BULGAR ATROCITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1918, Page 5

BULGAR ATROCITIES.

PROTESTS IN AUSTRIAN 'PARLIAMENT. Members of the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments have publicly protested against atrocities committed by the Bulgarians upon the Ju'go Slavs of conquered Servia. Deputy Dr. V. Ribar, in the Austrian Parliament, spoke ah follows:

"Go to the Balkans and sec for you>selves how the former flourishing towns aijd villages an now but smouldering ruins. Not military necessity, but the deliberate will of the authorities, has devastated our lands in such a manner as has not been witnessed in Europe since Kossovo. Our unhappy people have been scattered to the winds.

"From whole districts the military authorities have carried off women and old men and children, just as did tin Assyrians and Babylonians, the conquered peoples of ancient times. From the vicinity of Nish alone the Bulgars have carried away 30,000 persons to the deserts of Asia Minor. It is a war of extermination of the Jugo Slavs." Similar protest was raised in the Budapest Parliament by the Hungarian Deputy, Zoltan Vermes, who said, with reference to the. barbarity .of the Bulbars and their crimes against the Servian population:—

"When I was in command of n detachment, my duties called me to the mining village of MajdaTjpek', from the neighborhood of which is obtained the pyrites necessary for the manufacture of munitions. The mine touches upon the frontier of the Bulgarian Hminls. trative territory, where the Bulbars,with the utmost ferocity, arc pursuing bands of Servian insurgents, whose relations they systematically put to death. Thus, at Majdanpek, executions are the order of the day."