(Salonika Campaign)Maj.Owen Rutter-Original Manuscript

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A 15 page foolscap sized manuscript, not dated, c.1935-36, entitled "Salonika Picnic", a record of a voyage made in 1935 to Salonika and Turkey, w he met President of Turkey Kamal, and spoke with Gen. Birdwood, unsigned, but in the hand of of Major Owen Rutter, Anglo-Malay officer and planter. Born in 1889, Rutter joined the North Borneo Company service in 1910 as a cadet. He was first attached to the West Coast Residency. Except for a few months in 1912 when he was the assistant district officer for Tawau, Rutter spent most of his five years of service on the west coast of Sabah. He finally rose to the position of district officer in 1913, leaving the service in 1915 to return to Europe to serve with the British Army during World War I. Demobilised after the war with the rank of major, Rutter returned to Sabah and spent 18 months as a planter and traveller. Upon returning to Britain, he became an academician and writer. He died in 1944. Rutter was a prolific writer. His books dwelt on subjects of the East, ranging from legends of Sabah to a biography of Sarawak's Rajah James Brooke. Two of his books, British North Borneo: an Account of its History, Resources and Native Tribes (1922) and The Pagans of North Borneo (1929), remained classic texts on Sabah for many years. British North Borneo was published in the same year as Evans' Among Primitive People but was better received in North Borneo Company circles for its uncontroversial contents. It served as the standard reference on Sabah until the publication of K.G. Tregonning's A History of Modern Sabah (1963). The Pagans of North Borneo provides systematic insights into the lives of the various non-Muslim tribes in Sabah, not confined to only the people of Tuaran and Tempassuk as in the case of Evans' book. Rutter carried out extensive research for The Pagans of North Borneo, drawing on materials and information from other North Borneo Company officials, notably, F.W. Fraser, the long serving government secretary who had spent some years in Tambunan and Keningau, and Woolley. Even though t are now some gaps in Rutter's presentation on the non-Muslim indigenous people, it is still regarded as a major contribution to the study of ethnography in Sabah. Manuscript is disbound, Slight loss of paper on the left edge of title page not affecting text-otherwise clean. Winning bidder pays $5.00 S & H; foreign bidder slightly more.The Salonika Campaign Anglo-French forces began landing at the Greek port of Salonika on 5 October 1915. The troops were sent to provide military assistance to the Serbs who had recently been attacked by combined German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian armies. The intervention came too late to save Serbia and after a brief winter campaign in severe weather conditions on the Serbian frontier, the Anglo-French forces found themselves back at Salonika. At this point the British advised that the troops be withdrawn. However, the French, with Russian, Italian and Serbian backing still believed something of strategic importance could be gained in the Balkans. After preparing the port of Salonika for defence, the troops moved up country. During 1916, further Allied contingents of Serbian, Italian and Russian troops arrived and offensive operations began. These culminated in the fall of Monastir to Franco-Serb forces during November. A second offensive during the spring of 1917, the British part of which was the First Battle of Doiran (24-25 April and 8-9 May), made little impression on the Bulgarian defences. The frontline remained more or less static until September 1918, when a third offensive was launched. During this the British attacked at Doiran for a second time (18-19 September). With a breakthrough by Serbian forces west of the river Vardar the Bulgarian army was forced into a general retreat. The campaign concluded with the surrender of Bulgaria on 30 September 1918. The British Salonika Force: Commanded by Lieutenant General George Milne from May 1916, following General Sir Bryan Mahon's posting to Egypt. At its heig... read more

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