Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Intrigues at Sofia
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
i2] MY WARNING DISREGARDED 97
Alas! This telegram proved to be historical, not
hysterical!
During the month of July M. Gueshov and the other
Ministers who had been on leave returned to Sofia. At
the same time affairs in Macedonia were taking a more
and more alarming turn. It was quite clear that, setting
aside natural and logical causes, one was confronted by
the work of Serbo-Bulgarian agitators and abettors.
Two small towns in Macedonia, Ishtib and Katchaneh, in
particular became in turn the scene of bloody events of
the kind so common in Hamid times. In both these
places, on market day, bombs exploded close to the
bazaar; among the killed and wounded,naturally, Turkish
women and children were found : immediately, as at a
given signal, the Mussulman population fell on the
Bulgarian peasants who had come to market and began
to massacre them; they also attacked the houses of
Bulgarian patriots and leading men, and the usual
"atrocities" took place. I11 both cases the Turkish
garrison did nothing to stop the massacre ; it was even
suspected of having aided and abetted. Certainly the
people who threw the bombs—and they never were
Turks—knew perfectly well what the result of their deeds
would be.
Such sad incidents were of frequent occurrence in
the days before the Turkish Revolution ; but then no one
thought of making them a casus belli; Bulgaria became
irritable, the Bulgarian newspapers published warlike
articles, the Great Powers cautioned the Porte, and then
everything resumed its normal aspect. That was why
the respective Governments of Western Europe did not
attach any extraordinary significance to the Macedonian
events of July, 1912. But our Foreign Secretary, who
was perfectly well aware of the true meaning of these
regrettable incidents, ought to have perceived a serious
warning in them. That is how I understood them, and
consequently I did not fail to emphasise in my telegrams
and dispatches that the Balkan War was the order of
the day and was a perpetual menace.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
