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management, and there seemed to be an impression that demands which they put forward did not always receive the consideration they deserved. The allegation was that all negotiations with the Treasury passed into the hands of the financial departments of the War Office, the soldier having no opportunity of defending his own proposal. It appeared, however, to us from the first that there was some misunderstanding on this matter, and Lord Lansdowne, who could of course speak authoritatively on such a subject, confirmed that impression. It is clear that in the case of all expenditure of importance certainly when it is new expenditure affecting the Estimates for the following year the discussion, supposing a difficulty to arise as to providing funds, would be between the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As to minor questions arising during the financial year, Lord Lansdowne says: „I have never heard that the Treasury was unfair to the War Office; on the contrary, although their business is to criticise, I have never heard that their criticism was unfairly exercised." And this is borne out by the statement for the four years 1895-1899 lodged by the Accountant-General as his reply to questions which were put to him on this point, which sets forth that „in no case of real importance that we could discover has sanction been refused to any expenditure which the Secretary of State for War held to be urgently required in the interests of the public service." || 282. Sir Clinton Dawkins' Committee insisted on the necessity of decentralisation, and we were informed that a policy of decentralisation was being carried out as rapidly as possible. At the same time it is right to point out that it is a policy which can only be adopted within certain limits. The analogy of the German Army can be pushed too far. Not only are the German Corps Army Corps, but they are permanently fixed in the geographical districts which produce them, and the Emperor when he visits a garrison finds always the same troops, either in the same place, or within a few miles. A system of watertight compartments will not, however, apply to an army which depends on voluntary enlistment, and where, owing to the necessity of providing for reliefs, there is a constant change of units. || 283. Moreover, it is undoubtedly true that the system in Parliament of asking questions on small points appears to make decentralisation almost impossible in some cases." We recognise that there can be no interference with the privilege of Parliament, but it is of no use to call for a devolution of authority, and at the same time to insist on the personal responsibility of the Secretary of State in a manner entirely subversive of the definition of duties by which alone authority can be devolved. So great is the mul

tiplicity of conditions under which men serve in the Army, certainly greater than in the sister service of the Navy, that the opportunity for interrogation is enormous, and the responsibility for keeping a right so valuable from abuse must rest with Parliament itself.

All which we humbly submit to Your Majesty's gracious consideration.

9 July 1903.

(Signed)

Elgin.
Esher.

Strathcona.

George Taubman - Goldie.
H. W. Norman.
J. O. Hopkins.

Fredk. M. Darley.

John Edge.

John Jackson.

Bernard Holland, Secretary.

Die mazedonische Frage 1903*).

Nr. 13234. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Der Generalkonsul in Saloniki an den englischen Botschafter in Konstanti nopel. Bericht über den Zustand in Mazedonien.

Salonica, February 25, 1903. (March 16.)

Sir, There is very little doubt that an insurrectionary movement of some sort against the Government will take place this spring in Macedonia, and the only question then is how far the movement will spread and what importance will it assume. As things are now that is, with the bands already existing here and those crossing the frontier against the real wish of Bulgaria, and meeting with a more or less cordial reception from part of the Exarchists in Macedonia - it seems hardly likely that the rising can become general. || It is more than doubtful whether the bands will induce any great percentage of the population to take up arms, willingly or unwillingly, in their favour. || Although, besides the encounters which may be expected to occur along the frontier, where the population has been exasperated by the ill-treatment it suffered recently during the Turkish search for arms, and which small parties of armed men may cross in spite of the utmost endeavours on both sides to prevent them, a more determined effort against the Government may be made in some inland centres, such as those of Stroumnitsa and Kilkish in this vilayet, and in some cazas of the Vilayet of Monastir; yet the bands, well organized and numerous as they are, cannot exert the pressure on the peasantry as a whole necessary to force it to rise with them, for the latter would require some assurance of subsequent protection from retribution on the part of the Government - an assurance which can only come from without. The movement in the other parts of these vilayets will in all probability be limited to indivi

*) Die Aktenstücke entstammen den Blaubüchern Cd. 1875 u. 1879. Vergl. Bd. 68 S. 1 ff. und,,Europ. Geschichtskal." 1903. Die eingeklammerten Daten geben das Datum der Ankunft in London an. Red.

dual and spasmodic efforts. || The new tactics which, I hear, the bands are about to employ with regard to inland districts where flight to the mountains is difficult are that of scouring the villages and forcing all the able-bodied men, whether Bulgarians, Greeks, Servians, or Vlachs, to follow them, will add to their numbers; but they will be leading a host of unwilling victims to the slaughter - which will, however, have the great advantage of giving the movement the semblance, in the eyes of Europe, of an uprising of the Christian population against the Government. || One thing is certain: the larger the band the less mobile and the more easy to exterminate will it be, whereas guerillas would keep the country in unrest and be very difficult to cope with. The real danger, in my humble opinion, is that the Committees may organize a series of incidents, murders, &c., to take place simultaneously throughout the whole of the three vilayets, not excepting, but rather especially in, the capitals and larger towns, with a view to showing that the country is a prey to anarchy, and with the object of provoking a panic, with its usual disastrous results. I had the opportunity of witnessing panics in Crete, and nobody who has not seen one can imagine how little it takes to raise one, how much to allay it (if allayed it can be), and what farreaching consequences it can have. I thought it my duty to warn the Vali of this possibility, in order that he may not be taken unawares, and I have since been confirmed in my expectation by the news given me to-day that, among a number of plans devised for creating a panic, it is arranged that the Bulgarians of some neighbouring farms and villages shall, in case a foreign warship appear in the harbour, rush down shouting wildly that massacres have begun in the interior. This, together with the murder of a handful of peasants, would produce a very appreciable panic. || I do not wish to prophesy, but I thought it right to let you know the course into which events may drift.

Alfred Biliotti.

Nr. 13235. GROSSBRITANNIEN. — Derselbe an Denselben. Das

selbe.

Salonica, February 28, 1903. (March 16.) Sir, || About ten days ago I received a somewhat alarming report from a Christian, in whose statements I considered I could place faith, regarding the exasperation among the Moslems, and the possibility of their retaliating on the local Rayahs for the murders, &c., committed on their co-religionists by the Bulgarian bands in some of the neighbouring

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cazas of this vilayet. || I therefore lost no time in sending a confidential agent to Doiran, Stroumnitsa, Gevgeli, Yenijé, Vardar, and Vodéna, and have now the honour to submit to your Excellency the contents of his report to me. || The following are the murders of Moslems already reporIn November, two Coldjis ted by me during the last four months: of the Régie; in December, one of two Albanians shot at; in January, two Albanian shepherds and two rural guards (whose heads, according to my agent's report, were thrown to the dogs to eat); in February, Mehmed Aga, the gendarme giving the total of eight Moslems killed by the bands without provocation. || My agent adds to these the murder by three Greco-Vlachs of a renegade in January, and gives details of the disgusting desecration and mutilation of his corpse. The three murderers joined a Bulgarian band, but the Beys have not allowed their co-religionists to avenge the death of their comrade. On the 16th February, Ali, servant of Deli Ahmed, of Veleusa, was beheaded with an axe, near the village, and his head thrown at a distance from the body. The same day the bands carried off from Nisi a farm belonging to an Albanian named Seifoullah Bey the Soubashi Nasif Aga, also an Albanian, who has not been heard of since. He had more than once denounced the bands to the local authority. || And yet the feeling of the Moslem population towards the Christians is not represented to me as indicating danger. The Turks, in fact, appear to be cowed, and I hear from different quarters e. g., Mr. Conéménos concerning Prevesa, a private individual concerning Uskub, and my agent concerning Karadjova that they have dropped the obnoxious tone which they used to adopt towards the Christians, and have become very much quieter and more considerate. In Karadjova this change is reported to me as being due to the military Bimbashi, a Negro, who does his utmost to control the turbulent among the population, and to maintain order without giving cause for complaint to either side. || Only from the town of Doiran do I hear of fanaticism, led apparently by the Kaïmakam, a ,,dunmé", who is over-zealous in his attachment to the Koran. As an example, the case of a Christian Gipsy is reported whom he accepted as a convert to Islam without the consent of her husband, and in the absence of the Bishop, though not entirely without the formalities enjoined by the law. In other parts of the country the Moslem population, especially that of the villages, is so uncertain of what is in store for them that, in spite of what is said to the contrary, there is no chance of their molesting the Christians; and even if a few hot-headed young Turks were to attempt anything the authorities would stop them.

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