BULGARS IN RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 13 September 1916, Page 3

BULGARS IN RUSSIA.

NO QUARTER FOR TRAITORS TO SLAV CAUSE. In the recent fighting round Baranoy'iecs (in the centre of the line), where in spite of reinforcements the Germans and Austrians were repulsed and where both sides have now resumed the positions occupied during th e winter, some Bulgarians recently brought to this front have been taking part (wrote Hamilton Fyfe, from Petrograd on 17th July). Hitherto the Germans have used their Balkan dupes only against the Russians in the character of spies. It was expected that the Bulgarians speaking

the same language and disguised in Russian uniforms would be mose useful. That hope has been disappointed. .Th e Bulgarian language, although it is written the same as the Russian, is pronounced differently, and the spies have in very few cases succeeded in slipping away from the Russian lines. Their speech has betrayed them, and they hav e promptly been shot. This further "treachery, added to the renunciation by the Bulgarians of their Slav birthright and their friendship for Russia, has infuriated the Russian troops. A few days ago a party of 150 Bulgarians caught in an awkward place were most anxious to surrender. They held up their hands and tied white handkerchiefs on their rifles, and shouted to the Russians that they wished to be taken prisoners. But the Russians had no mercy for traitors to the Slav cause, and the Bulgarians were forced to continue fighting. Almost all of them perished. A captain of the Bulgarian army recently captured, siad that any officer who was known to regret the break with Russia was sent to the post of danger, and if possible got rid of. Many have been attached to the German army, and sent to the forefront of the battle at Verdun.