Подолга новинарска статија посветена на Македонскиот Револуционерен Комитет после аферата со убиството на романски должносник за што комитетот бил обвинуван. За да дојде до помирување со вознемирената романска страна бугарскиот принц Фердинанд и неговите министри смениле некој министер за стопанство.
Во меѓувреме охрабрен од неказнивоста Македонскиот Комитет станал прав ментор на Владата и давал малку внимание на предупредувањата од Австро-Унгарија и Русија. Во продолжение се дава интервјуто на господин Сарафов за Ревју д’Ориент даден во деловницата на партијата Риформи. Сарафов на никаков начин не изгледа див, туку напротив пријатен и со манири. Сарафов објаснил дека предметот кој Македонскиот Комитет го има во предвид е автономија на Македонија и провинцијата на Одрин во согласност со одредбите од Членовите 23 и 62 од Берлинскиот Договор. Исто така кажал дека е грешка претпоставката дека тие сакаат отцепување од Турција со цел да ѝ се даде на Бугарија. Нивниот слоган и нивната програма била „Македонија на Македонците“. Бидејќи не сакале да ги кршат законите на Принципатот тие нивната пропаганда ја свеле на дозволиви и во некоја смисла законски методи. Што било сосема различно од она како делувале на Османлиска територија.
Г. Сарафов позитивно потврдил дека бугарската Влада ним не им давала никаква поддршка. Како вазал на Турција бугарската Влада се спротивставувала на нивната пропаганда и им правела пречки во делувањето. Ако не било јавното мислење кое ги поддржувало, бугарската Влада сите членови на Комитетот ќе ги уапсела. Така што биле во очај дали ќе можат да продолжат да делуваат на законски начин. Населението во Македонија и Тракија повеќе не можело да го поднесе угнетувањето, така што веќе не гледале излез од состојбата освен општо востание, на ниво на револуција. Тие се ослободиле од заблудите за надворешна помош, а дека секоја слобода се добива со цената на крвопролевање. Се наближувал мигот кога тој ќе ја отфрли Бугарија и ќе се стави на чело од своите земјаци кога тие ќе го подигнат нивото за бунт против Турција.
Во однос на романското убиство се оправдува дека Комитетот тоа не го извршил ,но можно е дека го извршиле некои од помладите Македонци. Бидејќи ропството станало неподносливо, посебно последните 3 години. 250 000 Македонци се иселиле од Турција, од кои 30 000 само во Софија каде биле повеќе од половината на сите жители. Бегајќи во соседните слободни држави наместо поддршка и наклонетост наишле на пречки и напади, па и предавства во полза на Турците. Таквите дејства на поединци и штетат на систематската борба на нивната доброорганизирана организација.
Ако бугарската Влада продолжи со растурање на Македонскиот Комитет, тогаш безбедносниот вентил ќе биде затворен и Организацијата ќе ја повлечат порадикалните елементи во Македонија. Бидејќи никој не мисли на нив освен обичното и поштеното население во Европа. Алудирајќи на креациите од Романија, тој наведува дека тие не можат да ја толерираат постоечката состојба таму. Бидејќи последните пет години романската политика им станала најголем непријател. Сите Македонски Комитети во Романија биле растурени, фондовите конфискувани, а нивните членови прогонувани. Дури и предавани на турската полиција. Што и да биде Комитетот ќе си ја исполни својата должност и тоа побрзо денес отколку да чека утре.
„… THE MACEDONIAN
REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
VIENNA,. Sept. 21.
The resignation of M. Natchevitch, the Bulgarian Minister of Commerce, who was under-stood to favour a more or less conciliatory attitude on the part of the Principality in the Rumano-Bulgarian conflict, would seem to imply that Prince Ferdinand and his other Ministers do not yet see their way or actually fear to deal summarily with the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee. It remains to be seen whether the startling revelations that are expected to be made at the Bukharest trial next month will not compel them to modify their present policy. Meanwhile, emboldened by the impunity hitherto extended to it, the Macedonian committee has become the veritable mentor of the Government, while it shows little regard for the warning of Austria-Hungary and Russia.
The current number of the Revue d’Orient publishes a conversation which its editor has had at Sofia with M. Sarafof, the president of the committee. He describes M. Sarafof as being anything but ferocious in appearance. He is still quite a young man, under 30, by no means of unpleasant address or manner. He found him at the office of the organ of the party, the Riformi. In the course of the interview M. Sarafof explained to him that the object which the Macedonian committee had in view was the autonomy of Macedonia and of the province of Adrianople in conformity with the stipulations of Articles 23 and 62 of the Berlin Treaty. It was a mistake to suppose that they wished to detach Macedonia from Turkey in order to give it to Bulgaria. Their motto and their programme was “Macedonia for the Macedonians.” As they did not wish to infringe the laws of the Principality they contend their propaganda there to permisible and, in a certain sense, legal methods. It was somewhat different, however, when they operated on Ottoman territory,
M. Sarafof positively stated that the Bulgarian Government gave them no support whatever. The contrary was the case. As vassals of Turkey, contending with financial difficulties and wanting peace at any price in order to keep in office and to safeguard the general interests of the country, the Bulgarian Government opposed their agitation and placed obstacles in the way of their activity. If the authorities were not afraid of public opinion, which was favourable to the committee, they would haver arrested all its members, and M. Sarafof was convinced that such would still be the fate of himself and his friends in ease things took a more serious turn. Consequently, they were beginning to despair of being able to continue a legal and peaceful propaganda. The populations of Macedonia and Thrace, who could no longer endure the yoke of the oppressor, saw no other exit to the situation than a general rising—that is to say, a revolution. At last they had realized that it was a delusion to expect assistance from the foreigner, and that all freedom had been conquered at the cost of bloodshed. As far as he personally was concerned, the moment was approaching when he would abandon Bulgaria in order to place himself at the head of his countrymen when they should raise the standard of revolt against Turkey. Тheу were not hopeful as to the issue, being well aware that the exigencies of European diplomacy would deliver them up at the decisive moment to the sword of Turkey.
Referring to the Rumanian murders. M. Sarafof formally declared that none of them had been perpetrated at the instigation of the Macedonian Committee. At Sofia they knew nothing about the authors of those crimes. He accounted for them in this way. He affirmed that Turkish tyranny, which had always weighed heavily on the Macedonians, had become unbearable since the discovery at the village of Vinitsa three years ago of a quantity of arms and ammunition. The 250.000 Macedonians who had emigrated from Turkey, and of whom there were 30,000 at Sofia, continuing more than half of the population of that town, could not return to their homes as they would be exposed to administrative penalties, exile, and torture. Flying from the oppressor, these people went to the neighboring free countries, where they continually met, instead of the sympathizers and friends whom they had expected, nothing but enemies and even traitors and Turkish spies like the famous Michaileanu. In these circumstances, excited patriots, and particularly young people, could not repress their sentiments and struck down the first enemy that came in their way. These isolated cases were damaging to the general and systematic movement, well organized and directed, which alone could secure any result. The time might come when the Great Powers would occupy themselves with the solution of the Eastern question, when Russia would seize Constantinople, Austria-Hungary would take Salonika, and Germany would appropriate the valley of the Euphrates. But then Europe would think only of its interests and set those of the Macedonians at naught.
If the Bulgarian Government, under the pressure of circumstances, proceeded to dissolve the Macedonian Committee, the safety-valve would be shut, and no one could check the disturbing elements in Macedonia, with which the committee would then throw in their lot without any deceptive hope as to the fate that awaited them. It was not hope that guided them, but destiny, a fatality that drove them to accomplish what they believed to be their duty. The only compensation they sought for their labour, and even the sacrifice of their live, was sympathy for their cause, not from Governments and diplomatists, but from European public opinion and honest people of all nations. They were nobody’s agents, and did not even trouble themselves as to which race should be preponderant in Macedonia. He was aware that each of the minor Balkan States individually covered Macedonian territory, but nobody thought of the Macedonians and that was why the committee would not lend itself to any of their various schemas. While everybody thought of themselves, why could not the Macedonians also look to a future of their own?
After alluding to the alleged designs of Romania, M. Sarafof added that they could not tolerate the existing condition of affairs indefinitely simply to please the Rumanians, particularly as the latter had for the last five years been their worst enemies. All the Macedonian committees in Rumania had been dissolved, their funds confiscated, and their members prosecuted, and even handed over to the Turkish police. Whatever might happen, the committee would do its duty, and rather to-day than tomorrow. …“
