CHAPTER I PLAIN TRUTHS ABOUT MACEDONIA

War imminent between Bulgaria and Turkey—My secret inquiries—Atrocities by the Greek bands—Chats with the leaders of the insurrection—The truth about the intrigues in Macedonia—I visit the scene of the massacres—Stories told to me—Horrifying facts—Germany behind the assassins—A disgraceful truth.

This present record of my observations in the Near East would be incomplete without some description of my journey through Macedonia, and what I saw there.

The Macedonian question is the burning question of to-day, and one that can only be solved in one way—by a fierce and bloody war.

As I have already shown, there is every indication that hostilities between Bulgaria and Turkey must occur in the present year. Indeed, the thread is now strained to breaking point, and one need never be surprised to learn at the breakfast-table one morning that Bulgaria has boldly thrown down the gauntlet to the Sultan. Then, aided by Roumania—who will be induced to give her support in return for that additional strip of territory between the Danube and the Black Sea, as I have already indicated in a previous chapter—a fierce and bitter struggle will commence. With Bulgaria, the Northern Albanians will ally themselves according to the words of the various chiefs of whom I made inquiry; Montenegro, and of course Servia, will hold their own against the Turk, and the result must be that the whole of the Balkans will be aflame.

This forecast is no imaginary one. It is based upon information imparted to me in confidence by Cabinet Ministers themselves—information which is in part in the possession of the Foreign Office at this moment. Secret preparations are in active progress both in Roumania and Bulgaria, while Servia has ordered her new artillery to be delivered at the end of this present spring. There is a tacit agreement between the Balkan States that affairs in Macedonia are intolerable, and that the decimated population must now be protected. And in summary of the various conversations I had with the monarchs and their Ministers in each of the Balkan capitals, I can only say that the view is unanimous.

In Servia, in Bulgaria, in Montenegro, in Albania, in Roumania, and in Macedonia itself I made every inquiry from reliable sources. From secret information, I was able to gather that there is but one solution of the question—War.

At present the Bulgarian bands formed to protect the Macedonians are passive. The organisation is still there, and will be of greatest use when hostilities are declared; but there is no activity, and there has, indeed, been little since the recent abortive insurrection.

Greek bands, aided and abetted by the Turks, are, however, everywhere, and each day the most awful atrocities are committed by them. Reports of these are received in Sofia and in Constantinople, but no representation is made by either of the Powers to the Sublime Porte or to Athens. “Macedonia!” exclaimed a well-known foreign Ambassador one day, while I was sitting at lunch with him at his Embassy, “Macedonia! We’re sick of Macedonia, and have ceased to trouble about it!”

Ceased to trouble indeed! Here a great and intelligent Christian population is being slaughtered in order to further the ambitious aims of Germany, and no one stirs a finger! Europe raised its eyes heavenward when it heard of the Congo atrocities, yet of poor Macedonia the Powers are “sick,” and she is cast helpless to the assassin’s knife!

Before going to Macedonia I sought and obtained the opinions of the leading authorities in the East, as well as those of the rulers and Ministers. Much told me by the various monarchs was, of course, in entire confidence, therefore I can only speak generally in declaring their opinion to be in favour of securing for Macedonia autonomy under a European prince as Governor-General.

In more than one high quarter Prince Danilo of Montenegro was mentioned as possible for the post, and in another the name of Prince Mirko of Montenegro was put forward. A German prince or an Austrian archduke would be impossible, but an English prince would be welcomed, and the name of Prince Arthur of Connaught was spoken of by more than one Balkan Cabinet Minister.

In Servia I had several highly interesting chats with Professor Civics of Belgrade University, who is a well-known authority on Macedonia, and who has recently published a book attempting to prove that the bulk of the Macedonian population is not Bulgar, but Serb. Many of his arguments I found, on exhaustive inquiry, to be well based, yet my own conclusion is that, after all, the great majority of the Macedonian population is really Bulgar.

This fact is admitted all through the Balkans, therefore the situation in Macedonia must of necessity affect Bulgaria more closely than any other nation.

The question of Macedonia is a most difficult and complicated one, but I spared no effort in order to thoroughly master it in all its various phases, and to get at the truth of the present and the probabilities of the near future.

In Sofia I had a long talk with Professor Agoura of Sofia University, who is one of the best-known authorities upon the Macedonian question. He has been in Macedonia many times, and, like myself, has had an opportunity of speaking with the people and hearing their grievances.

“In England the Macedonian question is entirely misunderstood,” he said. “Some writers have taken Professor Civics’ views, and endeavoured to prove that the Macedonians are really Slavs. But they are not. Their whole history shows that they are Bulgars.”

“And the present state of the country?” I asked.

“Never in the modern history of Macedonia has it been in such a bad state as at present. The Christian Bulgars are outraged, tortured, and shot, and their villages burnt by the Greek bands, who are now under the protection of the Turks, and not a voice is raised at Constantinople in complaint. It is simply astounding that such a state of things should be allowed to exist in this twentieth century. Over one thousand Christian Bulgars were killed in the raids last year, and this year the number is known to be more than double. Bulgaria is, however, at this moment staying her hand. Weakened as the Macedonians are, and with Turkey protecting the Greek bands, our Bulgarian bands for the protection of the villages have but little chance. Of late, it has been the unfortunate Bulgar who has lost always. The Bulgar bands, it was found, compromised the villages, and at the same time were not strong enough to protect them. Therefore those still in Macedonia live in the mountains and come down when required. Ah!” he added, throwing up his hands, “the state of affairs is terrible! Only recently during a village wedding at Zagoutcheni the place was attacked by a Greek band and seventy men, women, and children killed.”

“And in your opinion what would be the best settlement of the question?” I inquired; for he was one of the greatest authorities in Europe upon the much-vexed problem.

“The best settlement of Macedonia would be an autonomy, but a restrained one—one that would not separate Macedonia from Turkey,” he replied. “Macedonia should be placed under a European Governor-General—certainly not German—preferably a Swiss. The police and the central administration should be vested in the Governor-General, and all other questions left to Turkey. Religion should, of course, be free. Bulgaria has no desire to annex Macedonia, as the Powers seem to think. I do not think that the question can be settled in any other way. A European conference should be convoked, and the matter dealt with at once. When you go to Macedonia, you will see for yourself the state of things. But remember, the Turks will let you see nothing if they can help it. You are going to Monastir. Good. Travel across to Ochrida, and you will see and hear things that will appal you.

Macedonian Christian abducted by the Turks from Klene, a village near Debr, and rescued by a Bulgarian band.

General Tzontcheff,
The Bulgarian leader in Macedonia.

“Recently there have been, to my knowledge, eight Christian villages entirely destroyed by Greek bands—the inhabitants exterminated, and the houses burned to the ground. During the past two years there has never passed one single day without murders and outrages committed by Greek bands upon the Bulgar inhabitants of Macedonia. Unfortunately, the Turkish army arrives always too late to protect the population; but this is, of course, arranged: Indeed, it seems as though the Turks protect these Greek bands and assist them in their nefarious work. From Ochrida right down to Salonica these murders are of daily occurrence, always by the Greek bands. These bands operate in the arrondissements of Seres, Drama, Demir-Hissar, Kavala; in the Salonica vilayet at Enije-Vardar, Vodena, and Guevgueli; in Lerin, Florina, Castoria, Presba, and Murievo, and around Monastir. The Servian bands operate at Cumanovo, Palanca, Veles, Kitschevo, and Poretschi; while Turkish bands are just now massacring at Tikveschi, Schlip, Veles, Kotschani, Strousaitza, Razlog, Melnik, and Nevrokop. So it will be seen that where there are no Greek bands, there are either Turks or Servians.”

In Sofia I also met the renowned leader of the premature insurrection in Macedonia, General Ivan Tzontcheff, a short, smart, dapper little man, quick of movement and alert of manner. With him I likewise had a very interesting chat. As one who has the Macedonian cause at heart, as head of the Macedonian External Committee, and being in daily touch with events in that terrified country, he and his friend, Monsieur Gologanoff, were able to give me many details and explain much that is unknown to the English public.

I also met several times, and had long conversations with, Dr. Tartarcheff, who was president of the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee in Bulgaria, and who, after the insurrection, was taken prisoner by the Turks. Both men gave me much authentic information and introductions that were of great use to me in my journey through Macedonia.

The truth is that the Macedonian question is the direct result of the Treaty of Berlin, for by it the Treaty of St. Stefano—which incorporated Macedonia in the Bulgarian Principality—was annulled. The Treaty of Berlin thus left Macedonia under the Turkish dominion, with a provision of a kind of autonomy under the control of the Great Powers.

This autonomy was worked up in detail by an International Commission in Constantinople in 1880. But it was not applied, and the situation in Macedonia remained the same as it was before the Russo-Turkish War, and became even worse, on account of the Turkish fanaticism aroused against the Bulgarians as the cause of their military disasters.

The Turkish persecutions and the new situation in Bulgaria attracted the greater portion of the Macedonian intelligent population into that Principality. A strong Macedonian emigration was therefore started to Bulgaria, which in late years has arisen to the number of more than 150,000.

Macedonia, thus drained of its intelligence, devoted its energies from 1880 to 1890 to a strong educational movement, which was favoured in a great measure by the political circumstances arisen after the union of Eastern Roumelia to the Bulgarian Principality in 1885. Towards the end of this period, 1880 to 1890, there had sprung up in Macedonia a young, vigorous intelligence, with a strong national conscience, longing for greater freedom in the national and economical development of the country, and aspiring for a wider field of activity. The Turks, afraid of the Bulgarian progress, began to restrain the activity of the Macedonians. The growing tyrannical régime of the Sultan Hamid made the situation still more difficult, and life became impossible in the country.

The Macedonians then sought their salvation in revolution.

This revolutionary movement had for its object the autonomy of Macedonia, which is declared by all I met in the Balkans to be the only solution of the question.

Several important reasons are given for this. First, it is argued that autonomy was secured by International Acts:—the Treaty of Berlin, and the International Commission in Constantinople, 1880. Secondly, it did not touch in any way the integrity of the Turkish Empire, a dogma in the policy of the European Powers. Thirdly, it did not in any way impair the suzerainty of the Sultan, who still remained the sovereign of the province, and who had himself accepted and signed the International Act. Fourthly, it gave full scope to the free development of all the inhabitants in the country, independently of religion or race. Fifthly, the autonomy not only did not affect the interests of any Balkan State, but was bringing a soothing element into the relations between the Balkan nations.

To-day the animosities between the Balkan nations have their common cause in Macedonia. She is the apple of discord. Every Balkan State is contemplating the conquest of this rich province and the playing of principal rôle in the destinies of the Peninsula. All have instituted church and school propagandas in the country, where they wage a furious war between themselves upon the shoulders of the native population. This war is made more cruel by the policy of Turkey, Germany, and Greece. So that in this way the Macedonian population is demoralised, and the Balkan nations themselves are exhausting their energy.

The autonomy, if secured, would exercise a benign influence towards an understanding between the Balkan nations. By the establishment of such an administration in Macedonia, under the guidance and the control of Europe, the Macedonians would take their destiny in their own hands. The different propagandas would not have such a propitious field for action, and the animosities would gradually subside. That this is the best solution of the Macedonian question is held by statesmen all through the Peninsula, for by the progress of time and the development of events the erection of Macedonia into a separate state must become dominant as the final solution.

The way for a Balkan Federation would then be cleared. Macedonia by itself would become a kind of Switzerland, and the nucleus towards the creation of a still more powerful Switzerland in the Balkan Federation, which, neutralised, would create in the Balkan Peninsula a field for progress and civilisation, but not a bridge for the conquering ambitions from the North.

With such broad ideas and with such hopes, the Macedonians wrote upon their revolutionary banner the watchwords, “Macedonia for the Macedonians.”

The revolutionary movement in Macedonia—which dates from the year 1893—began to develop into a strong organisation from 1896-97. The whole country, by patient work, was gradually covered with a network of secret societies, at the head of which was a Central Revolutionary Committee, which, in fact, had a greater power in the country than the official Turkish authorities.

This revolutionary organisation had an international character. In it were received all the Macedonians thirsting for liberty. In its ranks were not only Bulgarians, but also Vlachs, Montenegrins, Servians, and even Turks, discontented with the Sultan’s régime. But on the whole, the organisation bore a Bulgarian colour, chiefly on account of the great Bulgarian majority in Macedonia, and also on account of the suspicion that the organisation intended prosecuting Bulgarian ambitions.

For the reason that Macedonia had a population mostly of Bulgarian nationality, and through the agitation of Macedonian Emigration, the revolutionary movement found a favourable ground in Bulgaria. Here it was met with sympathy, which was followed by moral and material support. An organisation was instituted in the Principality, which spread its influence very rapidly through the whole country. This organisation was called the External Organisation, while that in Macedonia bore the name of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation.

The activity of these two organisations brought the revolutionary movement to a great development during the years of 1900 and 1901. The revolutionary idea became dominant in Macedonia. Nearly the whole population was united in a strongly organised body, and a great part of the men able to fight were armed, and fighting bands were formed which exercised the armed men. The country was divided into military districts, and the Macedonians were inspired with such enthusiasm that they welcomed, with a thrill of exultation, the impending struggle. The enthusiasm was no less great in Bulgaria, where the coming insurrection was awaited with great hopes of success. Indeed, no nation in the Balkan Peninsula had shown such a power of organisation, such sacrificing spirit, and such fighting qualities as the Macedonians. An intimate knowledge of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, such as General Tzontcheff possesses, shows, indeed, the wonderful energy of the Macedonians.

A Bulgarian Band in Macedonia.

But alas! political intrigues from quarters with unfriendly dispositions towards Macedonian aspirations, sowed misunderstandings in the midst of the Organisation, and her forces were suddenly paralysed by internal strife just on the eve of the struggle.

The consequence was that the Macedonian revolutionary movement did not express itself in one general effort, but in partial insurrections, none of which showed the whole revolutionary energy. The insurrection in the valley of the river Stromina during the autumn of 1902 and the insurrection in the vilayet of Monastir in 1903 were easily crushed, and the hopes and expectations of the population unfortunately deceived.

After these abortive insurrections a new situation was created. The European Powers admitted the inability of the Turkish Government to establish order in Macedonia, and the principle of European interference and control was adopted. As a result of this principle, the Murshteg reforms worked up by Austria and Russia were proclaimed. These reforms, however, were not integral, but merely embryo reforms, from the expansion and development of which depended the pacification of the country.

On the other hand, the morale of the Macedonians was now shaken and the power of the Revolutionary Organisation shattered in consequence of the incomplete insurrections and the consequent Turkish victories.

Naturally, the Turks, faithful to their traditional policy, would avail themselves of this situation in order to hinder the development of the reforms in their true sense. The Greeks—whose policy is the partition of Macedonia—were, like the Turks, against such a development of the reforms, because the establishment of an effectual European control would lead to a good government, which would gradually evolve the destiny of Macedonia towards an autonomy.

Therefore, the policy of Turkey, Greece, and Germany had a common interest, namely, to paralyse the reforms, and became a common enemy to the Macedonians, who, by their Bulgarian majority, were striving for autonomy.

So, united in their action, Greece, and also Servia to a smaller extent, hurled, the one from the South and the other from the North, armed bands into Macedonia, who commenced their destructive work against the Bulgarian element, by killing the leading men and enforcing the country population to recognise Greek or Servian nationality. The Turks cover their action, and the villagers, unprotected and without arms, are unable to defend themselves. They are at the mercy of these bands, aided by the Turkish authorities.

Thus a cruel religious and racial war has sprung up in the heart of Macedonia, under the protection and instigation of the Turkish policy, and also under the benevolent eyes of Germany and Austria.

This terrible situation has been still more complicated by the Bulgarians themselves. The Revolutionary Organisation being shattered in its moral and material power, armed bands were formed after the insurrection, under unscrupulous leaders, who commenced acts of depredation upon the unfortunate Macedonians.

Just now the revolutionary organisation in Bulgaria is undergoing another crisis. It is divided into two principal flanks: the moderate and the extreme. The first-mentioned inclines towards a suspension of active revolutionary operations on account of the exhaustion of the MacedonianMacedonian population and the unfavourable political situation in Europe, while the extreme party are urging a continuance of revolutionary action to exasperation. At the annual congress in January last the moderates had a chance to oust the extreme party, but the death of Damian Groueff, the chief of the moderates, who was killed in the village of Roussinovo (vilayet of Uskub) upset all their plans. On account of Groueff’s death they did not take part in the congress, and the result is that the extreme party are now all paramount, and further reprisals may be expected.

Therefore from all sides—from Turks, Greeks, Servians, and even Bulgarians, as well as from an interested diplomacy—the Macedonians are pressed, and their aspirations for the autonomy compromised. And what is the result of all this? Only that the Macedonians are set by the interested Powers before the eyes of the Christian world as a cruel and barbarous population, unworthy of sympathy—worthy only of the tyrannical Turkish rule!

What is the remedy?

There is but one, the one advocated by the kings and princes of the Balkans and the Cabinet Ministers with whom I chatted, namely, to change the present farcical so-called reforms into an administration, under effectual European control by appointing a European Governor-General, responsible to the Powers. Then this terrible situation will change into the peaceful development of a country which is endowed by nature with bounty, but reduced by men’s covetousness to a perfect hell.

That Macedonia to-day is a hell I have seen with my own eyes. And moreover I have been under fire from a Greek band myself. I travelled—contrary to the advice of my friends, who feared the perils of the way—right through the heart of Macedonia from south to north, visiting the Seres and Melnik districts, which only a few days prior to my arrival had been ravaged by Greek bands. In one poor village I passed through, twenty-three women, children, and old men had been butchered in cold blood on the previous day, and I saw with my own eyes some of their mutilated bodies. Upon the women nameless atrocities had been committed.

In Caraja-Kioi, a village not far from Seres, I was told that a fortnight before, nineteen persons, mostly old men and women, had been massacred, and I was informed by eye-witnesses that the Greek band was assisted by the Turks, and that present at the massacre was a Greek metropolitan and a Greek consular employé!

I saw and spoke to two women who had been maltreated by the Greeks, and who still bore wounds. The head of one was bound by a bloodstained rag, and the arm of the other was in a sling.

What they told me was truly horrifying. Both had been outraged and left for dead, without a hand being raised in their defence. And their cases were only two out of several dozen. A child, a little girl of seven, had been decapitated by a brutal Turk, and a mother with her suckling babe had been tortured by slow burning.

Everywhere I went was the same terrible tale, the same cry for the protection of the Powers. At Vranja, in the Melnik district, I saw the gaunt ruins of seven houses which had been recently burnt, and was told how nine women, after being subjected to all sorts of atrocities, were afterwards shot, while at Bashna three men were burnt alive, in a house, and six women shot.

That journey through Macedonia still haunts me like a nightmare. On the one hand, I met the oily Turkish official in frock-coat and fez declaring that the country was quite quiet, and that all reports were exaggerated; while, on the other, I saw with my own eyes the devilish blood-lust of the Greeks, the poor people with their wounds still upon them, the mutilated bodies of innocent Christian women whose blood calls hourly for vengeance.

To Florina, up to Kastoria, and through the terrorised districts around the lakes of Presba and Ochrida I travelled, first under Turkish escort, but not being allowed to see what I wanted, I was permitted by a Bulgarian band to join them, and rode through the various districts. It was a somewhat perilous and exciting time, for I travelled quickly, wishing to get out of the country. Its terrors had got on my nerves, and the gloomy warnings of my friends ever rose within my mind. Greek bands seemed to be operating everywhere, and we never knew when we might not come into close quarters. Our way lay often through deep ravines, affording excellent cover for lurking Greeks.

So life was the reverse of pleasant.

Still I saw with my own eyes sights that appalled me, and I am certain that if the reader had seen what I have witnessed he would cry shame that such an awful state of things should be allowed to exist, and even fostered by a Christian civilised Power.

Does the Christian Kaiser, with all his outward declarations of belief in the direction of the Almighty, ever give a thought to the poor Macedonians butchered with his knowledge—butchered to further the secret aims of the “Fatherland”? Does His Imperial Majesty, when he bends his knee in prayer, remember the first tenets of the Christian faith?

Those who know, as I know, the secrets of German intrigue in Constantinople, cannot but feel contempt and disgust at the shameful sacrifice of human life in Macedonia, where Greeks and Turks outrage, torture, burn, and shoot the poor innocent populace, egged on by “pious” Germany.

Let the ambitious Emperor, who so often invokes God’s blessing upon the German nation, pause for a moment and reflect whether there is no hypocrisy in his political policy, and whether he himself, personally, can expect to receive the Divine aid he so constantly petitions with mock servility.

By raising his hand he could to-morrow stop those brutal, savage Greeks from their bloody work. Yet, by doing so, he knows he would nullify his policy of Germany’s advance southward, and would throw to the winds the years of secret diplomacy practised at the Sublime Porte. Will he do so?

Or will he continue to lift his eyes to Heaven, and close his ears to the death-cries of the poor slaughtered Christian women and children, who are every day being butchered for political purposes?

It was the Kaiser’s diplomacy that discovered the existence of the Roumanian population in Macedonia; it was by his intrigues at Athens that diplomatic negotiations between Greece and Roumania have been broken off.

Go to Macedonia yourself with an open mind and study the question on the spot, and you will, before a week has passed, obtain quite sufficient evidence to convince you that what I have here written is the truth—that Germany stands behind both Greek and Turk, and encourages them with moral and material support to commit those awful and nameless outrages which are a disgrace to our civilisation.