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This is a piece of an article by the American journalist Stephen Bonsal titled "The Balkan Powder Mine Explodes" concerning Macedonia. It was published September 1912.
This is what 19th century Russian journalist Petar Vladimirovic Alabin ( http://www.oshchima.com/Historical%2...ents/hdoc1.pdf) wrote in 1878:
What of Macedonia?
THE Balkan allies, even before the great powers are taken into council, seem to fight shy of the details of the Macedonian question. The division of Macedonia, that salad of odds and ends of races and mosaic of religious creeds, is not worked out in detail, and apparently that considerable party of Macedonian Slavs under Sandansky and the late Boris Sarafoff, the kidnapper of Miss Stone, who have strenuously opposed the annexation of their tormented country to Bulgaria for some years past, are not given any consideration whatever in the settlement. Probably the movement for the independence of Macedonia, with which they are identified, will now disappear, although it may not do so. Doubtless this party of malcontents were merely the result of, and their outbreaks were provoked by, some of the many self-seeking moves which Bulgaria has made in the Macedonian question during the last decade. In this connection it is a fact which should not be forgotten, and which certainly loses nothing from its frequent telling to the shepherd revolutionists on the bare hills above the Vardar, that Macedonian volunteers under Major Panitza were much more helpful to Russia in the great war which she waged for the emancipation of the Bulgarian provinces than were the Bulgarians themselves. Indeed, all Macedonians hold, whatever their views on the final solution of the question may be, that in this way a debt of gratitude was incurred by the Bulgarians which should have been frankly recognized and liberally requited at the first opportunity. However, it is probable that the magnificent triumph of the Bulgarian arms to-day will be accepted as a perfect justification of King Ferdinand's somewhat tortuous policy in the recent past, and that there will be no effective opposition to the extension of Bulgarian rule over Macedonia.
THE Balkan allies, even before the great powers are taken into council, seem to fight shy of the details of the Macedonian question. The division of Macedonia, that salad of odds and ends of races and mosaic of religious creeds, is not worked out in detail, and apparently that considerable party of Macedonian Slavs under Sandansky and the late Boris Sarafoff, the kidnapper of Miss Stone, who have strenuously opposed the annexation of their tormented country to Bulgaria for some years past, are not given any consideration whatever in the settlement. Probably the movement for the independence of Macedonia, with which they are identified, will now disappear, although it may not do so. Doubtless this party of malcontents were merely the result of, and their outbreaks were provoked by, some of the many self-seeking moves which Bulgaria has made in the Macedonian question during the last decade. In this connection it is a fact which should not be forgotten, and which certainly loses nothing from its frequent telling to the shepherd revolutionists on the bare hills above the Vardar, that Macedonian volunteers under Major Panitza were much more helpful to Russia in the great war which she waged for the emancipation of the Bulgarian provinces than were the Bulgarians themselves. Indeed, all Macedonians hold, whatever their views on the final solution of the question may be, that in this way a debt of gratitude was incurred by the Bulgarians which should have been frankly recognized and liberally requited at the first opportunity. However, it is probable that the magnificent triumph of the Bulgarian arms to-day will be accepted as a perfect justification of King Ferdinand's somewhat tortuous policy in the recent past, and that there will be no effective opposition to the extension of Bulgarian rule over Macedonia.
Another need also had to be satisfied, to which I could not stay indifferent. For example, when the companies of Bulgarian veteran., who had served with such dignity their now resurrecting fatherland in the numerous battles beyond Stara Planina, on Stara Planina and on Sipka, were disbanded to go home, since the companies were made up exclusively of volunteers, it became apparent that many of them had nothing to go back with to their native places. The Macedonians had the greatest need of help in money, for they are not able to return to their native homes, since their fatherland is still occupied by the Turks. Yet it is well-known that the Macedonians were the best people in the companies (and) filled even our old soldiers with enthusiasm by their courage and manliness in the battles. I distributed 894 Francs for food to such Macedonians, expecting the possibility of their return to their fatherland. ..
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