THE BALKANS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 10 June 1913, Page 5

THE BALKANS

v PEACE CONFERENCE TO DISSOLVE.

ANGRY SCENES,

BEQUEST TO DEMOBILISE.

By Cable —Press Association—Copyright Received 9, 11.30 p.m. London, June 9. The Servian delegates have been recalled. It is expected that the Peace Conference will be dissolved, leaving outstanding points unsettled. It is rumored that there were angry scenes on Saturday.

Sofia, June 9.

It i« semi-officially stated by the newspaper Mir that no Bulgarian Government will consent to a revision of the Bul-garian-Serbo treaty, unless the ServfSns abandon their foolishi provocative nand. Ivo good is expected from ( the conference of the four Premiers, which has-been postponed owing to the Minis-' terial crisis. :t '''

Constantinople, June 9.

The Powers are communicating with the Porte and Balkan Governments, urging the belligerents to demobilise threequarters of their forces.

A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

THE KING'S VIEWS,

London, June 8. The King had luncheon with the ■Peace delegates. He expressed the earnest hope that hostilities would not be renewed, and warned the delegates of the danger of a fresh struggle. Another war, His Majesty said, would' be a crime against humanity.

CALLED TO THE COLORS. London, June 8. Reuter's Athens correspondent reports that a decree has been issued calling the recruits of 1913 to the colors.

COST OF THE WAR TO TURKEY, 200,000 KILLED.

150,000 PRISONERS.

London, April 30. The war has been a specially cruel one for the Turks, writes the veteran correspondent, Sir Edwin Pears, from Constantinople. It is impossible to state with accuracy the number of Turkish soldiers killed in battle or who died from wounds, sickness or starvation. But the number can hardly be less than 200,000. Probably 50,000 perished in the campaign around Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, and the chase by the Bulgarians as far as Chataldja. During the struggles at the lines at the latter place, extending over three months, probably another 30,000 perished. For some weeks men were dying there mostly from exposure and want of food at the rate of fiom 600 to'7oo per day. In the campaign under the Servians, in which Monastir was captured) the Turks probably lost another 30,000. In one of the fiercest struggles in the war, when the Turks fled towartjs Salonica, the Bulgarians, hastening after them through the Kustendil Pass, caught them on their flank, and the struggle which ensued was one in which no quarter was asked or given. Probably 20,000 men perished. In .the fight around Salonika the Greeks and-Bulgarians put 30,000 hors de combat The Montenegrins accounted ,for possibly 6000 men. Then in a series of small engagements to the west of DedeAgatch there was great slaughter, say 10,000. At and around Adrianople 20,000 met their deaths. After the revolution three determined, if ill-considered, efforts were made by Enver.Bey to effect landings from the Marmora. The slaughter effected was Terrible. In these attempts and at Boulair and the neighborhood probably 15,000 Turks perished. A3 late as the beginning of April a number of men succeeded in effecting a landing from the Black Sea to the north of Dercos, and were exterminated. The estimate there of 200,000 Turkish killed or dying from disease or stavation is probably under rather than over the mark.

The prisoners taken by the Allies can hardly be less than 150,<f00, Of these the Bulgarians took probably 54,000, of whom 30,000 fell into their hands at Adrianople; the Greeks at Janina and Elassoija, 35,000; Bulgarians and Greeks together at Salonika and neighborhood, 40,000; the -Servians and Montenegrins, 20,000. ° '

There can hardly be fewer than 150,000 •women, children and old men who have fled from- their homes in Macedonia: aricf Thrace. Thousands of these came to Constantinople with their ox carts, and were at once shipped across the Bosphorus into Asia-Minor, but many thousands remain in Constantinople or in the neighboring towns and villages; some encamped in their carts, others in ruined buildings or temporary lean-tos, while many hundreds found, and still find refuge within the mosques;