I thought I would open this up.
The British have always said there are Macedonians, and British military reports generally accept the existence of a separate Macedonian ethnic group.
But British attidues always reflected British self interest in the balkans, and the Macedonians paid a heavy price.
I just wanted to start a thread where anything "British" regarding the Macedonians was drawn out. Some of it is positive and some it isn't, but here it is anyway.
Here is the "Final Solution" of the Macedonian minority in Yugoslavia according to Official British government policy.
The British government at the highest level talked about the Macedonian question in terms of a "final solution". The Final Solution was to make sure the Macedonians "cease to exist".
Source:
Finney, Patrick, B., "An Evil for All Concerned: Great Briain and Minority Protection after 1919", in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 533-551, (page 540)
Primary Source for this quote from the British Archives:
PRO FO Item no. 371/10667 Lampson to Kennard (minister in Belgrade), unnumberd letter, 7 November 1925, and "The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity", memorandum by the British Central Department, 26 November 1925; PRO FO Item 371/10673 minute by Lampson, 3 Novebmer 1925.
The British have always said there are Macedonians, and British military reports generally accept the existence of a separate Macedonian ethnic group.
But British attidues always reflected British self interest in the balkans, and the Macedonians paid a heavy price.
I just wanted to start a thread where anything "British" regarding the Macedonians was drawn out. Some of it is positive and some it isn't, but here it is anyway.
Here is the "Final Solution" of the Macedonian minority in Yugoslavia according to Official British government policy.
In 1925, Miles Lampson, the head of the British Foriegn Office Central Department wrote: "the only way to deal with the Macedonians is the Serb way - that is not recognizing that any Macedonian minority as such exists in [southern] Serbia. Miles argued that: "given ten years of undistrubed possession [of Macedonian lands] the Macedonian question will cease to exist. Miles therefore advised Britain that Britain should; "do nothing to upset the present Serbianization of South Macedonia: it is the only way of avoiding trouble and is after all not al all a bad solution".
Source:
Finney, Patrick, B., "An Evil for All Concerned: Great Briain and Minority Protection after 1919", in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 533-551, (page 540)
Primary Source for this quote from the British Archives:
PRO FO Item no. 371/10667 Lampson to Kennard (minister in Belgrade), unnumberd letter, 7 November 1925, and "The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity", memorandum by the British Central Department, 26 November 1925; PRO FO Item 371/10673 minute by Lampson, 3 Novebmer 1925.
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