Balkanitis

1) His Majesty Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria and M. Iltcheff, Director of the Sofia Museum, comfortably seated in an automobile, were being whirled along the white road that lies between Orchanie, a country town, and Sofia, the capital. As the car passed along a narrow strip of road between two high banks, a volley of shots rang out. M. Iltcheff and a servant were killed, the chauffeur was wounded, one side of the King's moustache was clipped. Instantly, the King took control of the car but, failing to turn it on account of the broken steering gear, jumped out and. returned the fire of the assassins.

2) In Sofia, General Kosla Gheorghieff, Deputy and one of the leaders of the revolt which overthrew Premier Stambuliski, was assassinated.

3) Two days later, a crowd of people assembled outside and inside the gaudy Sveti Krai Cathedral whose interior is decorated with numerous and immense rainbow-colored portraits painted on the walls and pillars. All had come to pay their last respects to the remains of General Gheorghieff. In a long, solemn queue, the funeral procession, headed by the Cabinet, trailed slowly, mournfully through the grimy Sofia streets and at length drew near to the Cathedral. There was a blinding flash, a terrific roar and the entire south wall and a large section of the roof of the Cathedral crumbled and crashed to the ground; many surrounding buildings were ruined, windows for yards around splintered. The crowd stood still for one ghastly second, then fled pellmell. Amid cries of the wounded and dying the military threw a cordon around the stricken area, filled with poisonous fumes from the exploded pyroxylin bomb. Surgeons, soldiers and members of the Cabinet--except Minister of the Interior Rouseff and Minister of Justice Boloshersky (dead), Premier Tsankoff and War Minister Vulkoff (slightly injured)--rendered first aid to the victims. When the final accounting of the grim tragedy was made, more than 150 persons, including 20 women and 10 children, 12 generals, the Mayor of Sofia and his entire family were found dead; hundreds were injured.

4) The day following, the Chief of the Penitentiary Department was shot dead in front of a cafe.

5) The bomb outrage at the Cathedral was taken to be a signal for a general uprising of the Bulgarian Bolsheviki against the Government. A strict censorship was established by the Government, but reports leaked out--of hand-to-hand fights in Sofia, of assassinations, plunderings and terrorism in the Provinces, of ugly skirmishes on the Greek and Serbian borders. More than 1,000 persons were arrested in Sofia. House to house searches were made. Martial law was proclaimed. Some 400 Bolsheviki were summarily executed. A quantity of Red revolutionary evidence was found. Central Europe was alarmed.

These were the five hideous events in last week's Bulgarian news.

Te Deum was sung in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral for King Boris' escape. Thirty thousand cheering people marched through the palace grounds and, later, a military parade marched past the King. The general belief was that the King was a chance victim of the ambuscade which was intended for the Orchanie-Sofia autobus, occupants of which were known to be carrying large sums of money.

The assassination of General Gheorghieff and the Chief of the Penitentiary Department were respectively the 38th and 39th political murder which have been perpetrated since Todor Alexandroff, Macedonian leader, was assassinated last August. Alexandroff, who repudiated Moscow influence, was allegedly murdered by Communists; and, ever since, an internecine war has been waged between non-Communists and Communists.

For many months, the Sofia Government has been deluging the Allied authorities with proofs of Bolshevik machinations in Bulgaria and has often and urgently made representations that the Bulgarian Army of the 20,000 volunteers permitted by the Treaty of Neuilly be supplanted by a conscript army of 50,000 to combat the growing Bolshevik menace. The Council of Ambassadors at Paris, guardian angels of the peace treaties, permitted (the week before the present outrages) an increase of 3,000 volunteers, a number which the Government thought totally insufficient, especially as it has repeatedly professed that it can place little reliance in volunteers.

The difficulties in the way of increasing the Bulgarian Army are, of course, enormous, owing to the opposition of Greece, Yugo-Slavia and Rumania.

From London came a report that the Bulgarian government had captured dispatches from Moscow to local communists, establishing beyond doubt that the Third Internationale had planned the revolt--that the documents had been exhibited to the representatives of the powers as proof of a need for more Bulgarian troops.