BULGARIA IN REVOLUTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 34, 4 November 1918, Page 4

BULGARIA IN REVOLUTION

On the facts in sight the- revolution in Bulgaria reported to-day should mean that the people of, that country are intent upon a reckoning of their own with the Pan-Ger-man gang which carried Bulgaria into the war and so led her through crime to disaster. At present thero is no more than the bare announcement that Kino Boris has abdicated, his action being enforced by a peasant army led by a man who comes, now for the first _ time into prominence. The revolution is probably to be welcomed. The arrangement under which Ferdinand abdicated to be succeeded by Boris represented rather a compromise than a final settlement with the schemers who made Bulgaria a pawn of the Central Empires. Indeed, it is more than likely that from the point of view of the Court party it constituted an attempt to -perpetuate the abuses of Ferdinand's personal regime under a semblance of change and reform. If the Bulgarian people have decided to complete the work that was begun when their late King was expelled they are taking a hopeful step towards rehabilitating themselves in the eyes of the world. There is no reason at present for thinking that the revolution is likely to degenerate into a mere carnival of disorder. _It seems more likely that it is a national uprising with definite aims and for a definite end. It is spoken of as a peasant revolt, but in Bulgaria the peasants comprise the great bulk of the population. In Bulgaria there is no such ■ ignorant and illiterate class for agitators to play upon as is to be found in Russia. Popular education has made groat strides, and according to one authority the percentage of adult Bulgarians who cannot read and write is exceedingly small compared-to most other countries—it is two and a half per cent.'of the adult population. "Industrious and thrifty as no other Slav nation, cold,-blooded and calculating," the Bulgars are not the kind of pooplo likely to dissolve their social organisation in a welter of anarchy. On the other hand "\t would be strictly in keeping with their national characteristics if they took pitiless revenge upon the men responsible for their present evil plight, and in particular determined to displace Ferdinand's dynasty as well as the villainous exKing himself. Whatever internal changes take place in Bulgaria, it remains a duty plainly incumbent on tho Allies to exact all possiblo reparation for the crimes of which she has been guilty against her neighbours, and to bring individuals guilty of atrocities and other crimes to justice. It is possible, however, that the revolution may m ' some respects simplify and facili- ' tate a settlement in the Balkans ' making for stable peace.