THE PEACE OF BUCHAREST. [TO TIIR EDITOR OF TER "SrEcTrroa."]
Snt,—You say in your last issue that the settlement reached at Bucharest "inspires in Bulgaria the temper of a man who has been robbed and left bleeding by the roadside," and you leave it to be inferred that you consider that Bulgaria has good ground to be aggrieved. In your leading article you refer more specifically to the way in which Bulgaria has been, as you say, "robbed." You appear to postulate that practic- ally the whole of Macedonia and Thrace were the just rewards of Bulgaria's sacrifices in the last war. It was on that very point that Bulgaria went to war with Greece and Servia,, who, with Montenegro, made sacrifices proportionally quite as great, and whose claims to a fair share of conquered terri- tory were just as well founded as those of Bulgaria. It was Bulgaria who avoided a reference to the arbitration of the Tsar between all four Allies, put her case to the test of the sword, and lost. Most of what she obtained at Bucharest, but especially the gEgean coast from Enos westward, which is thoroughly Greek, she owes to an act of grace on the part of her three late allies and Roumania. However, you also advance the ethnographical argument, and complain that "towns in Macedonia which are distinctively Bulgarian pass into non-Bulgarian ownership." I presume that you refer to Kotsana, Istip, and Radovista. This is merely the fortune of war, and the inhabitants of these towns probably have enough Slavonic kinship with the Servians to enable them to live happily under Servian rule. Those of us who have been misled by the Bulgarian propaganda in the past have now learnt from Sir Valentine Chit-ore letter in the Times of August 14th the real facts of the race dispute in Macedonia. If the thirty years of Bulgarian influence have made the citizens of these towns "Bulgarian to the core," as Mr. Bourchier, Mr. Garvin, and Mr. Brailsford say, let them show their patriotism by following the example of the Greeks of Melnik and emigrate across the Bulgarian border. You go on to state that "the acceptance of the Treaty of Bucharest postulates the acceptance of the Treaty of London," which assigns a large Greek population to Bulgaria. You do not apparently observe anything undesirable in this ; and yet the ethnographical argument applies with far greater force to the Greeks of Thrace, as to whose nationality there has never been any question, than to the population of central
Macedonia, the nationality of which is doubtful, and which is, as Sir Valentine Chirol says, ready to conform to the predominant influence from time to time.
In discussing the question of atrocities you draw a dis- tinction between those committed by the Mussulmans and those committed by the Balkan Christians, as a whole favour- able to the latter, an argument against. the domination of Mussulmans over Christians. You seem, however, to lose sight of the fact that the Bulgarians, unlike the Servians and Greeks, have shown themselves intolerant to the last degree. They try to force one and all to become Christians and Bulgarians. Leaving aside for the moment the question of evidence of atrocities, the attitude of "It, bas les Bulgarea " adopted by the Turks, Greeks, and Armenians of Adrianople in common, shows that these people had a much worse time under the Bulgarians than they had even under the incom- petent Young Turk administration. However, Bulgarian methods are well enough known by now. I will quote merely one instance from my own experience. The father of a friend of mine, a Greek, owned considerable property in Northern Macedonia. When the Bulgars began to "work" that district he was given an ultimatum calling on him to sell his land at a nominal price. He refused, therefore his lire stock was seized, his farm buildings were burnt, and be was generally persecuted to such a degree by the Bulgarian bands that he was driven out of his heritage. My friend is now an employee in a house of business at Salonica.
No nation which does not assure peace and security of life and property to a population of alien race within its borders ought to be allowed to acquire territory in which the alien inhabitants are at all numerous. In Thrace, from Adrianople southwards, the Bulgarian population is almost a negligible quantity, and it is difficult to see how its acquisition by Bulgaria can be justified.
With regard to the atrocities perpetrated by the Bulgarians against the Greeks, and to a less extent the Servians, are you not satisfied by the reports of the Austrian and Italian consuls at Salonica, the Secretary of the French Legation at Athens, a committee of foreign doctors who accompanied the Servian army, and the evidence of British and French news- paper correspondents, and of Commander Car dale, R.N., a letter from whom I shall be happy to show you if you wish ? The evidence of atrocities having been committed by the Greeks seems to consist of hearsay evidence of persons who were not at the front, or else of statements in Bulgarian semi-
official communiques.-1 am, Sir, &c., D. J. CASSAYETTL Shenley, Herts.
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