THE STORM CENTER IN THE BALKANS. 173 



THE STORM CENTER IK THE BALKANS. 



By Dr. ALLAN McLAUGULIN, 



V. S. PUBLIC HEALTH AND MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. 



ny /FANY students of European political conditions believe that the 

 -^-^ end of Turkey as a European power is in sight and that in 

 the near future important events will occur in the Balkan Peninsula 

 which will change the map of that part of Europe. 



The solution of the Balkan question has been confidently expected 

 at various times during the past fifty years, but never have the signs 

 of the times so consistently pointed toward this result as they do at 

 the present time. The condition of anarchy and guerilla warfare in 

 the so-called province of Macedonia and the accounts of wholesale 

 murder of old men, women and children, even after due allowance for 

 possible exaggeration, must excite a feeling of horror in the most 

 indifferent observer. The position of the christian inhabitants in the 

 unhappy country is such as to cause an outburst of popular feeling 

 even in England against the Turk. The significance of the tone of 

 hostility evinced by the English press lies in the fact that hitherto 

 England has been the chief supporter of the Turk's political position 

 in Europe. 



The polyglot population of these Turkish provinces, differing from 

 the Turk no less than from one another in race and speech, makes a 

 favorable soil for the sowing of seeds of political discord, the value of 

 which outside influences are not slow to recognize. 



The Turk has availed himself of the racial differences of his sub- 

 jects and encouraged the hostility of Greek for Slav, and the hatred 

 of the Albanian for both. To understand the complicated conditions 

 of the present insurrection it is necessary to consider the racial factors 

 which go to form the population of the disaffected provinces and to 

 review briefly the outside influences which tend to keep the Balkan 

 question alive, and the reasons why the question has not sooner been 

 settled. 



There is no official division of the Turkish empire known as 

 Macedonia; but the name has a wide popular usage in designating the 

 territory occupied by these warring racial elements of European 

 Turkey. The name is popularly applied to the Turkish vilayets of 

 Salonika and Monastir, The resident factors in the racial problem 

 of Macedonia consist of Slavs (Bulgars and Serbs), Albanians, Greeks, 

 Roumans and Turks. 



The Slavs came into Macedonia in the seventh century. They 

 came in irresistible numbers, forced the Albanians to the mountains 



