Bulgars Accused Of Massacring 700.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 9, 1913:
Victims Burned in Mosque While Their Wives and Daughters Are Forced to Look On.
WOMEN BURNED ELSEWHERE
A Servian Army Said to be Cut Off from Belgrade — Greeks Claim a Big Victory at Doiran.
    SALONIKA, July 8.— Father Michel, Superior of the French Catholic Mission at Kilkish, confirms the reports of massacres committed in that district by Bulgarian irregulars.
    In one instance, it is asserted, the Bulgars burned to death 700 men belonging to Kurkut by imprisoning them in a mosque, under which they exploded bombs, setting the building on fire. They had previously assembled the victims' wives and daughters around the mosque to witness the spectacle.
    Even more terrible scenes were, it is stated, enacted at Kilkish, Planitza, and Raynovo, women also being burned to death.
    Father Michel asserts that in the ranks of the irregulars responsible for these atrocities were business and professional men and students from Sofia.

    BELGRADE, July 8.— The Servians have recaptured Istib after routing the Bulgarians, says an official dispatch received to-night.
    A desperate battle was fought, with heavy losses. The Servian guns previously lost were retaken.
    King Peter has issued a proclamation to his people announcing war, in the course of which he says:
    "The Bulgarians, forgetful of the Servians' brotherly help and the blood of the heroes who fell on the Thracian battlefields, have given the Slavonic nations and the civilized world an abominable example of ingratitude and greediness. This unbrotherly action has caused me the deepest pain and hurt my sincerest Slavonic feelings, and the responsibility for that crime against Slavdom and humanity must fall upon those who committed it."

    VIENNA, Wednesday, July 9.— A Hungarian steamer loaded with Bulgarian soldiers has been fired on by Rumanian soldiers stationed on the Danube. Two men were wounded.
    The Austrian Government will demand explanations from Rumania, and it is believed that Bulgaria will do the same.
    The Bulgarian troops, after repulsing several small Servian forces, have succeeded in penetrating to Vranya, the war commissariat station of the Servian Army, according to a dispatch from Sofia to The Neue Freie Presse. The Bulgarians, the telegram says, are now advancing along the Morava River.
    If this information should prove to be correct, the Bulgarians have by their advance cut off a huge body of Servian troops from Belgrade.

     LONDON, Wednesday, July 9.— The Balkan war having now been regularized by formal declaration, it is understood that the powers will make no attempt to mediate.
    The Official Gazette at Belgrade published last night notice of a formal declaration of war against Bulgaria.
    The Bucharest correspondent of The Dally Mail says that a member of the Government is authority for the statement that war between Bulgaria and Rumania is inevitable.
    The Morning Post's Bucharest correspondent, reporting that the mobilization of the Rumanian Army will be completed to-day, and that a few days more will be required to get the army in motion on the frontier, intimates that Rumania intends to fight in order to prevent Bulgaria from crushing Servia and Greece, and that the most intense enthusiasm for the struggle is apparent among the Rumanian people.
    The Daily Express publishes a rumor that Turkey has made an offer to Servia and Greece to establish an alliance against Bulgaria.
    The Belgrade correspondent of The Daily News was stopped on his way to the front and ordered to leave Servia. He declares that the Balkan peoples have become completely barbarous. "Their hatred for the Turk," he says, "is nothing as compared with their hatred for each other. The present territorial greed is hideous; all sentiments of fair play and chivalry have given place to brutality."
    Military news was lacking yesterday. Servian dispatches admit that a strong Bulgarian column has invaded Servia at Konagevatz, which town the Bulgars occupied after setting fire to the adjacent villages. Cholera has been brought to Belgrade by the wounded.
    The Bulgarians are fiercely attacking Pirot on the Belgrade-Sofia Railway, according to a Belgrade dispatch to The Daily Mail.
    A Sofia dispatch to a London news agency says that there was heavy fighting on Monday, the Bulgarians attacking the Servian centre at Kotchana. The engagement extended from a point west of Zletovo to the heights of Kotchana, the Servians being repulsed with very severe losses.
    Official Greek dispatches claim a great victory at Doiran, where the Bulgarians, recently reinforced, were in superior strength to the Greeks. The latter assert that a whole division of Bulgarians was completely destroyed and that the Bulgarians fled in such a hasty manner that they even left loaded guns behind.
    The victory is considered of great importance, because Doiran was the Bulgarian victualing centre and all the provisions fell into the hands of the Greeks.
    It is reported from Sofia that the Tenth Bulgarian Division, which reinforced Gen. Ivanoff, was brought from the Tchatalja district. This seems to indicate compliance with Turkey's demand that the Bulgarians evacuate Turkish territory.
    The Turkish Government yesterday decided to occupy with armed forces all the territory within the Enos-Midia line, running from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, which had been virtually decided upon as the future boundary line between Bulgaria and Turkey, according to a Constantinople telegram to the Exchange Telegraph Company.