The Balkan States.

Manawatu Herald, 20 August 1903, Page 2

The Balkan States.

MORE FIGHTING REPORTED. Vienna papers report the disappearance of Dr Manderstam, Bussian Consul at Uskub, Northern Albania, while on a tour of inspection in Macedonia. A squadron of the Russian Black Sea fleet has sailed for Turkish waters. It is reported from Vienna that the situation is desperate. The Porte is incapable of restoring order. Strong bands of rebels are plundering the villages and firing houses everywhere. A thousand Turks attacked a rebel stronghold in the mountains of the Fiorina district, about thirty miles south of Monastir, guarded by six hundred men, whence bread, clothing, ammunition, rifles and shoes were distributed.

After twenty-four hours| fighting the Turks were repulsed with heavy loss. ' s3Si' Hilmi Pasha, the Turinstr Governor of Macedonia, visifeedthe widow of M. Rostovsky, late Russian Consul at Monastir, to offer condolences and announce that the Turkish Govejftment would grant compensation Tor her husband’s murder. Madame Rostovsky declined .compensation, saying that she did not want Turkish charity. .. She also returned her husband’s Turkish decorations. ARRIVAL OF ARMS AND AMMUNITION. The Porte denies arming the population in the Uskub district. Immense quantities of . rifles and ammunition from Odessa are arriving at Rustchuk and being forwarded to Philippopolis. Turkey has ordered from Krupp’s foundry in Germany thirty-two batteries of quick-firing artillery, of six guns each. A hundred insurgents wore killed in the fighting near Penlepe. In connection with Halim’s trial for the murder pi M. Rostovsky, the chief of the gendarmerie has been dismissed for trusting important posts to Albanians unable to speak Turkish. AN INDICTMENT OP TURKEY. A Bulgarian Note to the Powers accuses Turkey of closing churches and schools, terrorising and ruining the peasantry, exasperating the population, torturing the innocent, and collecting taxes years in advance. It enumerates acts of injustice, torture and violation, giving- the names of victims and localities. It, states that four thousand are still in gaol, and that persecution has driven six thousand into Bulgaria. , . The Porte- should recognise, says the Note, that the causa of the insurrection is bad administration, not conspiracy on ihe part of Bulgaria. General Petroff, in an interview, said the Bulgarian’s attitude was absolutely correct. The frontier was carefully guarded. The rising was purely internal and national and the work of the Internal Committee. Insurgents’ arms are mostly of French type, sold by Turkish officers whose pay was in arrears. He said he believed the outbreak would be confined to the Monastir district, and easily suppressed.