On Friday week an ominous incident occurred on the frontier
between Bulgaria and Serbia. A strong force of Bulgars—it is impossible to say on the evidence whether there were regular soldiers among them or whether they were all Komitadjis and irregulars—attacked the Serbian blockhouse at Valandova. The Serbian frontier guards were driven back to Strumnitza. The Bulgars lost thirty killed and the Serbians sixty killed. The Bulgarian Government, in reply to a Serbian protest, declared that the whole affair was due to the ill-treatment of the inhabitants of the Serbian territory near the frontier. These inhabitants, it was stated, revolted, and the Bulgarian frontier guards did their best to protect the abandoned Serbian posts. Renter says that the official Serbian view is that the Bulgarian Government were probably not responsible, but that Kornitadjim had a definite plan to cut Serbian com- munications with Salonika, and, further, to compel the population on the Serbian side of the frontier to flee into Bulgaria in order that it might be said that they were di.. contented with Serbian rule. If this be true, it is a remarkable illustration of the wisdom of M. Venezelos. He would like such districts as this to be ceded to Bulgaria. They are probably only a source of weakness to Serbia. The prospects of Serbian expansion are so good that to humour Bulgaria in a district she covets would be only a case of drawing back to leap better.
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