FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W. 1.

7th November, 1925.

My dear Kennard,

For some time past we have been equally exercised with you on the question of removing the causes of friction in the Balkans, with special reference to the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and other causes mentioned in your letter of October 30th. Locarno and the recent flare-up between Greece and Bulgaria has brought the matter to a head, and I think it is as well that you should know how we view the matter.

As soon as the Greeks and Bulgarians had got to gripe this last time our immediate concern was to stop the row as soon as possible, but it occurred to us at the same time, as it occurred to you, that now the League was definitely involved an opportunity night be afforded for getting to the root of the matter. Two suggestions were put up here:

• (1) The creation of some sort of demilitarized zone along the Graeco-Bulgarian frontier, possibly with extensions, and

• (2) an examination of the friction caused by the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and the Komitadji.

Аs regards the first I had no hesitation in suggesting to Rumbold privately that something on these lines might be practical, but the thought of involving the League in the Macedonian question fills me with horror as it seems to me that League intervention in this matter would be either a farce or possibly the undoing of the Leaguet neither of which contingencies are desirable. My view of the Macedonian question is as follows:-

After the war with Turkey, Bulgaria had the ball at her feet. She might have had Macedonia even as far as Lake Ochrida, but Daneff and King Ferdinand made exaggerated and absurd claims as “residuary legatees” to the spoils of defeated Turkey. As a result Bulgaria had lost not only the war but all prospect of ever possessing southern Macedonia. It is worth remarking that her losses were incurred as a result of the Treaty with Serbia of 1913 and that with the exception of certain quite minor alterations the Serbo-Bulgarian frontier is not a result of the Great War, but of the Balkan War of 1913.