e already seen, the orthodox
Serbs owe allegiance to the Greek patriarch in Constantinople. And
at first they did not push their propaganda as zealously or as
successfully as the Bulgarians. In fact the national aspirations of
the people of Servia had been in the direction of Bosnia and
Herzegovina; but after these provinces were assigned to Austria by
the Treaty of Berlin, a marked change of attitude occurred in the
Servian government and nation. They now claimed as Servian the
Slavonic population of Macedonia which hitherto Bulgaria had
cultivated as her own. The course of politics in Bulgaria, notably
her embroilment with Russia, inured to the advantage of the Servian
propaganda in Macedonia, which after 1890 made great headway. The
Servian government made liberal contributions for Macedonian
schools. And before the nineteenth century closed the Servian
propaganda could claim 178 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and
Monastir and in Uskub with 321 teachers and 7,200 pupils.

These Slav propagandists made serious encroachments upon the Greek
cause, which, only a generation earlier, had possessed a practical
monopoly in Macedonia. Greek efforts too were for a time almost
paralyzed in consequence of the disastrous issue of the
Greco-Turkish war in 1897. Nevertheless in 1901 the Greeks claimed
927 schools in the vilayets of Saloniki and Monastir with 1,397
teachers and 57,607 pupils.

RACIAL FACTS AND FALLACIES

The more bishops, churches, and schools a nationality could show,
the stronger its claim on the reversion of Macedonia when the Turk
should be driven out of Europe! There was no doubt much juggling
with statistics. And though schools and churches were provided by
Greeks, Servians, and Bulgarians to satisfy the spiritual and
intellectual needs of their kinsmen in Macedonia, there was always
the ulterior (which was generally the dominant) object of staking
out claims in the domain soon to drop from the paralyzed hand of the
Turk. The bishops may have been good shepherds of their flocks, but
the primary qualification for the office was, I imagine, the gift of
aggressive political leadership. The Turkish government now favored
one nationality and now another as the interests of the moment
seemed to suggest. With an impish delight in playing off Slav
against Greek and Servian against Bulgarian, its action on
applications for bishoprics was generally taken with a view to
embarrassing the rival Christian nation