THE LIBERAL PRESS AND THE BALKAN WAR.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 Sin,—The signing of the Treaty of Bucharest is an oppor- tunity for reviewing the extraordinary attitude of the Liberal press during the month's war so happily and so justly ended. Nothing can be more clear than that the solution is a very fair one from the point of view of nationalities, and that Bulgaria, who remains by no means crippled (since her terri- tories, if she reoccupies the Enos-Midia frontier, will be still larger than those of either Servia or Greece), has been not excessively punished for her overweening arrogance and unspeakable massacres. That the Bulgarians in the first war massacred the Moslem populations of Macedonia is a matter of my personal knowledge: at Cavalla alone hundreds of Turks were killed in cold blood. That the Greek accusa- tions of massacres in this war are true is proved by the terrible photographs taken at Doxato by war correspondents of foreign papers which have lately been published. It must be remembered that M. Venizelos and King Constantine are not irresponsible Levantines. No Greek governmental or military pronouncements have been tainted with exaggeration since M. Venizelos came into power. The Greeks have never committed atrocities even in the days when Bulgaria forced them into employing bands in Macedonia for the protection of the Greek element. It is not in their character, as anyone who knows them can certify. Wily Odysseus has many faults, but he is not a brute. The counter-accusations published by the Bulgarians cannot be taken seriously. They state vaguely that "the Greeks have burnt and plundered forty villages." The Greek accusations are "You killed so many men, so many *omen, so many children in the village of Doxato : this man you burnt with petrol, these men you impaled, this man's eyes you gouged out ; we have the photographs and the names." I fail, by the way, to understand your correspondent who says that the places where the massacres occurred are solely inhabited by Bulgarians. I can only say that they are almost entirely inhabited by Greeks. Bulgaria's claims at the outset of the war were outrageous. Maps were published with Bulgaria extending past Salonica to the Albanian border. Greece and Servia were threatened with absolute annihilation. M. Venizelos tried personally to keep the peace. He actually kept it after Greek soldiers, taken at the skirmish of Pangaion (before the declaration of the war), bad been whipped by the Bulgars through the streets—and that after the Bulgarian prisoners bad been honestly surrenderea. Could England have kept the peace under such an insult ?
What, then, was the attitude of the Liberal press ? How did the supporters of nationality, the lovers of peace, the haters of massacre, treat the Greeks ? With the foulest and most frenzied abuse that can be conceived. They accused the Greeks of beginning the war, an accusation perversely false. They took no notice of King Constantine's dispatch. They gave predominant notice to Bulgarian accusations. They swore that the grand, silent Bulgarians were about to con- suinmate a master-stroke. They declared every day that the Greek army was in great peril or else that the glorious record of Greek victories was a sham. They accused the Greeks (foulest and stupidest libel of all) of allying with Turkey. And now they declare that this peace cannot bold because the Greeks have taken Cavalla, which purely Greek town, accord- ing to the Nationalists who so love the Egyptians and Indians, should be given to the Bulgarians—to be treated presumably like Serves. And one of your correspondents says that the Bulgarians cannot put their case ! I can assure him that the Bulgarians have always spent vast sums in press propaganda. Finally, it must not be forgotten that the Bulgarians are Huns. The spirit of massacre and oppression is ingrained in the race. They are less fit even than the Turks to rule any race but their own.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JAMES ELROY FLECKER.
[As we have given a hearing to correspondents who have sought to vindicate the Bulgarians, we print Mr. Flecker's and Mr. Cassavetti's letters, but cannot undertake to find space for further recriminatory correspondence on the balance of criminality in regard to atrocities.—En. Spectator.]
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