Correspondence about the treatment of the poor in Bitola (1913)

THE ROYAL SERBIAN
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

In Belgrade, 23. November 1913.

No. Confidential

To Mr. President of the Ministerial Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs,

With regards to the information that in Bitola and the surrounding area there are a lot of poor people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is honoured to report Mr. President that a report was delivered on this matter by the chief of Bitola district, which states the following:

“According to the report of the Bitola municipal court in Bitola, there are eighteen refugee families who have come from Sop, the county of Kičevo. Some of them are aided by the court when they request aid, on top of the poor that the court is responsible for.

Other Mohammedan families which are refugees are not present in appreciable numbers. Through a confidant I have learned from the local mufti that a Mohammedan from India has request from the English Government to give charity to the Mohammedans of the Balkan Peninsula who have suffered. The English consul here has received a list from the local mufti about who should receive charity. The list includes all the working and artisanal families as well as those who received aid from the Turkish state.

./.

Learning that this is how they will receive money, the Mohammedans from the villages come to the English consul and ask for charity. Mohammedans can either be the master or beg. They avoid labour and therefore they are turning to the English consul to give them money. The consul very eagerly goes to the Mohammedan villages and gathers information from them, where they all state how they are poor and how they need aid, aware of the purpose of his visits; I will list an example: the English consul has presented to me how the Turks from the village of Ramna do not have firewood, how the municipal authorities do not allow them to log, while allowing peasants to log without any restrictions. I ordered for the matter to be investigated and received the report that those same Turks which complained to the consul had destroyed the municipality’s forest and sold the firewood, then offered the president of the municipality gold napoleons to let them log further. And when the president sent them away, they went to the English consul to complain. This is a courteous reply to the coded dispatch of the 21st of this month.”

By the order
of the Minister of Internal Affairs
Inspector,
Signature

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. 

26th November 1913
Belgrade. 

THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

The Chief of the Bitola District reports the following in a coded telegram received tonight: 

“Last evening, I had a somewhat sharper discussion with the English consul, as he began the conversation in a very arrogant tone about why his demands regarding the impoverished Muslims in the village of Ramna were not being met. I explained to him that the villagers of Ramna had been logging  in the forest last summer, and while the Christians had saved the wood for winter, the Muslims had sold theirs. He asked me whether I had not received proper instructions from Belgrade and that he would send photographs to all European newspapers showing how Christian homes were full of wood, while Muslims were dying from the cold. I responded that Serbia was not to blame for all the trees being cut down during the Turkish regime and that there are poor people all over the world, including in London itself, where people die on the streets from hunger; that there had been no such cases in Serbia and that there would not be any in these regions once they were fully regulated.”

To the Ministry of Internal Affairs, It is an honour for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to herewith submit this document to the Ministry for its knowledge.

By order of
the Minister of the Interior,
Inspector
Signature

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS. 

Conf. No. Confidential.

29th November 1913
Belgrade. 

TO THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has the honour to submit to that Ministry the following report from the Chief of the Bitola District: 

“I have already taken care and issued the necessary orders to provide impoverished Mohammedan families with firewood for the winter and, if needed, assistance for other provisions. Similarly, I have issued an order to all district chiefs to address and mitigate any disputes that may occur between Muslims and Christians. 

In accordance with the agreement with the Bitola municipality, assistance shall be provided to the impoverished of Bitola.”

By order of the
Minister of Internal Affairs.
Inspector
Signature