April 24.
Recent telegrams have shown the existence of an almost revolutionary movement in Bul-gona, but unfortunately they have not given the factors leading up to it, A consideration, however, of the past history of that country, and especially of the rise of the Agrarians to political power, with the support of the Communists—for members of this combination have beensresponsibie for the outrages—provides a clue to the state of mind of those guilty first of the assassination of General Gheorghicff and then Jan attempt—the second of its kind—to a by wrecking Sveta Nedeli such outrages must be recaptulated to show the determina tion of the perpetrators to achieve their ends at practically any cost. First of all on April 14 came an attempt to assassinate King Boris, and on the evening of the same day General Gheorghieff, who was credited with being the moving spirit in lan attempt to overthrow the Stumbouliski Ministry, was sassinated. On April 16 the Director of the Central Prison was killed while passing through the streets of Sofia, and the same day an infernal machine explode within the Sveta Nedelia Cathedral, killing some 200 peo ple, including a number of prominent officials, two of them members of the Ministry. Again the life of the King was aimed at, and it is fortunate for him that he was dissuaded from being present at the Cathedral on that occasion.
Obviously' a revolution was aim-at, and so far as can be gathered from the situation today it has aborted largely through the failures to assusate King woris. In the circumstances a revulsion of public opinion has been a natural seatience, especially follo upon the weeking of the bedral, and if sympathy was with the Agrarian-Communist plotters, as it probaniy was at lone time, it seems to have veer ed round to the other extreme.
All these events in Sofia bring us back to the career of M.
Stambouliski, the heaa of the present Ministry, who, however, has figured less than anybody in the present happenings. It was, however, his Ministry which General Gheorghieff was alleged to be attempting to overthrow, ard so his outlook on Bulgarian politics becomes all important. Prior to 1914 King Ferdinand had succeeded
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.