102
FORWARD
POLICY
AND
REACTION,
1874-1885
to
be known
as
the
Bulgarian
Atrocities,
which
were,
in an
unpre-
cedented
way,
to
stir
the
indignation
of
this
country.
For
once,
the
Sultan
and
his
advisers
had
not
been
taken
by surprise.
They
had
been
often
and
severely
reproached
for
their
ineffectual
attempts
to
stamp
out
the
Herzegovinian
insurrection
while it was
still
under
control,
and
they
determined not to commit
the same mistake
again.
Without
waiting
to
parley
with the
rebels,
the Government let
loose
in the
disturbed district
bands of
Bashi-Bazouks
under
the nominal
command
of
Achmed
Aga
and
Mohammad
Aga,
who
speedily
re-
stored
quiet
on
a
plan
of their
own.
Falling
upon
one disaffected
town,
that
of
Batak,
these
irregulars brutally
murdered
all but
2000
of
its
7000
inhabitants.
Slaying,
mutilation,
pillage,
violation,
burning,
perpetrated
with
every
refinement of
cruelty
and
barbarity
which
fiendish
ingenuity
could
devise,
continued
day
and
night,
and
within
a month
12,000
Christians had been
done
to death.
A
copy
of the
despatch
of our
Vice-Consul at
Adrianople
which
contained
an account
of
the
Atrocities
had
been sent to
our Consul-
General
at
Constantinople,
but
it does
not
appear
what
had
become
of
the
duplicate
sent
to
the
Embassy
there. On
the
other
hand,
the
report
had been seen
by
the
correspondent
of The
Daily
News,
in
whose
columns
the substance
of
it was
published
on
June
23rd.
Several
days
later,
questions
were asked
on
the
subject
in the House of
Commons
;
whereupon,
relying
on Elliot's
incomplete reports,
and
on
the fact
that
the
first
published
accounts of the Atrocities had
ap-
peared
in a
leading
Opposition newspaper,
Disraeli
referred
to
the
horrors
as "to a
large
extent
inventions,"
and
professed
to
regard
the
allegations
against
the Turks as
part
of the
political
capital
of un-
principled
critics.
For his
early
sceptical
attitude the Prime-Minister
cannot,
in the
circumstances,
be
fairly
condemned: he
spoke
and
judged
according
as he
knew,
and
at that
time he never
suspected
that
the half had not been told
him.
As to
their
inadequacy,
Elliot's
despatches
speak
for themselves.
On
June
8th,
after the revolt had been
suppressed
and a whole
population
had been
wiped
out,
he
informed
Lord
Derby
regretfully
that
"cruelty
and in
some
places brutality"
had
occurred. He re-
fused,
however,
to credit
the worst
reports,
as
being exaggerations,
but added
that there was
"evidence
that the
employment
of Cir-
cassians
and
Bashi-Bazouks has led
to the atrocities which were
to
be
expected."
Six
days
later,
he forwarded
a Consul's account of
the
cruelties,
but discounted
it.
"No
doubt,"
he
wrote,
"many
of
the