MACEDONIAN AFFAIRS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 140, 4 June 1908, Page 3

MACEDONIAN AFFAIRS.

BRITISH SCHEME NOW SUPPORTED St. Petersburg, June i. The Russian press assert that Russia France, Italy, Germany, and Austria support Sir Edward Grey's scheme foi reforms in Macedonia. It has been truly said that trouble ithe perennial condition of the Balkan Peninsula. The principal causes ot the trouble are the utter incompetence of Tukish rule, the rival politics of Russia and Austria, the incessant intrigues of Germany, and the mutual jealousies of the different races inhabiting these provinces. The condition of the Balkan States is a standing to European diplomacy. As a recent writer in the Contemporary Review has (Minted out, Servia is held tightly in the grip of Austria, who will not allow her to l>e on good terms with her Bulgarian neighbor. Macedonia is bleeding to death. Constant struggles between Slavs and Greek* make life and property no .more secure than they were ten years ago. The (topics hold that practically the entire population of Macedonia * is com- j posed of members of their race, but that » large proportion speaks Slav in consequence of the political restraint brought to bear on them in former times. Thev are therefore turncoats, and ought to come back to their own kith and kin. Those who refuse are murdered. The Turks have not looked even impartially on, but have thrown in their weight whenever they conld safely do so on the side of the Greeks. The reforms ob■tained by the Powers are not put into •execution, even when theSe reforms have Aeen obtained by a show of furce. llie TPnrte has never any intention of putling them into force. Macedonians dare s»t leave, their homes even to look at Staeir properties Greece, distracted with *Urfcar that the Slavs may obtain more territory than they are entitled to, allows her «übjecU to join in filibustering expeditions into Macedonia. The Turk in Macedonia itj also suffering badly. He baa 80,000 soldiers encamped there, and their maintenance is draining their resources. This army is kept in Macedonia because the Turk believe* that without it the Bulgarians would advance across the Iwrder and fight for the deliverance of their brethren. The strain is aba great upon Bulgaria, for to say nothing of the fact that there •are at least 30.000 Macedonian refugees in the principality, the Bulgarian army must always 1* kept on a war footing <o meet a possible attack by Turkey. Sir Edward Grey's Macedonian reform proposals (which early in April it was stated. had been accepted by Austria) intdode an extended judicial reform aeneme, also the rendering of the gendarmerie an effective force.