f these secret tribunals were elected
democratically by the villagers themselves. Later on they elected
local delegates to provincial committees, which acted as courts of
higher appeal, to which a defendant on trial might appeal should he
feel that local sentiment was prejudiced against him. Later on, when
these committees spread all over the country, yearly congresses were
held, the first of which drew up a constitution for what was nothing
less than a secret provisional government for the underground
republic of Macedonia. Such was the beginning and the first purposes
of the famous Macedonian Committee, so called because authority was
always vested in the hands of committees, rather than with
individuals, so strong was the democratic sentiment of the people.

The next thing was to get rid of the brigands. To accomplish that
the provincial committees organized and maintained armed bands,
which patrolled the mountains of the territory assigned to them.
Numbering all the way from ten men to fifty each, these bands
protected the villages from the bandits and even hunted them down.
And, naturally, when the terrorist bands of the Greek Church became
active, they were confronted by the armed bands of the committee.

It is notable that when the existence of the Macedonian Committee
and its small local armed forces first became known to the outside
world, it was not the Turkish Government which showed most
animosity. In fact, for a long time the Turks rather treated the
committee much as they had treated the brigands; that is, let them
alone, so long as they did not cross their path, and the committee
did not set out to molest the Turks.

It was the Greek Church, and the Greek and Serbian Governments that
became most excited. Both the Greeks and the Serbians had been
making every effort to arouse a "spirit of nationalism" of their own
brand among the Macedonians. The committee was distinctly going to
counteract their influence and efforts by arousing a spirit of
nationality among the Macedonians which was neither Serbian nor
Bulgarian nor Greek. And when the Bulgarian Government understood
this thoroughly it showed itself equally unfriendly. For Prince
Ferdinand and his clique dreamed of the Greater Bulgaria which they
should rule. They wanted no autonomous Macedonia; even less did they
want an independent Macedonia.

It was along in the later nineties that the Macedonian Committee
began assuming such proportions as to at