Bulgarian Atrocities
The sudden downfall of Mussolini will cause heart-searchings among all the pro-Axis governments of the Balkan or Danubian States, but Bulgaria has special reason to mend her ways. Rumania and Hungary appear not to have been heedless of omens unfavourable to Germany, but the feverish nationalism of Bulgaria has made her
go recklessly ahead in seizing the chances to get a temporary satis- faction of her ambitions in Macedonia and Thrace. Professor Filoff's Government might have been expected to see that Italy's willingness to cede territory near Lake Ochrida was the consequence of Allied victories in the Mediterranean. But he saw only the opportunity of extending Bulgarian domination westwards. In the same spirit he could not resist an invitation to send Bulgarian troops to replace German in Greek Macedonia; with the result that for the moment Bulgaria's fantastic dreams of holding all Mace- donia are realised, except that the Germans still remain in the town and airfield of Salonica. Nor is that all. Propaganda by forcible conversion or massacre has long been a Bulgarian way of proving that Macedonians were Bulgars. Latterly the Bulgarians have con- centrated on the surer method of massacre, and it is asserted that some 200,000 Greek civilians in Macedonia and Thrace have been slain, and too,000 expelled from their villages and farms. Well may the Bulgarian Government be disturbed by the recent events in Italy, and consider how it can trim its sails in view of the swiftly changing situation. The atrocities committed by Bulgaria in this war must not be forgotten. Treacherous in the last war, she has been more shockingly treacherous in this. Here, too, has been flagrant war-guilt which must be punished.
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