EMPIRE DAY. 



MEETING OF THE ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE AND THE 

 R. A. & C. SOCIETY, 

 May 24th, 1918. 



Empire Day, the anniversary of the birth of our late Queen Victoria, 

 of happy memory, was celebrated in a very fitting manner by the E.G. 

 Branch of the Royal Colonial Institute and the Royal Agricultural and 

 Commercial Society, when a joint meeting under the auspices of both 

 organisations was held in the R. A. & C. Society's Rooms. Among those 

 present were His Excellency the Governor, Sir Wilfred Collett, K.C.M.G., 

 patron of the B.G. Branch of the Royal Colonial Institute, and also vice- 

 patron of the R. A. and C. Society. In response to an invitation Gapt. 

 Dimitrijevich, of the Serbian Army, attended for the purpose of deliver- 

 ing a lecture on " Serbia and the War." 



After being introduced by Dr. Nunau the lecturer opened with a 

 description of the Bulgarians. These people who could better be 

 described as " Bulgars " were not of the true Slavonic race as was gener- 

 ally thought. They originated from a barbarous race that invaded the 

 Balkans in the olden days, and having captured land by force of arms, 

 they settled and in order to pretend to civilization, they adopted the 

 Slavonic language and some customs. They extended their rule by terror 

 and murder. They were well knowu in the history of the Balkans for 

 their barbarism, and even to-day they were no better than the Germans, 

 and could well be described as the Huns of the Balkans. Their rulers 

 were always famous for their savagery. One, in order to reign in peace 

 killed his father, mother, brother and all his family. 



Describing Bulgarian justice, he said in the case of a man accused of 

 a crime if he did not confess to the judge, he was struck on the head with 

 a club. Even if he was innocent he had to say he was guilty as the 

 judge would continually club him until he owned up that he had com- 

 mitted the offence. The other punishments included cutting off* of ears, 

 noses, hands, toes, etc. The Serbian justice stood out in vivid contrast 

 with this barbarism. In Serbia a man was tried by a jury both in civil 

 and criminal proceedings and in the case of a foreigner half of the jury 

 were not only composed of foreigners but members of the accused man's 

 race. Thus Serbia's justice was on the principle of the English justice. 

 Dealing with the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke he said 

 Serbia was the only nation in the Balkans that freed itself by its own 

 arms from the tyranny of the Turk. Bulgaria was liberated by Russia, 

 and this at the request of England. Thus it was said that Bulgaria had 

 to thank Gladstone's pen as much as it had to thank Russia for her libera- 

 tion. The perfidy of the Bulgars was demonstrated by their assistance to 

 the enemy against their former liberators and against Serbia who had 

 also assisted in some measure in her liberation. 



