ATROCITIES IN BULGARIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1254, 13 July 1880, Page 3

ATROCITIES IN BULGARIA.

The London Tchgrayh of the 15th April publishes the following from the Levant Herald:— "The affair of Kirdjali was after all not the hollow farce at first supposed. Information from the most reliable sources renders scepticism impossible. In three villages of that district — Kotaklar, Foundojak, and Hodja Kisla — one hundred women were outraged and wounded, a girl 10 years of age was violated, an old woman, upwards of 90, was pavagely wounded, and cne of 60, named Aisha, the mother of Ali Day Oglou, was first violated, her arms were then skinned, after which her hand and feet were cut off, and she was finally done to death by repeated bayonet wounds. At Ak-Bounar, according to the deposition of Mehomet, the Imam of the village, a hand of gymnasts and militiamen, armed with Martini and Winchester rifle*, surrounded the village. He went out with twenty-four aiineil men, the only ones who had not fled at their approach, to bid the Roumeliotes welcome. He was met by a denvuul for money, and as it was not forthcoming he and his companions were seized awl locked up in one house, while twenty-five women and two girls were incarcerated in an adjoining building The men were called out by turns and beaten with rifles, sticks, and whip 3. Many of them were stripped naked. Mehemet himself was cruelly j beaten by a Bulgarian blacksmith whom he knew. A woman, aged 60, was killed, being pierced with three bayonet wounds; another, aged 71, was beaten to death with the butt end of a rifle. Two other women and a man were killed on the same day. It was only i on the third day that the poor wretches were liberated, to find their village pillaged and in ruins, and twenty-nine houses entirely burnt down. Six other villages in the Kirdjali district were wholly or partly destroyed by fire, while cattle and money were ruthlessly seized. From another villiage a petition has been received detailing the murder, with every refinement of brutality, of a mother who was expecting her confinement, and the violation of her three girls, aged 8, 12, and sixteen respectively. These, then, are the triumphs achieved by Roumelian gymnasts and militiamen under the command of Russian and Bulgarian officers. The heroic leadar of the gymnasts was a certain Dobrow, a Bulgarian. While these hideous excesses are attested by the most reliable witnessse, there is nothing to show that the socalled "insurrections " at Kirdjali ever had any existence except in the heated imagination of Bulgarian patriots. The Roumelian expedition has, however, taken good care that the memory of this incident should not die out. Even the most supine —conveniently supine of rulers, Aieco Pacha, has been disturbed at last in his quiescence Dobrow has been placed under arrest, and a commission has been appointed to enquire into the circumstances. But it is generally apprehended that this will be another of those commissions with ears not to hear and eyes not to see.

The exportations of pure— bred shorthorns from the Um'ed Kingdom during the last quarter of the year 1879 were as follows: — To Australia, 4 ; to New Zealand, 4; to Canada, 6 ; to Trance, 8 ; to Germany, 13 ; and to Buenos Ayres, 11 ; in addition to a large nnmber of bulls and heifers purchased for the latter country privately, of which no particulars could be ascertained. The Shorthorn Society of England have done a graceful and generous act in contributing £500 towards the prosecution of Mr Hoplrina for falsifying the pedigree of a Shorthorn bull. The Birmingham Exhibition Society accepted the contribution as a great compliment and honour to them aa the prosecutors in the oaqe,