What then is the duty of the civilized world in the Balkans, especially of those nations who, by their location and history, are free from international entanglements? It is clear in the first place that they should cease to exploit these nations for gain. They should encourage them to make arbitration treaties and insist upon their keeping them. They should set a good example by seeking a judicial settlement of all international disputes. The consequences of the recent war, economic, moral, and social, are dreadful enough to justify any honest effort by any person or by any nation to alleviate the really distressing situation.

The recently dedicated Peace Palace at The Hague stands as a witness to the new and larger patriotism. As in the long past individuals have brought precious gifts to their favorite shrines, so have the nations of the earth from the East and West brought to this temple their offerings in varied and beautiful forms, thus pledging their belief that through justice peace is to reign upon the earth. The Commission has performed as well as it could a serious and trying duty. In reporting to the world its findings it has felt obliged to use plain words, to make revelations which are at once startling and painful; but its members feel like appealing to the world for sympathy and aid on behalf of nations which have heavy burdens to carry and hard lessons to learn, among which is the supreme value of peace and good will.
APPENDIX A

Documents Relating to Chapter II [NOTE.—The reader will note here and there in the appendices faulty phraseology, which has not been translated into good English. These documents reproduce testimony given by soldiers, peasants and uneducated people, and the Commission has endeavored to preserve the original wording in all such cases.]

THE PLIGHT OF THE MACEDONIAN MOSLEMS DURING THE FIRST WAR

No. 1. EVIDENCE OF RAHNI EFFENDI, of Strumnitsa.

The Bulgarian army arrived on Monday, November 4, 1912. With the two Bishops and two other notables I went out to negotiate the surrender of our town with the commandant. On entering the town, the Bulgarians disarmed the Moslem inhabitants, but behaved well and did not loot. Next day, a Bulgarian civil authority was established, but the Servians had the military control. The Bulgarian army marched on to Doiran; on its departure looting and slaughter began. I saw an old man of eighty lying in the street with his head split open, and the dead body of a boy of thirteen. About thirty Moslems were killed that day in the streets,—I believe by the Bulgarian bands. On Wednesday evening, an order was issued that no Moslem might leave his house day or night until further notice. A commission was then formed from the Bulgarian notables of the town;
the Servian military commander presided, and the Bulgarian Civil Governor also sat upon it. A local gendarmerie was appointed and a gendarme and a soldier were told off to go round from house to house, summoning the Moslems, one by one, to attend the commission. I was summoned myself with the rest.

The procedure was as follows: The Servian commandant would inquire, "What kind of a man is this?" The answer was simply either "good" or "bad." No inquiry was made into our characters; there was no defense and no discussion; if one member of the commission said "bad," that sufficed to condemn the prisoner. Each member of the commission had his own enemies whom he wished to destroy, and therefore did not oppose the wishes of his fellow members. When sentence was pronounced the prisoner was stripped of his outer clothes and bound, and his money was taken by the Servian commander. I was pronounced "good," and so perhaps were one-tenth of the prisoners. Those sentenced were bound together by threes, and taken to the slaughter house; their ears and noses were often cut off before they were killed. This slaughter went on for a month; I believe that from three to four thousand Moslems were killed in the town and the, neighboring villages.
NOTE.—At this point the conversation became general and the four notables from Strumnitsa each related how he had lost a son, a grandson, or a brother in this massacre.

No. 2. ABDUL KERIN AGA, of Strumnitsa, confirmed the statements of the previous witness. His own son was brought bound to the gate at his house; he then went to Toma, the chief of the Bulgarian bands, and tried to bargain with him for his son's life. Toma demanded a hundred pounds; he had previously paid on two different occasions £50

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and 170 to save this same son. He told Toma that he had not the money ready, but would try to sell a shop if the Bulgarians would wait until evening. Toma refused to wait and his son was shot.

No. 3. HADJI SULEIMAN EFFENBI, of Strumnitsa, agreed with the account which Rahni Effendi had given of the doings of the commission. The Servian troops left the town and Bulgarians replaced them, and remained up to the outbreak of the second war. On the whole they behaved fairly well. There was, however, some looting when they evacuated the town after their defeats in the second war; and about thirty people were then killed, including the Greek priest. The Greek army then occupied the town. They subsequently gave the order that the Moslems must abandon the town; and added that they, the Greeks, would burn the houses if the Moslems would not. I myself offered £5 to the Greek patrol which came to burn down my house. The sergeant refused to take it, and said that if he did not burn the house another patrol would. The buildings were all systematically burnt, and the same thing was done in about thirty-two neighboring villages. "We [pointing to the others who were present] were all large farmers, employing, each of us, nearly 300 laborers and tenants; now we have nothing." (See also No. 65.)

No. 4. The Carnegie Commission visited the camp of the Moslem refugees outside Salonica and talked with two groups of them who came from villages near Strumnitsa. The Greeks told them that the Bulgarians would certainly massacre them if they stayed in the town; they urged, and pressed and persuaded. Most left under pressure. A few remained, and these were forced to leave. They heard that other villages had been burnt after they left, and some of them actually saw their villages in flames. They had received no rations from the Greeks for four days; they had no plans for the future, did not wish to go to Asia, nor yet to settle in Greek territory. They saw "no good in front of them at all."

A group of these refugees from the village Yedna-Kuk, near Strumnitsa, gave their experiences during the first war. The Bulgarian bands arrived before the regular army, and ordered the whole male population to assemble in the mosque. They were shut in and robbed of ?300 in all. Eighteen of the wealthier villagers were bound and taken to Bossilovo, where they were killed and buried. The villagers were able to remember nine of their names.

No. 5. The officials of the Comite Islamique, of Salonica, informed us on September 1 that there were 135,000 Mohammedan refugees in and around the town, most of whom had arrived since the second war. Of these, six or eight thousand had already gone to Asia Minor, chiefly to Mersina, Adalia, and Skenderoun. The Greek government had promised to supply five steamers, and in the last few days 3,000 had received tickets. The committee reminded the Greek government that it was responsible for the refugees now in Salonica, since it had obliged them to quit their homes. It has requested the government to supply these refugees with bread. The committee was then spending .?50 daily on bread. In reply to questions, the committee did not believe that any considerable number of the Moslem refugees would be given lands in Greek Macedonia. Some perhaps might be given at Kukush, but not more than one or two thousand people could be absorbed as farm laborers.

No. 6. EARLY EVENTS AT KUKUSH, in the autumn of 1912.

The Catholic priest Gustave Michel, superior of the mission at Kukush, gave the following information to the correspondent of Le Temps (July 10). He could testify to certain massacres perpetrated by the Bulgarian bands at Kurkut. A Bulgarian band led by Donchev shut all the men of the place in the mosque, and gathered the women round it,

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in order to oblige them to witness the spectacle. The comitadjis then threw three bombs' at the mosque but it was not blown up; they then set fire to it, and all who were shut up in it, to the number of about 700 men, were burnt alive. Those who attempted to flee were shot down by comitadjis posted round the mosque, and Pere Michel found human heads, arms, and legs lying about half burned in the streets. At Planitsa, Donchev's band committed still worse atrocities. It first drove all the men to the mosque and burnt them alive; it then gathered the women and burnt them in their turn in the public square. At Rayonovo a number of men and women were massacred; the Bulgarians filled a well with their corpses. At Kukush the Moslems were massacred by the Bulgarian population of the town and their mosque destroyed. All the Turkish soldiers who fled without arms and arrived in groups from Salonica were massacred.

NOTE.—The Commission failed to meet Father Michel, and must leave to the correspondent of Le Temps the responsibility for his statement.

No. 7. ALI RIZA EFFENDI, of Kukush, states that the Bulgarian bands entered Kukush on October 30, after the Turks had left. Toma of Istip, their leader, installed himself as governor, and told the people to have no fear. Both Servian and Bulgarian detachments passed through the town, but only a very few soldiers were left there while the main army went on to Salonica. After the occupation of Salonica, disarmed Turkish soldiers in groups of two to three hundred at a time marched through Kukush on their way to their homes. They were captured by the Bulgarian bands and slaughtered, to the number of perhaps 2,000. A commission of thirty to forty Christians was established, which drew up lists of all the Moslem inhabitants throughout the district. Everyone was summoned to the mosque and there informed that he had been rated to pay a certain sum. Whole villages, were made responsible for the total amount; most of the men were imprisoned and were obliged to sell everything they possessed, including their wives' ornaments, in order to pay the ransom. They were often killed in spite of the payment of the money in full; he, himself, actually saw a Bulgarian comitadji cut off two fingers of a man's hand and force him to drink his own blood mixed with raki. From the whole county (Caza) of Kukush £T1,500 were taken. The chief of bands, Donchev, arrived and matters were still worse. He burnt three Turkish villages in one day, Raianovo, Planitsa and Kukurtovo— 345 houses in all. He shut up the men in the mosques and burnt them alive; the women were shut up in barns and ill used; children were actually flung against the walls and killed. This the witness did not see, but heard from his Christian neighbors. Only twenty-two Moslem families out of 300 remained in Kukush; the rest fled to Salonica. Twelve small Moslem villages were wiped out in the first war, the men killed and the women taken away. He was in Kukush when the Greeks entered it. The Bulgarians in leaving. the town burnt nothing but the bakers' ovens. The Greeks systematically and deliberately plundered and burnt the town. He believes that many aged Bulgarian inhabitants were burnt alive in their houses. He himself found refuge in the Catholic orphanage.

No. 8. REPORT SIGNED BY YOUSSOUF EFFENDI, President of the Moslem Community of Serres, and sealed with its seal.
On November 6, 1912, the inhabitants of Serres, sent a deputation to meet the Bulgarian army and surrender the town. Next day Zancov, a Bulgarian Chief of bands, appeared in the town with sixteen men, and began to disarm the population. A day later the Bulgarian army entered Serres and received a warm welcome. That evening the Bulgarian soldiers, on the pretext that arms were still hidden in the houses of the Moslems, entered them and began to steal money and other valuables. Next day the Moslem refugees from the district north of Serres were invited to appear at the prefecture; they obeyed ihe summons; but on their arrival a trumpet sounded and the Bulgarian soldiers seized

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their arms and began to massacre these inoffensive people; the massacre lasted three hours and resulted in the death of 600 Moslems. The number of the victims would have been incalculable had it not been for the energetic intervention of the Greek bishop, and of the director of the Orient bank.

The Moslems of the town were then arrested in the cafes, houses and streets, and imprisoned, some at the prefecture and others in the mosques; many of the former were slaughtered with bayonets. Bulgarian soldiers in the meantime entered Turkish houses, violated the women and girls and stole everything they could lay their hands on. The Moslems imprisoned in the overcrowded mosques were left without food for two days and nights and then released. For six days rifle shots were heard on all sides; the Moslems were afraid to leave their houses; and of this the Bulgarian soldiers took advantage to pillage their shops. Moslem corpses lay about in the streets and were buried only when they began to putrify. For several days the Bulgarian soldiers destroyed houses and mosques in order to obtain firewood. The corn and animals of the Moslems were seized by the Bulgarian authorities without any receipt or note of requisition. Complaints made on this subject were ignored. The furniture and antiquities belonging to the schools, mosques and hospitals were taken and sent to Sofia. The Bulgarians subjected
several Moslem notables to all sorts of humiliations; they were driven with whips to sweep the streets and stables; and many a blow was given to those who dared to wear a fez. In a word, during the Bulgarian occupation the Moslems were robbed and maltreated both in the streets and at the prefecture, unless they had happened to give board and lodging to some Bulgarian officer. The Bulgarian officers and gendarmes before leaving Serres took everything that was left in the shops of Moslems, Jews and Greeks, and pitilessly burnt a large number of houses, shops, cafes, and mills.
September 5, 1913.

No. 9. LIEUTENANT R. WADHAM FISHER [an English Volunteer in the Fifth Battalion of the Macedonian Legion].
Lieutenant Fisher explained the circumstances of the massacre which occurred at Dede-Agatch. "A sharp fight took place outside the town between the legion and the army of Javer Pacha; wherever the Turkish villages showed the white flag, our troops were forbidden to march through them. Our men had been much inflamed by reports of outrages committed by Turks on Bulgarians near Gumurjina. We entered Dede-Agatch under fire towards 9 p.m. after marching and fighting all day. Javer Pacha insisted on withdrawing into the town and we were obliged to pursue him. Bullets were still whistling through the streets, but the local Greeks came out to show us where the Turkish soldiers were posted. The Greeks feared a massacre and regarded our coming as their salvation. I saw something of the search for arms; no one was harmed. At 11 p.m. we received an order to withdraw from the town, and to march to a village twenty-five kilometers away. Some 150 men were left in the town, either because the order did not reach them or because they were too exhausted to obey it. No officer was among them, and they were organized by a private soldier, Stefan Boichev, a contractor of Widin. The Greek bishop afterwards stated that Stefan Boichev had done good service in reestablishing order. On November 19 the lower class Greeks and the soldiers began to pillage the town together. A certain number of the local Turks were undoubtedly killed. These excesses must be explained by "the absence of any officers.

No. 10. BORIS MONCHEV, Bulgarian Mayor of Dede-Agatch.
This witness confirmed Lieutenant Fisher's account, believed that not more than twenty Turks were killed in the massacre, and insisted that the local Armenian porters (hamals) 'had taken the 'chief part in the disturbances. There were in the town fully 8,000 Turkish

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refugees, of whom all the men were armed and had taken part in the fight outside the town, from 7 to 9 p.m. After the first disastrous night, everything was done to maintain order by a commission which included the Greek bishop and himself. The 142 Macedonian volunteers obeyed their orders. The Bulgarian army returned to the town six days later, November 25, and order was fully restored.

The notorious incident of the killing of Riza-bey, the Imperial Turkish Commissioner of the Junction railway line, is to be explained by the fact that as he was being taken under arrest to the school he attempted to snatch a rifle from a Macedonian volunteer, and was killed by the volunteers on the spot.

In the course of a search on the eve of the second war twenty-seven Gras rifles and letters used for signalling were found in Greek houses; also a store of rifles at the bishop's palace. In consequence of this, fifty leading Greeks were arrested as hostages for the good behavior of the town, and sent to Bulgaria. It is probable that some of these were liberated after paying bribes. The town was without a regular government from July 22, and much robbery took place; but he had previously taken the precaution of sending the Armenian hamals, who were always a troublesome element, out of the town.

No. 11. VASIL SMILEV, a Bulgarian Teacher at Uskub.
He stated that on the entry of the Servian army into Uskub, efforts were made by the Servian authorities to persuade all the Bulgarian teachers to join the bands which they were forming in order to pursue the Turkish bands. He served for twenty or thirty days, but left the band because it was continually engaged in burning, torturing and killing. He witnessed the slaughter of eighteen Turks who had been collected in the Bulgarian school of the Tchair quarter of the town. They were killed in the open and their bodies thrown into a well near the brickworks. This happened about 9 p.m., four days after the festival of Saint Paraskeva. He named four of them. Later he witnessed the Servian chief of police, Lazar Ilyts, who had been responsible for this massacre, superintending the pillage of the village Butel. Near this village he met a number of Albanian villagers fleeing from their village. A Servian major unveiled and kissed a young girl among them. Her father killed him on the spot. Thereupon the Servian band massacred the whole body of fugitives, men and women, to the number of sixty. This he witnessed personally and reported it at the time to the Russian consulate. After this he refused to have anything further to do with the Servian bands. He was expelled afterwards from Uskub with the other Bulgarian teachers.

No. 12. A MOSLEM NOTABLE of Yailadjik (name suppressed), a village one and a half hours' distant from Salonica, states—On Nov. 7, 1912, most of us fled to Salonica, leaving about twenty-five men in the village. On the 8th the Bulgarian soldiers came and did no harm, except to take the food and forage they required. They passed on after spending a day and a night, and two days later the Greek soldiers came, together with people from the neighboring Greek villages. They killed fifteen Moslems, and took all the furniture, 9,500 sheep and goats, 1,500 cattle, and all the grain which they could find, and then burned the 250 houses of the village.

No. 13. BULGARIAN COURTS-MARTIAL.
On January 10, 1913, the headquarters of the Bulgarian army issued the following telegraphic order (No. 2360) to the commanders and military governors of Thrace and Macedonia:

Following on the secret order of December 13, I order and hold you personally responsible for the execution of my order that inquiries be instituted into all excesses,
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robberies, and violations, which may have been committed against the inhabitants of the enemy's country occupied by the troops under your orders. We came to liberate these countries in the name of freedom and order, and the commander-in-chief can not remain indifferent towards the criminal acts of individuals, since otherwise we should lead the world to suppose that our civilization is in no respect superior to that of our adversaries, and the honor of the Bulgarian army would thereby be compromised. This would result in causing unforeseen difficulties to our country. The Bulgarian army must prove to the eyes of the whole world that now, as always, justice and legality are supreme within its ranks and that criminals do not go unpunished. Report immediately on the subject of the crimes which you have ascertained to have taken place and the measures you have adopted.
On February IS, 1913, the Supreme Military Tribunal transmitted to the President of the courts-martial the following order:
(No. 989). Report immediately the number of persons condemned up to the present moment for various crimes, and especially murders, violations, and pillage committed against the local population, whatever its nationality, and particularly the Turkish population. * * * The essential interests of this State demand that cases of this kind should be dealt with with the utmost despatch and should be given preference over all others. The military courts must enable the government to show the civilized world that the crimes committed in the course of the war of liberation have not gone unpunished.
No. 13a. A report drawn up by the Moslem community of Pravishta, on the atrocities committed in that town and the neighboring villages since the withdrawal of the Turkish authorities on October 24, 1913.
[NOTE.—The names of all of the killed (195 in all) and of some of those robbed, and also those of the aggressors, are fully given in the original Turkish document, but are omitted in the following summarized translation].

Village of Giran.—Twenty-one Moslems killed by the Greeks of the village of Nikchan, and a sum of about ;£T3,000 stolen. Six hundred goats were also stolen for the benefit of the Greek church at Nikchan and 2,400 goats taken by the Greeks of Djerbelan.
Village of Palihor.—Six Moslems killed by the band commanded by Demosthenes, headmaster of the Greek school of Palihor, pillage to the extent of about £T3,000. One woman (named) was violated by Demosthenes and another.
Village of Micheli.—Demosthenes and other Greeks pillaged the village, carried off many oxen and much corn and stole credit notes for a sum of £T3,000.
Village of Drama.—Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Pravishta.
Village of Osmanli.—Six Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo; about £T1,500 stolen.
Village of Samalcol.—Twenty-one Moslems of this village were taken by Miltiades Ma-chopoulos of the band of Myriacos Mihail to the ravine of Casroub, where they were massacred by the Greek bandit Leonidas and others. Over £T1,500 were stolen from them; a shop looted of stock worth £T1,500, and about £T7,000 stolen in the village generally.
Village of Tchanahli.—Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo; 200 sheep and a mule stolen.
Village of Mouchtian.—Twenty-five Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail, his band and some local Greeks in the ravine of Casroub. "In the twentieth century of progress, thte skeletons which may still be seen in this ravine, present to the eyes of Justice a monument capable of enlightening her regarding Hellenic civilization." About £T3,000 stolen.
Village of Dranich.—£T2,000 in money, seven goats and 1,000 sheep stolen by the Greeks of Palihor and Nikchan.
Village of Ahadler.—Nine Moslems killed by Greeks of Casroub, and sums amounting to IT258 stolen.

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Village of Tchiflik.—Ten Moslems killed by the same Greeks of Casroub, and about £T1,000 stolen.
Village of Pethor.—Fourteen Moslems killed by the grocer Myriacos Mihail, member of the bishop's council, Panahi, priest of Boblan, and Miltiades Machopoulos. [The band led by these three men is frequently mentioned.] Local Greeks stole about £T1,500.
Village of Rehemli.—Three Moslems killed by Greeks of Holo.
Village of Sarili.—Five Moslems killed by Greeks of Pethor, and about 1,000 sheep and goats stolen.
Village of Dedebal.—Eight Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band; about -£T1,000 stolen.
Village of Deranli.—Three Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band; about £T3,000 stolen.
Village of Orphano.—Three Moslems killed by the Greeks. One of these was seized by the priest Panahi on a telephonic order from the Greek bishop of Pravishta and killed at Essirli. The bishop had had the telephone removed from the Turkish governor's office to his own house, and by this means he gave orders to the whole district.
Village of Boblan.—Eight Moslems killed by Myriacos Mihail and his band, specially sent for the purpose by the bishop; about ;£T800 stolen.
Village of Carpan.—Four Moslems killed by the band of Myriacos Mihail sent by the bishop. The Greeks of Carpan stole all the goods and corn belonging to the local Moslems, and did not leave them even the grain which they had in their household jars. The Greek bravoes brutally robbed the women of their ear-rings. Later Greek soldiers joined the villagers and began to violate the young women, until they were obliged to take refuge In the towns and villages held by Bulgarian troops. About £T500 was stolen in this village.
Village of Leftera.—Four Moslems killed by Greeks. The wife of Arnaut Agouchagha, who voluntarily embraced Islam fifty years ago, was taken to Pravishta to be reconverted to Christianity. She told the Bulgarian chief, Baptchev, that she did not consent to this conversion. Baptchev had her released, but on her return to the village she was "odiously lynched by Greek savages." Baptchev took £T500 from a Turk at the instigation of the Greek priests of the monastery of Nozle, who also robbed the villagers of about 2,000 sheep.
Village of Kochkar.—Two Moslems killed by Greeks of Drazeni and about £T1,000 stolen.
Village of Kale Tchiflik.—Five Moslems killed, and all the cattle seized by the priests of Nozle.
Village of Devekeran.—Four Moslems killed by Greeks of Pravishta; about £T500 stolen.
Village of Essirli.—Nineteen Moslems killed in the ravine of Casroub by Greeks of that village. About £T1,500 stolen.
Village of Kotchan.—One Moslem killed to satisfy the vengeance of the bishop and of the priest Nicholas. "It is worthy of remark that many Imams figure among the list of victims in the district of Pravishta * * * further that the victims are almost always men known for their enlightenment. * * * The reason why the assassins killed Imams and the most enlightened notables for choice is obvious when one reflects that there are 13,000 Moslems in this district out of a total population of 20,000."
Town of Pravishta.—Ten Moslems were killed, including one woman, while the town was held by Bulgarian bands, under the command of a chief named Baptchev, who established himself in the governor's palace and acted as governor and commandant. They were killed by three Greeks (named) and the Bulgarians. On the evening when an assassination was to take place, the students of the Greek school assembled in the courtyard of the government house and' sang the Greek national anthem.

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The Greek bishop formed a municipal council composed of the priest Nicholas, the grocer Myriacos Mihail, and others (named). The sentence of death was passed by this council, approved by the archbishop, and communicated to Baptchev to be carried out. Similar councils were formed in the villages which took their orders from that of Pravishta. The Bulgarian, chief Baptchev served as the tool of the Greek bishop and notables. In this town the Moslem population has incurred a loss of about £T3,000, stolen by the Bulgarian bands, guided by the Greeks.

The daughter of the commander of the gendarmeries, Suleiman Effendi, who is now in Constantinople, was summoned one night to the bishopric to be converted to Christianity. The bishop threatened her, in order to convert her, but the Bulgarian chief Baptchev, when he heard of this, went to the bishopric, saved the girl, restored her to her family, and thus prevented her conversion. Some days later he gave her a passport to go to Constantinople.

Thanks to the orders issued by Baptchev the mosques of the town and the villages were preserved intact, and no one was molested on account of his religion.

Neither the Bulgarian officers, nor their soldiers nor even the members of the bands committed any violence against women, but Baptchev took money to the value of about £T6,000.

The priest Panahi of the village of Nikchan and the Greek antiquarian Apostol, of the village of Palihor, who disapproved of the unworthy conduct of the bishop, were killed by his orders. The Bulgarian authorities after a careful inquiry were convinced of the bishop's guilt. The bodies of the victims of the town of Pravishta are still in the ravine of Cainardja, at the place called Kavala Bachi.

We certify that this report is in complete agreement with the registers of the Moslem community of Pravishta and true in all its details.
[Seal.] Moslem Community of the Caza of Pravishta, 1331.

APPENDIX B

Documents Relating to Chapter II

THE CONDUCT OF THE BULGARIANS IN THE SECOND WAR


A. THE DOXATO AFFAIR

No. 14. EVIDENCE OF COMMANDER CARDALE, R. N. (Reprinted from the Nation of August 23, 1913).
My DEAR CASSAVETTI,—I received your wire yesterday, and have taken twenty-four hours to consider my reply. You see my reports of what I saw at Doxato have been so garbled by reporters and others that I am naturally rather chary of saying anything: not that this applies in your case, of course. Also, as you may well imagine, the horrors of that place of blood have so got on my nerves that I hate to speak of them. Still, as you ask me, I will tell you all I saw, and you have my full permission to make use of all, or any portion, of this letter you may think fit for the purpose of publication.

I went to Kavala immediately after the Bulgarians vacated the place; my duties there I need not go into. I was acting under the orders of the Greek government, which, as you know, I am serving at present. On my arrival there I heard many stories of the horrible occurrences at Doxato, and it was alleged that practically all the inhabitants had been massacred by the Buig-arian troops passing through on their retreat. You will probably understand that having had a surfeit of these yarns, and knowing that war is not fought in kid gloves,. I did not believe all I heard, and at first believed that it was purely a question of the burning of the town by retreating Bulgarians enraged by their reverses, and perhaps a few regrettable incidents where noncombatants had been killed in the excitement of a retreat. However, after seeing wounded and mutilated persons being brought into Kavala from Doxato day by day, and hearing detailed accounts from disinterested persons in Kavala of all nationalities, I determined to go to Doxato to see for myself what had occurred. I accordingly took a carriage and drove there, accompanied by a Greek naval officer, a Greek gentleman of Kavala, and my Greek angeliophores. The distance is about seventeen miles. I have not measured it on the map, as I have none with me at present, but I estimate it at that. It took us about three and one-half hours to drive. The Bulgarians must have left Kavala in a hurry, as they did not even strike their tents, which we found standing some miles outside on the Phillipi road.

At each village we passed through on our way to Doxato we found some of the wretched survivors of the Doxato massacre, who were homeless, but did not wish to return to their ruined homes there after all they had suffered. Arriving at Doxato we found it like a town of the dead, everything burned and devastated, and such an odor of blood' and decomposed bodies as I never hope to encounter again. Indeed, five minutes, before we entered the town, while driving through the plain, the stench was insupportable. In this plain were heaps of corpses thinly covered with sand, where the survivors had tried, for sanitary reasons, to cover up their dead, but they were all too few to do so thoroughly, and for all practical purposes the bodies were unburied. On entering Doxato we found a few persons who were still living among the ruins of their former homes, and from them we endeavored to get an account of what had occurred. Practically all the Greek portion of

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the town was burned, and one saw everywhere in the streets charred remains of what had been human bodies. Burial in the town had been impossible, so they had covered the bodies with petroleum and disposed of them in that way.

In some of the gardens and courtyards we saw children's graves, each with a few wild flowers on them, but they do not appear to have buried any except the children. Poor souls! after the horror of it all, one wonders how they buried anyone. The Turkish quarter was, with a few exceptions, unburned. According to the accounts of the survivors, it was there that the greater part of the massacres took place. I saw many rooms where the floors were soaked with blood, and rugs, mats, and cushions were covered with blood and human remains. The very stones in the courtyards of these houses were stained with blood; it is said that most of those who were killed in these yards were stoned to death. The survivors showed us one house surrounded by a high wall enclosing a courtyard and vineyard where a number of Greeks were put to death, and certainly the place was marked with bloodstains everywhere in the yard and garden; hoes and other agricultural implements stained with blood we found there also, and the steps leading into an outhouse were covered with blood, where the survivors state children were overtaken and killed. I was informed, apropos of this courtyard, that the house and environs were the property of a Turk, who, on hearing of the possibility of a massacre, had sent round to the Greeks of Doxato to offer a sanctuary to their women and children, and that after upwards of 120 were assembled there, he and several of his compatriots, under the direction of a Bulgarian officer, had butchered them all! This, of course, is simply what I was told by the survivors. I can only say from my own personal observation that the place was like a shambles, and, whoever did the deed, there must have been a very considerable number killed in this place. In fact, the vineyard, courtyard, and the house leading out of them reminded me forcibly of the stories one has read of the Cawnpore massacres. One hears of places reeking with blood; without wishing to be sensational, this little town did literally do so. They told us that Bulgarian cavalry riding into the place cut down some of the inhabitants, and that the infantry, following soon after, killed all they found in the streets, but that after that the greater part of the massacres were carried out by the Turkish inhabitants incited by the Bulgarian officers. How far this is true I can not say, not having been there at the time to see for myself, but certainly it is significant that the Turkish quarter was not burned, that very few Turks seem to have been killed, and that all the original Turkish inhabitants have fled, while their houses are intact but bloodstained, and bearing the evidence of unspeakable atrocities. I might, perhaps, give you more details of the evidence of atrocities which took place, but there are some things one can not bring oneself to speak about. I have been asked to estimate the number who were killed at Doxato. It is quite impossible to do so, as many who are supposed to have been killed have, I understand, since been found, having escaped at the time the massacres took place. By counting the bodies I saw, and the heaps of charred remains and the evidences of massacres in the gardens and courtyards, I estimated that the number killed was not less than 600, and that the greater number of these were women and children: how many more than this number there may have been it is impossible to say.—With kindest regards, believe me, yours very sincerely,

HUBERT CARDALE.
Hotel Imperial, Athens, August 4, 1913.
No. 15. EVIDENCE OF CAPTAIN SOFRONIEV, of the King's Guard.
"I commanded two squadrons of the Macedonian cavalry, a regular body of troops, consisting largely of reservists. On July 10, while stationed at Otoligos, about 20 kilometres from Doxato, I sent out scouts. They reported that the last detachment of our troops retiring from Kavala had been fired upon by the villagers of Doxato, some of whom wore

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the Greek uniform. They killed many of our men and looted the convoy. The horse-cars escaped, but those drawn by oxen were captured. I sent Sub-Lieutenant Pissarov with thirty troopers to report on what was happening at Doxato and to reestablish order. My first scout then returned from a second expedition, and reported that he had encountered a large force of Greek insurgents marching from Kavala, and that he had learnt from Turks that they were under Greek officers. They had killed all the Bulgarian and Turkish villagers whom they captured on the way. He saw beheaded children and women whose bodies had been ripped open. There was a general panic among all the population of the country side. (We saw the original penciled note of this scout's report). Lieutenant Pissarov reported that Greek troops were quartered near the ruins of the bridge at Alexandra. The Greeks were killing without pity men, women and children. Doxato was strongly occupied and two Greek battalions with mountain guns were marching up from Valtchista. He had assisted the local Bulgarian and Turkish population to flee. [We saw the original text of this report.] I then reported to the commander of my division, General Delov; he ordered me to go at once to Doxato to make those responsible prisoners, and to restore order. I started on the night of July 13, but lost my way in the dark and found myself at dawn between Doiran and Doxato. I had with me two mounted squadrons of about 250 men. The enemy opened fire at once and three scouts whom I sent to reconnoitre their position were killed. The heaviest fire came from the edge of the village Doxato. The plain was black with people looking for cover. I sent one squadron towards Doxato, and the other, under my own command, advanced toward Doiran. Firing continued for about two hours, seventeen of my squadron were killed and twenty-four wounded. We eventually charged with the sabre. The enemy, who were all armed, kept their ranks and awaited our onset. At least 150 of them were killed in the charge, possibly as many as 300. Many surrendered. I then heard that the Greek column from Valtchista was marching to Alistrati. I therefore decided to withdraw and hurried to join the column of Lieutenant Colonel Barnev. I left the Turks, who had hurried up from neighboring villages, to guard my prisoners, and told them to disarm the people of Doxato, and to keep order. They armed themselves with rifles and cartridges, chiefly Martinis and Gras, taken from the Greek dead. We had had no earlier dealings with these Turks, but they always helped our scouts with news. Next day, July 14, we fought a battle to allow the peasant fugitives to reacli the mountains. The fleeing Turks from Doxato told us that the Greeks had killed all the Bulgarians and Turks whom they found in Doxato. I asked them why they did not flee in time. They replied, "Because we were giving ourselves up to rapine and vengeance." My scouts reported this day that a terrible thing had happened in Doxato. The Turks began to massacre and then the Greeks came and massacred the Turks; the fields were covered with bodies. Next day, July 15, the Greeks destroyed the purely Bulgarian village of Guredjik. The villagers were unable to flee, and were massacred almost to a man; three or four escaped and gave me the news."

In reply to questions the Captain stated, that he was not himself actually inside the town of Doxato. Probably some of the infantry may have gone there, but of this he can not speak with certainty; he can give his word of honor as an officer that the men of his two squadrons killed no peaceful citizens.

From a written deposition by Captain Sofroniev, we take the following passage:

On returning to the neighborhood of Doxato [from attacking the distant body of insurgents] towards 2.30 p.m. we saw the Turks who had previously fled, and were now returning to the village in a state of savage excitement. [Exaltation farouche.] As we had no time to spare, we told them to gather the rifles scattered about. At the same moment we saw the village take fire. I do not know who caused that.
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No. 16. EVIDENCE OF MR. GIVKO DOBREV, Civil Governor of the Drama District.
The population of the Drama district totaled 18,000, of whom 13,000 were Moslems, and of these latter 3,000 were pomaks and the remainder Turks. Doxato, with two neighboring villages formed a Greek oasis in a compact mass of Turks, with whom it was always in conflict. It thus naturally became the center of the Greek insurgent movement. During the first war, in the latter half of October, the Greeks, acting as allies under the shelter of our troops, began to take their private revenge upon the Turks, killing, looting and violating. The administration had been organized from among the local notables, chiefly Greeks, more especially the Bishop, who knew of all these atrocities. The appetite for robbery grew, and the Greeks began to enforce declarations from the Turks assigning their lands. The Bulgarian government accordingly, with a view of protecting the Turks, published a general edict declaring all contracts regarding land made during the period of the war invalid. I reached Drama on December 3, though the place had been taken on November 5. I was too late to prevent much injustice to the Turks, but I returned their mosques to them in spite of the protests of the Greeks, and helped them to get back some part of their stolen goods.

On July 8, the Bulgarian officials left Kavala, and the place remained for a week without regular government. A reconnaissance was sent on July 10, to learn what was happening in Kavala; and in the course of it one trooper was killed and one wounded at Doxato. A larger party was sent out on the 1,1th, numbering about thirty men, and this also was fired upon from Doxato. On the night of July 11, a larger party, composed of two squadrons of cavalry, two companies of infantry, and four guns. [NOTE.—There is here a discrepancy of one day in the dates given by Captain Sofroniev and Mr. Dobrev; the dates of the former are accurate]. There was now a regular insurrection in Doxato, which aimed at cutting off Drama from the shore. The cavalry surrounded Doxato. The infantry were received with a volley, whereupon the commander threatened to use artillery and thrice demanded the surrender of the town. When the artillery began to fire, five to six hundred armed men, and all the local population took to flight. Our cavalry pursued them. The village was set on fire by our shells, and an enormous explosion took place, as if a depot of ammunition had been set on fire. The explosion continued intermittently for quite an hour. The Bulgarian infantry was composed largely of Moslems, from the Bulgarian kingdom. It became excited during the explosion of the magazine and began killing indiscriminately. It is possible that children were killed. I arrived on the afternoon of July 12 [13?] and found that the local Turks were going about from house to house, robbing. I saw one house with its door half open, and a woman killed inside. The house was pillaged. I saw a Turk standing on a ladder in the act of pouring petroleum from a tin over the house in order to set it on fire. I ordered him to stop, but others began to do the same thing in other parts of the town. I again visited Doxato at 2 p.m. next day, July 13 [14?]. The houses were still burning and most of the people had fled to the neighboring village of Tchataldja. The rest ran to meet me. There were women among them, of whom one had been wounded by a trooper's saber. I took her to Mr. Lavalette's farm to be cured. Everything was quiet in Tchataldja. Its mayor and notables had asked me on the previous day to send soldiers to their village, since the insurgents of Doxato were trying to induce them to join in their rising, and were threatening them. I sent sixty men. Later, I sent police, on July 14 [15?] to bury the corpses at Doxato. They counted 300 killed. While this was going on the Greek army arrived, marching not from Kavala but from Ziliahovo. Some of my policemen were killed by the Greek population.

No. 16a. DEPOSITION (COMMUNICATED) OF MR. MILEV, Sub-Lieutenant of Reserves, formerly Mayor of Philipi'opolis and Prefect of Stara-Zagora, who Commanded a Detachment of Infantry at Doxato.
On the morning of July 13, a detachment comprised of cavalry, infantry and artillery

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marched from Drama toward Kavala in order to watch the movements of the andartes. At a distance of one kilometer from Doxato, we were received with rifle shots. This fusillade became hotter as we approached the village. Parliamentaries were sent in advance, but the Greeks refused to receive them and went on firing. Then the infantry formed in. line of battle and continued its march, but without firing. At 500 paces from the village the order was given to answer the Greek fire, and to aim specially at the school, which was the headquarters of the andartes, and over which the Greek flag was flying. The firing continued for two hours, after which the andartes left the school, set fire to it, and fled towards. Kavala. When the infantry entered Doxato, it realized that not all the andartes had left the village, for several of them continued to fire on our troops from the Greek houses. Then the fighting began in the village and lasted till midday, when the resistance of the inhabitants of Doxato was broken. Only twenty-seven andartes were killed in the village; the rest succeeded in escaping toward Kavala and the neighboring hills.

The people of Doxato had succeeded in effecting the escape of most of their women and children, who left on July 11 for Kavala. After the battle, the Bulgarian infantry found only about a hundred women and children in the village, and these were by order placed in several houses and courtyards, and protected by the Bulgarian soldiers against the local Turkish and gypsy population, who from the beginning of the fight were burning, pillaging and violating women and girls. Two Turks were caught in the act, and were executed on the spot by Bulgarian soldiers. The Bulgarian army has therefore no crime on its conscience. If women and children were killed in some isolated parts of the village (it was one long street, a kilometer in length) that was the work of local Turks and gypsies.

It was afterwards proved that the andartes under the instigation of Greek soldiers and officers deliberately set fire to the school, in order to burn some Bulgarians alive, who were shut up in it, to the number of about twenty. These were laborers arrested in the fields, and were found bound hand and foot by the Bulgarian soldiers who delivered them,. after being kept four days without food.

The army left Doxato at 2 p.m., leaving twenty soldiers behind to keep order.

No. 16b. COLONEL BARNEV, who directed the operations against the evsones and' andartes round Doxato, has made the following deposition [communicated]:
On the morning of July 13 the two squadrons of cavalry which I commanded reached the neighborhood of Doxato, and there I found other Bulgarian detachments sent for the same purpose. At about 800 paces from Doxato, I met an orderly with dispatches. As I was engaged with the orderly, I directed Captain Sofroniev to continue the forward march in the direction of Doxato-Kavala, after which I would rejoin the troops. I noticed that all the country round the village was occupied by armed men, who lost no time in opening fire. The company under Sub-Lieutenant Milev, which was advancing to the south in a line parallel to ours, changed front towards Doxato, in the presence of this unexpected attack, formed in order of battle and advanced on the village; for the fire was directed against it, and threatened it seriously. The situation demanded first defence, and then the energetic pursuit of the andartes. The appearance of the squadrons of cavalry put the andartes to flight, and they were forced to leave their positions and seek refuge on the heights to the northeast of Doxato, where they entrenched themselves. Meanwhile other troops and andartes were reported coming from Kavala. In presence of these insurgents, who in their turn opened a heavy fire upon us, we were obliged to attack them, for we were exposed to a murderous fire. Part of them retired to the same heights, from whence they kept up their fire. The cavalry charged then. After the pursuit I gave the order to attend to the wounded, to carry them into shelter, and to send them away by the road Dadem-Tchiflik. We had hardly passed the village of Doiran when Sub-Lieutenant Tanev sent me an orderly to inform me that andartes coming from Kavala were advancing; that they had already occupied the heights near the ruins of Alexandras; and that the road to Dadem-

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Tchiflik was also cut: I sent Captain Sofroniev in haste in the direction in question; the insurgents fled to Kavala. At this moment I received word from my scouts that a Greek column was reported marching from Valtchista in the direction of the station Anghista-Alistrati. Seeing our retreat threatened, I gave orders to return and occupy our original positions (the pass of Prossetchen).

From information received, the local Moslems, moved by vengeance against the Greeks, gave themselves up to excesses till midnight. It is these excesses which have been attributed by the Greek press to Bulgarian soldiers.

All the descriptions of the alleged misconduct of my troops at Doxato are false. I deny these accusations, and affirm that the Bulgarian soldier has given every proof of tolerance and discipline.


B. EVENTS AT SERRES
No. 17. [Note. In the semi-official Greek pamphlet Atrocites Bulgares, published by the director of the university at Athens, the narrative published by Signer Magrini in the Secolo is adopted as an authoritative statement of the Greek case. Signer Magrini states that he was present at the inquiry conducted at Serres by the consuls general of Austria and Italy, who had come from Salonica to hear witnesses on the spot.]
We were able to reconstitute the eventful week through which the Macedonian town passed. On Friday, July 4, the Bulgarian advocate adviser attached to the Italian consul, informed him that the following order had arrived: [We can discover no confirmation of this statement.]
"If it appears that Serres is lost to the Bulgarians, destroy the town."
On the evening of the same day General Ivanov, beaten at Lahana, passed through Serres station on his way to Demir-Hissar. On Saturday, July 5, the shops and houses were pillaged; seventeen notables were massacred; [This may refer to the thirteen persons murdered in the prison. Clearly not all of them were notables.] four other notables, among them the head master of the gymnasium, the director of the hospital, and the manager of the Orient bank, were led outside the town and killed with bayonet thrusts.[The manager of the Orient bank is alive and well, and was never wounded.]
Thereafter General Voulkov, Governor of Macedonia, and all the Bulgarian officials, soldiers, and gendarmes left hurriedly. On Sunday and Monday the town was tranquil in expectation of the arrival of the Greek army; the inhabitants armed in order to repel a probable attack by the comitadjis. On Tuesday and Wednesday skirmishes took place between the inhabitants and groups of soldiers who attempted to enter the town and to set it on fire. On Thursday the inhabitants, foreseeing the catastrophe, sent a deputation to Nigrita to demand help, but it was too late. [Observe that all mention of the schoolhouse massacre is suppressed.]

With the Austrian consul general, I questioned the Moslem Ahmed-Hafiz, formerly attached to the Bulgarian police; he made the following declarations:

On Thursday evening the Bulgarian officer Monev appeared at my house and told me, that the Bulgarians were going to burn Serres next day. He invited me to join in the pillage and the burning with a band of Moslems. I refused. Then Monev asked me for petroleum; I replied that I had none. On Thursday, during the night, four guns were posted on the hill Dutii, which commands Serres, and next morning about eight o'clock the bombardment began and created an enormous panic. Soon more than 500 infantry, several groups of cavalry, numbering ten each, and fifty
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comitadjis entered the town, armed with bombs, and the atrocities began. Among the soldiers several officers were recognized, including Dr. Yankov, secretary of General Voulkov and councilor of the government, and the late chief of police Karagiosov and Orfaniev, chief of the gendarmerie of Serres. Clearly there was a well-arranged plan. The doors of the houses and shops were opened with sticks tipped with iron, with which the soldiers were provided. The buildings were entered and pillaged; the booty was loaded on some hundred wagons, specially got together for this purpose. Then the houses, emptied one by one, were sprinkled with petroleum and other inflammable substances and fire put to them. By an application of the law of the economy of effort, in each group of three houses, only the middle-one was set on fire, clearly in the belief that the wind, which was blowing with violence, would complete the work of destruction. The soldiers fired on the inhabitants who attempted to save the burning houses, consulates, and foreign buildings.
In the quarter Kamenilia twenty-eight persons, among them Albert Biro, a Hungarian, were massacred. The Austrian vice consul with the people who had sought refuge in the consulate was carried off to the mountain, his magnificent house was pillaged and then burned. All the buildings protected by foreign flags were treated in the same fashion. At the Orient bank an attempt was made to open the safe by means of a bomb, but it failed, and the assailants had to content themselves with burning the building. The Italian consular agency, a well-built house, surrounded by a vast garden, was saved almost miraculously from destruction; it is the only house saved in a whole quarter which was burnt down, and the Italian consular agent Menahem Simantov explained to us, that at noon on Friday several infantry soldiers ordered him to open his house, in which 600 people had taken refuge, mainly women and children. He showed himself at a window, the soldiers demanded £T400. His knowledge of Bulgarian enabled him to save them. He persuaded the soldiers to be content with £54 and to withdraw. The presence of the young Bulgarian Mavrodiev, says Simantov, saved the agency from catastrophe. None the less in the course of the day it was necessary to buy off other soldiers with a fresh ransom. The agency, filled with refugees, was surrounded on all sides by flames; we were-barely able to protect it.

No. 17a. STATEMENT OF MR. ZLATKOS, Vice Consul of Austria Hungary at Serres: (Atrocites Bulgares, p. 23.)
On Friday toward noon soldiers of the regular [Bulgarian] army attacked my house, forcing me to go out into the street with my family and a large number of persons, who had fled from the massacre and the fire and had taken refuge with me. Immediately thereafter we were led up to the mountain. All the children and women who accompanied me were threatened with death, and it is only by paying large ransoms that we were released. I am safe and well, but as my house fell a prey to the flames. I am, with my family, without shelter or clothing. All our subjects who live here are in the same situation as myself.
No. 18. THE SCHOOLHOUSE MASSACRE (see also Nos. 56, 57, 58). Evidence of Demetri Karanfilov, formerly a dairyman and afterwards a Bulgarian gendarme at Serres.
On Saturday, July 5, the Bulgarian army left the town. I was unable to go with it since my wife was ill. Everything was quiet until Monday. There then arrived Greek andartes (Insurgents) with villagers and some soldiers. I hid and saw very little of what went on. On Tuesday, shots were fired at my house and I heard voices say, "Bulgarians live here." They came in and searched for arms. There were one or two soldiers among about twelve men. I was then taken to the Archbishop's palace and brought before a civil commission, which included the Archbishop of Serres (an old man) and a young bishop, who presided. The soldiers said to me on the way, "We've come to exterminate the Bulgarians." The bishop asked me who and what I was. I replied, "A Bulgarian gendarme." I was searched and five francs were taken from me. I was then taken to a room of the girls' high school, and was kept there for four days, guarded by both soldiers and civilians, who came both from Serres and from the villages. Many other Bulgarians were with me. We received bread once a day, and were not at first maltreated. Ten

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people were taken up to a room above and never came back. We heard cries, and believe they were killed. I was ordered with three other men to carry out two corpses. They were covered with blood, and I believe that they were Bulgarians of Serres. On Friday morning, a soldier came in and said: "Don't fear, our army is coming, but do all that we tell you." So we were rather relieved. Then those in our room were bound two by two, taken upstairs and were never seen again. When my turn came; I was bound with another man taken up to a room which was full of corpses. There were quite fifty of them; you couldn't see the floor, some were lying in heaps, and there was blood all over the place. I was then struck with a Martini bayonet on the back of the head and through the neck and on the shoulder. [We saw these wounds and also a hole in the man's coat.] The blow on my shoulder was dealt me by Christo, a neighbor of mine. I do not know who the others were. When I fell, another fell on top of me; I fainted and came to some time afterwards. I noticed that somebody else was moving, and soon five or six were stirring. The Greeks had all gone and we heard a fusillade outside. The town was already in flames and soon the school would be burnt also. We went out of this room and saw another room heaped with corpses. Some were still alive and groaning. The doors were open and we made up our minds to go out, crossed the street, went up the hill, and met the Bulgarian soldiers, who tended our wounds. I have had no news of my wife to this day.

No. 19. EVIDENCE OF CHRISTO DIMITROV, Miller of Serres.
On July 5 I left my mill on the advice of a Bulgarian soldier, and went to my house to fetch my wife and children. There were shouts of Zeto! (the Greek cry) all round, and neighbors shouted "the Greek army is coming." My neighbors bade me have no fear and undertook to save me. I slept that night at home, and saw next morning a crowd of Greeks and Turks in the street, who shouted that they would destroy everything Bulgarian. T saw them arrest two men from Dibra, Marko and Christo. Three Greeks returned to Christo's house and came out with his wife half an hour later; she was crying "Is there no one to save me!" The crowd in the street was shouting, "Show us the Bulgarian houses." On the 6th, I went to a Turk's house for hiding. On the 8th the crowd came again shouting, "There are still Bulgarians here." My neighbors tried to save me, but in the end when the crowd threatened them, they advised me to go quietly to the Archbishop's palace, as I had done no harm. The neighbors came with me to give evidence before the Archbishop in my favor. But I was taken straight to the school and robbed on arrival of my money (5 Napoleons) while soldiers stood around. I spent the day there with about twenty other Bulgarians. That evening I was bound and taken up to a room where eleven dead bodies were lying on the floor. I was ordered to lie down; my hands and feet were bound behind me; I was heavily struck and left. I talked with two other men in the room who were still alive, including my neighbor Christo of Debra, and each asked the other "What crime have we committed?" I recognized two Greeks among our jailers, a certain Janmaki, brother of the Greek Consul Cavass, and one Taki, son of the innkeeper Peter. They said to an evzone, "We must not leave one alive." They then beat Petro, Christo, and Procop to death with a big stick. Another Greek civilian then came in and, pointing to me, said: "Fourteen are enough; we can't bury them all. Let us leave this one till tomorrow." They evidently reckoned that they could only bury fourteen in a night. The others were then taken out, and Petro, who was not quite dead, was forced to walk. "We'll kill him down there," they said. I was left alone, bound. On Thursday morning, July 19, I was taken down to another room, where were some men from . Strumnitsa; I asked and received some bread and water. Eight men were then brought in from the villages. The Greeks all the time kept shouting, "Long live King Constantine!" On Friday morning, July 11, my wife arrived, and brought me some bread, some tobacco and three francs. Women looking out of the neighboring houses threatened me, "You Bulgarian dogs, we'll kill you all, to the last man." Then four Bulgarian soldiers were brought in as prisoners, three Bul-

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garian comitadjis and the secretary of the mayor of the village of Topoleni. About eleven o'clock I heard the Greek women of the quarter calling out to the men, "Flee! for the Bulgarians are coming, and they will kill you." About sixty surviving prisoners were brought together; about fifty other Greeks came in, including some evsones, who bound the prisoners and took them out two by two. Mine was the sixth turn. I was led to an upper room, ordered to lie down, and received four wounds. I then groaned and feigned death. [We saw the scars of his wounds and the holes in his coat.] Others were then brought in and killed. I heard a sort of gurgling, like the sound which sheep make when they are being killed, in the room next door. Presently I heard firing outside, and the Greeks went down to fight, and left us alone. I saw that all was clear. Ten of us were alive and rose to go out, but two. Ilia Penev and Simon, fell at once and could not proceed. Eight of us got safely out to the hills and reached the Bulgarian soldiers. I have heard no news of my wife since that day.

No. 20. EVIDENCE OF DIMITRI LAZAROV, of Moklen, near Serves.
Seven men were sent from our village by the mayor to see if the Bulgarians were still in possession of Serres. Three gendarmes were among us, and all of us had our rifles. [He gave the names of all seven.] We were arrested near the village of Soubashkoi by about one hundred armed Greek villagers. They kept us for five days in the village schoolhouse; ropes were arranged from the rafters to hang us. Then firing was heard in the neighborhood and the Greeks, in fear lest Bulgarian troops should arrive, took the ropes down. There were five Bulgarian soldiers prisoners in the same place. I saw four of these shot in the garden of the school in daylight; the fifth begged hard for his life and was saved. We were now bound with this soldier in groups of four and were taken to the Bishop's palace. I had one hundred piastres in money, and of the others, one had £T2 and another £Tl4. We were taken before a priest, who was alone in a room. I think he was a bishop; the evsones took our money, and put it on the table before the priest, who put it in a drawer. We asked for water. They gave it us, but the evsones struck us in the face before the bishop. He asked us no questions, and we were taken to the school. The evsones beat us and mocked us with shouts of "hourrah!" (the Bulgarian cry). The gendarmes were taken to a room apart. In our room there were ten dead bodies; these were afterwards removed by Turkish porters. One of the gendarmes died this day from beating. We were stripped perfectly naked. Next day, Friday, July 11, forty-four new Bulgarian prisoners were brought in. [The witness, like all Balkan peasants, reckoned the dates from the nearest church festival.] About midday we heard cannon—perhaps twenty shots. Then we could see from the window that the town was in flames. Three soldiers wearing the Greek uniform came into our room, but one of them wore vlach trousers. They took four prisoners out to another room. We heard cries. The same three then came back with their hands and bayonets covered with blood; we tried but failed to get out by breaking the windows. I was taken out almost the last to a room full of dead bodies. The vlach struck me two blows on the head and two on the neck, and I fell. [We saw his wounds, the skull was deeply indented.] Another man fell on top of me and I lost consciousness. When I came to I heard rifle firing. Four men rose with me. Angel Dimov of Carlukavo is the only one I knew. We found water, which the butchers had used to wash their hands. We heard the Bulgarian cry "hourrah," went out, and found a Bulgarian soldier who got a mule for me. The whole town was on fire.

No. 21. EVIDENCE OF BLAGOI PETROV, of Serres, mason, aged eighteen yews.
On July 10 four citizens of Serres, whom I knew, dressed in Greek uniform, took me to the schoolhouse prison. About one hundred others were there. We were beaten with the butts of their rifles and most of us had our hands tied to something, such as the pillars. An armed Greek civilian came in and said, "We must not kill these young lads, but we'll

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give them a beating." They insisted that I should stay to see my father killed; they even promised to give me my liberty at once if I would kill my father with my own hand. About one o'clock I saw him killed with five blows from the butt of a rifle; many others were killed at the same time. Five youths were released. The names of my father's murderers are, Teochar, a mechanic, and Athanasios Petrov, a tobacco worker.

No. 22. EVIDENCE OF DR. KLUGMANN, Russian civil doctor, employed at Serves in the special service organized by the Bulgarians to deal with the epidemic of cholera.

On going out to my work as usual at eight o'clock on Sunday morning July 6, I found all the houses shut and the people beginning to flee. A Bulgarian officer with two or three soldiers was in the street, with rifles presented, but they did not fire. Towards midday firing began and went on all day, but I can not say who was responsible. Monday was quiet. I went out on my balcony and saw a priest announcing to the people in the street, "Let any one who wants a gun go to the bishopric and get it." I saw them coming out armed, an hour later. Rifles were given out to Turks. Firing began soon afterwards and went on all day and night. On Tuesday morning some Greek andartes came to my house and arrested me. It was useless to explain that I was in the town to fight the cholera for the benefit of the whole population; I was taken to the bishop who, fortunately, spoke Russian, and eventually released me. I was again arrested on Thursday and taken by the bishop's orders to the Greek hospital. During all this time the Bulgarians up and down the town were being arrested. Another Bulgarian who was arrested at the same time as myself was beaten by the soldiers in my presence. On Thursday, while I was at the bishop's palace, about twenty-five Bulgarian prisoners were brought in before a commission composed of priests and civilians. As far as I could understand the proceedings they were condemned to death [the doctor knows little or no Greek, but thought he could guess the meaning of what went on]. I was removed with the bishop's consent to the Bulgarian hospital, where there was another Russian doctor, Laznev, and an assistant named Comarov. On Friday morning we saw the whole population fleeing in the direction of Nigrita. About eleven o'clock shots were fired from the hill behind our hospital, fourteen or fifteen in all. The firing went on for an hour. Toward midday everything was quiet. I then saw that the town was burning. In the afternoon many Greek soldiers entered the hospital and threatened to kill me. They stole everything in the hospital, including Dr. Laznev's watch. [NOTE.—Dr. Klugmann went on to give many details of the difficulties which he and his colleagues in the Bulgarian hospital met with from the Greek authorities.] I wish in conclusion to affirm my strong conviction that the Bulgarians cannot have burnt Serres. I am unable to say how it was set on fire.

No. 23. EVIDENCE or COMMANDANT IVAN KIRPIKOV.
On Thursday, July 10, while at Zurnovo, I received orders to march on Serres with my column, to look after the munitions which had been left in the town, to resume the administration, and to restore order. I understood this to mean that I was to stay in the town, if possible, unless driven out by superior force. I had a battalion and a half of infantry, one squadron of cavalry, and one battery of artillery. We marched throughout the night, and by six o'clock on Friday morning were within five or six kilometers of Serres. I met on the way two companies of the dismounted cavalry, who had been driven back from the town the day before by the insurgent population. I ascertained that the Greeks held three positions on the hills surrounding the town, and estimated from their fire that they must number at least 1,000 rifles. I used my artillery against each of their positions in succession, and our infantry was able eventually to capture all three positions. From the last hill above the town 1 saw the population fleeing from the town in all directions over the plain. The enemy's fire meanwhile continued from several houses, from an

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old tower, and from a little hill which was practically in the town. I sent a detachment to march down the principal street with orders to shout as they went that the people should keep calm and fear nothing. My men were fired upon from every house as they marched, and balls fell even where I was standing with the artillery. I then directed one of my guns against two big houses, from which the fire chiefly came. This had the effect of checking it. I then sent three patrols of ten men each to report if our depots were intact. They were fired upon.

I now noticed groups of people in three large masses in the plain, near the railway line. I could see with my glasses that they were all armed and were wearing the Greek peasant costume peculiar to certain villages which we regarded as the center of the Greek propaganda. I sent a squadron to the railway station, but it was stopped by hot fire from the station. I now realized that a counter attack was being prepared and decided to march through the town and give battle to the groups of men near the station. Meanwhile a big building exploded, presumably a magazine. I sent my patrol to see what it was, but they were again repulsed from the same big building. I ordered my patrol to localize the conflagration which had now begun in various places. The groups of peasants had now begun to advance on the town. We never reached the house that was blown up and my infantry were never able to penetrate far into the town because of the continual fire from the houses. As they marched, Moslems and Bulgarians began to join our men and to embrace them.

I now realized that the force opposed to me was much superior to my own, and my object now was to clear the plain and isolate the town. I ordered my guns to fire on the groups in the plain. The fire was now spreading all over the town. With my binoculars I could see large columns of the Greek regular army approaching from Orlov. I continued to use my guns in order to keep the groups dispersed. I then heard of another column of the regular army which was approaching from another direction. Realizing that I should be unable to face these, I sent patrols to our depots, which were in front of the governor's palace, with orders to blow them up if they found them intact. I then arranged to cover my retreat. Shells had begun to fall in the town from the Greek guns, and some of these' fell on the hospital. The Greek vanguard with the townsmen attacked our rear guard. They shelled us steadily as we retreated, and some of their shells fell among refugees from the town who had fled to us.
In reply to a question whether he knew anything regarding the Austrian vice consul, the commander replied, that his patrols reported to him as follows:

We met a person who said he was the Austrian vice consul; we took him and his family with us for his own protection, to ensure that neither the population nor the troops should molest him. We asked him if he preferred to come with us, or to stay in the town? He said he preferred to come with us. Later, when he saw that the Greek army was arriving he changed his mind and wished to go back to the town. This we allowed him to do.
Before leaving the town [continued the Commander] some Bulgarian civilians came to me and told me that about 250 Bulgarians had been imprisoned and massacred in the school house. The refugees who fled with us, told me that the explosion which we had heard, came from a Greek magazine of cartridges, which the Greeks themselves set on fire. The wind was blowing violently from east to west, and this house, which was in the east of the town, seems to have started the conflagration. I can not believe that our shells caused the fire. We have often tested this; they do not have the effect of setting houses on fire.
No. 24. EVIDENCE OF DOCTOR YANKOV, Advocate and Counselor to the Governor of Serres.
I left Serres on July 5, and heard later that a detachment was returning. I accompa-

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nied it on Friday morning, July 11. Our detachment fired two cannon shots against the enemy, who was outside the town towards the north. On entering the town it pursued the Greeks, who were not regulars but andartes. Towards half past eleven I saw flames in the town. I notified the commandant that we were causing loss to the state. He replied that our shells could not possibly be the cause of the conflagration. The cavalry then entered the town and I went with it, accompanied by Karagiosov and Orfaniev. On the invitation of a leading Mohammedan I entered his house and found there about one hundred Turks including many notables. We spoke of the conflagration, which was increasing, and went out with several Turks to attempt to check it. In the town I learnt that one of the two Bulgarian depots of rifles was already burning. The Greeks had set it on fire. The houses in Serres are closely packed together, the streets are very narrow, and the wind was violent, so that the fire spread rapidly. I looked for fire engines at the municipality, but failed to find them. I went to look elsewhere and then heard that the Bulgarian army was already in retreat. I met the vice consul of Austria, Mr. Zlatkos, a Greek, and with him about a hundred Greek refugees. He demanded my protection. I accompanied him back to the town, a distance of perhaps one hundred metres. Karagiosov disappeared and we have had no further news of him.

No. 25. EVIDENCE OF LAZAR TOMOV, a Bulgarian Teacher at Uskub.
Mr. Tomov was driven out of Uskub, and traveled to Serres during the early days of the second war. He passed through Doiran, saw that all the Bulgarian villages were burned, and near the village of Gavaliantsi saw the corpse of a little cripple girl, wounded and mutilated. She was about fourteen years of age. On July 11, he entered Serres with the Bulgarian army, but did not actually penetrate into the town. He saw heaps of corpses in the girls' school, and met four of the survivors of the massacre. One of them was the man Lazarov. The Bulgarian troops were moved to intense indignation, but there was no outbreak. He saw both Turks and Bulgarian villagers setting houses on fire. Turks were carrying sacks through the streets, from which he inferred that they were looting.

No. 26. EVIDENCE OF COMMANDANT MOUSTAKOV, Secretary to General Voulkov, Governor of Serres and Macedonia.
Referring to the documents published in the Greek pamphlet Atrocites Bulgares, p. 54, in which he is represented as proposing the arrest of a number of Greek notables, the commandant explained, that neither of the orders therein attributed to him is genuine. There was no reason why he, working in the same office as General Voulkov, should have addressed a written communication to him. The commandant produced the official register in which his orders were copied.

(1) The first order attributed to him bears an authentic number (No. 8265). An order with this number does exist and is entered in the register; but its contents are quite different from those of the document published in the pamphlet. (2) No order bearing the number 8391 exists.

[We examined the register, which fully bore out the commandant's statement. The numbers in the register were not consecutive, and no entry had been made corresponding to the number in the pamphlet].

Further, in reply to the statement made on p. 30 of this pamphlet that disguises and other compromising articles had been found by the Greeks in the governor's house, the Commandant stated (1) that no such articles had ever been in his possession and (2) that in any event they can not have been found, since the house, which belonged to Nechid-bey, had been burned before the entry of the Greeks.

In explanation of the circumstances which attended the evacuation of Serres, the Com-

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mandant stated that on Saturday, July 5, there was in the early morning a panic in the town, due to a rumor that the Greek army was approaching. The town was almost entirely deserted. The Bulgarian troops went out to reconnoitre; he himself went about calming the people. By his orders a squadron of dismounted cavalry marched through the town singing. It was fired on from the houses, and one soldier was killed and another wounded. This occurred about 5.30 p.m. Two men were arrested and probably killed. At 9 p.m. he left the town with General Voulkov. A detachment of about 200 men of the territorial army was left behind under Commandant Toplov; but in view of the danger of surprise attacks it passed the night outside the town and entered it again the next day, again retiring at nightfall. The Commandant returned on July 8, towards midday on a locomotive, with ten soldiers. He found Serres station surrounded by Greek andartes and skirmished with them till evening. He had asked for cannon, which arrived late; he remained in the neighborhood of Serres on the hills on July 9, but neither used his cannon nor entered the town. On July 11 took place the attack in force under Commandant Kirpikov. He himself had intended, if he had been able to enter the town, to burn the Bulgarian stores and depots of munitions which had been left behind. The larger force had no doubt the same orders.

With reference to the statement that prisoners were killed by the Bulgarians on leaving the town, the Commandant explained that headquarters were aware of a revolutionary movement among the Greeks of Serres; the Greeks had large quantities of arms. He had inquired of the commandant de place what measures had been taken to prevent an outbreak. The reply was that "this in no way concerned him." On July 1 there were five Greek notables under arrest at the prefecture. He failed to obtain any explanation as to what would be done to them. The idea was that by arresting these notables a revolution might be prevented. This was an absurdity, but he believes these men were in the end liberated.

On July 3 Mr. Arrington asked him to procure the release of his imprisoned porter (cavass). He explained that this was a matter which concerned the Commandant and not the Governor. He ascertained that two or three cavass belonging to the tobacco warehouses had been arrested because the rumor was in circulation that the famous Greek insurgent chief, Captain Doukas, was in the town disguised as the cavass of a tobacco warehouse. He gave orders before leaving Serres, that prisoners of all races including some thirty or forty Bulgarian comitadjis accused of crimes committed during the war should be released. The prisoners numbered about 105 men. The Greeks and Turks among them were persons of no importance. No soldiers were left at the prison, and its governor had fled. It is conceivable that the Bulgarian prisoners may have killed the Greek prisoners.


C. EVENTS AT DEMIR-HISSAR

No. 27. REPORT OF THE GENERAL COMMANDING THE SIXTH DIVISION OF THE GREEK
ARMY, dated July 12.
I have the honor to inform your Majesty that an officer of my staff sent to Demir-Hissar, reports as follows:

The Bulgarian captain of gendarmerie, Meligov (Velikov?) arrested the bishop, Mgr. Constantine, the priest Papastavrou, the notable Sapazacharizanou, and over one hundred other Greeks, who were imprisoned in the confines of the Bulgarian school. On July 7 and 8 the Bulgarian soldiers and gendarmes massacred them, and requisitioned Turkish peasants to bury them in the precincts of the school, outside the wall on the east side. An officer of my staff ordered the exhumation of the bodies in order to verify the facts. He found the heaped bodies of the victims at a depth of over two meters.

Further, officers and soldiers violated several girls; they even killed one, named Agatha Thomas, the daughter of a gardener, because she resisted them.

The shops of the town have been sacked and destroyed, with all the furniture of the
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houses of our countrymen, of whom some were saved by the Turks who sheltered them in their houses. The town in general presents a lamentable spectacle of destruction.

No. 27a. The report of the commission of Greek deputies which visited Demir-His-sar, contains the following additional details:

The number of notables arrested was 104; eighty were at once killed by bayonet thrusts. Twenty-four others, by feigning death, survived, though seriously wounded. Among the victims are two women and two babies aged two and three years. * * * The bishop and three priests were killed by Captain Anghel Dimitriev Bostanov with his own hand. He first gouged out their eyes and cut off their hands. * * * All these atrocities were committed by the soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the Bulgarian regular army belonging to the Twelfth and Twenty-first regiments. * * *"
There follows an account of the search for arms at the bishop's palace, in which this statement occurs: "The soldiers knocked at the door, and as the bishop resisted, they broke it down." In describing the exhumation of the bodies, it is stated that only eight were actually exhumed. The corpse of the bishop was lying face downwards. The Commission have before it an official list of seventy-one persons killed and five wounded, and of others who have disappeared, making a total of 104. It includes one priest (not three), and is comprised largely of working men who can not have been "notable."
No. 28. In its issue of July 13/26, the official Echo de Bulgarie published the following statement:
As regards the acts of repression at Demir-Hissar, it is necessary to explain that the Greek population of this town, roused by agitators, revolted on July 8, when the Bulgarian troops withdrew. It pillaged the military magazines, the public buildings, and the Bulgarian houses, and massacred a number of soldiers who fell into its hands, as well as the sick and wounded of an ambulance train which arrived that day from Serres. The bodies of sixteen soldiers were found in the immediate neighborhood of the town; the exact number of those massacred in the town itself has never been exactly ascertained.

The rebels took up positions all around the town, whence on the following day a Bulgarian detachment coming from Serres in ignorance of what was going on,- was obliged to dislodge them by force. On its entry into the town, it was met with a fusillade from other rebels concealed in the houses. Order was none the less promptly restored. Some individuals taken with arms in their hands were shot. An inquiry was held into the events of the previous day. The murderers and the instigators of the movement were arrested, and some of them were executed. It was established that the Greek prelate was the chief leader, and that he had set the example to the rebels by himself firing the nrst shots from his window against soldiers who were passing his house. Further, a revolver was found in his pocket, with several of its cartridges used.

To explain the severities employed in restoring order at Demir-Hissar, it must be added that on the same day, July 9, Greek troops burned the Bulgarian villages in the neighborhood of Demir-Hissar, notably Gorni-Poroi, Dolni-Porio, Starochevo and Kechislik.

28a. The following supplementary narrative from Bulgarian official sources has been communicated to us:
On July 5, as our troops were withdrawing towards the defile of Rupel, a panic occurred in Demir-Hissar, and some shots were fired in the Greek quarter. There were, however, no casualties, and order was speedily restored by the civil administration, which remained in the town (see No. 46). From July 5 to July 9 the town was relatively calm.

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Troops retreating on Djumaia were continually passing through it, and the bakeries were working to supply our troops at Rupel. During these days Major Stephanov of the general staff of the second army passed twice through the town; he states that no one in the town complained of ill treatment by our troops or officials. Meanwhile, the Greek army advancing along the Salonica-Serres road toward the bridge over the Struma, at Oriiak, was driving the fugitive population before it (see Nos. 33 and 35). On July 7, the Greek artillery on the right bank near the burned bridge of Orliak, fired on the fugitives and on the villages in the plain of the Struma (see Greek soldiers' letters, No. 51), and this increased the stream of fugitives, some of whom passed through the town itself. The panic in Demir-Hissar now became irresistible, and the administration abandoned it. The Greek population thus became the master of the town, and rushed through the streets with the Greek flag, firing on our wounded soldiers, our baggage and ambulance trains, and on the fugitive population. A body of from 120 to 150 andartes under the command of a Greek officer arrived in the town, from the direction of the plain. At this moment the Greek bishop went into the streets at the head of about twenty armed Greeks, and gave the order to fall upon all Bulgarians. Fighting followed in the town. Two Bulgarian gendarmes who were guarding our military stores were killed; all the bakers were slaughtered at their ovens; many of our wounded were killed, and a large number of the peasant fugitives, including women and children. The street fighting, the massacres and general disorder continued all day, and many were killed on both sides. The Greek bishop was probably killed during this fighting. The Greek army entered Demir-Hissar in the evening of this day. What was left of the Bulgarian population in the town fled to the mountains, pursued by the Greek troops and armed civilians, who massacred it whenever they overtook it.

There was no Bulgarian officer at Demir-Hissar after the evening of July 10, when the administration left the town.
The Ministry of War states that Lieutenant Velikov was not there. No such name as Captain Anghel Dimitriev Bostanov is to be found in the registers of the active or reserve army. It is not for the first time that this has happened. More than once in the telegrams of General Dousmanis, Generals Kovatchev and Voulkov are mentioned as being in the neighborhood of Demir-Hissar or Serres, when in fact they were either opposing the Serbs or were at Dubnitsa.

More than 250 wounded Bulgarian soldiers and peasants fleeing from Kukush, Doiran and Lagadina were killed at Demir-Hissar.
APPENDIX C

Documents Relating to Chapter II

THE BULGARIAN PEASANT AND THE GREEK ARMY

No. 29. KING CONSTANTINE'S TELEGRAM. July 12, 1913.

The general commanding the Sixth Division informs me that Bulgarian soldiers under the command of a captain of gendarmes gathered in the yard of the school house at Demir-Hissar over one hundred notables of the town, the archbishop and two priests, and massacred them all. The headquarters staff ordered the exhumation of the bodies, with the result that the crime has been established. Further, Bulgarian soldiers violated young girls and massacred those who resisted them. Protest in my name to the representatives of the powers and to the whole civilized world against these abominations, and declare that to my great regret I shall find myself obliged to proceed to reprisals, in order to inspire their authors with a salutary fear, and to cause them to reflect before committing similar atrocities. The Bulgarians have surpassed all the horrors perpetrated by their barbarous hordes in the past, thus proving that they have not the right to be classed among civilized peoples.

(Signed) CONSTANTINE, King.

The above telegram was sent to the representatives of Greece in the European capitals.

No. 30. EVIDENCE OF FATHER JOSEPH RADANOV, of Kukush.

On July 2 he could distinctly see from Kukush that the surrounding villages were on fire, Salamanli among others. Fields of corn and stacks of reaped corn had been set on fire even behind the Greek positions. The Greeks moreover had fired upon the reapers who had gone to work in the early morning in their fields. The refugees from the neighboring villages began to arrive upon the heights called Kara-Bunar about a mile away, and were there bombarded by artillery.

Next day (July 3) the battle approached the town, but the Bulgarians retained their position. About midday the Greeks began to bombard Kukush, but when I left no house had taken fire.

No. 31. FATHER JEAN CHIKITCHEV.

I took refuge after midday on July 3 with Father Michel and meant to stay with him. I saw the shells falling upon the sisters' orphanage. I saw the hospital struck by a shell. There were at this time no Bulgarian troops in the town, although they were in their positions in front of it. The town was unfortified. The bombardment seemed to be systematic. It could not be explained as a mistake incidental to the finding of the range. Quite forty shells fell not far from the orphanage and three or possibly four houses were set on fire. At this point I left the town and fled with the refugees. Next night it looked as if the whole plain were burning.

NOTE.—Both the above witnesses are priests of the Catholic Uniate Church. (See also 63a.)

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No. 32. Ms. C. [the name may not be published] a Catholic resident in the village of Todoraki near Kukush, states than on July 6 the Greek commandant of Kukush arrived accompanied by thirty infantrymen and eighty armed Turks. He was bound and left exposed to the full sun without food or water from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. His house was pillaged, and 200 francs taken with all his personal property. On being released he learnt from the villagers that they had lost in all £T300 during the pillage. Two men were beaten and twelve were bound and sent down to prison in Salonica. The women were not maltreated.

No. 33. PETER SHAPOV, of Zarovo near Langasa, a shepherd.
He was taking his sheep and goats on the road to Demir-Hissar when Greek cavalry overtook the refugees on the edge of the town and began to slash out with their sabres to left and right. They took 600 goats belonging to himself and his two brothers. One of his brothers was wounded by a cavalryman and died afterwards at the Bulgarian frontier. The Bulgarian army was quite half an hour's walk away. There were no Bulgarian troops near them.

No. 34. MATE, Wife of Petro of Bogoroditsa, near Langasa.
I saw the Greek cavalrymen when they entered our village. I fled and in my haste was obliged to leave a baby of eighteen months behind in the village in order to flee with this one which I have with me, a child of three. I saw our village in flames. I want my child.

No. 35. ELISAVA, Wife of Georghi of Zarovo, near Langasa.
We all fled when the shells began to fall in our village and got safely to Demir-Hissar. Then I heard people saying the Greek cavalry are coming. There was a panic; children fell on the ground and horsemen rode over them. I lost my children, save one whom I was able to carry. My husband had two others with him. I do not know what has become of him, and have not seen him since that day.

No. 36. MITO KOLEV, a boy of fourteen from the village of Gavaliantsi, near Kukush.
On Wednesday, July 2, after the fighting at Kukush, the peasants fled from our village except a few old people. I fled with the rest and reached Kilindir. On Thursday I went back three hours' walk to our village to collect our beasts and find my mother. I found her and was going along the road back to Kilindir with others. As we were leaving our village I saw a Greek cavalryman in uniform on horseback. He fired his rifle at me and missed. I threw myself on the road, pretending to be dead. He then shot my mother in the breast and I heard her say as she fell beside me, "Mito, are you alive?" and that was the last word she spoke. Another boy came up and ran away, when he saw what had happened. The soldier pursued him, shot him, and then killed him with his sword without dismounting. Then I saw a little cripple girl named Kata Gosheva, who was in front of us hiding in a ravine. The soldier went after her, but I do not know whether he killed her. He then came back, passed us and met other cavalrymen. A certain miller of the village named Kaliu, who could speak both Greek and Bulgarian, then came up and lifted me up. The miller had a Mauser rifle. He hid in the ravine when he saw that the two troopers were hurrying back and I hid in some hay. I heard the horses' hoofs going towards the miller. They talked, and I suppose he must have surrendered. He then came back to where I was and the miller said, "Mito, Mito, come out or the cavalry will kill you." So I came out. We both then went to the school house where we found other Greek troopers. I was quite sure they were Greeks because I recognized the uniform.

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They used to come to our village sometimes before the war broke out. They questioned the miller in Greek and wrote something and gave it to him. The miller then said, "Let's go to the mill. It is about fifteen minutes from the village." We stayed there for an hour. In the meantime, three other Greek troopers came up from another direction. The miller went to meet them and showed them his piece of paper. The miller told me to gather straw, and he did the same. The troopers set fire to it so as to burn down the mill. [In reply to a question, Mito explained that the mill was not the miller's personal property. It belonged to the village community, which employed him.] The miller took away his mattress on his horse, which was at the mill. The troopers then left us and went to the village. We followed and the miller said to me, "We had better ask them for another bit of paper so that they will let us go to Salonica." Then some cartridges which had been left behind began to explode in the mill. This brought up other troopers at a gallop. They fired on us. The miller said something to them in Greek, showed them the paper and they chatted. [Mito only speaks Bulgarian.] I saw them looking at me. The one of them drew his revolver and fired. The ball went through my clothes without wounding me. I fell down, pretending to be dead. He fired again and this time the ball went in at my back and came out at my breast. Then, still on horseback, he struck me on the shoulder with his sabre and the same blow wounded my finger. [Mito lay down and showed exactly how it happened. He still had the scars of all these wounds. The position was perfectly possible.] Blood was flowing from my mouth. I hid in the corn all the rest of the day and saw the village take fire in three places. The cavalry then gathered together and then rode off. I was in pain, but managed to walk away. I met two Bulgarian neighbors on my way and one of them took me in his cart to Doiran. There I met my father and had my wounds dressed in the military hospital. We fled through the mountains, and I was taken to the hospital in Sofia.

No. 37. VLADIMIR GEORGHIEV, of Dragomirtsi, near Kukush.
I left the village when the war began and afterwards went back to find some of my property. I saw the Greek cavalry, perhaps a whole regiment of them. There were ten in our village with officers. I managed to hide in some reeds near the village. I saw Gavaliantsi burning. About 2 o'clock eight cavalrymen passed and burned the mill. They then went into the village to finish the burning. I also saw our own village Dragomirtsi burning, and heard two or three shots fired. Toward 6 o'clock I fled and on my way met Mito Kolev, who was wounded and could hardly walk. Mito said he could not ride, so it was no use to offer him my beast. I left him and went on. (See also 63d.)

No. 38. CHRISTO ANDONOV, of Gavaliantsi.
He was beaten by the Greek soldiers. He saw the mother of Mito Kolev near the Greek cavalrymen and supposes she must have been killed. He did not see what happened very distinctly as he was at considerable distance. He saw the boy named Georghi Tassev killed with a sabre thrust by a trooper who was one of five. Some way off Kata Gosheva, the lame girl, was killed with a sword. This he saw quite distinctly. He was hidden in the ravine at the time.

NOTE.—These two witnesses were in a crowd of refugees at Samakov. In passing through the market place we inquired whether anyone present came from the village of Gavaliantsi. They stepped forward and told the above stories when asked to explain what happened to them after the battle of Kukush. See also the evidence of Lazar Tomov, No. 25.


THE AFFAIR OF AKANGELI
No. 39. MR. G., a Catholic inhabitant of Kukush, interviewed at Salonica, made the following statement:
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"After fleeing from Kukush, I arrived at Akangeli with some thousands of refugees from all the surrounding villages. It is close to the station of Doiran. Between two and three p.m.. on Sunday afternoon (July 6) the Greek cavalry arrived, possibly 300 of them, with officers. The inhabitants went out to meet them with white flags and the priest at their head. About 120 people of the village were told off to look after the cavalry horses. These people disappeared and no trace could be found of them next day. That evening the women, both natives and refugees, were all violated, often repeatedly. The soldiers pillaged and killed, but would spare a man's life for five piastres or so. Probably fifty inhabitants of Akangeli were killed. I and another man were bound together by the cavalry. Six piastres and a watch were taken from me and my life was spared, but my companion was killed at my side. Women and girls were stripped and searched to find money. I saw many cases of violation myself, it was done more or less publicly, sometimes in the houses but sometimes in the fields and on the roads. I saw the village burnt and witnessed another case of the murder of a peasant."

In reply to questions he stated that he saw the corpses of the fifty inhabitants after they had been ikilled. Some were shot and some were bayoneted. Again in reply to a question he was certain there was no conflict in the neighborhood and no shots were fired, but the villagers were told to collect their rifles and surrender them. They did so and one went off accidentally in the hands of an officer who was breaking it. He was wounded, and the soldiers at once killed a boy who was standing near. Turks joined with Greeks in the pillage and so did the infantry, which arrived next day.

No. 40. GEORGHI CHARISANOV, of Selo-Surlevo.
He took refuge in Akangeli. A squadron of Greek cavalry arrived on Sunday afternoon, gathered the refugees together and demanded arms, telling them not to fear. They then began to beat and rob. The Turks who followed them assisted in the pillage. On Monday, Greek infantry came and joined in sacking the village. Anyone who resisted was killed. There was a general panic and everyone fled who could. There were refugees from quite fifteen villages in the place. The soldiers violated women all the time, even little children. The soldiers went round from house to house on Sunday night and ordered the people to open the doors. They had a native of the village with them in order to give confidence to the people. Women were searched for money. About one hundred men were taken to look after the horses of the cavalry and these disappeared. On Monday the village was burned. We had given ourselves up quite voluntarily to the cavalry and welcomed them, and had surrendered about one hundred rifles. There was no excuse for what the soldiers did.

No. 41. MITO ILIEV, a butcher of Akangeli.
I was there when the Greek army arrived on Sunday afternoon towards four o'clock. Reckoning from St. Peter's day it must have been July 6. The village was filled with refugees from Kukush district, perhaps 4,000 altogether. The people went out to meet the cavalry by each of three roads. There were about 400 of them. We made a white flag and showed the Greek colors. Everything went quietly at first. The commandant asked for the mayor, and inquired in Turkish whether he would surrender and give up the arms of the village. We fetched our rifles (generally old Martinis) and piled them on a cart. The soldiers called for bread and cheese which were brought out. They then said, "Who is the butcher here, that he may kill sheep for us." I was chosen and troopers went with me to fetch and kill thirty sheep. Meanwhile the soldiers began to demand money from everybody. I saw a young man, a refugee from another village, whose name I do not know, killed with a sword because he had nothing. I was told that a boy of fifteen was killed about this time, but did not see it. The people were now gathered together in the

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square of the village and told to sit down. This I witnessed. The Greek commandant then came and asked, "Where do all these people come from?" Then he separated the men of Akangeli from the rest to the number of about sixty and sent them to a wood called Chaluk. Nothing more was ever heard of them. 1 went on cooking the sheep. Then the soldiers began to violate all the women. I heard cries going on all night, especially about 11 o'clock. The soldiers were not drunk, and they had officers with them. I stayed all night at my oven, and saw the two daughters-in-law of Stovan Popovali violated in front of me, a few paces away by three soldiers. Next morning, when we talked together in the village, I heard of many other violations. On Monday the Greek infantry arrived, seized me and told me to lead them to Dourbali. I led them there, and as I went off Akangeli began to blaze. I heard cries and rifle shots on all- hands. When I got to Dourbali I fled to Atli, half an hour away, and hid in the house of my partner Saduk, a Turk. I sent Saduk to see what had become of my wife and family. He came back and said that everyone was being killed in the village, that he had seen many corpses, that my house was not burnt, but that there were three dead bodies in front of it. Saduk advised me to flee, and I did so. The Turks in our own village (Akangeli) behaved well, but strangers from other Turkish villages came and joined in the pillage.

In reply to questions the witness stated that an officer was accidentally wounded in the arm while examining one of the revolvers which had been given up. This he saw personally, but denied that it explains the killing of the young man who was the first to be killed with a sword. That happened some distance away.

No. 42. STOYAN STOYEV, aged 18, of Akangeli.
This witness, at Dubnitsa, in reply to a question addressed to the group of refugees, whether any of those present came from this village or had passed through it in their flight, related in outline almost exactly the same story as the last witness, including the details about the conversation between the commandant and the mayor. The pillage, he said, began while the arms were being gathered. A rifle went off accidentally, and an officer was wounded, while the Greek soldier was emptying it. This he saw from a distance of about forty meters. Then the cavalry drew their swords and some people were killed, certainly two youths. At this point he hid and saw little more. He heard from a friend of his, a youth who came running out of the house of Dine Popov, that his wife was being violated. He then fled to a Turkish village. (See also 63b.)

No. 43. ANASTASIA PAVLOVA, a widow of Ghevgheli.
Shortly before the outbreak of the second war I was staying with my daughter, a Bulgarian school teacher in the village of Boinitsa. A Greek lady came from Salonica, and distributed money and uniforms to the Turks of the place some six or eight days before the outbreak of the second war. She also called the Bulgarians of the village together, and told them that they must not imagine that this village would belong to Bulgaria. She summoned the Bulgarian priest, and asked him if he would become a Greek. He replied, "We are all Bulgarians and Bulgarians we will remain." There were some Greek officers with this lady who caught the priest by the beard. Then the men who were standing by, to the number of about fifty, had their hands bound behind their backs, and were beaten by the soldiers. They were told that they must sign a written statement that they would become Greeks. When they refused to do this they were all taken to Salonica. When the men were gone, the soldiers began to violate the women of the place, three soldiers usually to one girl. [She named several cases which she witnessed.] The soldiers came in due course to my house and asked where my daughter was. I said she was ill and had gone to Ghevgheli. They insisted that I should bring her to them. The Greek teacher of the village, Christo Poparov, who was with the soldiers, was the most offensive of them all.

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They threatened to kill me if I would not produce her. The soldiers then came into the room and beat me with the butts of their rifles and I fell. "Now," they said, "you belong to the Greeks, your house and everything in it," and they sacked the house. Then sixteen soldiers came and again called for my daughter, and since they could not find her they used me instead. I was imprisoned in my own house and never left alone. Four days before the war I was allowed to go to Ghevgheli by rail with two soldiers to fetch my daughter. She was really in the village of Djavato. At Ghevgheli, the soldiers gave me permission to go alone to the village to fetch her. Outside the village I met five Greek soldiers,. who greeted me civilly and asked for the news. Suddenly they fired a rifle and called out, "Stop, old-woman." They then fired six shots to frighten me. I hurried on and got into the village just before the soldiers. They bound my hands, began to beat me, undressed me, and flung me down on the ground. Some Servian soldiers were in the village and interfered with the Greeks and saved my life. My daughter was hidden in the village and she saw what was happening to me and came running out to give herself up, in order to save her mother. She made a speech to the soldiers and said, "Brothers, when we have worked so long together as allies, why do you kill my mother?" The soldiers only answered, that they would kill her too. I then showed them the passport which had been given to me at Boinitsa. I can not read Greek and did not know what was on it. It seems that what was written there was "This is a mother who is to go and find her daughter and bring her back to us.'" The Greek soldiers then saw that it was my daughter, and not I, who was wanted and my daughter cried, "Now I am lost." The soldiers offered me the choice of staying in the village or going with my daughter to Ghevgheli. I begged that they would leave us alone together where we were until the morning, and to this they agreed. In the night I fled with my daughter, who disguised herself in boy's clothes, to a place two hours away which was occupied by Bulgarian soldiers. I then went myself to Ghevgheli and immediately afterwards, the second war broke out. The Bulgarians took the town and then retired from it, and the Greeks entered it. The moment they came in they began killing people indiscriminately in the street. One man named Anton Bakharji was killed before my eyes. I also saw a Greek woman named Helena kill a rich Bulgarian named Hadji Tano, with her revolver. Another, whose name I do not know, was wounded by a soldier. A panic followed in the town and a general flight. Outside the town I met a number of Greek soldiers who had with them sixteen Bulgarian girls as their prisoners. All of them were crying, several of them were undressed, and some were covered with blood. The soldiers were so much occupied with these girls that they did not interfere with us, and allowed us to flee past them. As we crossed the bridge over the Vardar, we saw little children who had been abandoned and one girl lying as if dead on the ground. The cavalry were coming up behind us. There was no time to help. A long way off a battle was going on and we could hear the cannon, but nobody fired upon us. For eight days we fled to Bulgaria and many died on the way. The Bulgarian soldiers gave us bread. I found my daughter at Samakov. My one consolation is that I saved her honor.

No. 44. ATHANAS IVANOV, of Kirtchevo, near Demir-Hissar.
Our village is purely Bulgarian and consists of 190 houses. I am a shepherd and look after the sheep of the village. When the Greek army approached, most of the other villagers fled, but I was late in going and remained behind to see that my family had all got safely away. On July 16, while my wife was gathering her belongings, the Greek soldiers arrived. Some of them told a young woman, a relative of ours, who was in front of the house, to go and find bread for them. Her husband had already been seized. I went to look for her. I found a sentinel with a fixed bayonet in front of her house. I rushed past him, and found that she had just been violated by a soldier, while another stood over her with his bayonet, and then the second soldier also violated her. She had had a baby only

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three days before. I then met Peniu Penev, who said to me, "You can speak Greek. All our wives are being violated; come and talk to the soldiers." I entered the courtyard of a house and saw three women on the ground who were being violated. One was wounded in the leg and another in the arm. [We took the names, but see no object in publishing them.] This was about three p.m. Many other women were there, crying. I then went out in fear, and when I had gone some distance, saw that the village was burning. I met a woman trying to put out the fire with water. The soldiers came up and violated her. I saw six soldiers trying to violate a young girl. Another soldier protested, but they threatened him with their bayonets. A sergeant then told this man to stop interfering and ordered him to arrest me and take me to the officers, who were at a place some half an hour's distance from the village. [In reply to questions, the witness stated that two cavalry officers were in the village, but were not in the courtyard, where most of the violations were going on. There were, however, non-commissioned officers among the infantry in the village.] When I got to the camp and was brought before the officers, the officers said, "Take him away and fling him into the flames." On my way back to the village, I met nine other villagers and saw them all killed with the bayonet. Their names were Ivan Michailov, Angel Dou-rov, Pavlo Zivantikov, Ilio Piliouv, Peniu Penev, Peniu Christev, Athanas Belcov, Thodor Kandjilov, Gafio Demetrev. 1 escaped at the moment by saying I was a Greek, when the soldiers asked, "What kind of creatures are these?" I can speak a little Greek. At dusk I managed to run away. They fired but missed me. I know nothing of what happened to my wife, but my children are saved. (See also Nos. 59-62.)

No. 45. A WOMAN FROM IJILAR, near Kukush, seen at Salonica. Name suppressed.
Everything in our village was plundered and burnt including the school and the church. All this was done by Greek soldiers of the regular army. The inhabitants mostly disappeared. Soldiers kept sending for peasants to supply them with sheep. Four would go and never return, and so on at short intervals until hardly anyone was left. "What am I to do now? I have nothing left but the clothes I wear."

No. 46. ANTON MICHAILOV AND DEMETRI GHEORGHIEV, of German, near Demir-Hissar. (See also Nos. 59-62.)
On July 5 (Saturday), we went to the market at Demir-Hissar. A panic presently took place. Everybody said that the Greek cavalry was coming. We went up to a height from which the plain was visible. We could see no cavalry, but a lot of refugees coming from the other direction, from Barakli Djumaia. The Greeks of German, when the town was cleared, began to pillage the Bulgarian shops. They armed themselves and distributed arms to the Turks. We found the corpses of two Bulgarian soldiers in the garden of Doctor Christoteles. The refugees whom we met from the country all said that the Greeks were everywhere killing and burning; so we returned to our village which was still intact, gathered our things together and fled.

Some of the villagers, however, remained in German. Some days after we had left, Greeks and Turks arrived together and began to pillage, burn and kill. We believe that 180 men, women and children were killed. German had 100 houses, and about half the population remained. We heard of the fate of the others from a young man named Demi-tri Gheorghiev [not to be confused with our witness of the same name], who told us that the people were gathered together by the Greeks and Turks, the men in the church and the women in the house of Papa Georghi. Some of the men tried to escape from the church, but were all shot at once. This was a signal for the massacre. The men were first searched and robbed, and then killed. Young Demetri jumped from the window of the church and had the good sense to lie down as if he were dead when he was shot at. He told us that some insurgents (andartes) had arrived from Athens and organized everything. There is only one other survivor of the massacre, namely, Papa Georghi.

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NOTE. We made a uniform rule of refusing to allow witnesses to give us any information at second hand, but in this instance (and also in No. 50) since the alleged massacre had been so complete the circumstances seemed exceptional.

No. 47. ANTON SOTIROV, a Priest from the village of Kalcndra near Serres, stated that Greek regulars and Turks came and burnt the Bulgarian houses at their village and killed an old man, the only one of the inhabitants who remained behind. This he saw from some little distance.

No. 48. GEORGHI DIMITRIEV, of Drenovo near Serres, stated that his village was burnt by Greek infantry on a Tuesday about noon. He saw an old women named Helena Te-melcova, aged about 80, shot and then beheaded by a Greek soldier. He was hidden behind some stones on rising ground and shortly afterward managed to flee. He saw the village burnt by the Greeks.

No. 49. MB. V. Seen at Salonica. Name suppressed. Was made prisoner by the Greeks at Pancherovo. He speaks Greek well and pretended to be a Greek and was released. He saw three men of the village killed, apparently for motives of robbery. Their names were Angel Michail, Athanas Bateto, and the latter's son. Athanas had £T21. The peasants of this village had gone out to meet the troops with a white flag. This occurred on July 23. Eleven prisoners, who were taken at the same time as himself, were all killed on the hillside in the Kresna pass. These were armed men.

No. 50. NICOLA TEMELCOV, of Melnik, formerly a teacher, now a merchant. Between July 11 and July 16, last, all the Bulgarian inhabitants of the Melnik district fled to Old Bulgaria, and he went with them, but had recently visited Melnik. In the village of Sklava, as he passed through it, all the women were gathered by the Greek soldiers in the house of Mito Constantinov, and the women were distributed among thirty soldiers. One girl of eighteen named Matsa Anton Mancheva resisted stoutly and offered money to the amount of £T60. The Greeks took her money and still attempted to violate her. She resisted and was killed. Melnik has not been burnt, with the exception of the officers' club, the hotel and the post office. The Greek houses are empty and the furniture gone. His father and mother remained in the town and told him their story. The Greeks said to them, "We do not wish to have bears living in our country. We want men." By "bears" they meant the Bulgarians. The officers took everything belonging to the witness on the pretense that he had fled. They demanded produce belonging to his father to the amount of 18 napoleons. They then took him out to his farm at Orman-Tchiflik and threatened him with death. He paid £T180 for his life and was taken back to Melnik. All this was done by officers. They took quantities of wheat, rice and barley from his father's farm and also the buffaloes. The order was given that everything and everybody must be cleared out of Melnik and go to Demir-Hissar, and the government put both automobiles and wagons at the disposal of the Greek inhabitants for this journey. Those who were unwilling to go were beaten. This his father related to him. His father, an old man, has since died from exhaustion and mental worry.

No. 51. EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF GREEK SOLDIERS found in the mail of the nineteenth-regiment of the Greek seventh division, captured by the Bulgarians in the region of Razlog.

(1) RHODOPE, 11th July, 1913.
This war has been very painful. We have burnt all the villages abandoned by the Bulgarians. They burn the Greek villages and we the Bulgarian. They massacre, we massacre,.

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and against all those of that dishonest nation, who fell into our hands, the Mannlicher rifle has done its work. Of the 1,200 prisoners we took at Nigrita, only forty-one remain in the prisons, and everywhere we have been, we have not left a single root of this race.

I embrace you tenderly, also
your brother and your wife
SPILIOTOPOULOS PHILIPPOS.
(2) Mr. Panaghi Leventi,
Doctor
Aliverion
Euboea.
I also enclose herewith, the letter of congratulation from my commandant, Mr. Conto-ghiri in which he praises my squadron, which on the occasion of the short stay of a few days of our division, received the order at five o'clock, to march to the north of Serres. During the march, we engaged in a fight with the Bulgarian comitadjis, whom we dispersed, after having killed the greater part. We burnt the two villages of Doutlii and Banitza, the homes of the formidable comitadjis, and passed everything through the fire, sparing only the women, the children, the old people, and the churches. All this was done without pity or mercy, executed with a cruel heart, and with a condemnation still more cruel.
Merocostenitza, 12th July, 1913.
The outposts of the Army.
Love to you and also the others.
(signature unreadable)
sergeant.
(3) Mr. Sotir Panaioannou,
in the village of Vitziano, parish Ithicou
Tricala de Thessalie.
River Nesto, 12th July, 1913.
Here at Vrondou (Brodi) I took five Bulgarians and a girl from Serres. We shut them up in a prison and kept them there. The girl was killed and the Bulgarians also suffered. We picked out their eyes while they were still alive.
Yours affectionately: COSTI.
(4) Bulgarian Frontier, 11th July, 1913.
DEAR BROTHER JOANI:
Here is where the archicomitadjis live. We have massacred them all. And the places we have passed will remain in my memory forever.

SER. CLETANIS.
(5) RHOCOPE, Bulgarian Frontier,
11th July, 1913.
BROTHER MITZO:
And from Serres to the frontier, we have burnt all the Bulgarian villages. My address remains the same: 7th Division, 19th Regt; 12 Battalion at Rhodope.
JOAN CHRISTO TSIGARIDIS.
(6) NESTOS, 13th July, 1913.
Village Bansta,
If you want to know about the parts where we are marching, all are Bulgarian villages,

309

and everyone has fled. Those who remain are "eaten" by the Mannlicher rifle and we have also burnt a few villages. The Bulgarians suffered the same fate at the hands of the Servians.
S. NAKIS.

(7) In the desert, 12th July, 1913.
. . . in Bulgarian territory, we are beating the Bulgarians who are continually retreating, and we are on the point of going to Sofia. We enraged them by burning the villages, and now and again when we found one or two, we killed them like sparrows
Your brother GEORGE (name unreadable)

I am writing you in haste.

(8) Zissis Coutoumas to Nicolas Coutoumas.
With the present I give you some news about the war that we have made against the Bulgarians. We have beaten them and have reached the Turkish-Bulgarian frontier. They fled into Bulgaria and we massacred those who remained. Further, we have burnt the villages. Not a single Bulgarian has been left. God only knows what will come of it. I have nothing more to write you. I remain, your Son Zissis Coutoumas. Many compliments from Thimios. He is well as also the other young men here.
12th July, 1913.

(9) M. Zaharia Kalivanis,
Erfos—Milipotamos,
Rethimo, Crete.
RHODOPE, 13th July, 1913.
Seal
of the Commandant of
Public Safety, Salonica
We burn all the Bulgarian villages that we occupy, and kill all the Bulgarians that fall into our hands. We have taken Nevrocop and were well received by the Turks, many of whom came to our ranks to fight against the Bulgarians. Our army is in touch with the Servian and Roumanian armies, who are 32 kilometers from Sofia. With regard to ourselves we are near the ancient frontier.
S. Z. KALIYANIS.

(10) July 15th, 1913.
MY BROTHER SOTIR :
Thanks to God, I am well at the moment of writing you. We are at present on the Bulgarian-Thracian frontier. As far as the war is concerned, I can not tell you anything about the situation and what takes place. The things that happen are such that have never occurred since the days of Jesus Christ. The Greek army sets fire to all the villages where there are Bulgarians and massacres all it meets. It is impossible to describe what happens. God knows where this will end. The time of ... has come for us to start eating one another.
Love from your brother PANAGHIS BEGLIKIS.

I am writing you in haste.

(11) Bulgarian Frontier,
12/VII/1913.
Everywhere we pass, not even the cats escape. We have burnt all the Bulgarian villages that we have traversed. I can not describe it to you any better.
Your loving brother
GEORGES (corporal).

310

My address is as follows:
To Corporal
Sterghiou George,
12th Squadron, 3d Battalion, 19th Regt.
7th Division—if away, send on.

(12) RHODOPE, 13th July, 1913.
MY DEAR LEONIDAS :
Keep well, as I am. That is what I wish you. I received your letter, which gave me great pleasure. I also received one from Aristides, who is well, and writes that he has also been enrolled, which pains me, because my sufferings are such that could not be consoled by tears, because everything is lost, because you can not imagine what takes place in a war. Villages are burnt, and also men, and we ourselves set fire and do worse than the Bulgarians.
Your affectionate brother,
THOMAS ZAPANTIOTIS.

(13)

Mr. Demetrios Chr. Tsigarida
at Mexiata
Hypati—Phtiotis.
COPRIVA (?), llth July, 1913.
For the Greek Army,
as souvenir of the
Turco-Bulgarian war.
__
Seal of the Commandant
of the 19th Regt.
__
I was given 16 prisoners to take to the division and I only arrived with 2. The others were killed in the darkness, massacred by me.

Nico THEOPHILATOS.
(14) IN BULGARIA, 13th July, 1913.
What a cruel war is taking place with the Bulgarians. We have burnt everything belonging to them, villages and men. That is to say, we massacre the Bulgarians. How cruel! The country is inundated with Bulgarians. If you ask how many young Greeks have perished, the number exceeds 10,000 men.

Your Son, TSANTILAS NICOLAOS.
P. S. Write me about the enrolments that are taking place. They are surely on the point of enlisting old men. Curses on Venizelos.
(15)

To Georgi D. Karka (Soldier)
First Section of the Sanitary Corps, 9th Division.
Arghirocastro,
Epirus.
The River Nestor,
12th July, 1913.
DEAR BROTHER GEORGI :
Thank God I am quite well after coming through these five engagements. Let me tell you that our division has reached the river Nestor, that is to say, the old Bulgarian Frontier, and the Royal Army has passed this frontier. By the King's orders we are setting fire to all the Bulgarian villages, because the Bulgarians burned the beautiful town
311

Serres, also Nigrita and a lot of Greek villages. We have turned out much crueller than the Bulgars—we violated every girl we met. Our division took 18 pieces of artillery in good condition and two worn out pieces, altogether 20 cannon and 4 machine guns. It is impossible to describe how the Bulgars went to pieces and ran away. We are all well, except that K. Kalourioti was wounded at Nigrita and Evang the Macedonian got a bayonet wound while on outpost duty, but both are slight cases. Remember me to our countrymen and friends, although after coming through so much, thank God I am not afraid of the Bulgars. I have taken what I had a right to after all they did to us at Panghaion.
My greeting to you,

N. ZERVAS.
(Some illegible words follow.)
(16)

M. Aristidi Thanassia,
Kamniati. Commune of Athanamow,
Trikala,
Thessaly.
14 July, 1913.
DEAR COUSIN :
I have received your letter of the 1st and I am very glad that you are well, as, after all, so are we up to now. Let me tell you, Aristidi, all we are going through during this Bulgarian War. Night and day we press on right into Bulgarian territory and at any moment we engage in a fight; but the man who gets through will be a hero for his country. My dear cousin, here we are burning villages and killing Bulgarians, women and children. Let me tell you, too, that cousin G. Kiritzis has a slight wound in his foot and that all the rest of us, friends and relations are very well including our son-in-law Yani. Give my greeting to your father and mother and your whole household, as well as my cousin Olga.
That is all I have to say,
With a hearty hug. Your brother,
ANASTASE ATH. PATROS.
(17)
M. George P. Soumbli,
Megali Anastassova,
Alagonia, Calamas.
Rhodope, 12th July, 1913.
DEAR PARENTS:
* * * We got to Nevrokop, where again we were expected, for again we fought the entire day, and we chased them (the enemy) to a place where we set on them with our bayonets and took eighteen cannon and six machine guns. They managed to get away and we were not able to take prisoners. We only took a few, whom we killed, for those are our orders. Wherever there was a Bulgarian village, we set fire to it and burned it, so that this dirty race of Bulgars couldn't spring up again. Now we are at the Bulgarian frontier, and if they don't mend their manners, we shall go to Sofia. With an embrace,
Your son,
PERICLI SOUMBLIS
7th Division, 19th Regiment, 12th Company,
Salonica.
312

(18)

M. Christopher Kranea,
Rue Aristotle et de l'Epire 48.
Athens.
Rhodope, 14th July, 1913.
DEAR BROTHER CHRISTOPHER:
I am writing from Rhodope, a Bulgarian position, two hours away from. the old Bulgarian frontier. If God spares me I shall write again. I don't know how much further we shall go into Bulgarian territory or if we are to have any more fights, as I don't know what further resistance we shall have to meet. If this war is to be the end of me, I pray the Almighty to comfort you greatly; and above all my mother and the relatives; but I hope that God will preserve my life. The money you speak of has not come yet. I have sent a few "bear-leaders" into a better world. A few days back my god-father Vassil Christon, tried his hand at shooting eight comitadjis. We had taken fifty whom we shared among us. For my share I had six of them and I did polish them off.
That is all I have to say.
Greeting from your brother,
DIM. KRANEAS.
(19)
M. Georges N. Yrikaki,
Vari-Petro, Cydonia,
Canea, Crete.
Macedonia, July 12, 1913.
DEAR GEORGE:
* * * After that we went forward and occupied the bridge over the Strouma. A lot of Bulgars were hidden in different spots. After we had occupied the bridge we found numbers of them every day, and killed them. The Bulgars have burned the bridge to stop our advance towards Serres.
With greetings,
F. VALANTINAKI.
This is my address—
STILIAN VALANTINO,
19th Regiment, 3d Battalion, 9th Company, 7th Division.
Macedonia.
(20)

To A. M. Nicolas Hartaloupa,
Ksilokastro,
Tricala, Corinth.
Rhodopian Mountains, 18/7/1913.
DEAR BROTHER NICOLAS :
I am very well and I hope you are as well as I am. We have turned up close to the Bulgarian frontier. We are constantly pressing on and putting the enemy to flight. . . . When we pass Bulgarian villages we set fire to them all and lay them waste. With an embrace,
Your brother,
A. V. THODOROPOULOS.
(Same address.)
313
(21)

To Mme. Angheliki K. Lihouidi,
Manastiraki,
Acarnania, Ksiromera—Vonitza.
Rhodope, July 13, 1913.
DEAR MOTHER:
I send you my greetings. I am in good health. * * * We have to—such is the order —burn the villages, massacre the young, only sparing the aged and children. But we are hungry. * * *
With greeting,
Your son,
JEAN LIHOUIDIS.
(22)
To M. Christo Tchiopra,
Petrilo, Arghitea,
Karditza,
Thessaly.
The River Nestor,
July 13, 1913.
DEAR KINSFOLK :
My greeting to you. I am well and hope you are in good health. * * * This is something like real war, not like that with the Turks. We fight day and night and we have burned all the villages.
With greetings,
KAMBAS NICOLAOS.
(23)
Independant Cretan Regiment,
12th Company,
To
Corporal Em. N. Loghiadi.
Leaskoviki, Epirus.
Dobrisnitza, 12th July, 1913.
* * * today I am answering your letters of the 22nd of May and the 21st of June. * * * We have had a little engagement near the Strouma with the refugees from Koukouch and Lahna. The guns mowed them down on the road. We did not succeed in occupying the bridge, which they burned in their retreat toward Serres. This letter is being sent from Mehomia.
Greeting from,
E. N. LOGHIADIS.
(24)
To M. Dimitri Koskinaki,
Skardelo, Milopotamo,
Retimo,
Crete.
Nevrokop,
July 12, 1913.
DEAR COUSIN :
I am well and I hope you are, too. * * * We burned all the Bulgarian villages on our route and we have almost reached the old frontiers of Bulgaria. With an embrace,
Your cousin,
S. KALIGHEPSIS,
314
(25)

11 July, 1913.
I have not time to write much; you will probably find these things in the papers. * * * It is impossible to describe how the Bulgarians are being treated. Even the villagers— it is butchery—not a town or village may hope to escape being burned. I am well and so is cousin S. Kolovelonis.
With a loving embrace,
Your brother,
N. BRINIA.
(26)
The Bulgarian Frontier,
11th July, 1913.
DEAR BROTHER ANASTASE:
I hope you are well. Don't worry, I am all right. We have had a lot of engagements, but God has spared my life. We had a fight at Nevrokop and took 22 cannon and a lot of booty. They can't stand up to us anywhere, they are running everywhere. We massacre all the Bulgarians that fall into our clutches and burn the villages. Our hardships are beyond words.
Your brother,
NICOLAS ANCHELIS.
I embrace you and kiss my father's hand.
(27)

Dobrountzi,
13th July. 1913.
DEAR BROTHER:
All the villages here are Bulgarian, and the inhabitants have taken to flight as they did not wish to surrender. We set fire to all the villages and smash them up,—an inhuman business; and I must tell you, brother, that we shoot all the Bulgarians we take, and there are a good number of them. With an embrace,
Your brother,
AL. D——GEAS.
(Illegible.)
(28)
Banitza,
llth July, 1913.
MY DEAR LEONIDAS :
I can't find paper to write to you, for all the villages here are burnt and all the inhabitants have run away. We burn all their villages, and now we don't meet a living soul. I must tell you that we are close upon the old frontiers of Bulgaria. We have occupied the whole of Macedonia except Thrace. * * *
I want an immediate answer.
This is my address,
CORPORAL GEORGE KORKOTZI,
19th Regiment, 3d Battalion, llth Company, 7th Division—wherever we may be.

No. 52.—A. BURNED VILLAGES IN BULGARIAN TERRITORY, DISTRICT OF STRUMNITSA

The list of burned villages which follows will be found to be accurate, in the sense that it includes no villages which have not been burned. But it is far from complete, save as regards the Kukush and Strumnitsa regions. Many other Bulgarian villages were burned,

315

particularly in the Serres and Drama districts. In many cases we have not been able to discover the exact number of houses in a village. It will be noted that the list includes a few Turkish villages in Bulgarian territory burned by the Greeks, and a few villages burned by the Servians. The immense majority of the villages are, however, Bulgarian villages burned by the Greek army in its northward march.

The number of burned villages included in this list is 161, and the number of houses burned is approximately 14,480.

We estimate that the number of houses burned by the Greeks in the second war can not fall short of 16,000.

The figures which follow the names indicate the number of houses in each village.

Eleven Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks, with number of houses in each: Dabilia (50), Novo-selo (160), Veliussa, Monastira, Svrabite, Popchevo (43), Kostourino (130). Rabortsi (15), Cham-Tchiflik (20), Baldevtsi (2), Zoubovo (30).

Nine Turkish villages burned by the Greeks: Amzali (150), Guetcherii (5), Tchanakli (2), Novo-Mahala (2), Ednokoukovo (80), Sekirnik (30), Souchitsa (10), Svidovitsa (10), Borissovo (15).

Two Patriarchist villages, Mokreni (16), and Makrievo (10), with three-fourths of the town of Strumnitsa, about 1,000 houses and shops.

In all over 1,620 houses.

District of Petrits.—Fourteen villages burned by the Greeks: Charbanovo. Breznitsa, Mouraski, Mitinovo, Ormanli, Michnevo, Starochevo, Klutch, Koniarene, Kalarevo, Mikrevo, Gabrene, Skrit and Smolare (the two last partially).

District of Razlog.—Dobrinishta (298).

District of Gorna.—Djoumaia, Simitli, Dolno-Souchitsa and Srbinovo (200)—the last burned by the Greeks after the peace of Bucharest.

District of Melnik.—Sixteen Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks : Spatovo, Makrikostenovo, Sklave (30), Sveti-Vratch (200), Livounovo (60), Dolni-Orman (90), Tchiflitsite, Prepetcheno (20), Kapotovo, Kromidovo, Harsovo (100), Dolna-Oumitsa, Hotovo, Spatovo (16), Spanchevo (30), Otovo (60).

District of Nevrokop.—Seven Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Dolna-Brodi (300), Libiachovo (400), Kara-Keui (40), Godlevo, Tarlis (10), Obidin, Tcham-Tchiflik, and ten houses in the town of Nevrokop; also the Turkish village of Koprivnik (100).

B. BURNED VILLAGES OF BULGARIAN NATIONALITY IN GREEK TERRITORY

District of Salonica.—Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Negovan, Ravna, Bogorod.

District of Ziliahovo.—Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Skrijevo, Libechovo, Kalapot (partially), Alistratik (partially), and Guredjik.

District of Kukush.—Forty Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Kukush town 1,846 houses, 612 shops, 5 mills. Idjilar (70), Aliodjalar (50), Goliabache (40), Salamanii (15), Ambar-Keui (35), Karaja-Kadar (25), Alchaklish (13), Seslovo (30), Stresovo (20). Chikirlia (15), Irikli (20), Gramadna (100), Alexovo (100), Morartsi (350), Roschlevo (40), Motolevo (250), Planitsa in part (180), Nimantsi (40), Postolar (38), Yensko (45), Koujoumarli (30), Bigliria (18), Kazanovo (20), Dramomirtsi (115) in part, Gavalantsi (45), Kretsovo (45), Michailovo (15), Kalinovo (35), Tsigountsi (35), Harsovo (50), Novoseleni in part (20), Malovtsi (20), Vrighitourtsi (15), Garbachel (30), Haidarii (10), Daoutii (18). Tchtemnitsa (40), Rayahovo (150) in part. Gola (15).

In all 4,725 buildings.

District of Doiran.—Eleven Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Akanjeli (150), Dourbali. Nicolits, Pataros, Sourlevo, Popovo, Hassanii, Brest, Vladaia. Dimontsi. Ratartsi.

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District of Demir-Hissar.—Five Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Kruchevo (800), Kirchevo (180), Tchervishta (170), German (80), and Djouta-Mahala.

District of Serres.—Six Bulgarian villages burned by the Greeks: Doutli (100), Orehovatz (1.30), Drenovo, Moklen, Frouchtani, Banitsa (120).

District of Gevgheli.—Fifteen Bulgarian and three Vlach villages burned, mainly by the Greeks, but in two cases by the Servians: Sehovo, Schlopentsi, Matchoukovo, Smol, Baialtsi, Marventsi, Orehovitsa, Smokvitsa, Balentsi, Braikovtsi, Kostourino, Mouine, Stoyacovo, Fourca, and Ohani, Houma and Longountsa (vlach).

C. BURNED VILLAGES OF BULGARIAN NATIONALITY IN SERVIAN TERRITORY

District of Tikvesh.—Five Bulgarian villages burned by the Servians: Negotin (800), Kamendol, Gorna-Dissol, Haskovo, Cavadartsi (in part) (15), etc.

District of Kotchana.—Three Bulgarian villages burned by the Servians: Sletovo, Besikovo, Priseka, etc.
APPENDIX D

Documents Relating to Chapter II

THE SERVIANS IN THE SECOND WAR

No. 53.—EVIDENCE OF GEOGHI VARNALIEV, Headmaster of the Bulgarian School at Kavadartsi, near Tikvesh.
On July 1, when the battle of Krivolak began, he was arrested with seven other Bulgarian notables and informed by the prefect that a state of siege existed, and that they would be kept as hostages till the end of the war. They were three days in prison, but were released after the Servian defeat. The secretary of the Servian prefect did everything possible to ensure their safety. Some drunken gendarmes were, however, left behind in the Servian retreat, and these killed the servant of the mayor and wounded a woman. The Macedonian volunteers of the Bulgarian army then occupied the town and behaved well, but left on July 7. There then began a systematic burning of all the Bulgarian villages in the neighborhood. This was carried out by Turks, accompanied by Servian soldiers and officers. Among the villages burned were Negotin (800 houses), Kamendol, Gornodissal, Haskovo, etc. The peasants from these places came to their town and told their stories of massacre and pillage. On July 8, the Servians arrived in Kavadartsi and killed twenty-five Bulgarians, mostly refugees from neighboring villages, among them were the mayor and five notables of their own town. The mayor was accused of tearing up a Servian flag and helping the Macedonians. Two lads aged thirteen and fifteen, named Dorev, were killed because a bomb had exploded near their house, and they were absurdly suspected. He saw the bodies, which were all buried, still bound, just outside the town. He witnessed the pillage of about thirty shops and the burning of fifteen houses. Four women went mad from fear in their flight from Kavadartsi and two of them are said to have killed their own children, lest they should fall into the hands of the Servians.

No. 54.—EVIDENCE OF TWO OLD VILLAGERS, natives of Istip, who walked to Sofia, a journey of three days and three nights, in order to give their testimony to the Commission; their names must be suppressed since they live in Servian territory.
They stated that they left Istip with the Bulgarian troops and sought refuge in the neighboring villages. Bands of Turks arrived and went round from village to village, burning the houses and violating the women. In the village Liubotrn, which was burned, eleven men and three women were killed and most of the women were violated. The leader of the Turkish band was a certain Yaha, of Veles, who had always led the bashi-basouks under the Turks. He had under him about 300 men, and laid waste all the country around Istip, Radovishta and Kochana. Many women were carried off by the Turks to their own villages. Later on the pomaks of Tikvesh arrived with wagons and did much plundering. The district was now relatively calm and the Servians were disarming the Turks, but they believed that the arms taken from some Turks were secretly given back to others.

[NOTE.—The above evidence, general in its character, relates to much that the witnesses saw and to much which they learned from others. It does not all rank as firsthand evidence, but appeared to be too serious to be disregarded.]

318

No. 55.—EVIDENCE OF LIEUTENANT R. WADHAM FISHER (see also No. 9).
After the conclusion of peace Lieutenant Fisher visited the district overrun by the Servian army in the second war. He found the village of Sletovo near Kotchana, which he knew well, burnt down. He also visited the village Besikovo. Here the Montenegrins had killed twenty-eight of the villagers, a child had been burned alive in a house, and four women had died as the result of violation. In the next village, Priseka, five or six men had been killed and four women had died as the result of violation. In these villages everything had been taken, crops, clothes and money, and the people were starving, without shelter, on the mountain side. The Servians had used their corn in the trenches as bedding, and the peasants were reduced to picking out' the grains from it. The. Servians were levying a house-tax of five francs, even on burned houses.

EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY PROFESSOR MILETITS

No. 56.—THE SCHOOLHOUSE MASSACRE AT SERRES. Deposition of George T. Belev, of Strumnitsa, a Protestant, aged 32. (See also Nos. 18-26.)
Mr. Belev was serving as a bearer in the medical corps attached to the Seventieth Bulgarian regiment. He had transported two wounded soldiers from Nigrita to Serres. In Serres, on Friday, June 21, he entered the bakery of an acquaintance, a man from his native town. He was there arrested by Greeks and confined for two days, together with four other Bulgarian soldiers.

The deposition continues thus:
On Tuesday, June 25, we were taken to the bishop's palace to appear before a commission. In the hall there were several men sitting at a table in a corner, among them an ecclesiastic. They looked at us and said, "Take them away." From there we were taken to the girls' school, near the bishopric. The door was shut, and we were given the word of command in Bulgarian, "March. Form ranks." The following eight persons had been brought from the bakery [the names follow]. We found there four soldiers from Old Bulgaria. When we had formed our ranks, an evsone came up to us, and with him a certain Captain Doukas, and many Greeks of the town. They took from us one by one our coats and belts and all the money we had. From Theodore Inegilisov they took eight Napoleons and a watch, and from me a silver watch worth thirty francs, and ten francs which were in my purse. Then they placed us beside the staircase, drew their Turkish sabres, and ordered us to mount. Two of them with drawn sabres took up position on either side of the stairs, and as we went up they rained blows upon us. I received a blow on the left hand. Pando Abrachev had his right hand broken and his head cut open, and the others were also struck. We were then driven into a room about twenty-five meters square, where we were kept during Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, we had nothing to eat and were not allowed to go to the lavatory * * * [He explains how he dressed Abrachev's wound.] * * * On Wednesday, we each received half a loaf and were allowed to go to the lavatory under escort. On Thursday, the Greek bishop arrived and went over all the rooms. He made a sort of speech to the prisoners. "We are Christians. Our Holy Gospel forbids us to massacre. We are not like the Bulgarians, we shall allow you all to return to your homes. Fear nothing, we shall do you no harm." He added, "Give them bread and water," and went away. We felt more at ease, believing that a bishop would not lie, and passed the rest of the day in hope. But in the evening, men were chosen from all the rooms and taken away, to the number of fourteen. They selected the Bulgarian gendarmes who had been arrested and the militant comitadjis, including Christo Dimitrov, who had a mill in which he used to shelter revolutionaries. * * * Thirteen of these were slaughtered on the second story, and we heard their cries. We still hoped that a selection would be made, and that we should not all be killed. * * *

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Next day (Friday, June 28) Dimitrov was brought back alive to our room. After him came a Greek priest. He opened the door of our room, and said in mockery, "Good day, lads." We did not answer. He repeated it, and still we were silent. Then he said, "Why don't you answer? 'Good day' is a civil word. Aren't you Bulgarians?" We did not answer. Then he asked us, "Would you like to see your glorious Tsar Ferdinand? Would you like to enter Salonica. So you shall, quite soon." Then the priest went away.

Two hours later we heard firing. Our troops were entering the town. We were sure that it was our army, for the Greek guns could not have been heard from that particular quarter. As soon as the Bulgarian guns came into action, the Greeks ran all over the building to gather us together in one room. We were seventy persons, pressed like herrings in a little room and there we remained for half an hour. Meanwhile they ran to see whether the Bulgarians were coming in. When they had ascertained this, they made us come out two by two, to bind our hands. Then those who were bound were led up to the upper story and killed. The first to be taken up was a little Greek of the village of Kolechino, near Strumnitsa, who had lived in Serres for seven years. He had been imprisoned by mistake. He begged for his liberty, explaining that everyone knew he was a Greek, that he was married and was a rich merchant. But no heed was paid to him, and he was killed. There was time to massacre all the seventy persons; it did not take more than an hour. There were plenty of executioners, and they worked quickly. Thirty men were bound, and then when they saw that this took too long, they stopped binding us.

Among the executioners was Charalambi Popov, a Grecized Bulgarian, the same baker in whose house I was arrested. The others were inhabitants of Serres, and two vlachs belonging to the Greek party from Poroi. One named Christo often came to Strumnitsa, and many a time I have gone surety for him. The other who is lame is named Tzeru, and knows no Greek. He killed with a yataghan, with which he severed the head from the body. The others used Martini bayonets, but some had Bulgarian Mannlicher bayonets. * * * I was taken with three others, two of them men from Dibra, and none of us were bound. We mounted the stairs, crossed a large hall and entered a big room. I went first and the executioner followed with his bayonet in his hand. * * * We were half dead with fear, and could hardly walk. Through the door of the room I could see slaughtered men, and some who were still alive and groaning. One was decapitated. The room was full, and the bodies lay two or three on top of each other. There was no room for me. Then the executioner made me go to another little room which was empty. It was my acquaintance the vlach, Christo. I took one step into the room, and at the next step he struck me in the neck. The force of the blow was broken by my collar, but I fell on my face. He then put his foot on my back,' and struck me six blows with the bayonet, on my back, behind my ear, under the right jaw, and in the throat. When the sisters of charity afterwards gave me milk, it flowed through this last wound. I don't remember crying, and did not feel it when the index finger of my right hand was cut off, nor did I lose consciousness * * * In the big room three or four people were killed at once, but in this little room the other victims had to look on while I was dealt with. I heard one of the men of Dibra struggling at the door of the room and trying to snatch the bayonet, until another executioner came up to help, and then they beat him pitilessly. He cried out, "What harm have I done to you. Leave me alone." Then they caught his hands, and flung him on top of me. I felt a heavy weight. They cut his throat and finished him by thrusts in his back. His blood flowed all over me and soaked my coat until I felt the warm stream wetting my body. He died on the spot and never stirred. Two others were then brought in and killed on top of us. They did not struggle; they were already half dead from fear. Then came more.

Some time afterwards there was a dead silence. I heard nothing but the firing of rifles and cannon. When ? realized that there was none left in the building I decided to

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get out from under the heap of bodies which had been weighing on me and drenching me with blood for about an hour. I rose with difficulty, sat down in a corner, and dressed my wounds, knotting a handkerchief round my neck from which the blood was flowing. It hurt a good deal, but I drew the handkerchief tight. I got up, found that I could walk, and went into the next room. There I found Christo Dimitrov sitting among forty dead bodies. He got up and began to walk, and others also stirred. * * * From the window no one was to be seen, and shells and balls were flying. A shell fell near our building and set it on fire, and we saw that we should be burned alive unless we went out * * * Eight men gathered at the door. There were about twenty wounded men who might have been saved, if there had been anyone to help. One, the ninth, Ilia, a tilemaker of Gevgheli, came down the stairs, but fell near the door. * * * [He goes on to relate how he found the Bulgarian troops and was placed in a vehicle, and ultimately, after much suffering, reached Mehomia and eventually was nursed at Tatar-Bazardjik.]

No. 57.—EXTRACTS FROM A DEPOSITION BY DR. P. G. LAZNEV, a Russian physician in charge of the Bulgarian Hospital at Serres.
After complaining that the Greek women of Serres pillaged the hospital, and stating that the Greek andartes behaved well in their dealings with it after the Bulgarian evacuation Dr. Laznev continues:

"On July 11, the Bulgarian infantry with mountain guns appeared on the heights which command the hospital, and a fight ensued between them and the Greek insurgents who were sheltered behind the hospital. The insurgents were driven back, and the hospital was in the possession of the Bulgarians. That lasted only for a half an hour, for stronger detachments of Greek infantry and cavalry arrived, and a continuous exchange of rifle and gun fire went on from three to six p.m. As before, the hospital was the center of the fighting. Our windows were broken and I was obliged to lay the sick on the floor in order to shelter them. One of them was wounded. Neither Greeks nor Bulgarians would listen to my remonstrances. At the end of the fight the Bulgarians withdrew. About an hour before their withdrawal the town was set on fire. Then came the victors, fatigued and excited by the fighting. They burst in, knocked our orderly down and beat him cruelly, threatened to kill the sick 'because the Bulgarians had burned the town'; struck my assistant Komarov on the chest and shoulders with the butts of their rifles, and pointed the barrels of their rifles at my breast. Finally I induced them to go away. Others meanwhile pillaged the upper story of the hospital, and stole everything, including my personal property. [Details follow of the difficulties which the doctor experienced in dealing with the Greek authorities.] As to the burning of Serres, I am obliged to declare that I do not know its causes. I can only make guesses. It may have been caused by the Bulgarian shells. As a strong wind was blowing, a fire started in one place would spread easily to the neighboring buildings. I can not accept the theory of the Bishop of Serres (that the Bulgarians first sprinkled the houses with petroleum and then two days later set them on fire). In that case the conflagration would have started simultaneously in the several quarters of the town."

No. 58.—DEPOSITION OF ILIA PETROV LIMONEV, a fisherman of Doiran, serving in the 70th Bulgarian Regiment (Fourth Battalion, Fifteenth Company), was imprisoned in the School at Serres, and succeeded in breaking out and disarming the sentries. His narrative contains two interesting details. His detachment, reduced to thirty-two men, was separated from its battalion, and retreated through Demir-Hissar to the village of Kavakli. On July 6, it was surrounded by a Greek company numbering 200 men, and surrendered. "After disarming the Bulgarian soldiers, the Greeks bound them and massacred them. In this

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fashion twenty-four Bulgarian soldiers were slaughtered in the most barbarous fashion,. when at length a Greek officer arrived, and said that that was enough. The eight men who survived, including Limonev himself, were brought to Serres on the 8th, cruelly beaten and shut up in the girls' school." Among the sixty Bulgarian civilians imprisoned with them in an upper room, were four women, one of them very old. Describing what he saw after his escape, Limonev states that the Greek artillery mistook the Greek refugees-near the station for Bulgarians, turned their machine-guns upon them, and killed an immense number.

No. 58a.—DIMITRI AUGUELOV, wine merchant of Serres, arrested on July 7, was shut up in the school, escaped with a Jewish prisoner on Friday, and was concealed by Jews of the town.

No. 58b. STRATI GEORGHIEV, of the Dibra district, was arrested on July 10 by ten armed Greeks and five Turks. A Turk told him that all who wore the costume of Dibrai would be put to death, because they were Bulgarians. Among the corpses on Friday he saw an old woman with her head cut open, and three young women, all killed. There were fifty corpses in the room. He escaped with Belev and the others, severely wounded..

No. 59.—EVENTS AROUND DEMIR-HISSAR.
A group of Bulgarian villages in the neighborhood of Demir-Hissar was the scene of a systematic massacre. Most of the inhabitants of these villages, German, Kruchevo, Kirtchevo, and Tchervishta, had fled early in the second war. Letters were then sent out over the signature of Dr. Christoteles, an influential Greek doctor of Demir-Hissar, which invited them to return and assured them of safety. (See No. 44.) Marko Bourakchiev, of Kirtchevo (180 houses) had returned to his village with about eighty other families. On the arrival of the Greek troops on July 15 (he states), the villagers made them welcome and brought all they called for. Suddenly he heard the roll of a drum and an indescribable tumult followed, amid which he heard the cries and groans of the dying. He left his house and saw his neighbor Stoiana Tchalikova in a pool of blood, dead of bayonet wounds, and the corpse of little Anghel Paskov. He went back to his own house and saw two or three soldiers searching his grandmother for money. She had none and they cut her throat and plunged their bayonets into her breast. They then seized him and took him into another house, where were other soldiers and andartes. They began to discuss something which seemed important. He was forgotten and a soldier made him pour out water for him to wash his blood stained hands. Then the soldier made a sign to him,. and pointed to the door. He fled as fast as he could, and those who pursued failed to overtake him. From a hill he saw the village in flames.

Dimitri Guidichov and Ivan Radev, who also escaped from the village, relate that the men were shut up in two houses and burned alive. Forty women were shut up in the house of Anghel Douriov and there beaten, undressed, and violated. Four women (named) were killed, and four (named) were carried off by the soldiers. Twenty peasants of Tchervishta and Kruchevo were also massacred at Kirtchevo, together with two priests.

Paul Chavkov adds that he saw the soldiers taking seven or eight women naked to Gorno-Brodi. (See also No. 44.)

No. 60.—At German the same procedure was followed. Thirty families returned as the result of Dr. Christoteles' letter and welcomed the Greek troops. The men were shut

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up in the church and the women in the priests' house. One of the men, Dimitri Georghiev, escaped from the church and afterwards met Apostol Kostov of German, to whom he told his story. One woman also escaped, Stoianka Konstantinova, aged twenty. It is not known where she is at present. Some distance outside the village, as she was fleeing, she met her uncle, Thorma Ivanov, who was returning to it. She could hardly speak in her terror, and her uncle quotes these words: "I can't, I can't tell you anything. There's no describing what I've seen. God! how they tortured us, undressed us naked, while we cried and wept. * * * I am saved, but the others. * * * The village is burning. They were killing in the streets. Cries and the sound of shots were coming from the church. All the men were massacred there." The uncle and the niece fled together. He reached Bulgaria, but she remained behind on the way with some other peasants of German. (See also No. 46.)

No. 61.—ILIA KONSTASTINOV, of Tchervishta, relates that when the peasants of his village returned in response to the doctor's letters, twenty of their notables, himself among them, were taken to Kirtchevo. He saw them all massacred, the women led away, and the village burned, but managed himself to escape.

No. 62.—The same thing happened at Kruchevo. Nearly all the inhabitants returned and welcomed the Greek troops. The officer made them a speech, in which he told them that they were all Greeks and not Bulgarians. That same evening, the soldiers forced their way into all the houses (800 houses), pillaged everything and violated all the women and carried off the prettiest girls.

Ivan Bojov and Haralampi Jankoulov relate some incidents which they witnessed in the sack of Kruchevo. The soldiers (1) robbed George Tochev of fT250; (2) robbed Ivan Kakidine and killed him and his wife; (3) killed the widow, Ransa Hadjieva, because she had less money than they demanded; (4) killed Soultana Xalianova because she locked her house to protect her two daughters and daughter-in-law; (5) violated and then killed Vela Harmanova and Ransa Souchova; (6) took the daughter of the priest, Theodore Staev, gouged out his eyes, and two days later took him to Kirtchevo, where he was killed with the other notables.

No. 63.—SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY PROFESSOR MILETITS.

(a) Athanase Ivanov of Kukush who fled from the town on July 4, saw from his brother's house at a distance of three or four hundred paces the slaughter of two old men, three women and a little girl, by the Greek cavalry. The Greeks were then driven back by Bulgarian cavalry and the witness fled with the latter.

(b) Kolio Delikirov and Ivan Milev, of Akangeli, state that the Greek officer (see Nos. 39-43) ordered the villagers to bring their arms and all the money they possessed. The arms were given to the Turks, and the money kept by the Greeks. Four peasants (named) brought each of them from £T100 to £T150. While the arms were being given up, a rifle went off by accident, and the Greek soldiers fell upon the peasants, who fled in every direction. But they were soon surrounded and bound. Fifteen only were released, in order to fetch food for the soldiers; some of these fled and hid. Those who remained in the hands of the Greeks were massacred. * * * The young women were taken to a place called Karakol and violated. Two girls from Pataros, who were in the house of the teacher, Dimo Christov, were violated until they died.

(c) Vanghel Kazanski, of Kazanovo, saw the Greek cavalry between Gavalantsi and Dragomirtsi riding down old men and women who were fleeing. They shot Mitza Kouschinov, and then dismounted, but he could not see what followed.

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(d) Mito P. Stoyanov, of Moritolovo, states that Greek cavalry killed the mayor and gendarme of the village with their sabres.

(e) Mito Nicolov and his brother, Petro, of Doiran, in their flight, saw three Bulgarian villagers fleeing from Kodjamatli overtaken by Greek cavalry and killed.

(f) Thomas Pop Stoyanov, son of the priest of Dolna Djoumaia, states that his father and twenty-five notables of the village were killed by the Greek troops, and that four women were beaten or violated until they died [gives names],

(g) Gotze Ivanov, of Popovo, who left his village on July 6, states that the Greeks gathered the arms of the peasants and pillaged. The men were separated from the women and on the first day thirty disappeared. The women and girls were gathered in the house of Colio Theodorov and violated. Slava Coleva was violated and then killed in the street. Only three men escaped alive. The village was burned.

(h) Eftim Mitev, of Moklen, states that fifteen shepherds of his village, whom he names, were caught by the Greeks near Kalapot and massacred.

(i) Nicholas Anastasov, of Alistratik, states that Greek troops killed nine Bulgarian villagers, after first imprisoning them, also two young women and four children.

(j) Ivan Christodorov, of Guredjik, states that he saw Greek soldiers enter the houses of the village and begin to violate all the women. He fled.

(k) G. Markov, of Pleva, states that forty men of his village were taken outside it by the Greeks and slaughtered.

(l) Blagoi Ikonomov, of Mehomia, names four men killed and two women violated in his town. There were others.

(m) Dinka Ivanov, of Marikostenovo, states that all the women in his village were violated. He fled, was fired on, but escaped.

(n) Ivan Stoitchev, of Sveti-Vratch, says that the same thing happened there, and also at Polenitsa.

(o) At Pancherevo. the people awaited the Greeks and welcomed them. and were rewarded by the killing of six, and the carrying off of ten, of whom three escaped.

(p) At Grada, all the women were violated. At Matchevo, four villagers were killed.

(q) At Roussinovo, a woman died as the result of violation, three men were killed, and two women and a girl were carried off by the Greeks. The village was burned.

(r) At Smoimirtsi. the priest and people went out to meet the Greeks. The priest was tortured and died. A man was killed.

(s) From Vladimirovo, fourteen girls and an old woman were carried off by the Greeks.

(t) The people of Oumlena met the Greek troops. All the women were violated. Two were carried off, and kept for six days by the officers. One old woman died of ill-treatment, two men killed and five houses were burned.

No. 64.—From the official reports of some of the Bulgarian prefects in the new territories, we extract the following statements:

(a) The losses due to the systematic pillage by the Greek army in the following places is estimated thus in francs:

MEHOMIA. Grain, 356,850 fr.; cattle, 164 fr.; household goods, 402,200 fr.; merchandise, 160.24 fr.; total, 759,374.24 fr.

BANSKO. Grain, 350,000 fr.; cattle, 200,000 fr.; household goods, 340,000 fr.; merchandise, 200,000 fr.; total, 1,090,000 fr.

NANIA. Grain, 30,000 fr.; cattle, 35,000 fr.; household goods, 41,000 fr.; merchandise, 5,000 fr.; total, 111,000 fr.

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DOBRINISHTA. Loss by burning, 1,145,000 fr.; by pillage of grain, 200,000 fr.; cattle, 40,000 fr.; total, 1,385,000 fr.

Further, in Mehomia, seven old men were killed, two women beaten to death, and eleven old women violated. At Bansko five men were killed and four old women violated.

(b) At Petrits, twenty of the Bulgarian citizens were tortured by the Greeks to extort money. The method was to bind their arms behind their backs and then to twist the ropes with an iron instrument, one specimen of which was left behind. Twenty names are .given, with the sums extorted, which range from £T3 to £T25. Four were killed. There were many violations, but the victims conceal their names.

(c) In the Strumnitsa district, occupied partly by Greeks and partly by Servians, ?'T90 in money was taken by soldiers from seven men [named] in the village of Rablich, £T160 at Smiliantsi, £T100 at Inevo, £T200 at Yargorilitsa, £T70 at Radovitsa, etc. Six men, three women, and several children [named] were killed at Loubnitsa, five men and a "woman [named] at Radovitch, two women [named] at Oraovitsa, and seven inhabitants [no names] at Pideresch.

No. 65.—EXTRACTS FROM AN OFFICIAL REPORT (communicated) by OFFICER CANDIDATE PENEV, Aide-de-Camp of the first battalion of the 26th Infantry.
On the road leading to Strumnitsa, between the villages Ormanovo and Novo Selo, an the defile on the right bank of the river, I found a soldier of the Tenth (Rhodope) Infantry crucified on a poplar tree by means of telegraph wires. His face had been sprinkled with petroleum and burned. I recognized that he was a soldier from the epaulettes which had been torn off and flung down near him. The body was already in a state of decomposition. Further to the west I found another soldier of the Thirtieth Infantry. His body was buried in the sand, and nothing was visible but the head, which had been sprinkled with petroleum and burned. The eyes, nose and ears had disappeared. A soldier of the First (Prince Alexander's) Infantry was hanging head downwards, with his feet bound with telegraph wire. The epaulettes lying in the mud showed that the unhappy man was a mechanician. His ears and hands had been cut off, and his eyes torn out. Further along the same road I found many other unburied bodies mutilated, belonging to soldiers of the Second, Sixth and Eighth divisions.

(NOTE.—It is proper to note that the authors of these disgusting outrages may possibly have been Turks.)

On the way the peasants told us with tears in their eyes of the inhuman treatment which they had met with from Greek officers and soldiers. At Ormanovo, the commandant of Petrits had all the men imprisoned in the police office, where they were kept without food for three days, and ill-treated by the Greek soldiers. They were made to pay £T1 (23 fr.) for a drink of water. All the women and all the girls over eight years of age, were shut up in a house and violated. The same thing happened in Bossilovo, Dabine and Robovo. In this last village the Greek soldiers bound the priest and violated first his daughter and then the other women before his eyes. They then shot the priest and his daughter and burned the village.

Two-thirds of the town of Strumnitsa has been burned, notably the "Grecoman" and Turkish quarters, and some Greek houses in the Bulgarian quarter, together with the public buildings and the barracks. At the moment when the Greeks were about to set fire to the Bulgarian quarter, where several houses were already in flames, Mr. Cooper, the American Protestant missionary, arrived from Salonica. Mr. Cooper went to the Greek commandant and begged him to stop the burning, declaring that he would appeal to the

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British consul at Salonica. The fire was stopped by order of the commandant. I have this statement from Mr. Cooper himself, who sent photographs of the town burned by the Greeks to the British consul. The new Bulgarian church, a solid stone building, is half destroyed by three bombs which the Greeks placed in it to blow it up. The Bulgarian hospitals are also in ashes, and the Bulgarian wounded who had remained there were left without care or food. The Greek sentinels appropriated all the bread, milk, etc., which the good women of the town brought to the soldiers. Finally the wounded soldiers were shut up in the Turkish tower, which was set on fire. Their charred bodies were still lying there on September 16, when the Greeks evacuated the town. * * * A school teacher informed me that on the night of August 23, she was taken to the barracks, where she was first outraged by the Greek commander and then by twenty-four soldiers, one after the other. She is now in a pitiful condition.
APPENDIX E

Documents Relating to Chapter III

THE ACCUSATION

REPORT BY A RUSSIAN OFFICER
(From Le Jeune-Turc, August 26 and 27, 1913)

On August 20 the London Daily Telegraph published an interesting report on the Bulgarian atrocities in Thrace, and particularly at Adrianople.
This report, of which the text is given below, came from a Russian official and was transmitted to St. Petersburg.

I had occasion to visit Adrianople and its environs in company with ten or more foreign correspondents representing the largest newspapers and telegraphic agencies. The eager readiness with which the Turkish government gave us the necessary permits and afforded us facilities for making our inquiries, prove that the Turks felt sure that we could make no discoveries that would harm them; that on the contrary, publication of the truth could only be to their interest; a most thorough and detailed inquiry proved that in this the Turks were right. I shall say nothing of the atrocious manner in which 15,000 Turkish prisoners and some 5,000 Turkish civilians were treated in the first four days during which they were mewed up like cattle in the island of Sarai, where, in the rain, they perished of cold and hunger, with no food but the bark of trees and the soles of their old shoes. They died in hundreds every day, so that when the time for departure to Bulgaria came, there were but some 10,000 of them left. That is well known.
I shall confine myself to facts not hitherto published. The diplomatic corps and the inhabitants, whether Turkish, Greek or Israelite, are unanimous in the indignation with which they describe the excesses of the Bulgarian occupation.
In most of the better Mussulman houses the windows and doors were battered in, the furniture taken away; even the houses of the generals were plundered, as for example that of Abouk Pasha, who commanded the Fourth Army Corps.

Not a single valuable carpet was left in any of the mosques, including the celebrated mosque of Sultan Selim.

The library belonging to the latter, a collection in its kind unique, was also very severely handled. Burglary was not confined to the houses of the Turks. Those belonging to Greeks and Israelites suffered in the same way. Train loads of so-called war booty were sent to Sofia. These are concrete facts. Soldiers armed with rifles carried off a quantity of jewels and precious antiques from the house of two Greeks, the brothers Alexandre and Jean Thalassinos. These soldiers also tore rings and bracelets from the hands of the sister of the Thalassinos. A patrol appearing in the house of the merchant Avramidi on the usual pretext of searching for arms, carried off £T70 in a trunk.

Colonel Zlatanov, head of the gendarmerie, put the brothers Athanasius and Chritodoulos Stavridis in prison, and only set them free on payment of forty pounds.

A rich Austrian-Israelite, Rodrigues, left his house in the charge of three Bulgarian officers on his departure for Constantinople; on his return he found his house empty. Everything, even the piano, had disappeared and been sent to Sofia. In the same way the houses of two rich Israelites, Moses Behmoiras and Benaroya, were plundered. Rich property owners, particularly Moslems, were forced by threats of death to consent to fictitious sales or long lease of their holdings. A case of this

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kind is that of Ibrahim-bey, a man of large independent means, living in Abdula-Hamam Street. Chopov, the head of police, himself sent three cases of stolen carpets to Sofia, using a Russian subject as his intermediary.
Every morning the dead bodies of numerous Moslems killed in the night, were found. Even now the corpses of Turkish prisoners covered with wounds are pulled out of the public wells. The authorities never troubled about trifles of this kind.

Among the most revolting and best known cases is that of the murder of a captive Turkish officer by a Bulgarian soldier in the middle of the open street on the first day of the Bulgarian occupation. He was an old man, so worn by the privations and fatigue of the siege that he had not the strength to walk. The soldier forced him on by hitting him. with the butt end of his musket. An Israelite, Salomon Behmi, implored the soldier to have pity and let the old man rest. Enraged by this intervention, the soldier killed both men with his bayonet. On the same day eight soldiers plundered the house of three Turkish brothers, clockmakers, and carried off more than 500 watches. One of them, Aziz Ahmed, they killed with their bayonets and went on striking him even after he was dead. The others escaped by flight.

On the third day of the . occupation some twenty Bulgarian soldiers first plundered and then hideously butchered thirteen Turks, three being Mollahs, and Aziz Youssouv, the Muezzin, in the Miri-Miran mosque. I saw the traces of blood there myself and my colleagues photographed them.

An even more revolting story is that of ten Turkish soldiers who are at this moment undergoing treatment in the Egyptian Red Cross hospital.

On evacuating Adrianople, the Bulgarians sent 200 Turkish prisoners, under escort, to Mustapha Pasha; all the sick and wounded who had not sufficient strength to march were killed on the way.

The column was then divided into three; the body containing the ten soldiers referred to above, was composed of sixty prisoners. At a given moment the Bulgarians told them that they were free and could go where they would. The wretches were not given time to take a dozen steps before the Bulgarians opened fire on them by their officers' orders. They were all killed with the exception of ten, who were severely wounded and pretended to be dead. For four whole days they lay hidden in the forest, without any food. Among them were Camber Ouglou Camber, Hassan Ouglou Hay, Emis Ouglou Emin, belonging to the first and second battalions of the Kirk Kilisse redifs. [The other names follow.] Almost all of them suffered from gangrene, from which two have already died. The fate of the other two bodies is unknown. The Greek Metropolitan describes how two priests sent out with gendarmes in search of mishandled Greeks, discovered dozens of corpses of captives, riddled with bullets and bayonet wounds, on the banks of the Maritza. Hassiz Effendi, schoolmaster in the village of Koumarii, reports officially that the retreating Bulgarians collected some fifty Moslems in the mosque under pretext of searching them for arms, and massacred them there; further that in the village of Amour, the Bulgarians carried off two Mussulman girls, the eldest being twelve years old. Their fate is unknown.
Hassiz Effendi further notes with satisfaction that in many villages numbers of Moslems were rescued by the Greek women.
In bringing this martyrology to a close, I should like to mention a fact of incredible atrocity. On the first news of the approach of the Turks—Sunday, July 7—the Bulgarians set fire to the provision depot at the Karagatch station.

Some starving Greeks saved several sacks of meal. On the following Monday the Bulgarians returned, arrested forty-five of these wretches and binding them together in fours, cast them so into the Maritza, while they fired on any who attempted to escape. Only a single individual, Panteleimon, succeeded in effecting an escape by sinking under water and pretending to be dead. Some days later the corpses were drawn up. I will send photographs of the drowned men.

What the women of Adrianople have had to endure is beyond imagination.

Outrages were committed against Greek, Jewish and even Armenian women, despite the Armenians' devotion to the Bulgarian cause. Naturally the worst violence was directed against the Turkish women. Respect was shown neither for rank nor age. Among the women violated there were as many girls of tender years as aged women. Many of these girls are now actually with child. And those who could afford to do so have gone away to hide their shame in remote regions. Many have lost their reason. Most keep silent about their misfortune, for reasons easy to understand.

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Stories by Witnesses
Here are some examples: Hamid Nouri, mufti of Adrianople, told me the following story with tears in his eyes: "Some days before the departure of the Bulgarians many persons passed the night under his roof because of the threats they had uttered of destroying the town and exterminating the population. Opposite to him there dwelt the wife of a Turkish Major, held prisoner in Bulgaria, with her two young daughters. An hour after sunset piercing cries were heard coming from this house: 'Take whatever you will but do not touch my daughters. Are there no Moslems to defend our honor?' The mufti sent the Bulgarian soldiers, assigned him by the authorities to protect his many-times pillaged abode, to succor the women. A moment later a soldier came back and told him indignantly that all the Bulgarian soldiers were violating the three women but that he could do nothing for they threatened to kill them with their muskets. For three hours the despairing cries and groans of the women went on. When the soldiers departed the mother and daughters lay senseless. All the persons who had sought asylum with the mufti on this night declare that they are ready to bear witness to the truth of this story."

Another example. On the same day four Bulgarian officers entered the house of a rich Israelite, Salomon ben Bassat. The women and young girls made their escape by clambering over a wall into the neighboring houses: but the children were left on the first story. A female servant, aged eighteen, who came back for them, was violated twice by each of the officers; at last she escaped by saying that they would find the lovely daughter of the owner of the house in the upper story. The officers went up and the girl fled, leaving bloody tracks behind her. She is still in hospital.

The mufti referred to above and all the inhabitants without distinction of religion say that a few days after the entry the Bulgarians closed all the mosques which had previously been dishonored and used as latrines. Bulgarian soldiers relieved themselves publicly from the minarets in order to insult the Moslems. They imitated the Muezzin's call and uttered vulgar indecencies about Mahomet, religion, the Sultan and Choukri Pasha, the former governor of the fortress.

On receiving a complaint from the mufti, General Veltchev, the Bulgarian commander, demanded to have the culprits pointed out. When the mufti showed him, from a window, a Bulgarian soldier in the act of satisfying a natural need from the summit of the minaret, General Veltchev replied sarcastically that "one can not, after all, deprive a poor soldier of inoffensive distractions."

General Veltchev

At this stage it may be observed that the unanimous declarations of the consuls, the Metropolitan, the mufti and all those who had opportunity of speaking with General Veltchev, go to show that he was always excessively cruel and brutally arrogant. He said openly—and the remark appears to harmonize with the serious views of his government—that Bulgaria had no need either of Greeks or Moslems, and that they would take advantage of the first opportunity to wipe out the whole Greek and Mussulman population. He expressed the intention of replacing them with 28,000 Armenians from Rodosto and Malgara.

That this was no vain threat was proved by the atrocious treatment to which the Turkish prisoners and male population were subjected during the first days of the Bulgarian occupation. To this day the cannon of the Keyi fort are leveled at the town.
I may mention here a characteristic incident in which the Greek Metropolitan of Adrianople played a part, by way of giving a clearer picture of this Bulgarian general, who appears unfortunately to have been a pupil at our military academy. On June 25, His Eminence Polycarp went to the government to ask to be permitted to put up for the night Athanasius, Bishop of Kavala, who had been brought hither, with twenty notables belonging to the town, under escort, all of them having been kept standing throughout the whole day in the court in the midst of every kind of prisoner. Veltchev brutally told Monsignor Polycarp that he was going to hang and shoot all the Greek notables of Adrianople, beginning with the Metropolitan, because instead of remaining quiet they showed themselves hostile to the Bulgarians. On the Metropolitan's attempting to justify himself, Veltchev cried out savagely in Turkish: "Sous!" (Be silent!) The savage reproof of the general lasted for an hour, during which the orthodox prelate stood. Veltchev addressed him as "thou" throughout and continually threatened him and all the Greeks with death. Finally

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losing patience, the Metropolitan could bear no more. "Massacre," he cried, using the familiar form. "Don't be afraid, I shall massacre" replied the brave general, "but I shall not, naturally, ask your permission to do so."
It is necessary for an understanding of the general's mind to remember that the Bulgarians, from the Commander-in-Chief down to the last soldier, never ceased repeating "Adrianople has been taken by our arms at the cost of the blood and lives of thousands of Bulgarians. Therefore the place and even the lives of the inhabitants belong to us; we have the right to do whatever we please." This threatening attitude of the Bulgarians distressed the population and caused the consuls great anxiety. They telegraphed to Sofia, where energetic representations were made by the legations.

Consular Intervention

According to instructions received, Mr. Machkov, the Russian consul, and Mr. Cuinet, the French consul, presented themselves before Mr. Veltchev on the following day, and warned him, in the names of their respective governments, that the Bulgarian troops must not touch the Greek or Turkish inhabitants.

"With what right do you interfere in our discords?" Veltchev rudely replied, losing his small measure of self-control. "Are the Greeks and Turks subject to your jurisdiction?"

"No," replied Mr. Cuinet, "they are not subject to our jurisdiction; they are still Turkish subjects." Mr. Machkov remarked coldly that in making his communication he was acting under orders from his government; any further discussion seemed to him useless.

The consuls at once departed, leaving the high and mighty Bulgarian commander in a state of complete consternation. The consuls do not admit that the conversation was exactly as I have reported; but I have good authority for what I say.

That the Russian consulate, which is at this time markedly Bulgarophil and whose very raison d'etre lay in its protection of the Christians and particularly of the Bulgarians, should have been treated by the Bulgarian authorities with such unconcealed and arrogant hostility, is a fact which I could not pass by in silence. The Bulgarian military authorities in their public utterances treated Russia with contempt, saying that Bulgaria owed Russia no gratitude because her object in freeing it had not been the liberation of the Bulgarian peoples, but the creation of new Russian provinces, which Europe would not allow. On every occasion, whether propitious or no, the Bulgarians declared that they would absolutely ignore our consulate.

The Russian consulate had the greatest difficulty in saving from Bulgarian excesses the families of the old Mussulman cavasses (armed porters) who had devotedly served the Bulgarian cause for nearly thirty years. The grateful recognition of the people towards the Russian consulate grew in proportion to the inflexible hostility of the Bulgarians to it; they knew that they owed the salvation of their lives and property to Russian intervention. The Moslems recall with pathetic gratitude that during the Russian occupations their religious feelings were respected, the soldiers called the old Turkish women "mother," and the young girls "sister," and shared their food with the poor. Even the Servian soldiery left pleasant memories behind them. While the Bulgarians broke down the doors to enter the houses, rudely demanded the best rooms and good food such as the owner was often in no position to give; ill-treated men and women and carried off carpets, clothing and furniture, the Servian officers politely asked leave to spend the night in some corner, made no noise, gave thanks and a tip to the servant when they went away, and begged their hosts to visit them should they ever pass through Servia. Truly a striking contrast.

The Return of the Turks

What precedes explains why the Turkish troops were received with open arms by the whole population on their return to Adrianople. People remembered that during the siege, Choukri Pasha, the commander in Adrianople, and Ismail Pasha, governor of the fortress, displayed a fatherly solicitude for all without distinction. The Turks fully justified the enthusiasm of their reception by their extraordinary moderation. From the time of their arrival perfect order reigned in the city; there was not a single case of aggression. Some excesses were committed by the Kurdish irregular cavalry in a village in the environs, but all those concerned were arrested, court-martialed and shot.

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At Mustapha Pasha some soldiers who tried to set fire to a house were killed on the spot by an officer. Contrary to Bulgarian precedent the Turkish authorities declared that they would tolerate no disorder. In view of what has been said it need cause no astonishment to find the Turkish, Greek and Jewish population ready to depart if they heard that Europe insisted on the cession of Adrianople to the Bulgars. The Greek Metropolitan and the mufti appeal through me to Russian public opinion to secure that should the Bulgarians return, a month of delay may be accorded in which the inhabitants of Thrace may peaceably effect their expatriation.
Such without more words, is the terrible result of my eight days' inquiry.
APPENDIX F

Documents Relating to Chapter III

THE DEFENSE
REPORT ADDRESSED TO THE COMMANDER OF THE KEHLIBAROV RESERVE ON THE CHARGES MADE
BY THE LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH

To the Commander Kehlibarov Reserve,
Military Magistrate at Adrianople.
Sir,
The staff office of the army sends you herewith a copy of an article which appeared in an English newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, and requests you to prepare a documentary report on the matter in order to make the truth public.

For the Chief of Staff,
(Signed) Staff-Colonel Nerezov,
Chief of the Intelligence Department.
(S) Commanding-Staff-Officer Topladjicov.
To the Chief of Staff of the Army (in the City).
In obedience to the above order, I submit the following report upon the questions at issue.

I. I entered Adrianople with the first detachments of the infantry, the twenty-third and the fifty-third, on the day that the fortress was captured, and I was immediately nominated military magistrate. I held this position until the recapture of the city by the Turks. I was therefore enabled to judge of the situation, and to know of nearly all the important events that occurred in the city and the environs, as well as the affairs that came under my personal and official notice.

II. The Turkish prisoners were taken to the island of Sarai because there were no barracks, some having been burned by the Turks, and others being infected with cholera. The Turkish officers were quartered in the one or two available ones that remained.

During the first two days the proper quantity of bread could not be given to the prisoners because even our own soldiers were on short rations. In spite of this a quarter of the portion of bread served to each Bulgarian soldier was deducted and distributed to the Turkish prisoners. Two days later a sufficient quantity of bread arrived, and thereafter equal portions were served to our soldiers and to the prisoners. The latter were never subjected to any cruelty.

III. It is true that a certain number of Turkish and Jewish houses were pillaged, but not by our soldiers. The local Greek population alone are to be blamed for these crimes. I was able to see this and to verify it personally many times from the moment of my arrival in the city. Later on, when order was reestablished in the city, numerous complaints of offences committed by the Greeks, such as the looting of houses, incendiarism, pillage and so on, were addressed to me in my official capacity by the Turkish population.

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I took out more than twenty actions on such complaints. These facts may be verified by examining the papers in the office of the public prosecutor or those on my own shelves.

There is also the sacking of the mosques. For this the Greeks, who had a frenzy for looting, must again be blamed. It was the Greeks who murdered thirteen Turks in one of the mosques of the city. A number of Greeks attempted to pillage the aforesaid mosque and the neighboring Turkish house. The Turks wished to prevent them, and seeing that they were threatened fired upon the assailants, killing one Greek and wounding others. The rest of the Greeks took flight and informed a patrol that the Turks were barricaded within the mosque; that they were firing upon the passers-by; and that they intended to blow up the whole quarter with dynamite. The Bulgarian soldiers urged the Turks to open the door and to give themselves up, and upon their refusal, fired upon them. Several Turks fell and several soldiers were wounded. But the Greeks, greedy for plunder, were the sole cause of the incident. Thanks to their falsehoods, they caused the death of one of their own number.

The carpets and the books of the mosque of the Sultan Selim were never scattered. They were guarded by a sentinel and everything was replaced as it had been originally.

IV. In regard to the Turkish officer who was killed, the truth has been equally distorted. This officer was neither wounded nor sick nor escorted by a soldier. He was hiding in a house and was discovered, and when he was being taken to the guard house he tried to escape and hide in the crowd. He was captured by another soldier, upon whom he drew his revolver, but had not time to shoot before he was himself shot by his captor and fell dead. No Jew interceded for him. The officer had resisted with force. The proof is the revolver drawn from his pocket.

As to the pillage of the jeweler's shop, it is an invention pure and simple. There is no such shop in Adrianople. All the shops which sell more or less precious articles are in the Marche d'Ali-Pacha, which was guarded by sentinels from the moment the city was captured. Nor is it true that other shops were pillaged by our soldiers. The truth is, that the Greek population, knowing of the rich Turkish houses, misled our patrols by telling them that suspect persons were hiding in such and such houses, where they also were concealing fire arms, and when our soldiers went to investigate, the Greeks thrust themselves in too, and either looted whatever they could lay their hands upon then and there, or else waited till the soldiers had gone and then stole at their leisure. The Turks. themselves will, if need be, confirm all that I assert. As to the commander of the garrison, I must admit that he was most attentive to everybody and particularly, even a little too-much so, to the Turks. None of the assertions made by the newspaper are true. I never left the garrison, and I was aware of everything that happened.

The account of the incident with the Greek Metropolitan of Adrianople is a shameful lie. It was not the commander of the garrison who was arrogant and insolent, but the bishop himself. I was in the office of the aide de camp when the Greek bishop came to make the application for the See of Kavala. He entered and without waiting to be asked, seated himself in an easy chair. He crossed his legs, and without making known the object of his visit began to smoke. He would only speak on general topics, where he went every day and how polite and amiable all the people were to him. He was none the less the leading spirit of the association that bad for its object the buying of arms and the inciting of the Greek population to rebellion. , But let the facts speak: First, arms were found hidden in a Greek church. The vicar of the church declared that rifles were being procured with which to arm the local Greek population, and that the bishop knew of it. Second, a manifesto coming from the above named association, an incitement of the Greek population to rebellion against the Bulgarian authorities was signed. Third, the Greek head schoolmaster, Gilo, was arrested, in the midst of inciting the Greeks and above all.

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the Turkish prisoners at Bosnakony, to rise against the Bulgarians, assuring them that they had a sufficient number of rifles and even guns. Fourth, the same Gilo, the Metropolitan, and Dr. Courtidis, formed a committee of which we know all the members, the place of meeting and the decisions taken. No steps were taken by us in this matter, first, because the commander of the garrison and the deputy of the governor opposed it, and second, because it was on the eve of the recapture of Adrianople by the Turks, and there was not sufficient time.

This committee organized a plot against the commander of the garrison, and the authors of the attempt were arrested with revolvers in their hands. I took a public action on this account. For details of this, also, public documents may be consulted.
All of these facts, and many others of which the Daily Telegraph does not speak, may be corroborated by public documents, and by various other proofs.

I hand in my report a little late, because I only received the order on October 23, in the evening.

TOPALDJICOV.
Former Military Magistrate at Lozengrad and at Adrianople.
(S) Commandant of Kehlibarov Reserve.
Sofia, October 25/November 7, 1913.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Order No. 3 to the garrison at Adrianople.
Adrianople, March 15, 1913.
That one quarter of the rations of bread allotted to each soldier of the companies within the garrison and of the eastern section, be deducted, today and on March 16 and 17, and sent each day at ten a.m. to the office of the commandant in the north of the city, between the bridge of Toundja and the military depots, and allotted to the prisoners.

Chief of Garrison: Gen. Major Vasov.
Chief of Staff: Major of States General Volkov.
General Vasov explained to the Commission that this order was given to the Commandant on the 14th, and was obeyed at once, although being an oral command it had to be authenticated in writing. From the 17th, the General added, each prisoner was given a whole loaf of bread.
THE MILETITS PAPERS

1. On the Treatment of the Turkish Prisoners During the First Months Subsequent to the Taking of the Town of Adrianople

The whole of what has been said up to now, by persons whose impartiality is more than dubious, about the bad treatment to which the Turkish prisoners were subjected after the taking of Adrianople, is a tissue of revolting calumnies. The documents appended afford proof of the care taken by the military authorities for the maintenance of the prisoners both in the way of food and sanitary provision, and this despite the deplorable conditions, both as regards administration and sanitation, in which our troops found themselves on their entry into Adrianople, thanks to the fact that the Turkish authorities had destroyed all means of subsistence and primary necessaries in the town. As Appendix I shows, the vanguard of the garrison in Adrianople immediately on the entry into the town gave orders that a quarter of the bread rations of every Bulgarian trooper should be deducted for the benefit of the prisoners. It is true that the prisoners suffered from hunger during the two days immediately following the fall of the town. But the Bulgarian

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soldiery were in the same case, most of them having got rid of their bread at the moment of the final assault. Those who had kept it shared it fraternally on their entry with the famishing population. Everybody was, in fact, in the same position, a position which could not immediately be remedied because they, the Turks, had destroyed the railway bridge over the Arda, which made the work of the commissariat infinitely more difficult.

The behavior of our soldiers to their Turkish fellows was beyond reproach. The very fact of victory filled the Bulgarian soldiery with generosity towards the adversary of overnight. From the day of the capture the Bulgarian soldiers mingled with the prisoners, fraternized with them and held friendly converse.

To avoid the spread of cholera and other epidemics, it was decided to bivouac the Bulgarian troops as well as the prisoners outside of the town. A sufficient number of tents could not be furnished either for the prisoners or the troops. Nevertheless, twelve sanitary tents were put up in the island of Sarai, and reserved strictly for the prisoners. All the captive Turkish doctors were retained exclusively for attendance on the prisoners. Moreover, the necessary precautions were taken for disinfection, to prevent the spread of the disease which carried off numerous victims every day among the prisoners, who were already enfeebled by the privations they had endured during the siege. An edict of March 29, issued by the head of the garrison, enumerated measures to be taken to prevent the spread of cholera among the prisoners, who were thereby ordered to receive a daily ration of 1 loaf, 100 grammes of rice and 200 grammes of meat, the same as that of the Bulgarian soldiers.

2. Housebreaking, Robbery and Pillage, Attributed to the Bulgarian Soldiery in the Town of Adrianople

It is a fact that a number of thefts by way of housebreaking and pillage did take place in the days immediately preceding and following the capture of the town, but all of these, almost without exception, are attributable to the Jewish and above all, to the Greek population. They set to work from the night of March 12, when it was obvious to everyone that the fall of the town was imminent. Pillage on the part of Greeks and Jews went on all over the town, even while our troops were effecting entry and they had to intervene to drive off the marauders with blows of the whip and flat of their swords. The Turks who had had to look on despairingly while their goods were pillaged hailed the assistance of the Bulgarian soldiers. The pillagers did not only plunder private houses; they sacked public buildings as well. Cherif-bey, director of public property, describes how the Greeks broke the doors of his house and carried off the furniture. The government offices, he says, were treated in the same way; part of their furniture being discovered later in the warehouses of the following business firms:—Moses Levi Patchavradji, the German bank, the Bank of Salonica, Avram Baruch, Toledo, Toledo-Rodrigue, Gustav Tschinare, Moses Ovaliche, and others. The firms in question stated that all the objects thus found had been purchased by them from Greeks and from some Armenians. A quantity of stolen goods were bought from a certain Djavid Ousta, son of one of the Russian consul's domestics, by the firm of Salomon Menahem. The whole of the furniture of the Turkish military club and the goods of several Turkish notables were afterwards discovered in the hands of Greeks in the vicinity. During the earliest days of the occupation hundreds of complaints were lodged by Turks, who knew the Greeks by whom they had been pillaged. Many dared not give names for fear of reprisals. The Bulgarian troops touched nothing in the mosques. The library of the Sultan Selim mosque was found to have been ransacked. This again was the work of the population, which knew its value and the desirable specimens existing there. There was a persistent rumor current to the effect that the "Selimie"

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Koran, an object of great price, both on account of its antiquity and the richness of its gold binding, was in the possession of the Russian consul.

However that may be, order was restored with praiseworthy celerity on the entry of the Bulgarian troops, despite the fighting that was still going on in the southern and northwestern sections. A series of orders was issued from time to time, which aimed at establishing the fullest measure of public security and ameliorating the prisoners' lot. An order from headquarters permitted nearly half the prisoners at Adrianople to return to their homes as new citizens of the Bulgarian crown, without distinction of nationality.

An order of March 17, o. s., No. 6, issued by the head of the garrison for the amelioration of the lot of the remaining prisoners, ordered that 3,000 prisoners should be dispatched to the interior daily. Another order of March 21, o. s., enjoined the officer in charge of the prisoners to distribute a certain number of them in the villages immediately adjacent to Adrianople, Bosna-Keui, Anir-Keui, Emirii and Tatar-Keui. Other orders issued from headquarters on March 17, o. s.. No. 65, and on March 20, No. 121, and that issued by the head of the Adrianople garrison on March 29, o. s., show the consideration devoted to the case of the Turkish prisoners.

At the entry of the Bulgarian troops there were in Adrianople, over and above the prisoners, more than 25,000 Turkish peasants who had taken refuge there before the investment began. Throughout the whole period they were provided with food. A special commission was set up under the presidency of a superior officer and composed of two officials, an officer and two Turkish notables, one being the mufti of Adrianople, to restore the Turkish refugees to their villages, reestablish them in their houses, and supply the most necessitous with means to start work again on their fields. Since the Greeks used to attack Turkish refugees on their return to their homes in order to plunder them and theirs, guards of three or four soldiers were posted in every village to protect the Turks against Greek aggression. These steps were carried out and the mufti more than once expressed to our authorities the gratitude for their care felt by the Mussulman population. And yet, when the Turkish troops crossed the frontier and advanced on Adrianople and Mustapha Pasha, the first act of Turks and Greeks was to massacre most of the guards set for their protection who had not succeeded in beating a retreat. Most of the Turkish officials found in Adrianople at the taking of the town were removed with their families and those of the officers by land and sea to Constantinople. As they got on board they thanked the representatives of the Bulgarian authorities, with tears in their eyes, for the attentions they had received. These people are living and could, if needed, confirm what has been said above.

3. Alleged Excesses Committed by the Bulgarian Troops at the Evacuation of Adrianople

The allegations made by certain interested persons as to the cruelty exercised towards prisoners and population by the Bulgarian troops on evacuating Adrianople are so many revolting inventions. When the Turkish army from Tchataldja and Boulair advanced towards Adrianople, the prisoners were divided into bodies of 1,000-2,000 strong, and dispatched to the interior of Bulgaria, each body being under the convoy of twenty or thirty veterans of the territorial army. To say that the prisoners were ill-treafed, or still worse, massacred en masse on the way, is absolutely false. The very size of the escort would make such a statement hardly admissible.

4. Alleged Execution of Forty-live Greeks Who Are Said to Have Carried off Sacks of Flour from the Depot Because They Were "Dying of Starvation"

The truth about this incident, which has been grossly exaggerated by unscrupulous persons, is as follows:

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On July 7, o. s., when it appeared that the Turkish troops must be near at hand, the Greeks of Karagatch, aided by those of the village of Bosna-Keui, armed themselves and took to pillage, thereby causing a fearful panic among the population. They butchered five soldiers belonging to the Territorials and some twenty Turkish prisoners working at the station. These men, who are described as "dying of starvation," profiting by the panic they had aroused, next threw themselves on the provision and clothes depots and regularly pillaged them). The sentinels on guard at the depots did no more than their duty in firing here and there on the insatiable robbers.

As to the corpses of these same Greeks, said to have been drawn up from the Maritza, the truth is as follows: The prison in Adrianople was filled with more than 262 criminals, most of whom were Greeks, 100 having been incarcerated for acts of murder against Turks and some fifty for robbery, incendiarism and outrages. On the night of July 7-8, o. s., the prisoners confined in one of the cells in an upper story, facing east upon the main street, succeeded in sawing through the bars of one of the windows, whence thirty-two made their escape by means of a belt. But when they reached the Yanak-KichIa bridge and found it guarded, the prisoners, to the number of twelve, seeing themselves threatened by a patrol coming up from behind, threw themselves into the Toundja in the hopes of swimming across. The soldiers opened fire on the fugitives and succeeded in killing them. These are the bodies seen in the Toundja.

5. Alleged Ill-Treatment Endured by the Greek Bishop of Adrianople at the Hands of the Head of the Garrison

According to information prior to the outbreak of hostilities, a committee really existed in Adrianople, in the time of the Turks, whose object was to use every available means to-secure the closing of Bulgarian schools and churches in Thrace and to Hellenize the inhabitants. The Greek bishop of Adrianople, the chairman of this committee, was in constant touch with the Greek patriarchate and the Athenian government, which supplied him with the necessary resources for pursuing the end in view. The committee's activity continued after Thrace had been conquered by our troops. It began to agitate for the autonomy of Thrace and the expulsion of the Bulgarians. Arms were distributed to the Greek population through its instrumentality and attacks made on the representatives of constituted authority. An emissary of the Athenian government, George Pouridi, was at this time at Adrianople, where he cooperated with the bishop to stir the committee to activity. On May 21, o. s., when General Savov happened to be in the Greek bishopric making a speech on the birthday of King George, Pouridi succeeded in getting out of prison and making his way to the bishopric and the room where Savov was with the intention of assassinating him. He was arrested by the chief of the guard and sent back to prison. Three attempts, of the same kind, on the life of the head of the garrison were made by Greeks, who were in each case arrested in the act of putting their design into execution. In spite of repeated demands, the Greeks never willingly handed over the arms in their possession. In the course of domiciliary visitations to houses and churches, considerable quantities of arms were discovered, abandoned by the Turks and gathered up by the Greeks. At times of most serious crisis, the telegraphic lines between Adrianople and the front were cut. The culprits—again Greeks—were arrested and delivered over to justice.

It was in view of facts like this that the head of the garrison at Adrianople was ordered to entreat the Greek bishop of the town to use his influence with his flock to induce them to behave as citizens and respect the established order, failing which the bishop himself should be held responsible for any infringement of public order which might be imputed to the Greek community. The order was carried out simply and fully as it was given. The whole story of a violent scene between the bishop and the com-

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mandant is a piece of pure fantasy, as is that of the assassination of a Turkish officer and an Israelite by a soldier in the main street.

Finally what has been said above of the orders issued by the chief of the garrison of Adrianople alone gives some idea of the pains taken to insure order and security in, the town and its environs. On the other hand, the papers of the examining magistrates and military procurators permit one to state that an inquiry was opened on every crime committed; in every case the guilty persons were arrested and condemned, irrespective of nationality, by regularly constituted tribunals, whose sentences were strictly in accordance with established law. The result of all this could but be excellent. Exemplary order was established without delay, and all the citizens without distinction of nationality enjoyed full liberty. Confirmation of this fact is afforded by a number of foreigners of distinction who came to Adrianople, among them an Englishman, Brigadier General R. G. Broadwood, who visited the town shortly after it was taken, and whose statements. are not open to doubt. The recognition by impartial persons of a state of affairs so praiseworthy could not but excite the animosity of our adversaries who left no stone unturned in the endeavor to deceive public opinion, and traduce the name of Bulgaria. It may moreover not he superfluous to remark that the secretaries of most of the foreign consulates at Adrianople, including the Russian, are Greeks, who had always been used by the Greek bishop to prejudice the Bulgarian cause in the eyes of their respective governments, and defend the criminal activities of their Greek compatriots. This fact casts a curious light upon reports issued by the secretaries of certain foreign consulates at Adrianople, who carefully refrained from avowing their real nationality, hidden beneath the cloak of their representation of foreign Powers.
APPENDIX G

Documents Relating to Chapter III

DEPOSITIONS

1. LETTER OF BARONESS VARVARA YXCOULL TO MR. MAXIME KOVALEVSKY

Salsomaggiore, August 29, 1913.
My dear friend:
I have spoken so much to you of Bulgaria, and you have always shown such interest in the topic, that I do not hesitate to write to you where truth makes my doing so an actual obligation, a propos of an article which appeared in a recent issue of the Daily Telegraph, emanating ostensibly from a Russian diplomatist, commissioned by his government to make an inquiry into the "Bulgarian atrocities" at Adrianople. I say "ostensibly," for fortunately the position of the person responsible for the "information" which was collected in two days, has been officially repudiated. The story is the work of a newspaper correspondent (his name is not given) who, propio motu, undertook an "inquiry," if such a word can be used, to describe highly difficult investigations requiring far more time, if they were to be serious or more or less truthful. I say more or less truthful, for it seems to me that, post factum, considering the state of mind of the ex-belligerents, the national characteristics and mutual passions, it is almost impossible to arrive at the whole truth. Certainly I make no claim to do so; but I should like to prove from facts that happened under my eyes that the best intentions—and no doubt the correspondent was animated by such,—often arrive at results far enough removed from reality. He states among other things, that the town of Adrianople was sacked, pillaged and half destroyed by the Bulgarians when they entered it. I went to Adrianople on the third day of the Bulgarian occupation, and my first impression on getting well into the town was one of profound astonishment at the order reigning, despite the fact that the police force at that time mustered but thirty men; at the sight of streets literally overflowing with troops going hither and thither, obviously rejoicing in that victory but without anything that could give or was meant to give offense to the vanquished.
There was a great crowd by the Sultan Selim mosque, trying to effect an entrance, but the doors were closed and the sentinels refused all admittance. When they saw me in the dress of a sister of charity and accompanied by a slightly wounded Bulgarian officer, they let us in by one of the little side doors where there was no press. When I asked why the public was not admitted without special permit, the sentry replied that some damage had been done by the soldiery on the first day, whereupon measures had been immediately taken. I looked about me anxiously, fearing for what I might see and expected to notice signs of irreparable damage, but, with the exception of a hole in the roof made by a shell during the siege, in the angle of one of the small staircases, I saw nothing but perfect order; the sumptuous carpet, of incalculable value, had been carefully rolled up, the flags covered with matting, the wrought iron chandeliers which adorn the interior of the mosque all in good condition, with the exception of a dozen which

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may have been long wanting, everywhere irreproachable cleanliness. Assuredly the Sultan Selim mosque did not at that time present the appearance of a building which had been "sacked and soiled."

Thence. I went to a consulate, where I was given a thrilling account of the ravages committed in the mosque of which sinister details had been reported. Great was the surprise of the people there when I described what I had just seen. If such stories were possible at that moment, in the town itself, what legends might grow up in the course of months!

The Daily Telegraph's correspondent is equally remote from reality in his description of the murder of a Greek by the Bulgarian troops. The incident took place while I was in Adrianople; I saw the dead body, which was left covered up but exposed to the public on the spot where it fell. The Greek, an Ottoman subject, discovered a certain number of Turkish soldiers hidden in a little mosque; he pointed out their hiding place with his finger to the Bulgarian officer passing by with his half company. The Turks evidently saw the gesture, for a volley of musketry immediately came through the half closed windows and the Greek fell, mortally wounded. The Bulgarian officer then gave the order to fire on the hidden men; and if my memory does not deceive me, thirty were killed. I think that the officer acted rightly.

In the early days there were frequent cases, especially at night, when persons in hiding, Turkish soldiers or others, took advantage of the absolute darkness in which the town was plunged, to fire on the passers-by. The governor general accordingly issued an order, which was posted everywhere, stating that all the inhabitants of the houses whence these shots came should be bayoneted. This order was indispensable, for the victims of these attacks from behind door and window amounted to a considerable number. Whatever its severity, it saved many lives.

I can state that although I was in Adrianople four times during the fifteen days subsequent to the capture of the town, I never heard that the Bulgarian soldiers committed acts of violation, of pillage, or any kind of excess. There were some cases of robbery on the first day; but they were immediately and severely punished and not repeated. I should certainly have known of any instance, however trifling, of this kind, and I do know that although certain foreigners, collectors of antiques, did offer large sums for carpets and other valuables, no one found anything for sale twenty-four hours after the entry of the Bulgarians.

The destruction caused during the siege, by the shells of the besiegers, was very small in proportion to the quantity of shot used. I think I am correct in stating that in almost every street, not in all, there were at most one or two houses demolished. A most incorrect interpretation has again been given to "atrocities" committed on the Turkish prisoners suffering from cholera. The regime to which they were subjected was undoubtedly severe,—exposed as they were to the rain and the still cold nights, and altogether deprived of attention. But how could it be otherwise when the hospitals of Adrianople were already overflowing with Turkish wounded and in such a deplorable state that I could only get twenty places (under abominable conditions) for Bulgarian officers (almost on the point of death) who could not be carried further, and who had absolutely to be moved from Karajousouff. This was the name of the little Greek village, seven miles from the town, in which was situated the Russian mission of the Kaufmann brotherhood, of which I had been at the head for five months (two months during the siege of Adrianople being spent at Karajousouff). We had fifty-eight tents for the wounded, more than 5,000 of whom passed through our hands on the days of the attack. With the best arrangement, it was impossible for us to keep all the seriously wounded cases. Room had to be made at any cost, and it was to provide for that that I betook myself, on the third day, to Adrianople.

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Despite all my efforts, despite the desire of the Bulgarian authorities to provide me with what was so indispensable, I only succeeded in getting these twenty beds. The rest of the wounded had to be moved first to Kirk Kilisse (Lozengrad, fifty-five miles from Karajousouff), and then owing to want of room at Lozengrad, to Mustapha Pasha (seventy miles off), by carts drawn by oxen over very bad roads. If the Bulgarians were unable to provide any sort of accommodation at Adrianople for their own wounded, was it to be expected that they should succeed in lodging thousands of Turks suffering from cholera who had to be isolated from the other prisoners and wounded?

From the humanitarian point of view the lot of those poor fellows is obviously to be deeply commiserated, and the Bulgarians ought to have treated them otherwise. I merely state the facts as they were, and point out that in the given circumstances actions which at first sight appear appalling do become explicable. In any case the accusation should be directed not against the Bulgarian army but against the abominable medical administration which ha-s escaped criticism altogether. If one is to talk at all about cruelty and inhumanity personified during war, which is itself the negation of all humanity, the terms must be applied to the unheard of sufferings and the absolute want of attention endured by the brave Bulgarian soldiers. These heroic men sacrificed their lives for the country in a spirit of joyous exaltation, worthy of the ancient stoics. They perished hideously, mainly because of the carelessness, the ineptitude, the incapacity, the abominable indifference of the military medical authorities, who, with but rare exceptions, showed a complete contempt for the science and profession which they had the undeserved honor to exercise. It is at their door that the guilt will lie; they should be judged and punished so that they may not in the future perpetuate the harm they did during the war.

The European press has been full of "Bulgarian atrocities" against Turks, Greeks, Serbs, etc. It is strange to see so impassioned a unanimity in making accusations that are difficult, almost impossible, to verify. During the course of what was called the "second war,"—that is to say, from the resumption of hostilities to the capture of Adrianople, not a single foreign correspondent was allowed with the Bulgarian army. Our mission alone was with the advance guard; and I can certify that during the two months I spent at Karajousouff, not only did I never see a case of mutilation of wounded or dead; I never heard one spoken of. After the siege, I saw Turkish corpses lying by the hundreds on the roads and in the fields. They were hideous because decomposition had begun; they lay unburied for several days because there were not enough people to collect all the dead, Bulgarians and others, and the heat of the sun was already great. But I never saw one that was mutilated. We saw dozens of Turkish wounded. They complained bitterly of the horrible way in which they had been treated by their officers, but no one of them said anything of "Bulgarian atrocities."

When I left Adrianople, I saw the members of the English Red Cross mission, who 'had come to nurse the Turkish cholera patients. They complained of the want of proper accommodation, of the lack of attendance and care, but no one spoke to me of cruelties practiced by the Bulgarians on the Turkish prisoners. Here and there such cases of course occurred, but I shall never believe that the Bulgarian soldiers at fault acted with the knowledge, or as is sometimes stated, under the instigation of their officers.

To sum up, my impression is, from a stay of five months and a half in the midst of the soldiery at Philippoli, Kirk Kilisse, Mustapha Pasha and Karajousouff, that the war was a crusade of ascetics inspired by a fanatical patriotism. The orgies, the debauches, the "women" who play so big a part in war, were altogether absent. Neither during the long-months of the siege nor in the joy of victory did I ever see a drunken soldier or officer.

I could go on with this letter forever, for as I think of the past, still so near and already so terribly obliterated, thousands of incidents recur to my memory, lit up, all of

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them, by the flame of a patriotism ready for any renunciation; but I fear to trespass too far on your patience. All I want to do is to give you the testimony of an eye witness to the inaccuracy of certain accusations.

Europe is guilty of profound injustice in covering with a cloud of hideous crime men who fought under exceptionally trying conditions, fought with a stoical heroism, making no murmur, dying like martyrs without a complaint, their hearts full of faith in the greatness and force of their country.

I think I know the Bulgarians, good and evil; and I can not but bow before them with the most profound respect and the most ardent admiration.

If you think that what I have told you can be of any utility, make what use of this information you think good.

Yours very sincerely,
V. YXCOULL.
2. EVIDENCE OF TURKISH OFFICERS CAPTURED AT ADRIANOPLE COLLECTED
BY THE COMMISSION AT SOFIA

The two following depositions were drawn up by Major Choukri, of the Engineers, and Captain Jummi, third battalion.

Oral Depositions

No. 1. CHOUKRI-BEY, Major, Governor of Adrianople. He was seated in his office when the Bulgarians entered the town. His subordinates reported to him that four Turkish officers had been killed in the town and that the Bulgarians had searched their pockets and rifled them. Similar practices took place even in the barracks in which his office was situated. It was at this moment that Lieutenant Nikov made his appearance to take over the governorship. Mr. Choukri complained of what had occurred to Mr. Nikov, but the latter was unwilling to take his complaints seriously. Choukri discovered among other things, that Lieutenant Adil had been robbed in a similar way at the same barracks, and it was through Choukri's protection that Lieutenant Adil was spared such things in the future. Choukri told Mr. Nikov of the existence of a store of meal in a certain mosque, only to discover later that the Bulgarian officer had sold the meal for his own profit.

Two days later Mr. Choukri was imprisoned on the island of Sarai. It is impossible to describe all that was endured by those imprisoned on that island. The Bulgarian soldiers actually killed the Turkish prisoners simply to get their water bottles. "With my own eyes," said the witness, "I have seen seven prisoners massacred on the pretext that they were trying to escape, although they were really only going to draw water from the river." The officers were left for three days and four nights without nourishment. Soldiers and even officers were reduced to eating the bark of the trees, and gnawing their shoe leather to assuage the pangs of hunger. Some hundred perished in a single day of starvation and sickness. According to Mr. Choukri the deaths totaled 3,000.

No. 2. EYOUB, Captain of Artillery, was sent with Refik and Ali-Nousrat as bearer of a flag of truce to announce the surrender of the northern district. He and his companions were greeted by combined fire from artillery and infantry, despite the white flag. When they reached the area occupied by the seventh regiment of artillery, the soldiers disarmed the plenipotentiaries, relieved them of watches and purses and refused to bring them before the governor. A soldier struck Eyoub with the butt of his musket and threatened to kill them all three. The first soldier was joined by a second who plundered the two lieutenants.. But a third protested against the behavior of his comrades and led

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Choukri and his companions before Mr. Nikov, the Bulgarian lieutenant, who in turn brought them before the colonel of the twenty-third regiment, commanding the northern district. He dictated the terms of surrender to them. Nikov promised Choukri that he would discover the guilty soldiers and compel them to restore what they had stolen. On the next day, however, Eyoub saw Nikov mounted on his horse. * * * He tried to impress a better point of view upon him, but Mr. Nikov forbade him to say any more about it.

No. 3. TAHSINE, Captain of the Corps of Sharpshooters. (Nichandje.)
The Turkish soldiers in the Marache section surrendered to the Servians, who disarmed them without any molestation, and held them for three days after which they led them away, under guard, to be handed over to the Bulgarians. On the way loud reports were heard. The Servians composing the escort concluded that some trickery was preparing. Nevertheless they continued their march. Crossing the bridge of Arda, they advanced along the Karagatch road, near to the railway station, at which point a Bulgarian officer met them to take over the prisoners. Again a report was heard, followed by a salvo; the result of the drama was that sixty Turkish soldiers and four Servian soldiers lay dead, and a Servian sergeant was wounded.

On the most natural explanation the Bulgarian soldiers were responsible for the shots. The Servians refused to hand over their prisoners, and an animated dispute broke out between the Bulgarian and Servian officers. The colonel of the Twentieth Bulgarian Regiment, who arrived while the dispute was going on, ordered the Bulgarian sentinels to surround the first group of Turkish officers and put them under arrest. Some of us who knew Bulgarian understood him to say that we were all to be shot. Drawing his sword, he commanded all the captives, officers and soldiers alike, to lie down on the ground. He asserted that they still had revolvers in their possession for which he wished to have them searched. Thereupon the Servian officers remarked that he would not find so much as a knife on the unfortunate Turkish prisoners. At that moment a bomb exploded. The Bulgarian officers immediately declared that it was the Turks who had thrown it and that they should all be executed. Another bomb went off, but it fell in such a way that it was impossible to accuse the Turks. Thereupon to the great astonishment of the prisoners, the Bulgarian officer declared that their lives were spared. "We have already discovered the Turkish officers who were to blame," he said, "and they have paid their debt."

No. 4. HAMDI-BEY, in command of an artillery battery. Coming from Marache, he was marching in the midst of a body of seven officers, three mounted, the other four on foot. Some Bulgarians fired upon them; the frightened horses made off at a gallop. It was then that the three mounted officers, Major Fouad-bey, Major Rifaat-bey (both attached to the fourth regiment of artillery) and Captain Iffan, were slain. The four officers on foot took refuge in a cafe. The Bulgarians followed them thither, but some Servian officers, appearing on the spot saved their lives. Nevertheless, the Bulgarians plundered them of everything down to their pocket handkerchiefs. A Bulgarian captain, Mr. Popovtchev, of the first company of the first battalion of Pioneers, witnessed the whole scene without a single word of protest. A Turkish artillery captain was robbed of ninety pounds Turkish money and a ring. Mr. Popovtchev tried to recover the stolen money but his inquiries only resulted in the recovery of one Napoleon and five medjids (a twenty piastre coin, worth about 3s. 8d.). Having nothing to eat the Turkish officers had to pay as much as three francs for a bit of bread.

No. 5. ISMAIL MAIL, staff doctor (see also a report by him on the forced conversion of the pomaks), actually saw some Bulgarian soldiers bayonet two Turkish soldiers at the

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time of the surrender of Adrianople, and throw their corpses into the river. Later, at Stara Zagora, he saw the Bulgarian sentinel slaughter a Turkish soldier, Halil-Ali-el Sultanieh, without any provocation. The soldier's name was entered on the rolls as having died of disease. He also saw his orderly Ahmed-Omer, one of the eleventh medical company of Conia, killed at Stara Zagora by a Bulgarian soldier without any good cause.

No. 6. HADJI-ALI, officer in the reserve, serving in the police at Adrianople, deposes that the wife and sister of a Turkish paymaster living next door to him were outraged and then butchered by the Bulgarian soldiery. He saw with his own eyes Ismail-Yousbachi (Captain) killed in the street by Bulgarian soldiers on the day of the surrender of the town. A Jew protested against the murder, only to pay for his protest with his life. Further he saw 400-500 inhabitants of Adrianople kept prisoners in the Konak courtyard of the commandant's headquarters. The Bulgarian soldiers stood on guard outside the entry, four Bulgarian comitadjis inside. While the soldiers pushed the inhabitants into the yard, the comitadjis struck them with the butt ends of their guns. In the yard he saw four or five dead bodies. He suspects that all these Konak prisoners were killed, but is not absolutely certain on the point.

Deposition of Captain Jummi

After the fall of Adrianople, Mr. Minev came to dress my wounds; he took our field glasses and pocket pistols, saying he would keep them in remembrance of us. We were taken to Tatar-Keui. General Savov treated us well and ordered us to be taken to Sofia. This night,—the night of the 13-14,—we spent there, some twenty of us officers. On March 14 we were dispatched on foot towards Simenli, in the direction of Sofia. At Simenli we were conducted to a Mussulman house, only inhabited by some women and old men between sixty and seventy; the other men, among them one old man, had been assassinated by the Bulgarians; the women had been violated. Two hours later the order was given for us to be taken to Kadi-Keui, to take train there. Lieutenant Boris opposed the order and set us on the march again. We spent four nights thus. One night several of us officers happened to be in the yard of a little Mussulman house. The people tried to ill-treat us, but Major Stefanov of the thirtieth regiment gave us some bread and brought us to the tents, where 13,000 prisoners were. During that day 500 grammes of bread were given out to us; the Bulgarian soldiers took their money and watches from the prisoners. (The next sentence is unintelligible; the witness appears to state that the reply made to prisoners who asked for bread was to strike them with bayonets.) I saw a Bulgarian soldier about to strike a Turkish soldier with the butt of his musket and Lieutenant Boris authorizing him by a gesture and the words "Do so!" Four days later, thanks to Stefanov, we were taken to Adrianople. On the road I saw the corpses of nine Turkish soldiers and a wounded man, his face so bathed in blood that it was an indistinguishable mass. The wounded man was lying alone in the fields. My comrade saw four dead bodies arranged in the form of a cross.

CAPTAIN JUMMI,
Fourth Regiment, Third Battalion.
Deposition of Choukri, Major in the Engineers
I commanded the Engineers on the south front of Adrianople. Under my orders there were two captains, Ata-bey and Atif-bey. After the surrender, at the moment when the Bulgarian soldiers had effected entry on the south side in the Greek quarter Keui, they

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began, under the guidance of the Greeks in Adrianople, to enter the houses and to seize whatever they found there. Everything we had was given over to pillage except the trunks we had deposited with an Armenian, a Russian subject and brother to the dragoman of the Russian consul. This same Armenian gave shelter to the wife, child and female servant of engineer Captain Atif-bey. The Bulgarian soldiers, led by some Greek natives, forcibly entered the house of the said Armenian during the night. They seized the trunks which belonged to us, and Captain Atif-bey's horse; they asked for two hundred Turkish pounds as a ransom for the captain's wife and kept repeating their demand, leaving them no peace till they paid over nine Turkish pounds on the first day and three more on the second.

CHOUKRI,
Major of the Engineers.
3. DEPOSITIONS OF BULGARIAN OFFICIALS
GENERAL VASOV, Military Governor of Kirk Kilisse (Lozengrad), from November, 1912, Commander of the army of the eastern section of Adrianople, and from March 13, 1913, Commander of the garrison, from April onwards Governor of Thrace. His army took Adrianople by assault on March 13/26 at eight o'clock in the morning.

I reached Ghebeler, twelve miles from Adrianople, and rejoined my troops at ten o'clock in the morning. The army passed through the town amid the plaudits and hurrahs of the population. The Turkish inhabitants were in the streets in great numbers. Orders were given to the troops to bivouac in the quarters between the Toundja and the Maritza. I soon perceived that there were too many soldiers in the town and accordingly telephoned from the house of the commander of the Turkish cavalry to the commander of the army not to let the troops of the other sections enter.
The Turkish soldiery made prisoner within the town (they had cast their arms into the Toundja) who belonged to the eastern section, were collected in the island of Sarai. They numbered about 12,000 or 15,000. There were moreover on the island some civilians, or more precisely, persons attired in civil garb. Since these were many of them soldiers in disguise, I found it necessary to issue an order stating that any persons found hiding soldiers should be shot. I then ordered the prisoners shut up on the island to be counted and divided according to regiments. About ten days were allowed for this enumeration, in view of clearing them away from the island. The prisoners of the Servian section, who had made submission to the Servians, were under guard in the Hildyrym quarter. The prisoners of the southern section were in cantonments at Tcheurex-Keui. The total number of prisoners amounted to 50,000 to 55,000 men.

As I had to hand Choukri Pasha over to General Ivanov at five o'clock in the afternoon, I immediately sought him out. Choukri and the officers of the general staff asked us to allow them to keep all that they had with them. Choukri wanted to keep his former house at Kadyrlyx. All this was granted. About March 15, they were allowed to depart for Bulgaria, the subordinate officers, from the rank of colonel downwards, being detained in Adrianople. As they were departing, I told Choukri that his orders for the destruction of the food depots had displeased me. I pointed out to him that the people who would suffer thereby were the unfortunate prisoners from his army who had, as I informed him, told me (on March 14, the day after the surrender, I had visited them,) that they had not eaten for five whole days, which meant that they had fed insufficiently or not at all during the last three days of the siege. I explained to Choukri the inconvenience caused us by the destruction of the Arda bridge, the annihilation of the provision depots, and the difficulty and delay of communication with Mustapha Pasha. Choukri's reply was that he had not ordered the depots to be burned; it was the work of tachapkaris (hooligans). I told him that I had ordered a levy of a quarter of the bread rations distributed to our soldiers to save the Turkish prisoners from dying of hunger, and he thanked me for it. This measure was intended as a temporary expedient until the goods expected from Baba-Eski and Mustapha Pasha could arrive. From the second day

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(March 14) onwards, these quarter portions were given out to the enemy soldiery. Some days after—perhaps as early as the 15th—I divided the grain among the regiments forming my troops, in order that so far as commissariat went, they might be on an equal footing with the Bulgarian army.
The prisoners asked permission to take bark off the trees to light fires with, as it rained and was cold. Even our soldiers had no tents. Permission was given and they cut off the bark with knives and pickaxes.

One of the reasons for isolating the prisoners on the island of Sarai was the presence of infectious cases after the third or fourth day of the capture of the town. Choukri told me that cholera had appeared ten days before March 13, but that, at the time of the entry of the Bulgarian troops, it had disappeared. In effect, however, the disease did not spare the island, and we had to send Turkish doctors to isolate the infectious cases, nurse them, and bury those who died. I should estimate that the epidemic did not cause more than 100 to 200 deaths among the population of the island.

The story of the prisoners being reduced to eating the bark of the trees I dismiss as purely legendary. It is true that we could not do much for them, for our own men were very ill provided for. We did not distribute hot food, but they were given bread enough to keep off starvation. When the prisoners of war were rejoined by the famished inhabitants of the town, we decided to spread them out along the railway line that passed through the suburbs for greater ease of provisioning. In this way we only had to feed the poor population of the town proper, say some 15,000 to 20,000. In this matter we were greatly assisted by the English section of the Balkan committee. When the bridge was reconstructed, the prisoners were regularly provisioned; certain officers were specially told off to superintend it and provisional dwellings were put up. The English consul, Major Samson, can testify to these facts. General Broadwood actually wrote a letter which appeared in the Times, about the middle of April or towards the end of the month (old style,) to defend the Bulgarians from the accusations made against them.

The incident of the murdered Jew is possible. The soldiers were exasperated. In general, however, there was very little violence. At the same time it is not impossible that prisoners may have been killed during the night, but the facts have not come to my knowledge. There certainly was not wholesale assassination of prisoners. The incident of the Miri-Miran mosque is known to me from the story of Colonel Zlatanov. It is as follows: Certain Turks, fearing to be attacked, shut themselves up in the mosque with their wives and children. While the troops were passing through there some were shot, no one knew whence. A young Greek appeared and told the soldiers that people were firing on them from inside the mosque. A fairly big patrol moved in that direction, led by the Greek. Shots were fired from the mosque; the guide fell, and I saw his dead body myself. At that point our soldiers attacked the mosque with drawn bayonets and killed the men, sparing the lives of the women and children. This was the first regrettable incident to occur. I went to the spot in person, accompanied by Zlatanov and witnessed what follows. The Greek youth was slain fifteen or twenty paces from the mosque. Inside there were some ten Turks slain. Two among them, a mollah of some fifty-five years old and a young man of twenty, were still breathing. I ordered them to be taken to the hospital and a proces verbal to be drawn up. This is the solitary incident of bloodshed within my knowledge at Adrianople. While I held command, not a single man was shot. I was replaced by General Veltchev about April 1 (old style). The mufti repeatedly expressed his gratitude to the Bulgarians. On the second or third day, I called him before me in order to calm his previous terror, and he told me that he had not expected such humane behavior towards the Turkish population in a town taken by assault. I saved Mr. Behaeddine, who had insulted a Bulgarian officer, from court-martial. As to my general system, I described it in the paper Stir, while an article by me appeared several days ago, previous to this deposition, for which I had then no anticipation of being called upon. [The translation of the article follows.]

As to pillage on the entry of the Bulgarian troops, this is what I saw of it. It was the Christians who pillaged the Turks. I had to send three regiments, one of cavalry, two of infantry, to watch over the town. Nevertheless, all the Turkish stores (of clothes, provisions, etc.) were pillaged in the course of the first day. I ought immediately to have set about making domiciliary investigations, but throughout the period of my governorship (down to July 1, old style,) I refused to sanction

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such inquiries, in order not to disturb the people. Some house visits did take place by order of the officer commanding the town, but only in response to private requests. I gave permission to the officer commanding the town (Mr. Chopov, and his successor, Markov,) to open a depot for goods whose ownership was disputed and their origin dubious. As for depredations committed in houses inhabited by Bulgarians, the Austrian and Belgian consuls came before me with demands for damages in cases of which they gave names and particulars. I did not comply with the demand, since the allegations were incapable of proof. I have not heard of Mr. Chopov's carpets. I myself lived in the house of Akhrned-bey, opposite the Sultan Selim mosque. The house was full of furniture. The proprietor can be asked whether the least thing was found missing.

In an article which appeared in the Mir of Sofia, dated June 19, 1913, and entitled The Negotiations at Constantinople, Lieutenant General of the Reserve Vasov added, over his signature, the following remarks:

I am no enemy to the Turks; on the contrary, I am on terms of intimate friendship with them for we have many common interests, and I think I have given irrefragable proofs of these sentiments. The Mussulman population and the holy places of its worship at Adrianople owe their preservation to me. After the town was taken, I allowed no one to touch a hair on the head of the vanquished. Out of the modicum available for the subsistence of my soldiers, I fed the 60,000 Turkish prisoners and many thousands of starving wretches belonging to the Mussulman population. All these facts are known to Choukri Pasha, to the foreign consuls and to the 3,500 Turkish officials, whom I sent to Constantinople with their families in prosecution of a measure entirely honorable to the Bulgarian occupation. Dr. Behaeddine-bey, friend of Talaat-bey, also knows the truth on this point. This intelligent Turk and many of his friends certainly remember that in my capacity as governor of Thrace I did what I could to help them in their misfortune.

Order of the Day of General Vasov to the Adrianople Garrison

Adrianople, March 29, 1913.
In order to arrest the progress of the cholera epidemic which is raging among the prisoners of war, and among the soldiers of certain parts of the garrison, and in order that precautions be taken to prevent bodies of prisoners from infecting the population of the town and neighborhood with their disease, I order the following measures to be taken:
1. The authorities in places to which prisoners have been sent are to take care that they are lodged either in houses, or under tents, or in barracks quitted by our soldiers and near at hand. If necessary, new lodgings may be constructed.

2. The prisoners are to be distributed into small groups, so that overcrowding may be as far as possible avoided.

3. Steps are to be taken to secure that the quarter in which the prisoners are lodged is not infected. For this purpose deep troughs are to be dug for sanitary purposes, watered with petrol every day; and the smaller troughs are to be covered with earth every day.

4. The authorities responsible for feeding the prisoners are to see that bread and other food stuffs are supplied regularly at stated intervals; a warm soup of a hundred grammes of rice and two hundred grammes of meat to be supplied per head.

5. Boiled water is to be supplied for drinking, and the Turkish kazanes taken in the Turkish encampments may be used for this purpose.

6. The prisoners' sentries are to be changed every day, or if that be impossible, at least every two days. These sentries are to be regarded as suspected of infection and lodged in houses or tents at a sufficient distance from the army.

7 * * *

8. To prevent the epidemic from spreading, the employment of prisoners in any form

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of work is to be avoided. If it should be necessary to employ them, particularly in the town of Adrianople, they are to be employed only after a quarantine of six days. They are to be lodged in separate barracks and fed like the soldiers.
9. All prisoners sick with cholera are to be sent to a place removed from the Turkish hospital, to the Italian school at Karagatch, and to the isolation ward in the "Merquez" Central hospital at Yanyk-Kychlm.

10. 11, 12. * * *

13. Every facility is to be given to the American mission for assisting poor or sick soldiers, whether by medicines, or food or treatment for the prisoners.

14. Those responsible for the care of the prisoners are to inform the head of the Anti-Epidemic service of the number of Turkish doctors, apothecaries and members of the ambulance service, and of the number of prisoners, in each group, in order that the sanitary personnel may be increased wherever it is necessary.

Signed: GENERAL MAJOR VASOV, head of the garrison.
VOLKOV, head of the general staff.
4. REPORTS OF THE SPECIAL DELEGATION SENT TO RODOSTO
BY THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE
The Disaster of Malgara

On July 1/14, in the morning, three officials and ten Bulgarian policemen gave back Malgara to Cheigh Ali Effendi, and then left the city which thus remained, as did the surrounding country, without any public defense and without authority, until noon on the following day.

This anarchial situation, as well as the danger threatened by the animosity of the Mussulmen and Christians, decided nearly sixty Armenians to emigrate hastily into Bulgaria. Several young girls obtained their parents' consent to join this company of emigrants on foot.

Following reports sent by Ali Effendi concerning the situation of the town, on Tuesday, July 2/15, at four o'clock, Turkish time, a part of the Ottoman troops advanced from Oludja and Kechan toward Malgara.

The Greek and Armenian clergy, several prominent people and a great crowd of the inhabitants hastened to meet the troops. Ali Effendi addressing the commander, expressed his joy at the return of the Ottoman army, which he welcomed warmly. The commander then called out in a very harsh voice to the crowd, "Get back, you cowards," instantly producing a very unpleasant impression upon the townspeople of Malgara.

Before the entry of the troops, there had been no sign of the populace, but now an ever increasing crowd accompanied the battalions as they advanced, to the growing anxiety of the Armenians.

According to information received, a third of the military force sent to Malgara belonged to the fourth corps of the army, and the whole force could not have numbered less than 35,000 men.

The populace began to excite the soldiers by repeating that the Bulgarians had done nothing, and that the people who had crushed the country were the native giaours—infidels. And several officers led by the bashi-basouks penetrated into the Armenian quarters and made observations on their own account. Monday and Tuesday passed without event, except one or two petty thefts. But on the morning of Wednesday, July 3/16, the attitude of the populace had become more menacing and aggressive. The market was almost entirely closed. At Bazirguian-Teharchi, several small Armenian shops were sacked.
Although, under protest of the shop keepers, the military authorities had forbidden pillage, yet no authoritative proclamation against it, capable of inspiring confidence among

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the Armenians, had been published, and no severe penalty attached to such acts. On the contrary, following the instructions of the commandant, on Tuesday and Wednesday the public criers twice called through the Armenian quarters that "those who had stolen objects belonging to the Mussulmen or who were in possession of arms were to give them up."

The military commander of the place, Mahmoud-bey, had the prominent Armenians brought before him, and shouted violently to them, "Armenian traitors, you have possessions and arms stolen from the Mussulmen." Furthermore, on the evening of the fourth day a sub-lieutenant declared openly to the Armenian soldiers, "You Armenians have helped the Bulgarians finely, and today or tomorrow you shall be rewarded."

Naturally all these things on the part of the officials added to the already intense excitement, and the proclamations of the criers incited the populace to the grossest misdeeds.

Terror stricken by these sinister indications of the catastrophe about to overtake them, the Armenians withdrew into their own quarters, expecting from moment to moment that the storm would burst.

On Wednesday at midnight, a part of the troops left the city. On Thursday morning, July 4/17, some soldiers commanded in violent and rough words that Bedros, of Rodosto, and Garaleet Minasian, of Malgara, should show them the way to Ouzoun-Kenpru. Garaleet, greatly alarmed, hid himself in his house. The pretext was found. Immediately a number of soldiers accompanied by a company of bashi-basouks went up to Minasian's house, and Ali Tchavoucheov Malgara set fire to it by means of torches soaked in petrol. He then set fire to the priest's house.

The officer second in command, Mustapha Pasha, appeared on the scene and asked what was the reason of the fire. He was told that the "Armenian refused to show the soldiers the way to Ouzoun-Kenpru." He gave vent to a burst of rage and called the Armenians by every vile name, "Race of scoundrels and rogues, swine like the Bulgarians, traitors," and so on.

While houses were burning in one quarter of the town, at the other end, in the market, towards eleven o'clock, murders were being committed with scarcely a pretense of excuse, and the people were plundering freely. The fire naturally gathered most of the Armenians together in that place, and may have been purposely meant to divert them from the further atrocities that were beginning. At this very time Yervante Pejichkian, Hadji Varteres, Tartar Oghlou Kevork, Toros Mameledjian, and others, were assassinated by Sououlon Osman Ogha, Emine Pehlivan Oghlon H'assan, Hassan Hodja, Mehmed Ali, etc. This fact is attested by Hadji Manuel and others, who were dangerously wounded in the course of this butchery. The wounded affirm, furthermore, that the order to kill was in the first instance given by an officer.

An Armenian covered with blood passed before Heldhed Ali Pasha, who appeared completely indifferent to the sight. The soldiers and the Mussulman population forced their way into the Armenian houses, situated on the outskirts of the town, and sacked them.

Thanks to the efforts of the Armenian soldiers in the army, the fire was got under control after twenty-three houses and all their contents had been destroyed, but the opportunity awaited for three days had now arrived.

The town was surrounded by a very considerable number of troops, and by several thousand bashi-basouks. Towards ten o'clock, Turkish time, fire broke out again in several different quarters of the market, and owing to the high wind, this new disaster had in a very little time assumed terrible proportions. Suddenly there was a noise of explosion and the Armenians imagined that the city had been bombarded by the Turks, who were thus exterminating the inhabitants, and on their side the Turkish population and the soldiers believed that the noise was caused by the explosion of bombs hidden in the Armenian

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shops. As a matter of fact, the fire had spread to the depots, where barrels of benzine, alcohol and other spirits were stored with the most appalling results.

The commission of inquiry sent by the Kaimakam and the Minister of the Interior, Talaat-bey, tried to explain these explosions by the bursting of bombs left by the Bulgarians. But no one has dared to assert that the Armenians employed bombs, and if the explosions had been caused by such things, the mosque situated close to the place would have been blown up, and half the town destroyed. And another significant fact omitted in the report of the commission is, that not even a wall was cracked by the force of these explosions.

Panic stricken by this new calamity, the Armenians, threatened by both fire and sword, rushed towards the gardens outside the town and there took refuge. The screams and terrified lamentations of the women and children were heart rending, and they huddled together in the open air, not knowing what impending horror might yet overtake them, victims of unspeakable anguish. Fortunately there were two military doctors and a few detachments of soldiers, who were able to be of some assistance to the wretched people.

It must not be forgotten that the Kaimakam, accompanied by the chief of police and a policeman, arrived the same day at Malgara, at eleven o'clock in the evening, Turkish time, and made some effort, useless however, to put out the fire. That night he appealed to the Armenian people to help extinguish the fire, but the women and children refused to be separated from the men and clung to their husbands and fathers and brothers. The Kaimakam then turned to the troops for assistance, but the commanding officer replied, "What does it matter to us, if the people most concerned are indifferent?" Here a soldier raised his hand against the Kaimakam whom he did not recognize.

The ruin made dreadful headway. Soldiers and bashi-basouks rushed into the houses and plundered them freely. A few Armenians who had the courage to approach their dwellings, to try to save a few of their belongings from the fire, were prevented from entering by the soldiers who called out, Yassak ("It is forbidden").

We even hear that several Armenians were arrested for this very natural act and are still detained under military authority.
At six o'clock in the evening, Turkish time, the Kaimakam returned to the Armenian refugees in the garden, and exhorted them again to lend their assistance in stopping the fire, himself guaranteeing their safety. Fifty or sixty young men volunteered at the risk of their lives to go, and thanks to theil efforts the fire was finally subdued.

The unfortunate people, of course, passed the night in the open air. The next day the bodies of the victims killed in the market place were deposited in the church yard.

Eight days after the catastrophe, no Armenian dared to venture near the places devastated by the fire. The ruins were still smoking and the Mussulman children were digging out various objects belonging to the Armenians and running off with them.
A week later the body of a well known Armenian of Malgara, called Bared Effendi Adjemian, was brought back to the city from a place about two and a half hours distant. The body shockingly mutilated had become almost unrecognizable.
We add to our report a list indicating the names of the twelve Armenians killed at Malgara, of the ten Armenians wounded, the eight lost and seven taken prisoners. The number of shops burnt was 218 and the number of houses eighty-seven.

The entire material loss amounts to £T80,000.

This catastrophe has totally ruined the Armenian population of Malgara. The refugees are camping on the heaps of rubbish and debris, and in their despair their one desire is to go as far away from their native land as possible.

July 17/30, 1913.

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5. THRACE

Deposition of Mr. Kristo M. Bogoyev, Head of the Administrative Section of the Military Government of Thrace

The residence of the governor was at Kirk Kilisse (Lozengrad) up to March 15 (old style). From March 19 on, it was transferred to Adrianople. Mr. Bogoyev remained at Adrianople down to the end of the Bulgarian occupation, leaving it in the last train. His evidence is concerned throughout with the last days of the occupation and the departure of the Bulgarians—July 7 and 8 (old style).

On July 6 at 6.30 p.m., the Turks having reached Ourii, I telegraphed to the ministry and the staff office for permission for the officials, refugees and such of the inhabitants as wished to do so, to leave Adrianople. Permission was received at 11.30. To avoid disturbing the population, we did not spread the news, and at midnight the cinematographs were still open in the Rechadie gardens and people went quietly home. Leaving on the morning of Sunday, July 7, between three and four in the morning with the chief of the finance section and the head secretary, we passed the night at Karmanly. I then learned that the Turks had not yet entered the town. We received by telegraph the order to return. On July 8, we were once more in Adrianople. As we returned I counted at Marache, from the window of my carriage, ten corpses of Turkish prisoners, a sight which made a deep impression on me. When I arrived at Karagatch, I inquired of the Captain Mihailov, in charge of the station, the cause of the massacres. Mihailov explained to me that a body of prisoners, fifty to sixty strong, was employed in the station as laborers on transhipment work, and lived in the barracks near the Arda bridge. The other prisoners, the larger number of those who had not yet been dispatched to Bulgaria, were housed in the place of the Ali-Pasha mosque, on the Tcharchi. After they had been left there up to two or three o'clock, they had been sent to Yambol. The group in question must have .been sent to Mustapha Pasha, under the escort of the militia (Opoltchenie). Under the supposition that the Turks had reached Adrianople, they endeavored to escape. The escort fired upon them.

After our departure on July 7, order was maintained by Major Morfov, who took the place of the commandant of the town, and by Lieutenant Colonel Manov. Eye witnesses have told me that even while the last trains were starting (there were eight of them on July 7), the Greek inhabitants began pillaging the depots. The number of the pillages grew rapidly. Firing on them was begun from the carriages of the last train but one, and two persons were killed with their spoil of caps, trousers, etc. Throughout the day of the 7th, Karagatch was without military or civil authorities. On July 8, the authorities reappeared and undertook a general search in the houses at Karagatch and the neighboring quarter of Adrianople. I learned that stolen arms and ammunition were found in various houses and that the thieves, the owners of the said houses, were shot to the number of twenty or thirty. This story was told me at the station on July 8, and confirmed by Mr. Morfov, whom I met on returning thither after an excursion in the town. I have no knowledge of the drowning affair. I do not say it is impossible but I am ignorant of it.
As to the period preceding our administration in Adrianople, I can say that we did regularly meet the demands of the mufti, who very frequently addressed himself to us. Ten days before our departure, the mufti asked us to restore the Sultan Selim mosque to the Mahometans. I replied: "The mosque is yours, but it will be difficult for us to safeguard it, and the moment for opening it has not yet come." We then telegraphed to the Tsar. Mr. Danev replied by ordering me to open the mosque so soon as it appeared to be possible to do so. I promised to do it on a date indicated by the Turks, that of the Ramazan festival, but when the permission had been given, I learned that the festival

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was over two days ago. On July 2, I was again asked to open the mosque to celebrate the festival. I refused, because the Turks were by that time approaching the Midia-Enos frontier. On July 3 or 4, the mufti again came to see me. I assured him that the mosque would be handed over to them, and that the Bulgarians would not destroy it. Thereupon the mufti said that after witnessing what the Mussulmen had suffered at the beginning of the Bulgarian occupation, he had thought the Bulgarians incapable of watching over the security of the Mussulmen. He was then on the point of departing for Constantinople. "But," he added, "thanks to you I have remained here. When you summoned me for the first time after your arrival from Kirk Kilisse, I was sure that you would receive me standing. But you made me sit down; you conversed with me for a whole hour and you told me that although you could not yourself do all that you would wish, you would nevertheless remain in order to fulfil your duty, and you invited me to follow your example. I remained. I find at present that you have really known how to take care of us. I have written in that sense to the Grand Vizier."

I know that Mr. Veltchev summoned the notables, and I am aware that he threatened them in the event of an insurrection breaking out. That was natural, in view of the insignificant number of our troops, lost in the midst of 50,000 Mussulman inhabitants.

As for the Greek bishop, his deposition (in the Machkov report) is given in bad faith. I have, personally, only had two letters from him: (1) He stated that an official had taken upon himself to pronounce a divorce between a husband and wife at Baba-Eski. As a matter of fact the case was that of a young man who was driven out of the house of his fiancee, after being entertained there for six months. The civil authorities intervened. (2) The Bulgarian priest by the Hildyrym quarter was accused of having forced children, by means of threats, to attend the Bulgarian school. This accusation was investigated and found to be false. I ought on the other hand to mention that six 'Ongarian rifles and a military costume were found .in the Greek church at Keviche-have. An incident which shows the state of mind of the Greek is that seven or eight days before the Bulgarian retreat, the lines of communication between Karagatch and the military administration were cut, and the culprits discovered to be Greeks disguised as Bulgarian soldiers.

Deposition of Major (Afferward Lieutenant Colonel) Mitov

He was appointed major by General Vasov, on the very day of the entry into Adrianople. At the end of four or five days he was promoted to be lieutenant commander and finally commander. He remained in the town down to June 14 (old style).

The explanation of the defective commissariat was. that the bridge had been destroyed and the depots burned. The Bulgarian soldiers themselves only got one loaf per day. General Vasov ordered a quarter of this ration to be deducted, and this was done by Commander Tsernowsky. The quarters were distributed during the first three days; the prisoners being divided into several bodies. I made a tour of inspection myself in the morning. People were not eating the bark of trees. Some bark had actually been cut off, but in order to make a fire; such was the origin of the legend. As a matter of fact after March 13, which was a fine day, we had a tempest in the night and floods of rain. I saw fires lit with my own eyes, and a shell, which happened to be too near, went off.

On the day of the entry of the troops, I witnessed touching scenes of the soldiers sharing their bread with the people. I even saw, indeed, men falling down in the roads from sheer weakness; during the last days of the siege the bakers sold bread only to the few rich people who could afford to buy it. It is true that on the island of Sarai the folk were so weak they could not even stand upright, and appeared the shadows of their former selves. People died but not by hundreds; there were thirty deaths on the first morning.

As to pillage, the following is what I saw of it: At the moment of the entry of our troops, on the morning of the 13th, I passed by the Young Turk club (in the house of

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Abouk-Pasha) and found there two carts, full of furniture; among other things there were brass bedsteads worth some thousand francs, mirrors, wardrobes and valuable articles of furniture. I drew my sword and tried to speak to the people, but as they spoke Greek we did not understand one another. Finally I drove them off. In a street a little further down a watchmaker was being pillaged. He cried out to me, "They are pillaging indoors." I ordered them to come out; three men came out and I struck one of them with the flat of my sword. The Turks cried out to me, "Bravo, aferim, sfendim, these are the 'Greeks'!" But there was no way of stopping the pillage. All the streets, the Sultan Selim mosque, the Konak were full of people, women, old men and children; everybody was carrying off his spoils, here a quilt, there something else. My order for the stolen goods to be thrown down was obeyed, but as soon as I had gone they were picked up and carried off again. I put a sentry at the Municipal Council house and there nothing was taken. On several occasions I entered the house of Turkish officers and saw civilians coming out; I was shot at three times. I sent out numerous patrols, but they were lost in the labyrinth of alleys. I then ordered the inhabitants to whistle to warn and summon the patrols. An instance will show the difficulty of putting a stop to pillage. I knew one of the Turkish officers who had been made prisoner, a certain Hasib-Effendi. A Greek, Yani by name, pillaged his house and stole his horses. In the same house another Turk was found with his head broken open. I ask, "Who has done this?" "A Greek from Kaik." "Who?" "I dare not say, I am afraid of being killed." "But I guarantee that no one shall injure you." "Unfortunately you can not concentrate all your attention on me alone." I assigned a sentinel to the family of Hasib-Effendi and they went to live elsewhere, in the baptches (gardens). Even there, a Greek occupied the same house and found means of carrying off all their ooats. Quantities of pillaged goods were found in all the Greek houses. Among these were the effects of Dolaver-bey, including his piano. Any number of people came before the Municipal Council to get certificates from the commandant that such and such goods had been purchased, but the price, far too low, proved clearly that the goods in question had been stolen by Greeks and Jews and re-sold.

When making my tour of the town, after the entry of the troops, I stopped before the Sultan Selim mosque. At the very entrance there were two female corpses. I placed a sentry at the entrance. Some Turkish families had taken refuge in the interior; I was told that there were as many as 4,000. They had brought their goods with them and bedding; "braziers" filled part of the mosque. They sent to ask me whether they could come forth. I gave permission and had them escorted to their homes by soldiers. When they left they put their belongings on carts. Among1 them' I saw some carpets. In reply to my formal question they stated that all the objects belonged to them. At this stage I was not aware that there was a library attached to the mosque. On the next day I learned that a second entry of the mosque led to this library. I immediately betook myself thither, found the drawers open, and all the books lying about pell mell. Some of the bindings were empty, the books having been torn out of them. I was told that all this was the work not only of Greeks and Jews, but even of Turks. The priests asked me to be allowed to keep the books, but I refused. It is said that some strangers took advantage of the opportunity of striking some excellent bargains. A very valuable Koran, among other volumes, is said to have been secured. Some days later, an officer, Pocrovsky, brought me some Turkish books in a sack, but they were ordinary ones whose origin I failed to discover. I had the Sultan Selim mosque shut and ordered that it was only to be open to the public from three to five daily.

I know nothing of the case of the captive Turkish officer, but I have seen a Bulgarian soldier supporting an enfeebled Turkish prisoner and helping him to walk. Nor do I know anything of the story of the pillage of a watchmaker's shop, but I did assign a sentinel to an Armenian optician who was afraid of being robbed, with successful results so far as

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he was concerned. In the same way I had Ali-pasha's bazaar shut for fifteen days, to prevent it being pillaged.

Finally I set a patrol there and the bazaar was as a matter of fact safeguarded. If some Turkish officers' houses were plundered, the local population is to blame, not the army. The owners of Turkish houses begged me on their knees to give them Bulgarian officers as lodgers, and I sent them several. On the other hand the Greek population of the "new quarter" refused to put up any officers, and it was there that disorders took place.

I know Greek houses where the owners gave money and wine, and where the women offered themselves to the Bulgarian soldiery in return for their protection against pillage, and in some cases with success. I know too that a Greek of the Kaihm quarter put on Bulgarian uniforms to go pillaging in. I ordered the thieves to be arrested, but during my stay in Adrianople, not a single one was caught. There was to my knowledge one case of outrage, that of a gamin by a Greek on the Karagatch bridge. The culprit was arrested and punished. No outrage was committed by our soldiers.

In order to facilitate the feeding of the poor, I called the head of the fournadjis (bakers) before me on the second day and supplied him with meal, ordering him to make bread and sell it at fifteen centimes the loaf. Meal was distributed free to the poor; I myself assisted therein. I caused a list of the families of Turkish officers to be drawn up and sent meal and money to their houses.

6. ADRIANOPLE Mr.

Chopov, Head of the Police at Adrianople

Mr. Chopov was accused by the "Russian official," Mr. Machkov, of having himself sent to Sofia, through a Russian subject, three bales of stolen carpets. He came before the Commission personally and made the following deposition with regard to the pillage of Adrianople and the particular facts as to which he was accused:

On March 14, two days after the capture of Adrianople, Delaver-bey, a rich Turk, ex-mayor of the town, appeared before me and lodged a complaint on the score of the pillage of his house. I caused investigation to be made, and restored him the whole of his furniture which was discovered in Greek houses. The Greeks complained of the domiciliary visits undertaken at the request of Delaver-bey. Other beys— Berkham-bey, Derghili Mustapha, Hadji Abram, etc., told me that the cattle of their tchifliks, near Adrianople, had been stolen and that they feared the attempted destruction of the houses in the villages and of the crops. I sent soldiers to guard them and they collected the stolen cattle, discovered in the neighboring villages, Greek and Bulgarian. Delayer and Berkham complained of disturbance in the night. I provided them with watchmen. I visited the Turks in their houses to restore their confidence, told them they might wear the fez and continue to move about freely. I did everything in my power to restore Adrianople to its normal aspect in three days. I assembled Greeks, Turks and Jews, to bid them be at ease.
As to the "stolen" carpets, I did as a matter of fact buy some sedjade (carpets) of small size, in the shop of Fethi-Aga at Roustein-Pasha-Khan, and paid fourteen Napoleons for them. I also bought some from Osman (Roustein-Pasha-Khan) for sixteen Napoleons, and from a Jew of Besistein for eleven Napoleons. I made one package of all these carpets and had them taken straight from Fethi-Aga's shop to the counting house of Demetriadis. Witnesses to these facts are Isaac Demetriadis, George Doukidis, Avigdor Abraham Effendi, Patchavre Djemoise, all of them bankers or business men of Roustein-Pasha-Kahn, and present when I made my purchases. I bought the carpets as presents, and gave them to my friends at Sofia. When I heard that I was being accused in Adrianople of having stolen some carpets, I went there to call for an inquiry. I went to the Juge d'Instruction at the Court of Appeal in Philippopoli. An inquiry was held, and the charges dismissed.

At the Hotel de Ville I opened a depot for things stolen by the Greeks. Carts full of stolen goods were brought thither. For example, I saw two stolen pianos

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being brought. While safeguarding the property of the inhabitants of Adrianople, I refused the request of .the Bulgarian consul, Kojouharov, for an inquiry on the property stolen from him, simply because he being a Bulgarian, I was afraid we should be accused of partiality. I carried out the order issued by Savov and Danev, permitting high Turkish officials to leave Adrianople to go to Constantinople. In this connection I went to the Vali, Chalil-bey, and asked him to draw up a list of officials. I had them divided into groups, and gave them an escort as far as Dede-Agatch. Khalil thanked me politely and the Turkish press recognized the humanity of our conduct to the Turks. In the end it was actually made the subject of reproach that I let the officials go instead of keeping them as hostages, whereas I simply carried out the orders of the general quarter.
Some days after the capture of the town, I acceded to the request of the mufti that three or four mosques should be opened for worship. I placed sentries, in order that the prayers might not be disturbed, for about two hours after dinner time. The commander Mitov drove off some two or three Servian officers, who began burning and destroying fine Korans in the Sultan Selim library. After that the mosque was shut, only opening after four o'clock in the afternoon. All the carpets were collected and rolled together. They remained intact throughout the time of my being in Adrianople. A fire broke out in a minaret, after which I allowed no one to go up.


Statement of the Chairman of the Bulgarian Committee at Adrianople

Among the charges not mentioned in printed articles is one against the Bulgarian committee which had to distribute the loads of merchandise among the wholesale dealers. In Adrianople, "jars of wine," abstracted by members of the committee, were talked of. A member of the Commission informed the persons responsible for the government oi Adrianople of this accusation, and the head of the said committee, Mr. Lambrev, an advocate, appeared before us and made the following deposition:

I was Chairman of the Committee for distributing the loads of merchandise over the whole area of the newly conquered territory. The other members associated with me were Professors Boutchev and Chichov. I defy anyone who accuses us of having appropriated a cent to appear, in order that I may sue him for libel. It was our business to study the needs of the population of the whole zone of Adrianople, Xanthry, Tchataldja, Kirk Kilisse. We went to all the villages on the railway line and here we sent for the merchants and in their presence commandeered the necessary wagons and goods of different kinds (petrol, sugar, salt, groceries, etc.). At first we only had ten, afterwards fifteen wagons. As stated above, we commandeered them in the presence of all the merchants, without distinction of nationality or religion. An exception to the general rule was made at Dede-Agatch. We made an arrangement of sale and return, according to which we could sell the goods to the best advantage. In this way we were able to secure the people a supply of sugar at forty-five centimes per ancient oka (1 kil. 280 gr.). From the beginning of March on, we issued a license at the rate of fr. 500-1,000 per wagon; 2,000 at Kirk Kilisse. This license served as a guarantee of the strict fulfilment of undertakings and secured the right_ of reselling the merchandise at a fixed price. The money was deposited and receipts given at the central offices in Kirk Kilisse, Dede-Agatch and Adrianople; it was repaid on presentation of certificates granted by the commanders and mayors of the towns to the effect that the conditions had been fulfilled. There was only one case in which the license had to be confiscated after an inquiry, and there the wholesale merchant had sold the goods exclusively to his friends without notifying the mayor. We telegraphed to the mayors to regulate the selling price, allowing fifteen per cent profit, and the quantity to be sold, and to prevent cornering by a few buyers. The retail price lists were fixed in the same way. For example, a wholesale price of forty-seven cents corresponded to a retail price of sixty cents. About June 20 (old style), when military operations recommenced, there were seven or eight wagon loads of meal to distribute between three and four Greek and Bulgarian merchants, destined for Serres and Drama. The licenses were issued, but three days later all traffic was interrupted. A period of eight days elapsed before it was resumed, during which the licenses remained in the mairie under the charge of Mr. Neutchev, secretary to the mayor of Adrianople; the money to be refunded on presentation of the receipts. A single case of attempted corruption came under our notice. About the month of March, someone sent in a
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postal packet a sum of fr. 1,000. Mr. Boutchev threw the package and the money out of the window of the carriage with a forcible expletive. The attempt was not repeated; the system of distribution in fact made it impracticable. The system was as follows: We had, for example, six wagons to divide among 130 persons. We discovered at the Tchardu what goods were at the moment most needed. Next we ruled out all the dealers who were not merchants. Suppose there were eighty persons left. We divided the wagons among them equally, by making each group, composed of some seventeen to twenty persons, select one to three representatives, who then undertook to make the purchases for all. The procedure was recorded in an official document signed by all the members of the Committee.
APPENDIX H
Documents Relating to Chapter III

THEATER OF THE SERVIAN-BULGARIAN WAR

I. SERVIAN DOCUMENTS

Mutilation of officers and soldiers by the Bulgar army.

1. Reports addressed to the Staff-Office of Uskub, in reply to circular No. 7,669, of June 20.

(1) The commander of the first Moravian division, of the first reserve, relates the following facts in his report, No. 3,310, of the 20th inst.
The first regiment of infantry relates that in the course of the battle near Trogartsi, our dead were found with the organs cut out. Several were mutilated, and the son of the treasurer of the regiment, Vekoslay Zuvits, had been cut to pieces with knives.

(2) The second regiment of infantry recounts, that after the fight of the 18th, on height 650, after the first Bulgar attack, our wounded soldiers on the battlefield were mutilated and stabbed by the Bulgars. It has been learned that all the following were stabbed; the second lieutenant of reserve, Milan Ristovits, sergeant Milovan Laketits, corporals Stevan Peshits and Echedomir Dimitrijevits, soldiers Radomir Georgevits, Mitar Milenkovits, Tsvetan Dikits, Milan Mitkovits, George Mihailovits, Boshko Limits Randjel Marinkovits, Antonie Georgevits, Dragntin Georgevits, and the corporal Obrad Filipovits.

(3) Of the third regiment, the wounded were all on our side of the battlefield, therefore none of them were either mutilated or stabbed.

(4) In the fifth regiment, it has been proved that those wounded in the course of the battle on the 17th and 18th, on height 650, were mutilated by the Bulgarians. This was reported to the commandant of the Drina division, first reserve.

(5) The sixteenth regiment of infantry recounts that near the village of Dobrsham, during the retreat of the 17th instant, the Bulgarian comitadjis threw themselves on the wounded, robbed and killed them.
No. 3,595. (Telegram sent from Chtipe, June 30.)
By order of the Chief Staff Officer commanding, Colonel Dushan J. Peshits.

2. On account of certain movements and combats in which certain divisions are engaged, the only replies received are those of the commandant of cavalry, and of the commandant of the Drina division: first reserve: Milesh Veliki. Knowing that this information is necessary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, we shall forward it as soon as received to the General Staff Office. The commander of the cavalry, as well as his staff major, were not witnesses of any mutilation of the dead, or of the wounded, by the Bulgars, but infantry officers have given them terrible details. The commander of the Drina division sends the following reply. No. 875, dated 23d instant:

In reply to order No. 3,310 of the Commandant of the Third Army Corps, I have the honour to affirm that, during the combats of the 17th and 18th instant, the Bulgars mutilated our wounded. Andjelko Yovits of the quick firing section of the
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regiment of infantry, "King Milan," had his head opened, his ears and nose cut off, then he was set at liberty and is still living. Miloye Nikohts, of the second company, fourth battalion, fifth regiment of infantry, who was wounded in the thigh, received a sword thrust in the neck and in the arm. Stanislas Aleksits, of the same company, who was wounded in the foot, was struck in the neck and in the cheek. These last two were still alive when they were taken to the field hospital, where they recounted what had happened. A wounded captain, George Mandits, was also wounded by a knife thrown at his head. Captain Yovan Gyurits, commanding company two, fourth battalion, who was buried under a pile of stones by a howitzer and remained on the battlefield which the Bulgars occupied for a time, affirms personally that he heard the Bulgar soldiers disputing among themselves whether or not they would kill our wounded. Then a Bulgar officer came up and said to kill them. I have not received any other report from the commander of the sixth regiment, where certain like occurrences have certainly taken place. I send these reports at once on account of their urgency, not waiting for the report of the sixth regiment, which I shall send as soon as received.
Commanding Staff Officer, Third Army,

General Bozsha Yankovits.
No. 3,403. (Telegram sent from Hamzeli, July 24/August 2.)
3. A soldier of our company, Lioubomir Spasits, of the village of Kievats district of Masuritsa, department of Vranie, recounts the following:
On June 17, in the course of the battle against the Bulgars, on the height which overlooks the military huts of Gorni Nogartsi, towards six o'clock in the afternoon when our troops were retiring, I did not see them firing, being behind a rock. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by Bulgarian soldiers, who seized me, snatched away my carbine, and led me before their commander. He and another officer questioned me about our troops, our fortifications, where they were placed, etc. I replied that I knew nothing. Then they led me away. In the evening, the same officer came again and asked me the same questions about the Servian army. As I replied again that I knew nothing, he began to beat me, to jump at my throat with gross language. Then he searched me and took twenty francs and continued to beat me about the head till I lost consciousness.
Next day, the 18th, they gave me a rifle and some cartridges, and ordered me to fire on our troops. As I refused, the officer again struck me. To escape this, I fired, but in the air. When he saw this, he hit me again about the head, abusing me, then obliged me to stand within range of our own guns, so that I should be killed by our soldiers. By an extraordinary piece of luck, I was not struck. The same afternoon, when they saw our troops advance, the Bulgars began to flee. They took me, and I remained all the time with them, till a shrapnel burst beside me. Then my guards took to flight, and I remained stretched in the corn. When they saw from a distance that I was still alive, they fired at me, but I succeeded in escaping. I have forgotten to say that at the time I was made prisoner, there was a soldier of our company near me, Peter Radovanovits, of Masuritsa, district of Masuritsa, department of Vranie. He was wounded in the leg. The Bulgars gashed him with knives, insulted him and said it was better worth while to kill that Servian dog than drag him behind them. Commandant Captain Sheten Petrovits,

By order of Commanding Staff Officer,

Colonel Dushan J. Peshits.
No. 3,667. (Telegram sent to Sokolartsi, 7 July.)
4. Received from Commanding Officer, Timok Division, Second Reserve, report following No. 1,057, dated 21st instant:
In reply to order No. 4,100 of the 19th instant, I have the honor to relate the following concerning the atrocities committed by the Bulgar army:
(1) In our division.
(a) Thirteenth regiment: Arandjel Zivkovits, of Metovitsa, district of Zaietchar, department of Timok, soldier of the second company, fourth battalion, recounts that while his regiment gave up its position close to the military huts of Shobe, June 21,

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thirty soldiers of this regiment were surrounded by Bulgars. The leader, a sergeant of the Bulgar troops, wished to kill them then and there, after taking their watches and money. But he at last in response to the prisoners entreaties, let them go, but gave the order to fire upon them as they ran, so that half of them fell dead and the rest were wounded.
(b) Fourteenth regiment: The commander of the second battalion heard from wounded soldiers, eye witnesses of the facts, that at the battle of Krivolak, the Bulgars wounded our second lieutenant, Voislav Spirits, who was lying dangerously wounded.
Marian Dimts, soldier of the first company, third battalion, reports that on June 19, at the battle of Pepelishte, he saw the Bulgars cut off the head of a wounded Servian soldier.
Milan Matits of the fourth company, same battalion, recounts that he saw a Bulgarian soldier transfix one of our wounded with a bayonet.
Randjel Nikohts, of the first company, third battalion, saw a Bulgar soldier strike a badly wounded Servian soldier on the head and crush it in.
Stoian Aleksits of the second company, third battalion, saw a Bulgar hit the wounded Aleksa Nikolits with a sword, until he died.
Svetozan Miloshevits, second company, fourth battalion, taken prisoner at the battle of Pepelishte, but who later succeeded in escaping, saw the Bulgars pierce twenty of our men with knives.
Aleksa Ristits, second company, fourth battalion, says that at the battle of Krivolak, June 21, he saw a Servian volunteer who had been badly hurt and whose eyes had been put out.
Milivoie Niloikovits, second company, fourth battalion, says that June 21, at the extremity of our right wing, he saw the Bulgars striking a wounded Servian officer with their muskets. Then they struck him with knives.
Marko Milanovits, third company, third battalion, recounts that on the morning of June 20, after the battle of Pepelishte, the Bulgars forced the commander of the fourth company, third battalion, Zivoin Budimirovits, captain of reserve, who had been taken prisoner, to give the order to six men to take off their uniforms. The uniforms and the money they had with them, were seized by the Bulgars. Then the men were led, bare-foot and shivering with cold, to the firing-line. Three were killed; all the others were found injured.

(c) Fifteenth regiment:
Zivoin Miloshevits, first company, first battalion, relates that on June 21, he and twenty others were taken prisoners at Shobe. They were handed over to a Bulgar sergeant and six soldiers. The sergeant asked them for money in exchange for their liberty, and those who had any were allowed to go. Zivoin Miloshevits and Bozidar Savits, both from Rashevitsa, had no money. Their tongues were cut. The other men were cut to pieces. They were found dead.
Tchedomir Bogdanovits was tied, then cut in pieces.
Sergeant Kosta Damianovits, fifth company, fifth battalion, taken prisoner at Shobe on June 21, bought his liberty from a Bulgar sergeant. He saw two Bulgar soldiers stab and beat the following Servian prisoners, all of the same battalion:
Svetozar Stanishits of Obredja, Adam loksimovits of Sovinovo and Alexandre Matits of Katuna.
Sergeant Padovan Radovanovits, military intendant, reports that on June 21, at the battle of Krivolak, he saw Bulgar soldiers pierce a wounded Servian with their bayonets and fire upon another badly wounded man.
Milan Miloshevits, second company, third battery, reports that on June 21 he was taken prisoner at Shobe by the Bulgars, and that after he and some others had bought their liberty by giving money to a Bulgar officer of low rank, they had been permitted to go free, but had been fired upon as they fled, and several had been killed.
Zivko Pantits, fourth company, third battalion, reports that on June 17, he saw Bulgars stabbing a wounded Servian soldier with their bayonets.
Lioubomir Milosavevits, fifth company, same battalion, relates that when the Servian troops retreated, he remained in hiding. He was two days crouched in a ditch, where he saw a dead Servian whose eyes had been torn out.
Corporal Zivadits Milits, of the first company, same battalion, relates that above the village of Dragovo, as our troops advanced, he saw beside a hut a dead Servian soldier, who had been tied to a stake with wire and roasted.

359
Sheten Mikolits, same company, same battalion, reports that on June 19, he saw lieutenant of reserve, Michel Georgevits, lying dead by the roadside, completely naked, with four wounds in the breast and one in the jaw.
Arsenie Z'ivkovits, third company, same battalion, reports that on June 17, he saw Bulgar soldiers tossing a Servian prisoner in the air on their bayonets, and ivhen he fell on the ground they shot him with their rifles.
The captain of reserve, Pera Tutsakovits, commanding second company, fourth battalion, reports that on June 18, he saw a Servian soldier who had been tied to a stake and roasted.
(d) Half battalion of engineers:
Milivoie Vasits, engineer, reports that on June 21, at the right wing of the position close to the Shobe manufactory, the Bulgars took him prisoner with twenty other soldiers and two officers of the fourteenth regiment. The officers were placed apart, while the soldiers were led in front of the army and fired upon. Many prisoners fell dead. He and three others were seriously wounded.

(2) Montenegrin Division.
The commander of this division reports that Lieutenant lovan Trehishianin, of Lopushima, who fell on the 9th instant at Godevari, was found on the 18th with a ball in the left side of his breast, his throat gashed, and his stomach pierced with a a bayonet. The Bulgarians had taken his boots, socks, gaiters, and trousers.
By order of the Commandant,

Assistant Chief-of-Staff,
Lieutenant-Colonel Milan Gr. Milanovits.
No. 4,147. (Telegram sent from Sokolartsi, July 22.)
5. From the commander of the army cavalry, I have received the following report, dated 19th instant:
Conforming to order 04° 4,100 of the commandant, dated 19th instant, I have the honor to transmit the following information:
(1) Cavalry-captain Dushan Dimitrijevits, acting-commandant of the second reserve of cavalry, of Timok, affirms that on the 17th, he saw with his own eyes, Bulgars on the fortifications of Garvanski. tossing a wounded Servian soldier on the points of their bayonets, crying "Hurrah," when the wretched man howled and writhed in agony. The same fact is confirmed by the commandant of the first squadron, Captain Miliya Veselinovits, and his sergeant, George Popovits.
(2) The commandant of the second squadron of cavalry. Captain Spira Tcha-kovski, swears to having seen the roasted body of a Servian soldier, on June 25, north of the village of Kara Hazani.
(3) The commander of cavalry, quick-firing section. Captain Dimitriye Tchemirikits, swears to have seen two roasted bodies, one near the camp of Shobe, the other near the village of Krivolak. Whose bodies they were or who had burnt them, he could not say. Farther on, he affirms that four of our wounded of the fifteenth regiment had their wounds dressed by Bulgarian doctors and were then taken to a Bulgar hospital, where there were four healthy soldiers, forgotten, who had been condemned to death by the Bulgars. Thanks to a Bulgar sergeant, the wounded men succeeded in escaping. They relate that during the time they were in hospital, the wounded Bulgars used to show their wounds and say: "Look at the work of your bombs." Nothing else to point out in this section.
From the commandant of the Moravian division, cavalry, first reserve, nothing noted concerning Bulgarian cruelties.
(4) The commandant of the Moravian division, cavalry, second reserve, reports that the patrols found the mutilated bodies of our soldiers in several localities. The hands were cut off, the skin flayed off the back, the head and legs removed. All the preceding is forwarded as the continuation of the reports sent in earlier.
The Commandant,
General Bozsha Yankovits. No. 9.206.
No. 4,111. (Telegram sent from Sokolartsi, July 20.)
6. The commandant of Moravian division, first reserve, sends the report No. 924, dated June 29, as the continuation of report No. 852 of June 26. The following reports have been sent by the first regiment of infantry:
360

(1) In passing the positions where the combat took place between the Bulgar and the Timok division, second reserve, we found the mutilated bodies of some of our soldiers. One of them had his head cut off, the body was buried under a pile of stones and we could not find the head. The face of another had been completely skinned. Another had his eyes torn out, another was roasted.
(2) On the positions between the camps of Shobe and Toplika, where the first battalion had marched in advance on June 24 and 25, we encountered frightful examples of mutilation of Servian soldiers, killed or wounded during the battle. Some had their eyes put out, others the nose and ears mangled, and the mouth slit from one ear to another. Others were shamefully mutilated, the stomach cut open and the entrails outside.
By order of the Commander General Staff,

D. J. Peshits.
No. 3,594. (Telegram sent from Chtipe, July 30.1
7. The Commander of the Danube division, first of the reserve, reports the following:
The commander of the seventh regiment of infantry affirms: Occupying the positions Retki Buki, I found that the soldiers of the third regiment, second reserve, had been massacred. There were more than twenty corpses with the head split in two.
The commander of the eighteenth regiment of infantry of the first reserve, sends the report of the commander of the second company, fourth battalion, same regiment, which runs as follows:
On the 19th of this month I met Voeslhav Markovits, second lieutenant of the third regiment, seriously wounded. I am not sure of his first name, but the family name is correct.
Description: Dark, thick mustache and black beard, blue eyes; wounded in the breast; he was found stretched on a hand-cart. In reply to my questions, he related as follows: I was wounded three days ago. I fell on the battlefield in the wood. Very soon an ambulance patrol of Bulgars came up, took my watch out of my pocket, my revolver, my field glasses, all my money, and my epaulettes. Two other Bulgar ambulance men came up afterwards, and they also searched me. I begged both parties to take me to their surgeons, but they refused. This officer states that the Bulgars killed four wounded soldiers that they saw on the road, and that they did the same with the Servian prisoners.
The commandants of the other regiments, have had no cases of our men killed, wounded, or maltreated by the Bulgars.
By order of the Commandant,

Colonel Peshits.
No. 1,408. (Telegram from Gradichte, July 19.)
8. Report of the commission named by order of the commandant of the first company, third battalion, first regiment of infantry, regiment of Prince Nilosh the Great:
The undersigned members examined the carbonized body of a soldier, at five o'clock in the afternoon, on the Tcheska positions. They swear to the following:
(1) The man was a Servian soldier; this was confirmed by the remains of a Servian uniform found near the corpse, a sword, a cartridge box, ammunition, a coat very much burned, and a fragment of tunic.
(2) Close to the carbonized corpse, we found a bloody bandage, proving that the man was wounded when he fell into the hands of the Bulgars, and was thus burnt.
(3) In examining the ground where the man had been burnt, the commission noticed that it had been trampled and dug up, a proof that the unfortunate man had struggled desperately against his murderers.
(4) Half burnt letters found near the body, informed us that the name of the victim was Marin, of Raduivatz, that he belonged to the first company, third battalion, thirteenth
361

regiment, second reserve. All his body with the exception of the heels was absolutely charred.

There are other equally dreadful facts. The Bulgars in many cases tore out the eyes of Servians who fell into their hands.
June 25, 1913. Signed by four members of the commission, three officers and a soldier, general staff, third army.

No. 3,665. By order, Commandant Chief-of-Staff,

Colonel Dushan J. Peshits.
(Telegram sent from Sokolartsi, July 4.)
9. The commandant of the Danube detachment of cavalry, first reserve, tells us that one of the men. killed during the battle, or assassinated after it, had his eyes torn out.
Kosta Petchanats, second regiment of infantry, second reserve, reports that a second lieutenant, a Bulgar, judge in his profession, struck a wounded soldier on the head with his sword. He ordered that the man's hands should be broken, and the fingers crushed between stones. Personally, I have not been a witness to a single one of these cruelties. The arbitration doctor, Dr. Petrovits, reports the preceding, conforming to order No. 7,569.

By order of the Commandant,

Dr. Vladisavlievits.
(Telegram sent from Tsrni-Vrh, July 9.)
10. Collected July 24, 1913, in the ambulance offices of the Danube company, first reserve of Konopnitsa:
The second lieutenant of reserve, first company, second battalion, seventh infantry regiment, second reserve, Mihailo Stoyanovits, just brought in today wounded, reports the following:

On June 21 during the battle, I was struck in the left leg and heel, by a ball. Unable to move, I had to stay where I was. Then some Bulgar soldiers came, and two of them began to rob me. They took from me a leather purse containing 115 francs, a watch worth forty-eight francs, a leather pouch, an amber cigarholder, an epaulette, a whistle, a box of matches, my cap and its cockade. Having taken all these, they made ready to go, but one of them said, "Let us kill him now!" Then he sharpened his knife against his gun and gave me three gashes, two on the left, one on the right. The other gave me a strong blow on the leg and in the right ribs. A third Bulgar came up and hit me with his musket in the chest. Then they departed. Received by Lieut. Colonel Zarko Trpkovits.

II. THE MEDICAL REPORTS

1. Proces-verbal of the inquiry concerning the body of Radomit Arandjelovits, lieutenant-colonel fourth infantry regiment (supplementary) killed on the 9th instant, fighting the Bulgars in the place called Velcki Govedarmik.
The inquiry took place under the porch of St. Nicholas church at Kumanovo, in the presence of the district prefect, Mr. Ranko-Trifunovits, Mr. Henri Barby, correspondent for the Paris Journal, Mr. Kutchbach, correspondent of the Leipsiger Zeitung and the Berliner Tageblatf, and of Dr. Reverchon, surgeon at the military hospital of Val-de-Grace at Paris. The corpse has been photographed.
A. External Examination
(1) Body measuring 1.87, very swollen from decomposition, rigidity of death absent, head blackening, greenish-yellow from decomposition.
362 REPORT OF THE BALKAN COMMISSION
(2) Right ear crushed, superior side, disclosing wound about two cent. in diameter, with irregular edge. Wound has penetrated to the skull, also crushed at this spot. The wound has no second opening.
(3) The head almost completely bald, the few remaining hairs fall if skin is touched.
(4) Below the right eyebrow, an irregular round spot about seven cent. in diameter, where the skin has dried up, beneath it traces of hemorrhage.
(5) On the line of the third rib, left side, five cent. from the sternum, an oblique wound, four cent. by five'cent., edges fine and clean, soaked with blood; if the edges of the wound are cut, a flow of blood in the pectoral tissue is disclosed. In depth this wound extends to the third rib which is crushed.
(6) Right, two cent. below the elbow, two wounds with clean fringed edges, three cent. by two cent. If edge is cut across, signs of hemorrhage beneath the skin. Both wounds connect by a large canal; a quantity of blood in the tissue.
(7) Inferior region of the stomach, four cent. below the symphysis, one cent. to the right of the median line, an opening almost circular, with flat edges, going deep into the flesh. Round this opening, a black circle, two cent. wide, full of blood.
Right of the back, below the eleventh rib, a round wound one cent. in width, flat edges, round which three cent. of skin have dried off, showing hemorrhage. The wound penetrates to the eleventh rib, which is crushed. Six cent. below the left hip, a corresponding wound.
On the right side of the axis of the back, level with the eighth rib, an oblong sore, one by one and one-half, surrounded by a black ring, in which section reveals hemorrhage. The edges crushed. Left side, along the line of the back, beneath the omoplate, a wound more or less round, one cent. long, going deeply into the flesh. Fifteen cent. below, another, level with the thirteenth rib.
B. Conclusions
The colonel bears traces of four balls, and two bayonets and daggers.
Three of the shots have been fired at long range, causing serious wounds, but none of them mortal.
The fourth ball, fired with the rifle, or more likely revolver, directly touching the ear, caused grave lesions in the heart. This was a mortal wound.
The two bayonet wounds seem to have been made by one blow.
(a) In the pericardiac region, a violent blow.
(b) In the forearm at the height of the third rib. The colonel's right arm was as if nailed to his breast, by a violent bayonet thrust. Scientifically it may be affirmed that the colonel, grievously wounded but living, was killed by a shot fired close to his head, and by a bayonet thrust in 'his heart.
Kumanovo, July 15/28, 1913.
Signatures.
2. Proas-verbal of the examination held in the place where nine of our soldiers are buried, at the foot and behind Talambas.
Conforming to order No. 2,501, dated July 14, of the commandant of the second army, a commission came today to examine the localities, to discover signs of the massacre and mutilation of our soldiers of Chuka and Gorina, massacres committed by the Bulgars upon those of our wounded who fell during the engagement which lasted from the 9th to the 12th instant, and who were unable to fight in retreat.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the order was given to exhume nine of our soldiers buried at the foot of Talambas. According to the staff surgeon Yovan Tsvakovits, eight
APPENDICES 363
of these soldiers had been buried on the 13th instant, and another on the 14th. After the exhumation, the commission examined each of the nine corpses. The results of this examination are given below:
(a) Swko Tsvaits, of Ponora, Nishavski district, department of Pirot, soldier of the second company, second battalion, third infantry regiment, third reserve, wounded at Chuka during the engagement of the 9th instant, has the following wounds: a shot in the left side, two fingers below the line of the abdomen where the entrance of the ball may be seen. The wound traverses the muscles and comes out at the back.
(b) There are two bayonet wounds, one at the right across the pupil and the skin of the arch of the left eyebrow to the forehead, four by five, the second, which begins at the left nostril, cuts across the whole left side of the upper lip and penetrates the mouth.
(c) Five wounds. All the left side of the head scalped; the skin of the cheek, ear and neck, burnt; burnt hair still to be seen.
Wound (a) was not mortal and could have been cured; (b) and (c) mortal and of frightful violence, because the shot fired from a distance made the man incapable of self-defence. So the wounds (b) and (c) must have been made at very close range, (b) with a military knife, (c) by setting fire.
Yanko Milenovits, of Aldinats, Zaglasvki district, department of Timok, served in the third company, second battalion, third infantry regiment, third reserve. Wounded at Chuka during the engagement of the 9th instant. The following wounds were found on his body:
(a) A rifle bullet had entered the middle of the thigh, had broken the bone and come out behind, below the knee.
(b) A wound made on the right side, outside the femur, wound ten by three. Here the skin was only torn, as also the flesh close to the skin.
(c) Wound of the gonar. Torn by a sharp instrument, wound three cent. by one-half cut.
(d) Wounds caused by the butt of a rifle on the left omoplate. The bruises two cent. wide. Head disfigured by blows of the same kind, several bones of the skull crushed.
Wound (a) serious, leaving the man defenceless, but not mortal, (b) a wound inflicted violently at close range, (c) a violent blow. The wounds in the head were by themselves mortal, and had killed the man.
Milosar Andjelkovits, of Gortchintsa, Luinitcha district, Pirot department, served in the third company, second battalion, third infantry regiment, third reserve. Fell wounded during the Chuka engagement, on the 9th instant. The following wounds were found on him:
(a) On the lower part of the right thigh, in front, a wound three by five. The bone not reached. It is possible that this wound was caused by a ball from a gun or by shrapnel.
(b) Burns; the right half of the head burnt, as well as the hair and skin of the left cheek, nose and eye torn out.
Wound (a) was not mortal, and could have been cicatriced, but it prevented the man from making any movement. The other injury (b) was inflicted after (a) and must have been violent.
Peisha Stankovits, of Velcki Boninats, Luinitchki district, Pirot department, serving in the third company, second battalion, third infantry regiment, third reserve, wounded during the Chuka engagement, 9th instant. The following wounds were found on him:
(a) Below the omoplate, in front, a wound 11^ by 11^, with no second issue. This wound could have been caused by a ball from a rifle of powerful calibre, or by shrapnel. This wound prevented the man from moving.
(b) About four fingers above the right eyebrow going towards the right, across the
364 REPORT OF THE BALKAN COMMISSION
whole head, a deep wound, ten by one, touching the brain, the skull being crushed. This wound was produced by a violent blow with some blunt instrument, and was mortal.
Stanko Dimitrievits, of Linova, Luinitchki district, Pirot department, served in the third company, second battalion, third infantry regiment, third reserve, was wounded in the Chuka engagement, 9th instant. The following wounds were observed:
(a) On the right femur, a wound caused by a gun cartridge, with an issue twelve cent. lower down. This wound was slight, only the muscle being touched, but it prevented any movement.
(b) The skull nearly entirely crushed, even the part above the brain knocked out; it may be inferred that this wound was caused by the butt of a gun or similar weapon because the edges of the wound were stuck with scraps of bone and scraps of skin.
There was no trace of wounds caused by violence on the other four bodies which had been exhumed.
After the examination, it was unfortunately impossible to get good photographs of the bodies, on account of the fog and rain. It was attempted, but without success.
In conclusion, I may be permitted to state that we have learned from the commandant of the Talambas section, the doctor Major Yovan Tsvetkovits, and Yovan Popovits, chaplain of the third regiment of infantry, third reserve, that the persons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, remained in the hands of the enemy during our retreat.
Signatures.
The whole of this Proces-verbal has been translated into German before being signed, and submitted to the doctor of the Swiss mission, Lieut. Colonel Doctor Yervin, who signed the German text.
Talambas, July 15/28, 1913.
III. DESTRUCTION OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES
General Staff, Third Army. Telegram from Sokolartsi, No. 4,137, Uskub, July 21, 1913, to the general staff:
I have received from the commandant of the Moravian division, second reserve, the following report. No. 2,427, dated 20th instant:
1. The villages of Kletovo, Tursko, Rudare, Neokazi, Bunesh, Raitchani, Spantchevo, Gorantse, Rotchane, Oridare, Grdovtse, Yakimova, Vinitsa, Vsti Bania and Tsrni Kamen, are almost all burnt, and the houses are in ruins. All property has been destroyed or robbed, so much so that the fugitives returning to their villages find nothing there. All this has been occasioned by the Bulgars, in the course of their retreat.
2. All the Moslem population who succeeded in escaping from the Bulgar swords and bullets, have fled into the mountains;. They are returning now, little by little, to the ruins of their former domiciles. The Christian population, which was not able to withdraw with the Bulgar army, fled into the woods and mountains also, and is beginning to return in the same way.
3. All the crops which were almost ripe have been destroyed or burnt or trampled down. Certain foods, such as flour, were soaked in petrol by the Bulgars.
4. They robbed and killed our wounded, and left others to die of starvation on the battlefield. The bodies of those massacred were left to rot, although they were in the immediate vicinity of the Bulgars. These things were reported to the Bulgar officers when our line of demarcation was fixed.
5. Lieut.-Colonel Kosta Mihailovits, who was killed on the llth and remained on the battlefield, was robbed by the Bulgars, who first stole his money and everything he had about him, then all his clothing. He was found thus despoiled, on the 18th, and buried by our soldiers.
APPENDICES 365
When the Bulgar officers were asked why they had not buried our dead officers and soldiers, they replied that it was because of the fire from the Servians. When they were asked how they could rob and despoil the dead, they replied sometimes that it had not been done by the Bulgars, sometimes that it was impossible.
6. Second Lieutenant Begin, a Bulgar, who was taken prisoner by the third regiment of infantry, at Zletovo River, killed Dragits Valjarevits, one of the second company, second battalion of the second regiment. He has acknowledged it himself and his bloodstained sword is in the possession of the second regiment.
7. On the 6th after the engagement of Kalimanska Tchouka, the wounded Servians who remained in the village of Doulitsa, were cut with knives. Their ears and noses were cut off and their eyes torn out by the Bulgar officers and soldiers. A gunner, Rasha Nilitchevits, had his two hands cut off and died as the result.
The preceding is reported conformably to the order No. 41,111 of the 20th instant. By order of the Commandant,
Chief Aide General Staff, Lieut. Col. Mil. G. Milovanovits.
DESTRUCTION OF KNJAZEVAC Official Servian Report
Prefecture of the Timok Department,
No. 4,363, July 3, 1913. Zaietchar. To the Minister of the Interior:
Conformably to instructions received by telephone from the government office, on the 29th of last month, I left for Knjazevac on the 30th of last month, at six o'clock in the evening.
From Zaietchar, as far as the road which breaks off before Vratanitza in the direction of Griishte, nothing is altered, because the Bulgar army did not pass beyond this limit. If the road is followed in the direction of Vratanitza, the common tomb of seven of our men of the third reserve, is to be seen. These men were found dead outside of the town hall, after the Bulgar army had left the village. They were buried by the authorities. They bore no wounds made by bullets, but had been wounded by bayonet thrusts and rifle butts. They were prisoners taken by the Bulgars and put to death when the latter had to beat a retreat on the 26th of last month.
The identity of the victims could not be established, but it can be seen from their clothing, that six of them were from the department of Kramski, and the other from the vicinity of Paratchin. All that could be transported was carried away from the two inns at Vratanitza. What remained was broken, or damaged, or smashed to pieces. All the houses in the village were sacked. I notice that a great number of houses on the line of march had their windows and doors broken, so that the owners now have to fasten them with cords.
Chaos reigns in the inn at Mali-Izvor, which is on the line of march. Chairs and some tables, mirrors and pictures and pottery are broken, and in the bedrooms the same disorder and devastation is to be seen. The hangings, mattresses and all the bedclothes have been carried away. The other things have been torn up and flung into disorder. All the drinks were consumed on the premises or carried away. Most of the haystacks were stolen, two were burnt. On the road between Mali-Izvor and Kralievo Selo the crops were trampled down as if the soldiers had camped there.
At Kralievo Selo, in the city hall of the district, where there were besides the offices, the private rooms of the police officials and the district doctor, nothing can be seen but
366 REPORT OF THE BALKAN COMMISSION
destruction. All the papers have been thrown to the winds, many of them torn up. The district safe is on the floor, smashed to bits.
In the apartments of the prefect and the doctor, everything has been broken and destroyed and flung about in a way that defies description. The doctor's medicine chest has been completely destroyed. The state of affairs in the house of Jivoin, the priest, is equally dreadful. The linen, the best of the clothing, and the hangings have all been carried away. The rest of the things have been broken and destroyed, to such an extent that nothing remains which could be used. At the priest's house, as at the city hall, even the ovens have not been left in their places, but are taken to pieces and broken. I visited several other houses of Kralievo Selo, and everywhere I found the same thing.
Violent acts were committed in the neighboring villages of Selatchka, Novo-Korito, Nrenovats and Vrbitsu. The wooden bridge was set on fire and completely burnt, as well as the bridge across the Jeleshnitza river, on the great road from Kralievo Selo to Knjazevac, near the village of Jeleshnitza. Under all these bridges, the Bulgars had piled up the tables, chairs, cupboards, and other wooden objects taken from the city hall. They were sprinkled with gasoline and set on fire.
The barracks of the fourteenth regiment of infantry were near the entrance to Knjazevac, on the left of the main road. They consisted of four pavilions, of a two-story edifice with other lateral buildings. Hayfields were close beside the barracks. These were set on fire and, as a result, three of the pavilions and the two-story building were destroyed by fire too. One pavilion only, had nothing but the interior, the door, and the windows destroyed. A great many rifles were burnt.
All the ammunition found in the barracks was collected and carried to where the new iron bridge was above the Tzgovishki Timok, at the entrance to the city. The soil beneath the bridge was dug out and mines were laid, which were exploded by means of electricity. The bridge was blown into the air, and its iron framework completely destroyed. The greater quantity of the am'munition which did not explode was thrown into the river, from which it is now being retrieved and dried.
Upon entering Knjazevac, from both sides of the lower town, and on the street as well that crosses the river and leads to the post-office, several burnt houses and shops may be seen. Everything was completely destroyed by fire, but the ruins still remain. Twenty-six houses and twenty proprietors were ruined in this way.
As far as private houses go (I visited personally about fifty shops and houses), I can assert briefly, that not one was spared. Everyone was entered and pillaged more or less. All the private safes were broken open; the Bulgars searched everywhere for money, and stole whatever they found. Not a drawer or box remained, that was not forced open. It is amazing what they were able to do in so short a time, when it is recalled that there were only 10,000 of them, or at least so the inhabitants think.
The shops suffered the most. All that could not actually be carried away, was torn and destroyed and messed. All the debris are scattered about and you sink up to your knees in it. Wherever they could find any sort of liquor, the Bulgars drank it or carried it off. Now you could not find even a small glass of cognac, in all Knjazevac.
According to international law, private property should be respected during war, more especially in towns which are not protected, which was the case with Knjazevac. The Bulgars absolutely defied this principle, and plundered private property everywhere. What they could not eat or drink, they destroyed. In certain places they poured petrol over the flour, corn and other provisions. Mr. Kutcher's dispensary and his house offer the most deplorable spectacle of Bulgar vandalism. The foreign correspondents who came as far as this town, have certainly found something to look at. They have taken any number of photographs of the traces of the Bulgar invasion. In short, it is difficult to describe the devastation of private property in Knjazevac, more especially in an official report of this kind, as an entire book would not suffice.
APPENDICES 367
The damage to the principal buildings is given below:
1. District Offices. The damage is considerable. The Bulgars pillaged the criminal section, various documents were torn up, or misplaced in other offices. Some were even found among the ruins of the bridge over the Timok. The Bureau des Depots was searched and the district safe broken open. The instruments used for this purpose were found beside the safe. The typewriter was broken, and all the cupboard drawers smashed.
2. Office of Taxes. Only the documents found in the office of the chief of the department were destroyed or carried away. The rest were left. All the bottles of ink were thrown against the walls, and many of the books were soaked in ink. The Bulgar soldiers and non-commissioned officers had covered them with signatures, or coarse remarks.
3. Post and Telegraph Offices. These suffered more than any other public building. All the telegraphic and telephonic apparatus was destroyed, either twisted or broken in pieces. The four safes were broken. All the postal packets were opened and the contents stolen or scattered.
4. Artillery Barracks. These buildings have not suffered, but a great deal of public supplies, linen, quilts, boots, were carried away. Xanatchko T. Tsveits, a manufacturer of arms, retired from business, who was slightly deaf, was killed by the Bulgars. They said they killed him because he did not retire quickly enough to the roadside when they called behind him to do so. According to news received by telephone, the commission of doctors, at Knjazevac, saw twenty women who had been assaulted in the neighboring villages, and at Kralievo Selo, three of them were brought before the commission. It was absolutely impossible to bring all the violated women before the doctors in so short a time, chiefly because most of them keep themselves hidden, and because the parents in view of the future, are ashamed to speak of their injured daughters and try to hide their dishonor.
Commission Report
Addressed to the Commandant of the Timok Division.
Mr. Jacob Osipits Kapoustine, a Russian who had taken a long cure at Soko Mania, visited Knjazevac after the Bulgar pillage, to inspect the results, and he has placed his notes at my disposition. I add them, to the rest. The damage suffered by the district on account of the pillage, amounts to about twenty-five or thirty million francs. Agriculture suffered especially.
The Prefect of the Military Post,
Jov. S. Miletits.
Thanks to the courtesy of the prefect of Soko Mania, I was able to leave early in the morning of June 28 to visit the town of Knjazevac with him, devastated by Bulgar vandals. At Ichastantsi, about three kilometers distance from Knjazevac, I heard of violent acts committed by the Bulgars in the neighboring villages.
Accompanied by a notable of Knjazevac, I at once set about verifying these reports. I ascertained as follows:
For three days the Bulgars in detachments of fifteen or twenty, went through the villages, pillaging houses and buildings, searching for money and taking all they could find, even to fifty centime pieces, and outraging women, no matter what their age or condition. Thus, in the village of Bulinovats, seven women, two only sixteen years old, were violated; at Vina, nine women—one pregnant—at Statina five women, one a girl of thirteen.
It was difficult to discover the names, the people shrinking ashamed from giving them.
Having ascertained all these facts, I left for Knjazevac. When I arrived there, my first impression was that it had the appearance of an ordinary town. If it had not been
368 REPORT OF THE BALKAN COMMISSION
for the nine or ten edifices destroyed by fire and the wooden 'bridges half burnt down, I should never have guessed that only a few days before, the enemy had passed through it. Because of that, the interior aspect of the houses, shops and courtyards, when I saw them, seemed to me the more stupefying.
I entered a hundred houses, and in each I saw the same spectacle. It was the result of no ordinary pillage, but of something much more shocking. All the mirrors were broken, for example, all the cupboards, drawers, boxes, furniture, everything wooden, had been chopped to pieces with a hatchet. The doors were smashed. The upholstery was torn off the chairs and sofas, and scattered about the room. The photographs had been torn into little bits and the books destroyed. All the men's clothing had been taken, and disgusting uniforms left in its place. All the women's clothing had been deliberately torn, so had the curtains, bed linen and dish cloths. They were flung about everywhere, covered with excrement, and in some cases soaked in petrol.
In the shops, it was the same thing. The most valuable things had been carried off, and such confusion made of the rest that it was impossible to distinguish the objects. Everything had been done with the express purpose of destroying all that could not be carried away. For example, the sugar and sweets had been thrown down the closets or covered with paint and the flour had been soaked in petrol.
In the course of the search for money, all the safes had been blown up with dynamite. But the most dreadful sight of all was the pharmacy. Not a bottle or jar remained whole. The bandages and lint had been set on fire, then spread over the floor, which was in a state of indescribable dirt and chaos. They had mixed up all the drugs, and the deleterious gases from them, made it dangerous to remain long in the place.
Eye witnesses assert that the Bulgars insisted on entering the officers' and soldiers' houses and devastating them in a horrible way. The Bulgar army, after three days at Knjazevac, reached such a pitch of demoralization (on account of the wine taken from all the cellars) that an entire battalion had to be disarmed and conducted by a strong escort outside the town. There is some talk also of cruelty inflicted upon little boys, but I had too short a time in the town, to confirm these rumors.
Jacob Osipits Kapoustine,
Russian subject.
IV. BULGARIAN DOCUMENTS Dcfosltwns of Bulgarian Refugees at Kustendil
1. Village of Sletovo. (Canton Kratovo.)
Twenty-four families from Sletovo fled to Kustendil, seventy-six persons in all, twenty-five men, eighteen women and thirty-three children. In the month of March, the Servians began molesting the people; they did not allow the villagers to meet together, to go to the neighboring villages or to the mill, or even to work in the fields. Under diverse pretexts they began collecting money. The priest Hadji pop Constantinov was ordered by the officer Rankovits to pronounce the name of King Peter and the Metropolitan of Belgrade at mass, and he submitted. One evening two policemen took the priest to the convent of Lesnovo to a room with a deacon; he found there Rankovits and another officer. Turning to the priest Rankovits said to him brutally, "Why do you not pronounce the names of King Peter and the Metropolitan of Belgrade at the church?" Seizing him by the beard, he drew his sword and threatened to massacre him.
The priest was let go, but foreseeing he could not go on living with the Servians, fled to Kotchani and thence to Kustendil. After his flight the authorities sacked his house and carried off his wife, his two sons, Trifound aged seven and Lazar, one and a half, and his two daughters, Victoria, seventeen, and Stoika, one. No one knows where they
APPENDICES 369
were sent; it was said that they were massacred. The other villagers fled because their houses had been burned and laid waste.
The Dolna quarter at Sletovo was entirely burnt on July 13/26 by the Servian soldiery and many families were carried off. We may mention one or two: The priest Hadji pop Constantinov, Slavtcho Abazov (two houses and a bakery burnt and his family carried off as hostages) ; Ivan Stoikov (his house was burnt) ; Sazdo Natzev and Miche Sredzima (their houses were burnt) ; Pantcho Dimitrov and Vassil Domaset (their families taken as hostages); Mite Bassoto (his shop was sacked), etc.
The families of all volunteers in the war against Turkey were carried away, no one knew whither, their houses laid waste and burned. Here again one or two may be given. Stefan Pavlov (his wife and children were taken prisoners) ; Stanko Gheorghiev (his two boys and his girl suffered the same fate) ; Kole Dossev (his wife and children the same) ;
Arso Domeset (his family the same) ; Stoyan Ivanov (the same). In a word there was no refugee who did not suffer from the Servian soldiery.
In the flight from Kustendil, many persons were worn out with fatigue and had to be abandoned on the way. Thus Basdo Petrov left his brother, his wife and his children at the Pantaley convent; Naoun Yakov left his wife and his three children at the village of Nifithitchani. The two brothers Strache and Stoyan Phillipov saw their father disappear near the Pantaley convent.
2. Village of Globets. (Kratovo.)
Kotze Lasarov, being an ancient comitadji, was persecuted by the Servians. He was threatened with death and therefore resolved on flight. He took with him his family, consisting of two women, three men and three children, because he knew that the Servian officials imprisoned the families of the refugees and outraged their women.
After walking fifteen days over mountains and streams the family arrived at Kustendil. They are now living at the asylum of Mina. On their departure the Servians sacked everything. The brother and son-in-law of Kotze remained in the village. The village of Spantchevo is said to have been burned by the Servians, the mayor and the priest killed, and many women outraged. At the village of Koutchitchino the men were imprisoned and their wives outraged by the Servian soldiers. The daughter of Alix Hadjiev, Sletovo, was outraged and died. A Wallachian, Georghi Steriov, was killed.
3. Vinitza. (Kotchani.)
The Servian troops occupied Vinitza about two o'clock on June 24. On their entry the soldiers began breaking the doors of the houses and seizing all the inhabitants of the village, men, women and children. The Turkish population was not molested, since the Servian soldiers behaved perfectly to the Turks. After collecting the peasants the soldiers made them stand in rows and began questioning them one after the other, asking whether they were Bulgarians or Servians. Anyone who dared to say he was a Bulgarian was cruelly 'beaten. The largest number of blows was received by Gherassim Arsov. This done, the commander of the troops chose out seventy peasants, ranged them in a line and gave the order for them to be shot. The women and children who were near began to cry out, to weep and to entreat. A horseman carrying an order arrived before the shooting began and the commander changing his mind, the seventy peasants were sent to Kotchani. Their fate is unknown. On June 27, the Bulgarian troops advanced and the Servians retired from the village. On the same day the Bulgarians left the village, the Servians took their place. Thereupon the whole population, maddened with terror by the prospect of new tortures, took flight. Only the old people remained in the village. All the refugees went to Kustendil, passing by Tzarevo-Selo.
370 REPORT OF THE BALKAN COMMISSION
On the way there died Sokolitza, the son of Vladimir Panov, aged fifteen, and the child of Yourdan Gotchev, who died at the age of three in the Bulgarian village of Tzarvaritza.
At Vinitza, the Servian soldiers pillaged all the shops and all the houses.
The names of some of the inhabitants of Vinitza whose shops were sacked are:
Gherassim Arsov, Palikrouchev, Lazar Christov, Yane Dinov, Spiro Koujinkov, Vassil Vessinkov, Mito Todorov, Gheorghi Donev, Kotze Arsov, Thodor Ivanov. But fifty or sixty victims of pillage might be cited.
In the same village of Vinitza, the Servians put to death Nicolas Athanasov and Stoyan Vodenitcharov. The father, aged eighty, and the mother of Todor Ivanov, were put in a barrel and rolled up and down by the Servian soldiers, who did not let them out until they paid ten lows d'or. Marie Arsova was also tortured by the soldiers to extract money from her. Anna Kosteva, Toevitza; Mitka Palena and other women were outraged.
(Another deposition.)
When the Bulgarian troops left Kotchani and Vinitza, Servian cavalry were said to be approaching the latter village. All the inhabitants were terror struck. Many peasants hid themselves in their houses; others, more numerous, fled towards the Bulgarian frontier. Mitko Arsov remained in his house to collect some goods, while his wife and his five children joined the band of fugitives. On the morrow, Arsov caught the band up and said that the Servian troops had seized and taken away sixty to seventy peasants. He himself was tortured and cruelly beaten by a Servian soldier who asked him for money. He would have been killed if a Turk whom he knew had not happened to ask him to restore him to liberty. Set free, he fled during the night and caught up the group of fugitives, but four or five days later he died, worn out by the blows and torture he had endured. It is said that his brother, Sando Arsov, was dragged away and maltreated by the Servians, who sought to compel him to betray where the peasants were hidden. He went mad with terror and was left alone. After wandering for a long time in the solitudes of Mount Brigia, he died of hunger and fatigue.
On the bridge of Vinitza itself, the Servian troops massacred Georghie Kovats, his wife Nata and their children, Todor, seven, Vassa, thirteen, and Lazar, a year and a half old.
4. Blatetz. (Notchani.)
The Servian troops occupied the village of Blatetz on July 1. The soldiers began their excesses immediately on their entry; they were assisted by the Turkish population of the place, who took part in all the outrages, pillage and massacres committed by the Servians, and were spared by them on account of their complicity.
Thus, for example, Turks denounced the suspected Bulgarians to the Servian soldiers.1 Twenty persons were immediately imprisoned and then, aided by the Turks, the Servian soldiers entered the houses. All the Bulgarian houses were rifled, not even the windows and the door being left; they were carried off by the Turks and used by them in their own houses. After this regular pillage the Servians burned the quarters {Mahalas) called "Samardjinska," "Vatchkovska," "Dulgherska," and the school of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. The following are the names of some peasants whose houses were burnt. Athanase Petzov, Konstandi Damianov, the priest Pavie Dimitrov, Philippe Petrov, Trandaphi!
We read in another deposition, "The Turks pointed out to the Servians those who were or who were believed to be rich. A young boy called Dane had his eyes gouged out to compel him to say where his people's money was. Another, Alexa, was burned alive for the same reason. Some fifteen houses were burnt."
APPENDICES 371
Stoytchev, Ivan Gheorchev, P&fle Kostov, Yordan Kostov, Simeon Damianov, Erotei Da-mianov, Ivan Anatonov, Bogdan Antov, Cavril Antov, Grigor Bogdanov, Zaphir Bogdanov, Yani, Christo and Seraphim Petzov, etc.
The Servian officers decided to kill the Bulgarians who had been taken. All the prisoners were accordingly led outside the village. Then a halt was called and one of the officers shouted to the wretched people: "Save himself, who can." While they were going away the Servian soldiers fired upon them and all the Bulgarians were killed. One man alone, Zaphir Traitchov Klukachki, succeeded in escaping, but not without being wounded; a finger was carried off by a bullet. For several days he wandered in the forest and then came back to the village. Another Bulgarian, Done Temovski had his face mutilated; after tearing his eyes out they killed him. Alexo Tomev was thrown alive into the fire and burnt.
The following are the names of the peasants who were shot by the Servian soldiers :1 Triphon Mitrev, aged fifty-two, his wife and his child aged three; Anghel Miretchev, aged forty-six, his wife and his daughter; Nicolas Lazorov, forty-eight, who leaves a widow and three children; Simeon Stoimenov, nineteen, scholar at the Pedagogic school of Uskub (third course), he was in bed sick, but was dragged out by force; Ivan Zahov, forty-two, who leaves a widow and three children; Pavie Sinadinov, nineteen, who leaves a widow;
Andon Sinadinov, sixty-five, his daughter, Paraskeva Andonova, a governess and one of the refugees is now in Sofia; Vladimir Avksentiev, thirty, who leaves a father, a mother— a widow—and two children, destitute; Athanasius Yanakoev, seventy, who leaves two sons and two grandsons; Mite Gheorghiev, thirty-five, who leaves a wife and two children;
Danial Petzov, fifty, who leaves a wife.
Before they were killed all these wretched people saw their goods pillaged and carried off. Their families are left in the most miserable condition. The corn was carried off by the Turks in the place; all the cattle by the Servian soldiers. In the pillage, burning and massacre, the Servian soldiers were assisted by Turks well known in the country, whose names are set down: Mohamed Hadjiev, Osman Tchaouch Afouzov, Boudan Moustapha Tchaouch Redjebov, Riza Kordeveski, Ismail Tchipev, Adem Nalbansko and his sons, Soulio Tarskine, Ousso Kossevki and his son.
The Servians made a Turk, Kel Assan Effendi, a Turkish ex-advocate, at Kotchani, commander at Blatetz.
5. Canton of Kotchani. (1) Besikovo.
The Servian army entered in July 5/18, and put to death the following individuals:
Pecho Antov; thirty-five (all his cattle was carried off) ; Gavriel Arsov, thirty-eight; Anghel Arsov, thirty-five; Nicolas .Anghelov, forty; Stoiemen Vanakov, thirty-seven; Gheorghi Arsov, thirty-eight; Theodosi Christov, forty; Mitko Christov, thirty; Manassia Stoyanov, fifty; Anastas Stoyanov, fifty; Ivantcho Karanfilov, thirty-eight; Paranfil Petzov, sixty-six;
Stoimen Ivanov, thirty-eight; Lazar Tassev, thirty-three; Sophia Kolibarska, seventy; Ste-phane Ivanov, thirty-four; Mara Galevska, seventy; Anghel Stoyanov, fifty; the son of I-azar Stoyanov Spassev, aged one year and a half, was thrown into the flames. The following women were outraged: Svezda Temilkova, twenty-three; Atahanaska Anghelova, thirty, who died afterwards; Alane Markova, thirty, who also died. The Servians put fire to sixteen houses and to the crops; the cattle were driven off.
^ome of the Bulgarians who were killed may be added to this list. Vladimir Yanev, twenty-seven; Trifound Dimov, sixty; Trifoun Samardjiev, forty-six; Anghel Stoiemenov, thirty-two; Momtchil Moutaftchiev, fifty-five; Sv. Pavel Dimitriev, fifty.
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(2) Isti-Bania.
Christo Marin, fifty; Tryanka Simeon Ova, twenty-five; Nicolina Lazarova, twenty-eight, were killed.
(3) Pressef.
One hundred and seventy houses were burned.
(4) Lyki.
The Servian troops killed Dedo Marko, eighty years old, and his sons, Athanasius, forty-five, and Todor, forty; Alexander Bilianov, aged seventy (his sons, Gherassin, forty, and Stoyan, thirty-five, were taken no one knew whither). Ivan Mitzov, Gale Dimitrov, fifty;
Nico Mitzov, thirty; Evda Andonova, fifty; Gheorghi Athanassov, sixty; Ampo Mitev, twenty-five; Spasse, thirty; Andon Stoitchev, fifty; Seraphin Alexov, thirty; Ilia Oulezov, sixty; Peter Angelov, sixty; Seraphim Gheorghiev, forty-five; Gheorghi Yovev, ninety. Those taken away by the Servians: Stoiko Mitev, twenty; Nicolas Lazarov, twenty; Eftim Temelkov, forty; Miladine Eftimov, twenty-five; Miche Yanev, sixty; Ilia Nicov, forty;
Mite Tzonev, forty.
The Servians also carried off 10,000 sheep, 300 oxen, sixty horses, 100 pigs and twenty asses; ninety-four houses and 150 cabins were burned, and nineteen sacked within the village area. The whole of the corn was carried off. Stefan Petzov was'robbed of ten louis, Nako Mitzov, seven Turkish pounds, and so on. Efrem Nazlymkine, Pecho Danev and Grigor Kartchev were only released on payment of nine Turkish pounds.
6. Sokolartsi. (Events of August 17 and following days.)
All the Wallachians were named Administrators, and took possession of the Municipal building, with Gheorghi Naoumov at their head. The Wallachians thus become masters and calling themselves "brothers" to the Servians, thought that an opportunity of becoming rich easily had presented itself: they accordingly made heavy impositions from the Bulgarians of Sokolartsi and the neighboring villages. Thus in Sokolartsi they collected 300 louis d'or as the price of escape from death. With the aid of the Servian authorities the Wallachians said, "Hitherto you were masters and pillaged our goods. Now it is our turn to pillage yours," and they were as good as their word. They forbade the women to wear their "chamia" (scarf or handkerchief which they wear on their head), saying, "You will not be Bulgarians any more, and since you are Servians in future you must wear nothing on your heads."
7. Lipetz. (Kotchani.)
Here the Servians killed about seventeen persons. Here are the names of some of the victims. The three brothers Antonia, Philip and Trifon Timov; the three brothers Zachary, Todor and Trifon Postolov; Simo P. Athanasov; the wife of S. P. Athanasov died of fear, while her husband was being murdered. The mother of the Postolov brothers was outraged after sixteen louis d'or had been taken from her. The wives of Zachary and Trifon Postolov suffered the same fate.
8. Yakimovo.
Yakimovo was also pillaged by the Servian soldiers and some houses burned. In this village the Servians put to death Anton Phillippov and Christo Priptchenez.
9. Zarnovez.
At Zarnovez seven persons perished; the following names may be given: Ivan Pavlev, Ivan Mitev, and the priest, Tomo Triphanov.
APPENDICES 373
10. Gradets. (District of Tikvich.)
On June 19, the witness to whom we are indebted for this story was in his house and heard there cries coming from the village: "Save yourselves! Our army has retired and the Servians are burning or killing everything they meet upon their way." He ran down to the village to find his children, but only found his father, aged ninety. Leaving the house of the latter he succeeded in rejoining his children and the other fugitives and hiding with them in the forest above the village. Some ten Servian horsemen then arrived and sent a peasant to them to tell them that they were going to establish order and security. Fifty or sixty peasants trusting their word returned to the village, and the witness and one of his friends drew near to spy out what happened. From afar they saw some corpses near the house of Constantine the tailor. The witness' companion returned to the village to see things more near at hand, while he himself went back to his children. At nightfall this companion returned, and told how the priest Christo and Dimitri Michkov bound back to back had been slain at the bayonet's point, as well as thirty-six other inhabitants, and that the houses had been pillaged. On the next day the village was given over to the flames.
On the third day Servians and Turks came to the forest in pursuit of the fugitives, on whom they fired from a distance. The witness then saw Traiko Curtoich, Lazar Nicolov and Athanasius Iliev fall dead before his eyes. Thanks to the night the fugitives scattered and made their escape in the direction of the villages of Lipopic and Dedino. On June 25, the witness lost his children and went to look for them at Radovitch. The Servians were already here as well as a large number of fugitive inhabitants. At this stage the invaders had not yet surrounded the little itown with a cordon of troops, but shortly afterwards they encompassed it with the assistance of Servian and Turkish soldiers, and began to make a return of the population by villages and by families.
Searching for his children our witness entered a street where he saw the heads of four men rolling about on the ground. He fled, terror struck, and hiding in the middle of a company, managed to pass through the cordon of soldiers and make his escape with other fugitives. They turned their steps towards the village of Smiliantzi. Servian horsemen once again stopped them on the way. The officer after questioning them directed them towards the village, where there was some infantry. A large quantity of cattle and pigs were guarded by the soldiers, probably with a view to eating them. They took sixty-five pounds from one of the dead, whose name was unknown to witness. They sent the fugitives to pass the night in the neighboring village where the commander was to arrive the next day to question them. Instead of going to this village they went towards the mountains and crossing Pehtchevo, Saravo-Selo and Tcherna-Skala entered Bulgarian territory. At Kustendil the witness found his children.
The following story was told by a woman, Maria Constantinovo, belonging to a body of thirty-four fugitives, men, women and children, who arrived at Kustendil after the fall of Gradets: Some ten Servian horsemen accompanied by more than a thousand bashi-bazouks entered Gradets. The entire village was swept by an appalling panic, on the news that the Turks and Servians were killing any Bulgarian who appeared before them. The larger part of the population, men, women and children, took flight before the Servians entered. Only the old people, and those who had not succeeded in escaping, were left. "Go, fly, you young people at any rate," the old cried out. "If the Servians spare us we will let you know, but for Heaven's sake save yourselves, and let God's will be done to us." When the Servians and the Turks entered the village the old people came out to receive them and appealed to their pity. When he heard the population had taken flight, a Servian horseman sent a peasant to tell them that if they did not return all their
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goods would be pillaged and their houses burnt. In accordance with this announcement most of the fugitives did return. The Servian horseman then ordered the Turks to seize all the men. The Turks then threw themselves into the houses and an appalling scene followed. Some Turks invaded the witness' house and seized the head of the family. He had hardly crossed the threshold of the house when he was stabbed and fell dead on the spot. From every house came cries of distress and shots were fired. The witness who went out of her house saw the Servians seize sixty to seventy men and lead them out of the village. All the women followed them, pleading for their husbands. Once outside the village the Servians seized the younger men and began stabbing them, while the women cried out in despair and wrung their hands, without anybody showing any pity for them.
The witness, terrified by this horrible scene, fled, taking the road back to her house. During the whole time the Turks went on killing and pillaging, carrying off even the young girls. Another witness from the same village saw them with his own eyes seize Maria Pezova, aged seventeen, Minka Athanazova of the same age and Neda Panova, take them on horseback and carry them away, singing and crying towards the Turkish villages of Kocharka, Golelia and Arsalia. The witness then made his escape: near the village he rejoined other fugitives come from the same place and further on joined yet another group, the total numbers thus being about 300 persons.
While all these fugitives were going away, bashi-bazouks pursued and fired upon them. Bullets fell like hail: men, women and children fell dead in great numbers. Moreover, the Turks three times lay in ambush for them and so slew many more. On the third occasion the wretched people were nearly all exterminated, and were only saved by the night. Out df the whole group only nine families reached Kustendil; the larger part of these poor people were scattered. Many died, some reached Radovitch, and others finally disappeared. During the journey they were joined by fugitives from Kontche and Loubnitza who told them that the Servians and the Turks had burned and massacred everything Bulgarian, that they themselves had seen the village of Kontche in flames and heard the shots.
(Another deposition on the same facts.)
On June 24/July 7 the entire village of Gradets was set on fire by Servian troops, who killed fifty-one men and nine women of the village and carried off three young girls. The names of the men killed were: Kostadine Gounov, Yato Nicolov and his son, Lazar Petre Poreklato, Veiko Gheorghiev. Constantin, Stoyanov, Anghel Zaycov, Spasso Moskovski, Trayko Daphinine, Spasse Gheorghiev Athanese and Nicolas Gheorghiev, Dino Petkov, Gheorghi Stoycov, Micho, father and son, Thanas Andov, Pavie Kotchev, the priest Christo Pavlevski, Karanfila Pavleska, Stoyan Pavlevski, etc.
Names of the women slain: Zoyia Filea and her daughters Mitra, aged fourteen years, and Ghina, two years; Tana Dintcheva, Yana Gounovska, Maria Trayanova, and her daughter-in-law Sovka Pepova, Maria Lazeva, Bojana Christova. The following were thrown to the flames: Nicolsa Stoyanov, aged ninety; Gheorghi Choumkar, eighty, and Temeiko Nenkov, seventy. Those carried off: Maria Nedina, eighteen; Nenka Taneva, eighteen; and Neda Panova, seventeen.
Andrea Constantinov, aged twenty-two, was disfigured by a Servian officer who struck him with his sabre: he succeeded in escaping, .but his father and his companion, Christo Vasov, aged fifty, were cut in pieces.
11. Village of Lipa (Tekvech). Evidence of Efrew Kamtchev and D'imo Stoyanov. The village of Lipa was pillaged and burnt by Servian regulars, who took twelve boys, aged about 12 years, and three women, and conducted them to the village of Iberlia. Nothing is known of their fate. The rest of the population fled towards the village of
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Loubnitza where they were surrounded by Servian soldiers who fired upon them and treated them with violence. The schoolmaster, Kotze Danev, and his daughter were thus killed, and his brother was taken and led away by the Servians. The latter killed two children besides, whose names are not known. They tortured the wife of Thodor Kamtchev to force her to give them money. As she had not any, the Servian soldiers stabbed her four-year-old child to death in her arms. The other women and children were led by them into the Turkish houses, and nothing is known of their fate. In the same village, Dinep Barsovetsa of Negotino, and Kreston of Dissan were killed. The mother of Nicholas Constantinov, aged eighty years, perished as well.
12. At Radovitch and in the vicinity. The Servians entered Radovitch the day after June 29. For a day or two the inhabitants, of whom some had fled when the Bulgar army retreated, did not leave the town. As soon as they arrived, the Servians began to search the Bulgar houses, and to take anything they could lay their hands on. The Albanian Captain Yaa, formerly a cavass of the Servian Agency at Veles, accompanied them. Before war was declared, he was already wandering about in the vicinity of Tikvech with a band of followers, causing great damage to the Bulgar population.
The Servian officers collected a great deal of money at Radovitch. Under the form of gifts to the Red Cross, the country people poured out fifteen, or thirty, or forty gold louis, to avoid the tortures which awaited them.
The Servian cavalry arrived first at the village of Novo-Selo, where they were given bread and milk. Then came the infantry and then the soldiers began to force their way into the houses. Clothes, money, everything, was stolen. They did not, however, assault the women. No doubt they would have, but for the vigorous intervention of the people, which permitted the young women and girls to run away and hide in the forest. In the neighboring village of Varcheska, all the women were violated, and the men killed by the Turks of the nearby villages, accompanied by three Servians. The entire village was sacked. At Chipkovitza the people were terribly ill-treated. The Servian army was followed by Turks who aided them in their cruelties. No life was spared unless paid for by money. The women were violated, and some of them taken outside the village by the soldiers from whom they were rescued later on. They, too, were asked for money. Kalia, wife of Traiko Andonov, a notable of Chipkovitza, was undressed, robbed of the money she had about her, then assaulted. The daughter-in-law and the daughter of Kostadine Ghigov were also violated, while Ghigov himself was beaten. Every one of these brutalities was the work of Servians.
Goods and cattle, both were plundered at Chipkovitza, as at Novo-Selo. From the house of the witness from whom these details have been obtained, everything was stolen that could be taken, including eight gold louis. His brother was seized and searched, and when they found fr. 40 on him, they led him into the house to see if he could not find some more money there. The Servians wanted to murder him with a hatchet, but he threw himself from a window, and in this way saved his life. At Smilentzi the famous Captain Yaa killed Gogue Kripilski and three other inhabitants, Zacharie Arsein, young Aughel and another boy. The wife and daughter-in-law of the Voivode of Radovitch, Stamen Temelkov, himself originally of the village of Orahovitza, were -cruely ill-treated. The Bey of Radovitch, Yachar-bey, arrived at Orahovitza accompanied by Servian soldiers. They seized the women, extracted money from them, burnt their hands, searched the houses, and found revolvers, sabres and watches which they carried off.
At Boislavtsi the Bulgars whose names follow were robbed. Sv. Stephen Athanassov who lost seven louis; Todor Ivanov who lost thirty-five louis; Gligor Iliev from whom three louis were taken, a watch, and a pair of shoes; Traiko Domazetov robbed of ?TS;
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and the widow Trayanka Eftimova, robbed of ?T3. The locality of Kontche was burnt by the regular Servian army. The sons of Dana Dontcheva, Athanas, aged twenty, and Efting, aged seventeen, were taken no one knows where.
Loubnitza was also burnt by the Servian troops who caused the death of Philippe Stoimenov (sixty years), Dona Kotzeva, school teacher (sixteen years), Gheorghi Stefanov (thirty years), Dimitrouche Christov (ten years), Efa Kotzeva (thirty years). Ilia Ste-phanov (twenty-five years) and Kotze Stephanov. As to the women, some were carried off, such as Rossa Iliev, Nevenka Trayanova, Yordana Stephanova, Gouna Stoyandva, Soultana Gheorghieva, and others were killed, as was Zlata Mihalova.
13. Protocol of the Inquiry of the Bulgarian Commission upon the Massacres of Bossilegrad.
The Commission named by order of the Commandant of the fifth actual army (No. 1764) composed of Colonel Tanev Alexandre, chief of the Brigade of United Cavalry, President; Mr. M. Eschenkov Nicola, Chief of the District of Kustendil; Dr. Petrov, Lieutenant of the Health Department; Tochko, Chief of the Sanitary Section of the Fifth Army; Rev. Father Anastase Poppe Zacariev, acting as Bishop; Sotir Il'tchov, Municipal Town Councilor, members:
Met today, July 2, 1913, near the fulling mill of Dimitri Doitchinov, situated about one kilometer on the road from Bossilegrad to Lubalite, at the place where on June 28 last, towards nine o'clock in the morning, were shot and buried by the Servian army, to whom they had given themselves up. Colonel Tanev Ilarion, chief of the Sixth Regiment of Cavalry; Lieutenant Stefanov Stefan, commissary of stores in the same regiment; the Lieutenant of Sanitary Service, Cautev Stefan, veterinary doctor of the same regiment;
Cavalry Sergeant Vladev Christo, trumpet major, and Lieutenant Minkov Assen of the lllth Regiment of her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Pawlowna; in order to establish the identity of the dead, to investigate the circumstances in which they were shot, and to draw up the necessary act upon the subject.
According to the disposition of the Captain of the Sanitary Service, Dr. Koussev Pan-telei, taken prisoner like his companions but left at Bossilegrad on account of the serious wound he had received in his breast; of the old woman, Elena Mitreva, eye witness while she was at the fullery of the fusillade which killed the above named; of the fuller Sotir Bogilov, and of the miller Mito Simionov, who buried the dead in the garden of the fullery; as well as according to the report of the Captain .of Cavalry, Captain Vesselinov, Chief of the Squadron of the Sixth Regiment of Cavalry, it is established:
1st. That by the sudden appearance at dawn of the Tenth Regiment of Servian Infantry at Bossilegrad, the aforementioned officers and the trumpet .major, as well as the Captain of the Sanitary Service Koussev, were surrounded in the street and taken prisoner. Then a Servian soldier fired at a distance of two feet, piercing the breast of Captain Koussev. The capture of the Bulgar officers once assured, the Servian commandant proposed to Colonel Tanev, to send an order to the second and third squadrons to give 'themselves up. Under the threat of being shot. Colonel Tanev wrote the required letter and sent it to the superior commandant of the squadrons, Cavalry Captain Vesselinov. In the meantime, the shots became more frequent. The machine guns of the regiment were brought out, and these opened fire at forty feet. Then the Captains of Cavalry, Ves-•selinov and Mednicarov, who were commanding the Bulgar squadrons, led the latter with fixed bayonets against the hostile foot soldiers, drove back the Servians and put them to flight, while the imprisoned officers and the drum major were conducted to the first mill on the road leading to Lubalite. Once there, the order was a-second time given to Colonel Tanev .to .-send ;a ^seocaid command to the squadrons to give themselves up. He did this,
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but without result. It was then that our infantry appeared on the height, which forced the Servians to leave the town to reach the neighboring hills, and to send the prisoners, with the exception of Captain Koussev, on the road to Lubalite.
2d. That the old woman Elena Mitreva, says that she kept close to the fullery, and saw when the officers were led 08. They were marching in front, and behind them, at a short distance, about ten Servian soldiers followed. When they came near the fullery, the Servian soldiers put up their rifles and fired at the officers who fell dead on the road, one of them even rolling into the river. After that the Servian soldiers plundered them and stole their boots.
3d. That the fuller Sotir Bogilov, and the miller Mitse Simeonov, being in proximity to the fullery, carried the bodies of the dead men into the garden of the aforesaid building, with the aid of the Servian soldiers, and having dug a common trench,- buried them. While the burial was taking place, one of the Servian soldiers said that among the dead there were some Swabians and a Turk, so that the Servians obliged Mitse Simeonov to examine the latter to ascertain if he were circumcised.
4th. That the commission has ordered the opening of the trench to establish the identity of the deceased. This has been done. The faces were black and swollen, but the features could be recognized, and it was proved that the bodies v/ere undoubtedly those of the aforesaid victims, as indeed their uniforms, still decorated with their epaulettes, attested.
The result of the examination of the Doctor Lieutenant Petrov, establishes that Colonel Tanev was struck in the temple, and that the ball came out at the top of the skull, scattering the brains. As to Lieutenant Minkov and the drum major, they were struck on the nape of the neck, the ball in the first case emerging through the left eye, and in the second case, by the right eye. The veterinary, Contev, was struck by three balls; one penetrated the back and pierced the middle of the stomach, the second crossed the kidney; the third struck him in front, below the left shoulder. Lieutenant Stefanov was struck by two balls, one which entered the back and went through the chest, the other entering the kidney.
The commission ordered that the bodies of the defunct should be transferred to the cemetery of the church and buried there, which was done the same day.
In testimony of which the present process has been drawn up
Signed: COLONEL TANEV ALEXANDRE^ Chief of the Double Brigade, President of the Commission.
Members:
FSCHENKOV,
Chief of the District of Kustendil. DR. PETROV,
Chief of the Sanitary Section, Fifth Army. REV. FATHER ANATASE POPPE ZACHARIEV,
Acting as Bishop. SOTIR ILTCHEV,
Municipal Councilor. Certified confirmed from the original.
DR. G. FZENOV,
Secretary to the Minister of War.