Greeks, a few Serbs and Bulgarians, the
latter predominating, it was the center of the most Bulgarian portion
of Macedonia. Throughout the outlying districts down to Kastoria, over
to Albania, and up to Uskub, the population is purely and aggressively
Bulgar. Here the simple peasants were persecuted by the Greek Church
for fifteen years preceding the First Balkan War and by the Serbians
afterward; by the one on account of their religion, by the other on
account of their nationality. Here, too was the center of the
revolutionary movement against the Turks, and here the people rose
time and time again in open insurrection, only to be quenched by fire
and blood. Nowhere in the Balkan Peninsula has there been so much
oppression and bloodshed on account of nationality. For these reasons
Monastir has a deep sentimental significance to every Bulgarian. No
part of Macedonia means so much to him. Its possession by the Serbians
after the Balkan Wars did more, probably, to reconcile the country to
King Ferdinand's otherwise hateful pro-German policy than anything
else. As is now well known, Ferdinand stipulated that this city should
not only be taken from the Serbians, but that it should belong to
Bulgaria, before he entered the war on the side of the Germans and
Austrians. Otherwise it is quite likely that the Teutons would not
have considered it worth while to advance so far south. Its recapture
by the Serbians and their allies must, therefore, have had a
corresponding depressing effect in Bulgaria.

On the day following the evacuation of Monastir the Italians appear
for the first time in the reports of the fighting in this region. They
had obviously come in contact with the Bulgarians on their extreme
right and were pressing them back, thus forcing the whole line to
retire. The French, too, made some advance along the eastern shore of
Lake Prespa, while the Serbians took five villages in the foothills at
the head of the plain. The main forces of the Bulgarians and Germans
were making their stand about twelve miles north of the city, well up
in the hills and crossing the Prilep highway.

For some days following bad weather again settled down over the
Monastir section of the Macedonian front, and though it did not stop
the fighting, it rendered further progress on the part of the Allies
very difficult. But in spite of the brilliant victories announced by
the dispatches from Berlin and Sofia, these very reports indicated, by
the