The Bulgarian Coup The coup d'etat in Bulgaria has been
carried through without bloodshed, and has not been followed by political proscriptions. The new Ministry, headed by Colonel Kimon Gheorghieff, appears on the whole to have been welcomed by the people, as offering the only hope of escape from desperate economic conditions aggravated by misgovernment. Whilst the public finances are in chaos the mass of the people • have been ground down by taxation to pay for armies of officials appointed by the leaders of the dominant parties from among their friends and supporters. The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, which has for so long exploited the nationalist sympathy for the Bulgars of Jugoslavia, has acted with such ruthlessness in the southern provinces as to estrange many of its old friends. Hence the new government comes to power with three declared objectives—to purge public finance by reducing the numbers and the salaries of officials and other economies : to check the Revolu- tionary Organization which has created bad blood between Bulgaria and Jugoslavia : and to strengthen the recent understanding with their western neighbour. This last development is being watched with uneasiness by Greece and Roumania ; but in the higher interests of the Balkans nothing could be more desirable than a close relationship between Bulgaria and Jugoslavia.
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