19143 Balkan Federation 



save the whole. Ambition no doubt played a certain part, for 

 the motives of men are mixed; but at heart our feeHng was noble. 

 The Bulgarians are not diplomatists — they take words at 

 their face value. They have not as a rule evicted or maltreated 

 aliens within their territory. The only people dispossessed by us 

 were the Turks in northern Macedonia, who fled precipitately at 

 the beginning of the war. Outrages were doubtless committed, 

 especially by those who held private grudges. Under Moslem 

 rule all races were perverted through its alternating periods of 

 ferocity and laxity. 



Since the Armistice the idea of a Balkan federation hoed urge 

 has been taken up and strongly urged by both ^^iJ"^""' 

 Vatralsky and Kyroff. From Vatralsky I have re- 

 ceived two articles written by him for the press of 

 Sofia, advocating friendship with Serbia with a 

 view toward political union. Kyroff publishes (1920) 

 a monthly magazine, Pro Fcederatione, devoted to the 

 same healthy purpose.^ But feeling on both sides of 

 the frontier is still intensely bitter. 



When we were ready to leave Sofia, the queen Thi 

 (through Radoslavoff and Markham) offered us her '^Zomouu 

 high-powered automobile for a tour through the 

 devastated districts of Macedonia, and with it she de- 

 tailed two competent and willing soldiers to act as 

 chauffeurs. We then assembled provisions enough for 

 several days and started down the Struma valley, 

 our first halt being at Samokov. 



> La tournure des hinements en Bulgarie ne permet aucun doute qui Von 

 s'achemine vers la federation avec la Yougoslavie. Si un jour ces deux braves 

 peuples, serbe et bulgare, egaux dans la bravoure, s'unissent, alors non seule- 

 ment les slaves du sud pourraient s'envisager leur avenir avec plus de calme, mais 

 en gineraltous les slaves, vladimir sis, L'Echo de Bulgarie, 1921 



C 585 3 



