1901.05.09_Singleton Argus, p2, NSW

1901.05.09_Singleton Argus, p2, NSW

MACEDONIA
The ever-recurring trouble in Macedonia has threatened this year to come to ahead. The facts of the case are simple. The Macedonians have a right, by the Treaty of Berlin, to be governed by their own autonomous institutions. This clause has never been executed, and the Macedonians having waited twenty-three years for the convenience of the Powers are beginning to feel that, unless they bestir themselves, the signatories of the treaty will do nothing to deliver them from Turkish rule. Hence the constant agitation in Macedonia, which has its ramifications all over the Balkan Peninsula, and the report which reached this country last month that unless thw great Powers interfere, the long-threatened Macedonian insurrection would inevitably break out. The great Powers protested strongly against this attempt to force their hands, and the Sultan, taking alarm, has concentrated a force of 50,000 men in the province restored to him by Lord Beacousfield at Berlin. The Macedonian calculation is that if they can only induce any section of the population lo begin fighting, the Turks will crush the insurrection with such atrocity as to provoke an intervention on behalf of outraged humanity. But it is very doubtful whether any amount of atrocity will be able to induce the great Powers to abandon their attitude of non-interference.