The British Government as yet supports the neutrality pro- fessed
by Austria and Russia. Mr. Balfour on Monday explained this to the House of Commons, and volunteered the opinion that as yet the "balance of criminality" in Macedonia lay on the side of the insurgents. The Times, however, though it usually endorses this opinion, had on Thursday the gener- osity and justice to publish a letter from its late correspondent in Macedonia exposing the truth. Mr. Balfour is misinformed, he asserts, by the British Consuls, who obtain their information from Turkish officials, who not only have an interest in con- cealment, but who, being Turks, do not consider the slaughter of infidels with accompaniments of outrage an atrocity. In months of careful inquiry he could obtain no confirmation of the stories of Bulgarian cruelties, which are, in fact, inventions intended to withdraw from them the sympathies of Europe. He is of opinion that " terrible things" may have been done to "traitors," but the evidence offered by the Vali of Salonica proved, on investigation at the hospital, to be illusory. The Turks said to be victims had walked away, while many Bulgarians were lying "in the same building in whom it was difficult to recognise the human shape." We must add that in the writer's opinion the suppression of the Bulgarian insurgents will be a difficult matter. They are not like Armenians, but will fight " stubbornly."
