The Times of Monday publishes from its Vienna corre- spondent
a very distressing account of the interracial con- flicts of Greek, Bulgarian, and Servian bands in Macedonia. The authority whom the correspondent quotes as " unim- peachable " thinks that Sir Edward Grey cannot know the truth, and doubts whether any one but the Italian gendarmerie officers has the opportunity of knowing it. The worst districts now are those round Kastoria and Monastir. In the Kastoria, district the Greeks have four hundred men engaged in pushing forward the ethnographical boundary which divides them from the Macedonian Bulgars. The Greek bands are sup- ported by wealthy Greeks in Greece, and have the clandestine protection of the Greek Government. Near Kastoria the Bulgar -population is being gradually but pitilessly exter- minated. At first the men were cut up as they went to work in the fields. At length the Bulgar men decided to emigrate to America, and they left their women and children behind in the villages. As the women continued to work in the fields, the Greek bands decided to eliminate them also. Village after village was burned, and the women and children massacred. The complaisance of Turkish officers who are sent to prevent such horrors is easily bought. All the bands are guilty of barbarous atrocities, but the narrative states that the Greeks are even worse than the Serbs and Bulgars. In the opinion of the writer, something must be done quickly, or a worse situation than that which led to the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 will confront the Powers.
