BULGARIA. 



n: 



Bulgarian Russophiles, Zankoff, who was in 

 exile at Constantinople, while his coadjutors 

 were three cashiered officers of the Bulgarian 

 array, and Andre Kappe, a Montenegrin. 

 Money was supplied by the Slav committees in 

 Moscow and Odessa. They recruited a hand 

 of over one hundred Montenegrin mercenaries, 

 and chartered a Greek vessel at the Turkish port 

 of Vasiliko to convey the party to Kustenje, 

 pretending that they were emigrants. "When 

 near the village of Keupruli, on the Roumelian 

 coast of the Black Sea. near Bourgas, they 

 compelled the master of the vessel to set them 

 on shore. They tried to incite the Roumeliotes 

 to join them, but without success. The Prince 

 of Montenegro had tardily telegraphed a warn- 

 ing of the plot to the Porte, yet the Bulgarian 

 authorities received notice from Constantino- 

 ple in time to intercept the revolutionists be- 

 fore they reached Bourgas. The Bulgarian 

 troops nearly surrounded them, and killed 

 eighteen, while many were taken prisoners, in- 

 cluding Kappe, only about twenty making their 

 escape into Turkish territory, where. they were 

 arrested by the Ottoman authorities. Capt. 

 Nabokoff and Capt. Boyanoff, a notorious Bul- 

 garian revolutionist, were among the slain. 

 Among the documents captured were letters 

 implicating Zankoff, Hitrovo. the Russian min- 

 ister at Bucharest, the city attorney of Odessa, 

 and a Montenegrin priest named Kapitchich, 

 who had a hand in the abduction of Prince 

 Alexander. Three other bands were organized 

 in Montenegro for the descent on Bourgas, but 

 the Turkish Government arrested some of the 

 enrolled men, and prevented their embarking. 

 A Russian war-vessel appeared off Bourgas at 

 the moment when the attempt to surprise the 

 place by night was to be made, and vanished 

 after its failure. These events took place in 

 the beginning of January. 



Russian Proposals. The Porte, which had 

 recalled Riza Bey, its commissioner in Bul- 

 garia, on the arrival of Prince Ferdinand, de- 

 cided in January to send again a representa- 

 tive to Sofia, and appointed Kiazim Bey its 

 commissioner. M. Xelidoff thereupon threat- 

 ened to leave Constantinople, and the ap- 

 pointment was canceled. Under Russian press- 

 ure the Turkish authorities also released the 

 Montenegrins who had taken part in the 

 Bourgas atfair. In February, Count Schou- 

 valofF, the Russian ambassador at Berlin, ex- 

 plained the Russian position to the German 

 Chancellor, and as a result of the pourparlers, 

 a telegram was sent from the Russian Foreign 

 Office, asking the powers to declare illegal the 

 presence of Prince Ferdinand of Coburg in 

 Bulgaria and at the head of the Bulgarian 

 Government, and to communicate that dec- 

 laration to Turkey, and request Turkey to 

 notify it to the usurping prince. This was 

 followed by a note explaining the conse- 

 quences of such action, which would be that 

 the Bulgarian ministry would drive Prince 

 Ferdinand from Bulgaria, and convoke an 

 VOL. xxvm. 8 A 



elective assembly under the supervision of 

 the representatives of the powers; the as- 

 sembly would send a deputatinii to the Czar 

 in acknowledgment of Russia's services in 

 liberating Bulgaria ; the Czar, content with 

 this act of satisfaction, would renounce the 

 idea of having a civil or military representa- 

 tive in the future Government ; and all the 

 powers would accept any prince that the as- 

 sembly would choose comformably to the 

 stipulations of the Treaty of Berlin. Russia, 

 after an interchange of views with all the 

 cabinets, communicated the suggestion to the 

 Porte, and was supported in identical notes 

 by Germany and France, while England, Aus- 

 tria, and Italy sent separate communications 

 of negative import. After receiving a second, 

 more emphatic note from Russia, and one still 

 more urgent from Germany, the Grand Vizier 

 laid the matter before the council of ministers, 

 and in pursuance of an irade sent a dispatch 

 to M. Stambuloff on March 5, which ran as 

 follows: 



On the arrival of Prince Ferdinand of Coburg in 

 Bulgaria, I declared to His Highness in a telegram 

 of August ti2, 16*7, that as Ms election by the Na- 

 tional Bulgarian Assembly had not receive'd the as- 

 gent of all the signatory powers of the Berlin Treaty, 

 and as that election had not been sanctioned by tie 

 Sublime Porte, his presence in Bulgaria was contrary 

 to the Berlin Treaty and was illegal. 



To-day I have to declare to the Bulgarian Govern- 

 ment that in the view of the Imperial Government 

 his position remains the same that is to say, the 

 I n-M-nce of Prince Ferdinand at the head of the 

 principality is illegal and contrary to the Treaty of 

 Berlin. 



The effect of this declaration was to rouse 

 into activity all the elements in Bulgaria that 

 were hostile to Prince Ferdinand or to inde- 

 pendence. Clement, Metropolitan of Tirnova, 

 was dismissed for insulting the prince. Rev- 

 olutionary bands made incursions from Mace- 

 donia and Servia, but were promptly met by 

 soldiery. Opposition journals called on Prince 

 Ferdinand to resign, and anti-national cliques 

 were busy in the army. Manifestations of a 

 revolutionary spirit had been made easy by 

 the action of Prince Ferdinand's Government in 

 abolishing the press censorship before the 

 close of 1887, and in restoring to their rank 

 in the army many officers who had partici- 

 pated in the deposition of Prince Alexander 

 and other Russian plots. Ferdinand, however, 

 effectually counteracted these symptoms of 

 restlessness by making a tour of the towns, in 

 all of which he was received with demonstra- 

 tions of loyalty that proved in the eyes of Eu- 

 rope the attachment of the mass of the Bul- 

 garian people to their de facto prince as the 

 embodiment of a stable government and of na- 

 tional independence. 



Cabinet Crii-i.s. In the spring. Major Popoff, 

 who had done more than any one else to de- 

 feat the Russian revolutionary conspiracy in 

 the time of the regency, was arrested, with 

 four other officers, on the charge of malversa- 

 tion of public money. A discrepancy of 7,000 



