Friday's news as to the situation in the Balkans is
most serious. On Wednesday night the Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Bank of Mytilene, in Salonica, were blown up with dynamite, and an attempt was also made to blow up a train near the town. According to a Reuter telegram from Con- stantinople the outrage on the Bank was committed by a party of Bulgarians. One part of them attacked the sentries and the other threw bombs into the building and set it on fire. At the same time " Komitadjis (members of the Mace- donian Committee) drove through the principal streets in three carriages, throwing bombs into the cafés, the Turkish Post Office, and the Salonica-Constantinople railway station." The latest telegrams declare, however, that order has been restored, and that two thousand troops have arrived from Smyrna. In addition to these outrages the insurrectionary movement is proceeding in the inland districts of Macedonia, and the insurgents are growing bolder and more active. Many of the " incidents " are in reality small battles, and in one case a Bulgarian band of over a hundred men is said to have been annihilated. It is, no doubt, still possible that the Sultan's usual luck may prevail, and that things will again quiet down, but all the signs are in the other direction.
