„… MACEDONIAN JUNTA TO BE FORMED HERE
Revolutionary Committee Sends Agent to Organize It.
PLAN TO EQUIP 50,000 MEN
Brother of Mme. Tsilka Tells of Turk-Jsh Atrocities and of His Escape from Prison.
ORANGE. N. J., March 22.-After the manner of the Cuban Junta, of a few years ago. the Macedonians in this country are organizing a committee to raise funds for the Macedonian battle against the Turkish rule of terror. The committee will consist of a dozen or so Macedonians and one or. two American business managers, and the active agent in the scheme is M. Radanloff, special envoy to New York of the Revolutionary Committee at Sofia. Ho told something about his plans aj a meeting of Macedonian sympathizers held to-night at the Munn Avenuo Presbyterian Church In East Orange, which he attended, although he was not one of the speakers.
Mme. Tsilka. the Bulgarian woman who with the American missionary. Miss Stone, was captured by Turkish brigands two and a half years ago. told-the congregation of this church after her release some details of that international episode. She told them that in all her joy there was one great grief, and that was because she dɪd not know what the Turks had done to her brother Constantine. She had not heard of
him. she said, for five months.
Brother Constantine—Stephanove is his surname—turned to-night on tho same platform, and told the same congregation how glad he was to escape from the Turkish
prison, where he spent six awful weeks. Stephanove is a swarthy, broad-shouldered
young man, somewhat under medium height, and a graduate of Yale. He Is here as a special delegate from the Central Macedonian Revolutionary Committee in Bulgaria, for the purpose of raising funds to aid their destltue fellow-countrymen. Backing him here Is a large committee, which makes an appeal for a similar purpose, among those who have signed the appeal being ex-Mayor Seth Low. Bishop Potter, Bishop Andrews. Dr. Parkhurst, Dr. MacArthur. Morris K. Jesup, John S. Kennedy, and John H. Converse. Brother Stephanove says his escape from prison was mainly due to the good offices of the British Commissioner in Macedonia, John McDonald.
M. Radauloff’s scheme is to raise funds first of all to buy arms and ammunition to fight the Turks, and then, if there is any money left over, to relieve the destitute and help the refugees. M. Radauloff has done considerable fighting himself against the Turks. He was present at the Razlog massacre on Sept. 27 last, when the Turks butchered more than a thousand women
and children. Things have come to such ɑ pass now. he said, that frenzied Macedonian women, whose children have been slaughtered, are carrying rifles and fighting among the hills with the men.
There are hardly more than 1,500 Macedonians In this country. M. Radauloff thinks, of whom nearly a third arrived during the past three or four months. Notwithstanding this small number, the envoy says he has made remarkable progress in the five weeks that he has been here, and thinks that by lectures and appeals he can raise enough to equip an army of 50.000 patriots. The arms probably will be bought In England and shipped from Bulgaria over the Balkans into Macedonia, by bribing the Turkish customs officials.
M. Radauloff and M. dtephahove explained that the fight was not one for ln-said Mme. Tsilka’s broth
dependence.
” AU we want
er. ” is some elementary guarantee to our lives, our property, and to the sacredness of our homes. We want a responsible Government- and a stable Governor who will take an interest In our welfare. We arc going to do our utmost or die In the attempt to secure an endurable existence.”
M. Stephanove said that he was carried ofl when acting as a companion to Commissioner McDonald, and that when Lori Lansdowne, acting on the advice of the CommlSFioncr. protested, his release was eneeðllv accomplished. The Turkish authorities. h-` said, examined, tried, and released him within an hour. He described the horrors rf the Turkish prisons and the frightfrl atrocities of the Turkish soldiers, who kUlod women and children and do-ttroyed Milages wantonly. More than 8.0(10 Macedonians, he said, have lost their lives within the last twelve months.
In England, he said, James Bryce. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Archbishop of Canterbury are on the Macedonian Committee. while Georges Clemenceau Is the most active of the French sympathizers. A protest from England. France. Italy, Germany. and the United States would, he said, put an end to the present frightful conditions within a week.
Demetrius Furnallcff, a Princeton man and now connected with the Macedonian Church, said that unless speedy aid were forthcoming the Macedonians. Servians. Bulgarians, and Greeks, now Christianized and fighting for Macedonia, would be wiped out and the country would go back 500
years. .
Furnajleff and Stephanove together sang Yale’s ” Boola ” song, Bulgarlanized into ɑ Macedonian war hymn.
еђс JCrtB ɪjork Simes
Published March 23.1904 Copyright © The New York Times …“
