A LESSON IN GRATITUDE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 225, 21 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

A LESSON IN GRATITUDE

COMMENTING the other day on the cession of the territory known as the Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria by hard-pressed Rumania, a 8.8.C. commentator mentioned a distinguished Englishman whose career may be profitably considered as a footnote to this war, and as an example of national gratitude.

The commentator recalled the interest that English people had taken in Bulgaria for many years, and cited the lifelong service of James David Bourchier, correspondent of "The Times" in the Balkans. He mentioned that when he was last in Bulgaria he bought "Bourchier" cigarettes. He might have mentioned a much higher compliment, that after his death in 1920 the Bulgarian Government got out a series of stamps with Bourehier's portrait on them, and this to the memory of a foreigner who had held no official position, Nor, as we shall see, was this the only recogniton e* his services by a country that had been at war with England and was then passing through the first bitterness of defeat.

A Great Handicap Bourchier was one of those highly individualistic determined lovers of liberty that England produced in such large numbers in the nineteenth century, many of whom carried pen and sword abroad to light for oppressed peoples. Their bones are scattered over the world, but their work lives. I said "England," but I mean the British Isles. Bourchier came of an old Irish family, and a well-known Englishman who knew him as a young man wrote of his "Celtic power *»f holding and pursuing with unshaken tenacity a generous and apparently unrealisable ideal." He was a brilliant scholar with a gift for languages, and after he graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Cambridge, he would have gone to the

By Cyrano

Bar, but severe, deafness prevented this. He tried teaching, but largely through his infirmity he was a failure. Deafness would 6eem to be almost, as great it handicap to the kind of journalist Bourchier was to become as to a barrister, but he drifted into correspondence for "The Times" in the Near East, and was put on the staff permanently in 1892. The 8.8.C. commentator gave an amusing description of Bourehier's conferences with high personages in Bulgaria when he was adviser to rulers and statesmen. His exalted friends would call" for him at his hotel and take him out into the country, where confidences could be safely imparted at the top of their voices. It says a great deal for Bourehier's ability and character that, despite this handicap, he became the most notable foreign figure in the Balkans.

Bitter Disappointments Any Englishman of Bourehier's liberal sympathies was bound to find friends in that turbulent region. What were known as the Bulgarian atrocities • had stirred England in the 'seventies, and the Balkan peoples never forgot Gladstone's championship of their cause against the Turk. Yet Bourchier was to see his whole life's work apparently go for nought. His great aim was that Balkan unity which these countries, as we see all too tragically to-day, have still to reach. It was almost achieved for a while when Serbia, Bulgaria. Greece and Montenegro combined against Turkey in 1912, and with tlieir victory a new era seemed to have dawned, but differences between the victors, culminating in Bulgaria's attack om the Serbs, killed this high promise.

Bourchier, who was. the confidant of kings and premiers, had been one of the architects of the Balkan Alliance; in fact, the first discussion on .the subject took place in his room, and for a while

he was a party to a more that was kept from the knowledge of the Greek a*4 Bulgarian Cabinets. Bulgaria was the Balkan country in which he waa wortinterested and to which he wa» warmly attached. The strength of iyjv position lay in hie deep understanding of and affection for the people, andlSi honesty. Bulgarian treachery in war cost the country dearly in terrifec** and prestige, but, says biographer, Ladv Grogan, whiwp Bourchier never condoned that and other acts, the misfortunes of Bulgaria' intensified his sympathy and affectiaa 1 for the Bulgarian people. More bitter atill must have been ijjjpj disappointment when the Government brought the nation into war on the side or Germany. He wrote the bulk of the people sympathised with i Britain, but the country's rulen ha*s| come to the conclusion that was going to win. At the Peace Con|f fercnce he worked hard to get the teres to Bulgaria softened, but although hit knowledge of the Balkans wmm unequalled he was never consulted hr-1 those in whose hands the destiny ef?| those territories now lay. The British would not even see him, and the only quarter where he could find any aym-4' pathy was with the Americans. It Jiff not surprising that he did not survive the conference. A Nation's Gratitude V;| When he died in Sofia there were - extraordinary and touting demonstrations of national admiration and affeetion. Be it remembered that this was a defeated and heavily penalised and that Bourchier belonged to the Tietorious side. Yet "his body lay in state in the cathedral, with the face, according to the custom of the Orthodox Church, exposed to view, and long line* of people, from the humblest to the highest, passed before his coffin to their last look at his familiar features." Citizens stood many deep in the streets as the procession passed. "The Bulgarian Government did all tl»Bt vu } possible to perpetuate hfe memory. Postage stamps were issued; some with his picture in the peasant dress he ernetimes worp, others with the head alone*' 1 one of the chief streets of Sofia wait: re-christened with his name; and, «Na in tnat time of finanrial straits, a laraa sum was set aside for a national imminent, which is to stand above his cm« ?! at Rilo." When Bourchiers brother his wife visited Bulgaria to see the I grave they were the guests of the i Government.

Those who know these facts mar contrast the attitude of the Bulgarian Got ernment with that of the French Government to-day, though they will toll themselves that the Petain Government does not represent the real France.

Bourchier would have rejoiced at tk return of the Southern Dobrudja to Bnlgaria. Indeed, lilt-! Mr. 'vould hav9 found himself in the eakrraseing position of having to that there -was justice in the Hungarian claims against Rumania as well aa the Bulgarian, although Britain gmrm- a 1 guarantee to Rumania. Recognisiag.as she does the rights of snail and'" minorities, Britain cannot help takiag up such an attitude. Her enemkTare' moved entirely by motives of self-inter-est. For two reasons Bourchier's cuvcr and the place he made for Itim—M the hearts of the Bulgarian people are well worth recalling to-day. exemplify the principles for whidt?»r' : are fighting, and they show that gratitude and chivalry, for which -virtues the Nazis and Fascists have as little reaud ?* have fop freedom, eaa loviA in the cold winds of adveraitv.