One may observe by the sequence of events in one of the Macedonian
towns, what was the dire effect of this dividing of the Slavs into two
religious bodies. Ghevgeli, a town which before the War had about 6000
inhabitants, will provide a fair illustration. In the middle of the
nineteenth century the church service was in Greek and there was no
school, but the Slavs were indifferent--and learning was regarded as a
rather praiseworthy accomplishment for the priest. Now and then some
one would travel to where the Serbian or the Bulgarian language could
be heard in church and on his return to Ghevgeli be discontented with
the Greek. This feeling was fanned by certain agitators from outside;
and ultimately a Slav service was introduced, being celebrated in the
same church as the Greek service and by the same priest. As he was
unable to read a Slav language, the words were written for him with
Greek letters. One should mention, by the way, that no Greeks were to
be found at Ghevgeli--only Slavs with a few Turks and five or six
Jews. A Slav school was also opened about 1860, with a teacher whose
salary was paid by the parents; he used Slav church books and taught
arithmetic and folk-songs. The Greek bishop started a school, but with
no great success, and although it went on until 1913 it was patronized
by fewer and fewer children.
The Slav service in the church became after a time Exarchist; as a
sequel to which, to the dissatisfaction of many of the people, it was
called "Bulgarian." The objectors had been to Serbia and sympathized
with that country, and at Ghevgeli they were supported by about half
the population. But the Bulgars were then more favourably viewed by
the Turkish authorities.... A Bulgarian school was likewise opened a
few years before the Serbian, which began in 1882. By this time the
Slavs, largely owing to external pressure, were not content to have
two separate schools; they were the keenest rivals, and the proprietor
of the Serbian school, Risto Naumovi['c], was killed for no other
reason in 1883. His successor, one Be[vc]irovi['c], who is still
alive, was threatened that he would be shot within twenty-four hours,
but his valiant young son--who was then a pupil at the school--found
the komitadji chieftain who had uttered this threat and slew him. So
both the schools continued, together with a Turkish, a Greek, a
Roumanian and a Catholic school. The Catholic friars were supported by
Austria and France; the Roumanian establishment, which was visited by
not more than twenty children from the neighbourhood, was maintained
by Roumania--the teacher being a native of Bucharest. In fact, there
was a good deal of propaganda which between the Serbs and the Bulgars
became violent.
What can be said for the Exarchists?... Some years ago the Albanians
in the region of Monastir were asking to be inscribed on the books of
the American Church, for they thought in that way to obtain the
benefits of American citizenship. They made no pretence of having been
impressed by other doctrines. A Church was in their eyes a sort of
naturalization bureau. And when the Exarchists were rejoicing in their
new-found strength and perceiving that this Church of theirs might be
a corner-stone of a Great Bulgaria, they were so completely carried
away that they bestowed an all-too-scant attention on the methods
which they brought to bear. These methods of the enthusiastic
Exarchists were altogether deplorable and succeeded in alienating not
only the Patriarchist Slavs whom they freely murdered, but even in
many cases the very Exarchists, who came to dislike the komitadji
bands, whom they were required to shelter and to feed and to assist
with a subscription to their funds. "Still more," says a Bulgarian
proverb--"still more than if you have a boat on the sea or a Roumanian
wife, are you certain to sleep ill if you have a property in
Macedonia." As year after year went by and the komitadji men appeared
to be doing very little beyond terrorizing the country, those who
supported them began to frown. No guerilla leader presented a
balance-sheet, and it was generally known that the famous Boris
Sarafoff allowed himself, each year, a few months in Paris. This, he
said, was due to him after his arduous time in the Macedonian
mountains. More and more displeased were the Exarchist peasants--the
Macedonian Slav is a very thrifty soul--and in the Great War one had
the spectacle of men who called themselves Bulgars and concealed their
sons, lest they be taken into the Bulgarian army. "If it pleases the
Bulgars," they said, "let them come and liberate us."