BULGARIA. 



115 



contractors for a line from Sofia to Rustchuk, 

 relying on Russian influence over the new 

 principality to postpone indefinitely the con- 

 struction of the line from Vakarel to Zaribrod 

 enjoined by the Treaty of Berlin. The Bulgarian 

 ministers steadfastly resisted the Russian de- 

 mand, which was renewed and urged in many 

 forms, and thus began the friction between 

 i and Bulgaria. Russian influences at 

 Sofia and Constantinople were strong enough, 

 however, to delay the meeting of the ' 

 rence d Quatre, which was announced for the 

 early months of 1881, until 1883, and when 

 the convention was finally drawn up the Bul- 

 garian delegates were deterred from signing it 

 until the Russian clique at Sofia concluded 

 that further opposition was useless. Then a 

 scheme to obtain the contract for Russian en- 

 gineers was tried, but Karaveloff outwitted 

 Kojander, the Russian diplomatic agent, and 

 secured it for a Bulgarian syndicate. The 

 coolness that arose on this account between 

 the Russian representative and the Bulgarian 

 Prime Minister, who was refused admittance 

 to the Russian agency, excited the resentment 

 of the latter, and brought him into the con- 

 dition of mind to prepare the revolution in 

 Eastern Roumelia in the following year, which 

 led to the complete estrangement of Russia. 



By the convention concluded at the ' 

 rence d Quatre,\a. 1883, Austria, Bulgaria, Ser- 

 via, and Turkey agreed among themselves to 

 build railroads connecting the European sys- 

 tem with Constantinople and Salonica. The 

 two lines were to be completed and opened 

 for traffic in the summer of 1886. Austria 

 built the section from Budapesth to Belgrade 

 and opened it in September, 1884. Servia 

 plunged into debt in order to fulfill her part 

 promptly, and had the roads running south- 

 ward to the Turkish frontier and eastward to 

 the Bulgarian frontier ready for operation be- 

 fore Bulgaria and Turkey had fairly begun 

 their continuations. Bulgaria was the slowest 

 in performing her part of the engagement, and 

 aroused the anger of the Servians, who were 

 the readier on this account to begin the cam- 

 paign against Bulgaria that placed it out of her 

 power to complete her section of the Constan- 

 tinople line within the time set. Turkey was 

 cot much behind Bulgaria in finishing the 

 junction lines. The Salonica railroad was 

 joined to the Servian branch from Belgrade in 

 yet could not be opened under the pro- 

 vision of the convention before the route to 

 Constantinople. It was, however, officially 

 opened on May 18. The passage from Vienna 

 to Salonica takes thirty-five hours. 



The Bulgarian section has been built with do- 

 mestic capital and native labor at the low cost, 

 for a mountain railroad, of 200,000 francs per 

 mile. The total cost, amounting to 17,000,000 

 francs, inclusive of rolling-stock, has been de- 

 frayed from the ordinary revenues of the prin- 

 cipality. 3,500,000 francs beins still due to the 

 contractors. The length is 114 kilometres, or 



72 miles. The road was ready to go into op- 

 eration in July. From Vakarel to Bellova the 

 line had already been built by the Societe" des 

 Raccordements, and was the property of the 

 Porte, subject to a mortgage to the construc- 

 tion company. By the terms of the original 

 contract the Porte was under obligations to 

 give the working of both the Macedonian line 

 and the Bulgarian junction road to the Societe 

 d'Exploitation des Chemins de Fer Orientaux, 

 but it had long before quarreled with Baron 

 Hirsch, and would have no further dealings 

 with his company. It offered the contract for 

 the Bellova road to the Societe, which, possess- 

 ing no rolling-stock, sublet it to the contract- 

 or working the Servian railroads. The Bul- 

 garian Government applied for permission to 

 operate the junction line, and received no re- 

 ply, as Russian influences were predominant 

 in Constantinople. The Turkish Government 

 also refused to conclude a postal convention in 

 regard to Eastern Ronmelian letters until Bul- 

 garia threatened to use the Austrian post-office 

 in Constantinople, and on July 12 the Turkish 

 authorities consented to accept them when 

 bearing Bulgarian stamps. 



The Bulgarian railroad was opened with fes- 

 tivities on the 12th of August, and the first 

 through train that passed over the internation- 

 al route entered Constantinople on the morn- 

 ing of the 14th. The trip from Vienna to Con- 

 stantinople takes less than forty-eight hours. 

 The Bulgarian line had been open for internal 

 traffic from July 5. 



Brteandasre. the Bulgarian Government had 

 a serious grievance against the Turkish authori- 

 ties in the fact of their supineness in regard 

 to the operations of Macedonian brigands who 

 made incursions into Bulgaria from the Balkan 

 mountains, and when safe on Turkish soil again 

 made no pretense of concealing themselves or 

 their business, but openly established their ar- 

 senals in the villages. On July 8, a band of fif- 

 ty brigands from the Rhodope descended on 

 Bellova, and carried off two railroad officials, 

 Austrian citizens named Landler and Binderby. 

 They gave notice that their prisoners would be 

 released on the payment of a ransom of 3,300 

 Turkish pounds into the hands of a Greek 

 named Illiopulos, the consular agent of his Gov- 

 ernment at Tatar-Bazardjik. The diplomatic 

 agents of England, Austria, Italy. Servia, and 

 Roumania demanded of Stambuloff that he 

 should take steps to secure the release of the 

 captives, which he finally accomplished at the 

 end of five weeks by the payment of the stipu- 

 lated ransom. Other acts of brigandage led to 

 fresh representations. Sometimes the robbers 

 assumed the character of partisans of Russia, 

 whose object was to drive Prince Ferdinand 

 from the throne. Their bands were composed 

 of Macedonians, Montenegrins, and Bulgarian 

 refugees. Their chief lurking-place was in the 

 Rhodope mountains. The Bulgarian Govern- 

 ment redoubled its efforts to repress the evil, 

 and through its remonstrances obtained the co 



