THE BALKAN CRISIS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10716, 8 October 1912, Page 7

THE BALKAN CRISIS

"KEKORAi IS HOPELESS." A BULGARIAN VIEW OF THE J TURK. The following letter, written to the Westminster Gazette from .Bulgaria by P. M. Alatthoeff, who <l-:/js not «ay whether or not he is an Englishman, gives the reasons Bulgarians have for wanting war with Turkey. He writes : —-Living within hearing cf the cries from Macedonia of those whoso tears and wounds so profoundly moved the Bulgarian nation, I ask your leave to address some, comments upon the rei gime of what is known as "Committoo" rule m Turkey. It is neither reason nor logic to preach to the Turks, who stil lsupport the "gentleman" Turk, becauso they have lived long, or, being engaged in trade, in the Ottoman Empire, have a friendly feeling towards the Osmanli. The anxiety of all such is to push straws within, reach of the drowning Turk. Young Turkish "heroes" —now un--1 masked —have succeeded in destroy- ; ing themselves and also brought their j country into a worse state of things than before 1908. The liew power which they foolishly imagined would consolidate Turkish rule has not cnlv proved worthless but ruinous to their programme. During four years no support was denied the "Committee of Union and Progress." A free hand M"i<i o-ivo" -Hi"-- by tV-" Powers to d<~> as they pleased. Consular reports of downright- 11 ngrant misrule, outrage, briiiamhiL'O, and murder hare h"o.n suppressed. And under tlio screen of this awful conspiracy of siionee, the Young Turks were winked } at in their arbitrary and tyrannical i persecution of non-Turkish peasants. I Could hypocrisy reach a lower level , than to insult the suffering widow and mourning orphans by pretending that the murdered husband and frith- ' er had been'-brutally beaten to death by order of a "Constitutional" government? Remember that soon after j the Young Turks seized the oxocu- j tivo the Adana massacres of defenceless Armenians took place, to the eternal disgrace of European Powers "Will the new Cabinet, under Ghazi Muktar Pasha, punish the, known au* | thors of those murders? I would remind you, sir, that, the Kotchani massacres Wore curried out in the regular old style, and in strict accordance with tradition, and now we have the friends of the Old Turks pleading for time and toleration. Let us al* who value the truth look facts calmly in the face. However willing we may bo to give the Ottoman executive another chance, reform is hopeless. The Turk, old or young, cannot mend, for the capacity to do so is j not in him. Everything in hi.s train- i •• ing, social life, and surroundings ;s against him. He himself is, in fact against himself. Turkish rule means the ovorlordship of the minority, to which all must be sacrificed. In Macedonia, even under existing erne! conditions, the Christian element i--progressive, and has commercial ah;- ' lity for which the Turk frankly de- | dares his contempt, and his own preference for indolent ease to unremitting industry. It is, I respectfully submit, an insult to the intelligence to believe that any remedial measures will follow the promised inquiry at j Kotchani. The Adana inquiry resulted in the chief criminals being set at liberty, and we shall have the tragedy repeated at Kotchani unlese s foreign consuls attend and insist on a searching investigation. Forgive mo for expressing my views' .strongly. j All we demand is justice.