The more bishops, churches, and schools a nationality could show,
the stronger its claim on the reversion of Macedonia when the Turk
should be driven out of Europe! There was no doubt much juggling
with statistics. And though schools and churches were provided by
Greeks, Servians, and Bulgarians to satisfy the spiritual and
intellectual needs of their kinsmen in Macedonia, there was always
the ulterior (which was generally the dominant) object of staking
out claims in the domain soon to drop from the paralyzed hand of the
Turk. The bishops may have been good shepherds of their flocks, but
the primary qualification for the office was, I imagine, the gift of
aggressive political leadership. The Turkish government now favored
one nationality and now another as the interests of the moment
seemed to suggest. With an impish delight in playing off Slav
against Greek and Servian against Bulgarian, its action on
applications for bishoprics was generally taken with a view to
embarrassing the rival Christian nationalities. And it could when
necessary keep the propagandists within severe limits. The
Bulgarians grew bold after securing so many bishoprics in the
nineties and the bishop at Uskub thought to open new schools and
churches. But the Turkish governor--the Vali--summoned him and
delivered this warning: "O Bulgarian, sit upon the eggs you have,
and do not burst your belly by trying to lay more."
How are we to determine the racial complexion of a country in which
race is certified by religion, in which religion is measured by the
number of bishops and churches and schools, in which bishops and
churches and schools are created and maintained by a propaganda
conducted by competing external powers, and in which the results of
the propaganda are determined largely by money and men sent from
Sofia, Athens, and Belgrade, subject always to the caprice and
manipulation of the Sultan's government at Constantinople?
In Southern Macedonia from the Thessalian frontier as far north as
the parallel of Saloniki, the population is almost exclusively
Greek, as is also the whole of the Chalcidician Peninsula, while
further east the coast region between the Struma and the Mesta is
also predominantly Greek. Eastern Macedonia to the north of the line
of Seres and Drama and south of the Kingdom of Bulgaria is generally
Bulgarian. On the northwest from the city of Uskub up to the
confines of Servia and Bosnia, Macedonia is mixed Serb, Bulgarian,
and Albanian, with the Serb element preponderating as you travel
northward and the Albanian westward.