MAIL NEWS.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 723, 13 October 1876, Page 3

MAIL NEWS.

TURKISH ATROCITIES IN BULGARIA. The special correspondent of the Daily News furnishes that journal with the following account of the horrible atrocities perpetrated by the Turks, in Bulgaria : " Philippopolis, July 31. " The investigation into the atrocities is proceeding rapidly. Mr Baring will probably report that not fewer than sixty villages were burnt and twelve thousand people killed. I do not know what view he will take of the insurrection. Many prisoners have been released since we arrived. Mr Baring is honestly desirous of obtaining the truth, but is always accompanied by a Turkish escort, which frightens the peasantry. Mr Garachino, thu interpreter, is unfairly prejudiced. He browbeats and bullies the Bulgarians, but is polite and forbearing to the Turks. One whole day he accompanied Tussun Bey, the leader of the Bashi.Bazouks, when visiting the villages which Tussun Bey burnt. The peasantry afterwards told Mr Schuyler that they were afraid to come and testify. Mr Schuyler thinks the reports'of the atrocities committed by the Bulgarians utterly unfounded. He believes that about IAO Turks were killed, nearly all in actual combat. There is no proof yet of a single Turkish woman or child having been killed. Except in three villages, the Bulgarians offered no resistance. In one instance only the Bulgarians attacked the Turks, viz, in a village of mixed inhabitants. Proof has been obtained of atrocities corresponding in the majority of cases with the details in the Daily News. A schoolmistress, a beautiful girl, was arrested for embroidering a flag, and brutually maltreated. She was nicknamed 'the Queen of the Bulgarians.' She has been released on bail, but was in prison six weeks on bread and water. The poor girl is now ill and broken hearted." "Tatar Bazardjik, August 1.

" I have just seen the town of Batok, with Mr Schuyler. Mr Baring was there yesterday. Here is what I saw. On approaching the town on a hill there were some dogs. They ran away, and we found on this spot a number of skulls scattered about, and one ghastly heap of skeletons, with clothing. I counted from the saddle a hundred skulls, picked and licked clean, all ot women and children. We entered the town. On every side were skulls and skeletons charred among the ruins, or lying entire where they fell in their clothing. There were skeletons of girls and women, with long brown hair hanging to the skulls. We approached the church. There these remains were more frequent, until the ground was literally covered with skeletons, skulls, and putrefying bodies in clothing. Between the church and the school there were heaps. The stench was fearful. We entered the churchyard. The sight was more dreadful. The whole churchyard for three feet deep was festering with dead bodies, partly covered ; hands, legs, arms and heads projected in ghastly confusion. I saw many little hands, heads, and feet of children of three years of age, and girls, with heads covered with beautiful hair. The church was still worse. The floor was covered with rotting bodies quite uncovered. I never imagined anything so fearful. There were three thousan d bodies in the churchyard and church. We were obliged to hold tobacco to our noses. In the school, a fine building, two hundred women and children had been burnt alive. All over the town there were the same scenes. In some places heaps of bodies buried in shallow holes had been uncovered by the dogs. The banks of the little stream were covered with bodies. Many bodies had been carried to Tatar Bazardjik, a distance of thirty miles. The town had 9000 inhabitants. There now remain 1200. Many' who escaped had returned recently, weeping and moaning over their ruined home. Their sorrowful wailing could be heard half-a-mile off. Some were digging out the skeletons of loved ones. A woman was sitting moaning over three small skulls with hairs clinging to them, which she had in her lap. The man who did all this, Achmed Aga, has been promoted, and is still governor of the district. The newspaper accounts were not exaggerated, They could not be. No crime invented by Turkish ferocity was left uncommitted. Seven thousand bodies have been lying here since May 12th. rotting in the sun, preyed upon by dogs; and Sir Henry Elliot has never heard that the authorities demand a war contribution from the remaining inhabitants of one hundred thousand piastres. The town formerly paid a million. The harvest is rotting in the fields. The owners are in the church yard. The survivors' cattle have been taken by the Turks, who refuse to restore it. It is impossible to get in the harvest. It is not true that the Turks are sending help. The inhabitants everywhere complain to Mr Schuyler that their cattle are not restored, and that help is'not given. The statement that the Bulgarians committed atrocities is utterly unfounded and shamefully false. Mr Schuyler thinks that less than two hundred Turks were killed, nearly all in open combat. There is no proof yet that a single Turkish woman or child was killed or violated. The reports of Mr Schuyler and Mr Baring will corroborate this telegram. There is urgent need of relief for the starving and helpless families."