Bulgars' Cruelty Spurs On Greeks.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 10, 1913:
Frenzied Rage at Foes' Atrocities Carries Them to Victory Against Any Odds.
FERDINAND NOW FOR PEACE
Reported to Have Sent a Circular to the Powers Asking for Mediation — Cholera at Many Points.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Thursday, July 10.— A telegram from Athens says:
    "King Constantine has invited the correspondents to go to Nigrita in order to verify the reports of atrocities committed by the Bulgarians, who are accused of sacking and burning the town and massacring the Greek population.
    "The only surviving witness of the burning of the town is Georgios Vlachos, who made a statement on the sign of the Cross.
    "Giving his own experiences, Vlachos says that he and two companions were thrown into prison and kept there two and one-half days without food. An officer entered the prison and demanded money.
    "Afterward orders were given to fire on them through the windows. One of Vlachos's companions was killed and the other was wounded and later bayoneted to death. Vlachos also received bayonet thrusts and fainted. When he recovered he found that the Bulgars had poured oil on him and on the corpses and had set them alight.
    "Vlachos, who was badly burned, was able to escape. He saw the Bulgars retreating northward and burning everything in their way.
    "Among the smoking ruins of the town there are but few human remains, but this is explained by the fact that most of the bodies were buried for fear of cholera owing to the tropical heat."
    The Daily Telegraph's special correspondent at Nigrita says:
    "The town to-day is a reeking heap of smoking ruins. The acrid stench of burning human flesh and bones overpowers the nostrils. I have verified every word of Vlachos's story and am convinced that in essential points the Greek accounts are true.
    "We believe absolutely that at least 470 villagers were killed or burned alive in this town alone. We have been invited to go to the surrounding villages, where during the last two days a whole regiment of sappers has been engaged in burying the dead. We have been invited to have them exhumed.
    "We have no reason to doubt the estimate of the local authorities that 1,500 villagers were foully murdered. Scores of women still living were assaulted, and every house was looted.
    "We believe, in fact, that seldom in the history of warfare has the barbarity of the Bulgarians at Nigrita been surpassed."

Bulgars in Retreat.
    LONDON, Thursday, July 10.— Out of the welter of conflicting stories from the Balkan battlefields it is almost impossible to sift the truth. This is markedly illustrated in a dispatch from The Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Uskub, dated Tuesday night, reporting that there had been hardly any fighting in the past few days, while Belgrade dispatches reported further Servian victories, the latest advices from the Servian capital asserting that all the Bulgarians who had invaded Servia had been driven back across the frontier.
    There seems to be little doubt that Gen. Ivanoff's army is steadily retreating before the victorious Greeks, and it is reported that the Bulgarians have evacuated both Kavala, where the Greek fleet is operating, and Dedeagatch.
    A Greek official statement asserts that instead of 30,000, as alleged by Bulgaria, Gen. Ivanoff's army consisted of 120,000 men.
    A correspondent of The Daily Telegraph who arrived at Nigrita last Saturday morning says that the Bulgars' atrocities have imbued the Greek soldiers with frenzied rage and a desire to be revenged on the Bulgarians, which carries them to victories against any odds.
    The following dispatch has been received from Uskub by The Daily Mail:
    "Servian officers are indignant at the Bulgarians' treatment of Servians who fell into their hands, many of whom were 'finished' in cold blood, while others were mutilated. A photograph has been taken of two Servian soldiers now in the hospital whose noses were cut off by the Bulgarians."

Greece Protests to Powers.
    The Greek Government has made urgent representations to the European Governments against massacres and atrocities alleged to have been committed by the Bulgarian troops and irregulars on unarmed villagers at Bogdanza, Nigrita, Guevgheli, and elsewhere in violation of the international laws of war. This appeal declares that, in the event of defenseless Greek populations being left to their fate, Greece will be obliged to take rigorous measures to put an end to Bulgarian atrocities.
    Whether there is any truth in the Vienna reports to the effect that Bulgaria has applied to the Powers to arrange peace is not known, but it would appear not unlikely, since clearly things are not going well with the Bulgarians, and the outbreak of cholera at many points in the field of operations, combined with the exhaustion of the armies by the fierceness of the struggle, is calculated to render some such solution welcome to the combatants. This is especially so because of the uncertainty as to the policy of Rumania, which is now reported to be equally ready to attack either Servia or Bulgaria, as the occasion may demand, in order to prevent a disturbance of the Balkan equilibrium.
    The problem of dealing with the dead and wounded is proving a very serious one. The nursing resources at Belgrade are woefully insufficient, and all the accommodations there are distressingly overtaxed. It is stated that the Servians have permitted a pause in the operations to allow of the removal of the wounded and the interment of the dead, as well as the carrying out of sanitary measures to prevent the spread of the cholera.

    VIENNA, July 9.— The Bulgarian Government is reported to have sent a circular to the European powers expressing its readiness to negotiate for peace.
    The Bulgarian and Servian commander-in-chiefs are stated here to be already negotiating an armistice, as the losses of both armies in killed and wounded are immense and it is feared that the epidemic of cholera which has broken out among the troops may get beyond control.
    The Neue Freie Presse understands that Bulgaria proposes to negotiate on the basis of the treaty made before the war regarding the allocation of Macedonian territory. The writer believes that the circular to the Powers was probably sent out as a feeler to find out whether the Powers were inclined to drop the principle of non-intervention by mediating between the belligerents.
    Things are going badly for the Bulgarians, according to The Militarische Rundschau, the organ of the Austro-Hungarian War Office. The situation of their troops both on the Servian and Greek fronts is perilous, the paper says, and in the South Gen. Ivanoff's army is threatened with defeat.

Russia May Punish Ferdinand.
    COLOGNE, July 9.— "Nobody acquainted with conditions in the Balkans can doubt that Europe will be confronted shortly with events of the utmost importance affecting the political and military relations of Austria-Hungary and Russia," according to the Sofia correspondent of The Cologne Gazette.
    He telegraphs that the quarrel between Bulgaria and Rumania has entered a new phase, and that King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is to be punished for lack of subservience to the wishes of Russia.

    ATHENS, July 9.— An official bulletin issued to-night says that the Greeks yesterday attacked the mountain passes toward Strumitza. The Bulgarians, reinforced, perhaps from Istib, offered vigorous resistance, but were steadily driven back.
    The Greeks occupied some of the passes, but the fighting was stopped by darkness, with the expectation that it would be resumed to-day
    Later bulletins say that the Bulgarians are in a headlong flight through the defiles, the Greeks having made a night frontal attack on Strumitza, forcing the Bulgarians to abandon their positions with heavy losses, including five guns and other war material.
    Private dispatches report the evacuation of Kavala by the Bulgarians.

    BELGRADE, July 9.— According to authoritative private information, the Bulgarian forces, nine battalions strong, which invaded Servia at Kniarsevatz, were entirely annihilated. They met the Servian forces and engaged in a desperate battle at the entrance of Zajetear Pass.
    The town of Serres, about forty-five miles to the northeast of Salonika, was captured to-day from the Bulgarians by the Greek army, according to official dispatches received here.
    The Greek fleet is reported to be bombarding the seaport of Kavala, on the Aegean Sea, now in the hands of the Bulgarians.

Bulgars Claim Victories.
    SOFIA, July 9.— Semi-official reports to-day represent the Bulgarians as successful throughout the fighting line. All the Servian attacks, from Sultan-Tepe to Pataritza, according to these reports, were repulsed, the Servians suffering enormous losses and retreating in the direction of Ergi-Palanka pursued by the Bulgarians.
    A battle is in progress near Kotchana, and the Servians are retiring. The Greek attacks north of Doiran have been repulsed with great loss, and on the right bank of the River Struma the Greeks are operating weakly.

    CONSTANTINOPLE, July 9.— The reply of Bulgaria to the request of the Porte, agreeing to evacuate the Marmora coast, intimates that the Bulgarian delegate, M. Natchovitch, ex-Foreign Minister, who arrived at Tchatalja to-day, is empowered to negotiate a settlement of the Marmora question.
    In the meantime the Porte, without waiting for this settlement, has determined immediately to proceed with the military occupation of all the territory up to the Enos-Midia line, in accordance with the peace protocol signed in London.
    The bustle of military preparations here is similar to the state of affairs last Autumn.