How far this wise advice will be acted upon remains to be seen. But of this I am confident, that if ever a repetition of similar errors of policy on the part of the Porte should lead to a genuine national rising against Turkish rule in Macedonia, Bulgaria cannot and will not remain an indifferent spectator. The Bulgarians are determined not to forfeit their reversion to Macedonia, still less to allow it to be transferred to the Greeks. Though the Bulgarians object to the Russians on political grounds, they do not personally dislike the latter in the same way as they do the Greeks. Even as between Turks and Greeks they prefer the former.
The truth is that the Greeks have all along been the agents of Turkish oppression in Bulgaria, and in such matters the agent is generally more unpopular than his employer. As it is, the permanent animosity which prevails between Greeks and Bulgarians may very possibly prove a not unimportant factor in determining the ultimate solution of the Eastern Question.
Attitude Towards Russia
Dread of Russian intervention forms, for the present, the dominant factor in the national policy of the Peasant State. I do not think, however, that this policy is influenced by any popular dislike of Russia as Russia. In all parts of the country there are monuments erected in honour of the Russians who took part in the War of Liberation, and I have never heard any Bulgarian, from the Prince downwards, express any feeling towards Russia other than one of respect and gratitude for the services their country has received from the great Sclav Empire of the north.
In what I have written I may have seemed to show an undue bias towards the Bulgarian view of the controversy between herself and Russia. It is, however, quite possible to hold, as I do, that Bulgaria is in the right in opposing Russia, and at the same time to admit that the latter Power rendered signal services to the cause of Bulgarian independence, and may not unnaturally feel aggrieved at finding her policy thwarted by the very State she called into existence.
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