292 



The Review of Reviews. 



" Such a state of affairs gives rise each time to 

 serious crises in the Hellenic kingdom, which render 

 the position of its Government very difficult : unable 

 to refuse its sympathies to the Greeks of the provinces 

 in question, united by the bonds of history,' race, and 

 common misfortunes to free Greece ; unable to pro- 

 claim an indifference which would deprive it of the 

 confidence of Hellenism, and would smother the just 

 hopes which the Greeks of Turkey have always founded 

 on free Greece ; every Greek Government would be 

 powerless to struggle against the stream. 



" Should it even believe it its duty to do so at the 

 sacrifice of the most precious interests of the kingdom, 

 it would be overturned by the current, which would 

 carry away the whole country into the struggle of the 

 insurgent provinces. Even if the Government had 

 the power of opposing a barrier to the national current, 

 all these efforts would be without effect, by reason of 

 the extent and conformation of the frontier line of 

 the kingdom, which an army of 100,000 men would 

 not be sufficient to guard so as to be able to prevent 

 the clandestine departure of volunteers. 



" The situation created for the Hellenic Govern- 

 ment by these insurrectional movements is not less 

 difficult and untenable from a financial point of view. 

 The Budget of the kingdom has often experienced, 

 and is even now experiencing, the influence of like 

 ever;ts. The -pecuniary assistance granted each time 

 to refugees from the insurgent provinces and to the 

 repatriated combatants, and the armaments caused 

 by this -abnormal situation and by the somewhat 

 strained relations with the neighbouring State which 

 have always resulted therefrom, have often swallowed 

 up several millions, increased the public debt, and 

 appropriated in fruitless outlay the greater part of 

 the public revenues, which if employed in the material 

 development of the country wcjuld have greatly 

 increased the resources and well-being. 



" 11 great and rich nations with which little Greece 

 could never compete have always, under analogous 

 circumstances, felt the onerous effects of expenditure 

 of a like nature, it is very natural that the poor Hellenic 

 kingdom, which more than once has found itself obliged 

 to confront like obligations, which at the present time 

 has on its territory 30,000 refugees, and to make 

 preparations beyond its strength — it is very natural 

 that it should not only feel the ill-effects of all tlic 

 burden of such expenditure, but should be crushed 



by it." 



• 

 I have quoted in cxicnso Mr. Delyannis' declaration 

 because it gives a very accurate idea of the deplorable 

 situation created in Bulgaria by the Macedonian 

 imbroglio. The uncertainty of the political future, 

 the precariousness of the existing peace between 

 suzerain and vassal, is another reason why Bulgaria 

 should desire to free herself from the continuous and 

 oppressive nightmare of that imliroglio. Everybody 

 expecting war uith Turkey, nobody cares to invest 



money and help to develop the natural resources ol 

 the country. Its mines cannot be sold ; its produce 

 cannot be utilised ; its streams lack mills ; its mill 

 lack men and capital. Bulgaria cannot be quiet anH 

 prosperous so long as Macedonia is disturbed anM 

 distracted. Add to all this the systematic exterminatimi 

 of the lUilgarian element in the Macedonian and the 

 Adrianople vilayets, and you will understand the 

 paramount interest Bulgaria has in a prompt and' 

 satisfactory solution of the Macedonian problem. 



This interest has very often been misrepresented ; 

 very often has Bulgaria been accused of aspiring to 

 annex Macedonia, of being the disturber of the peace 

 and joy — Friedens und Freudenslorer — of the Balkan 

 peninsula. And these accusations have not been 

 without influence upon our relations with our neigh- 

 bours and upon the settlement of the Macedonian 

 question itself. But both of these two accusations arc 

 baseless. Bulgaria does not desire to annex Macedonia. 

 Bulgaria is not troubling the peace of the East. Hcrt 

 and there Bulgarian journalists may have spoken of 

 certain reversionary interests of their country in the 

 event of the breaking up of the Turkish Empire, and 

 here and there Bulgarian youths may have joined the 

 Macedonian revolutionary bands. But there is no 

 ground in history, as Lord Salisbury would have said, 

 for the belief that Bulgaria, as a nation, i.s blind to 

 the dangers of an annexation policy, and that b\ 

 fomenting Macedonian insurrection she has light- 

 heartedly brought upon herself the troubles under 

 which she is now labouring. It is not Bulgaria th;il 

 has disturbed the peace of the Balkan peninsula since 

 the Congress of Berlin. Prince Alexander entered, it 

 is true. East Roumelia after the Philippopolis revolt 

 of September, 1885, which Bulgaria had not encouraged, 

 but he was obliged to act so in order to save that 

 province from anarchy. But when the then Bulgarian 

 Government saw that Europe did not appro\'e the 

 union, they decided to restore in East Roumelia the 

 status quo, and would have done so had not King Milan 

 of Servia declared war on them. Bulgaria has not 

 stirred since 1885, in spite of the great temptation 

 offered to her by the war between Greece and Turke>- 

 in 1897 and of the enormous excitement produced 

 among her population by the Macedonian uprising of 

 1903. Neither Greece nor Servia acted so prudentl) 

 in 1854, 1S85 and 1897. The United States thcm'- 

 selvcs could not resist in 1898 the strain laid upon 

 their patience and the emotion produced among their 

 population by Senator Proctor's report upon the 

 sufferings of the Cuban rccoucintrados and by the 

 imprisonment and escape of Miss Cisneros. 'IT.e 

 causes of Macedonian discontent are so manifest and 

 so manifold that no Bulgarian ambitious views need 

 be suspected in accounting for it. The solemn and 

 binding promise given at Berlin, the autonomy granted 



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