TELEGRAM FROM THE GENERAL COUNCIL, OF THE MACEDONIAN SOCIETIES IN SWITZERLAND

TELEGRAM FROM THE GENERAL COUNCIL, OF THE MACEDONIAN SOCIETIES IN SWITZERLAND TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE IN PARIS (1484)

March 25th, 1919

To the Peace Conference – Paris

In our telegram of December 10th, 1918 and our memorandum of January 11th, 1919, we humbly requested the honourable Peace Conference to apply also to Macedonia the principle of self-disposition actually granted to so many oppressed peoples. The population of Macedonia, whose land has been soaked with blood and tears, undergoing most horrible sufferings, and having fought for more than forty years for its deliverance from the foreign yoke, energetically protest before the honourable Peace Conference against the possible projected dismemberment of their country which would be but a repetition of the fatal fault committed by the Peace of Bucharest (in 1913 - editor’s note), where the Macedonian population was treated like a herd of animals. The overwhelming majority of the Macedonian population earnestly desires the establishment of an autonomous state placed under the protection of the Great Allied Powers and administered on the example of the cantons of Switzerland. Such an administration, demanded by the overwhelming majority of the Macedonian population, would at the same time bring with it durable peace in the Balkans and would be the only way of securing the economic and spiritual development of all Macedonians regardless of race and religion. The principle “Macedonia to the Macedonians,” which was the slogan of the Internal Revolutionary Organization, is very popular in Macedonia. Besides, the autonomy of Macedonia was also formally recognized by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria in their ultimatum to Turkey in 1912. Hence we take the liberty to call the attention of the honourable Peace Conference particularly to this last fact and beseech it humbly not to destroy an innocent people, which largely paid its tribute to the cause of its liberation by slavery, suffering and pain. For the General Council of the Macedonian Societies in Switzerland.

President: S. Tilkov, Secretary: A. Gikol (Seal)

L. Lane, Aktivnosta na Glavniot odbor, p. 155.

(1484) At its session of March 25th, 1919, the General Council of the Macedonian Societies in Switzerland decided to send this telegram to the Peace Conference in Paris, stating in it the demands of the Macedonians.

(Pages 654-655, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)

PROTEST FROM THE PROVISIONAL REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE OF THE INTERNAL MACEDONIAN REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION TO THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE (1485)

April 10th, 1919

To His Excellency Monsieur Clemenceau, President of the Council, Paris

Your Excellency,

It is a duty of my honour, as a delegate of the Macedonian Committees to the High Peace Conference, to protest against the manoeuvres of certain suspicious persons who claim to speak in the name of Macedonia and to represent some so-called “Executive Committee of the Macedonian Societies.” Let me be allowed to indicate that the Macedonian emigrants to Bulgaria have over the past 30 years created quite a small class of Macedonians Bulgarianized to such a point that they sacrifice completely the interests of their native land to those of Bulgaria. People who have two homelands are generally suspect; what to say, on the other hand, about those who do not hesitate to propose as delegates to the Conference two persons such as Aleksandrov and Protogerov, adherents of the Kaiser (Wilhelm II - editor’s note) and Ferdinand, and organizers of the massacres of Nish?

Indeed, there is no one else who could more compromise the cause of “Autonomous Macedonia” before the Areopagus of the victors! Hence I have the honour to point out that the only Macedonian Societies free from any Bulgarian political influence, or any other, and representing loyally the whole of Macedonia, without distinction of language or religion, are the Macedonian Committees, which starting from 1893 constituted the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization... It is in their name, and by no means in the name of Bulgaria or the Bulgarians, that I have already had the honour to request and now I am requesting again from Your Excellency to grant me an audience so that I may present to You the desires of the Macedonian people. I beg Your Excellency to accept the assurance of my deep respect and devotion to You.

Paris, 7, rue Vital. April 10th, 1919

Archimandrite Paul Christoff, General Vicar of Thrace, Delegate of the Macedonian Committees.

Lapnovih A., Jogoslavska u biblioteki za savremenu – megunarodni dokumentatsii u Parizu. – Godishen zbornik na FF, 24-25 (1972-73), pp. 88-89.

(1485) Paul Christoff, delegate of the Provisional Representative Office of the I. M. R. O. in Sofia, protested to Georges Clemenceau, President of the Peace Conference in Paris, against the self-appointed “Executive Committee of the Macedonian Societies” in Sofia and its activity.

(Pages 655-656, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)

EXCERPTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE ON NEW STATES AND FOR THE PROTECTION OF MINORITIES AT THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE (1493)

July - November 1919

(1493) The question of Macedonia at the Paris Peace Conference was considered solely by the Committee on New States and for the Protection of Minorities, which began working in May, 1919. In the solution of that question a number, of proposals were considered, which can be seen in the minutes of the Committee, excerpts of which we quote in the following text.