FUTURE OF THE CITY OF ADRIANOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1868, 30 September 1913, Page 9

FUTURE OF THE CITY OF ADRIANOPLE.

AND THE RECENT PAST. (By 11. W. Ncvinson in tho "Manchester Guardian.") A small body of men calling themselves " tho Adrianoplo' Committee," havo been for almost a week in London staying at tho Hotel Cecil. In tho absence of Sir Edward Grey they were received at tho Foreign Oiiico by 0110 of t'ho Permanent Under Secretaries, Sir Louis 1 Mallet, who happens to Im tho next Ambassador to Constantinople. They had been formally introduced by the Turkish Ambassador, who, however, was not present at tho interview. Tho proceedings were pri"ate, but the general purport is easily discovered from conversation with t'ho delegates and from t'ho printed manifesto in which tho objects of their visit are explained. There were six of them, with Ahmed Effendi Zade Beint as tho leader of the mission, and they claim to represent not only Turks and Moslems, but all the races settled in Adrianoplo and tlio neighbourhood, except, of course, tho Bulbars. Tlioy asserted that of the million . and a quarter of inhabitants more : than half are Moslems, and nearly a quarter are Greeks. The Bulgarians come next with about 140,000,' out thero are besides nearly 60,000 of mixed races, especially Armenians and Jews. In tho interests of all these races and religions the delegates demanded this restoration of Adrianoplo to the Turkish Empire. Or perhaps one ought to say tho retention rather than restoration, for, incredible as it s'eems to those who were present, like myself, at tho early Bulgarian victories and the siejje of the city, the Turks are there again now the triumphs of Kirk Kiliseh and Luleh Burgas are reversed, and the great fortress with its splendid mosque is again in Turkish hands.

The Atrocities. But the argument upou which 'tho. delegates chiefly roly was not the right of reconquest and possession, but the horror of Bulgarian atrocities. In proof of such atrocities thoy produced horrible photographs and . all manner of hideous narratives. In their manifesto they, asserted that "from the day when the Bulgarians first entered Thrace, on tho pretence of delivering Christianity from the supposed atrocities of Turkish rule, they had. spared neither women nor children. They had violated women, sacrificed children, and transformed the whole country into a heap of smoking ruins. . . .Eight months ago," tho manifesto continues, "Thraco'had a prosperous population of a million and a quarter souls, and today the country is complotoly devastated; .there is hardly a single inhabited cottage standing, hardly a villago v.'hich is not reduced'to ashes." • In contrast to this terrible condition the manifesto pointed to the peace and toleration-enjoyed by the province for the six centuries of Turkish rule. "It is our prayer,"'said tho delegates, "to see no Hag but the Crescent flying in tho, Vilayet of Adrianoplo." But if tho Powers insist on handing over tho region to Bulgaria thoy 'call upon them to find for the inhabitants somo asylum whore they can be safe from Bulgarian outrage and persecution.

All Tarred With Ona Brush. ''' That is tho upshot of their contention, and certain comments will at once occur to any.ono who has closely followed the course of recent, history in tho Balkans. 11l tho first place, tho stories of atrocities are t-oo general to make one' way or other. Many are invented, for the invention of atrocities ,has almost become a profession, and none should be believed except what one has oneself witnessed or established ■ by carefully-sifted evidence. If.,we assume that a large number of thera are probably truo, we can only-■ go on-to say that all the races in the Balkans—Turks, Bulgars, Greeks, Serbs, and Montenegrins—are tarred with _tho same brush, and it is waste of Tirno for one to be calling the other black.' I believe that no war for at least a century past has been waged with more embittered, hatred or. more atrocious outrage than the two Balkan wars since last October. It was chiefly becauso such atrocities were expected that correspondents were excluded from tho scenes of action, and owing chiefly to the absence of correspondents ana attaches it will now be tor ever impossible even to attempt to striko a balance of criminality.

The claim based upon humanity will, not go very far. Even assuming that the worst that is said of tho Bulgarians is true it can easily be matched by what is said 'of tlie other races, and since tho return of tho Turks a heavy veil of silence hangs over the history of the miserable province. If they had argued entirely from nationality the delegates would havo been on stronger ground, for Adrianople itself is undoubtedly a Moslem and mainly Turkish city.. It is, indeed, one of tho few districts wlioro you might meet real Turks in Europe,' and for that reason I have always maintained it ought to remain in Turkish hands, though unfortified. But now tho other races have so entirely abandoned the principlo of nationality that this argument has become useless. The only argument that counts is possession. The Turkß possess tho city-; let them keep it if they can. They should remember that tho surest way to lose it is to advance to further conquest.