TURKEY. 



637 



great, but undeveloped. The Asiatic provinces 

 annually produce about 15,000 tons of chrome, 

 20,000 tons of silver lead, 5,000 tons of zinc, 200 

 tons o^ antimony, and 1,500 tons of copper ore, 

 400,000 tons of coal and lignite, 18,000 tons of 

 borax, and 150 tons of meerschaum, and in the 

 province of Salonica 45,000 tons of manganese ore 

 are mined. A duty of from 5 to 15 per cent, is 

 levied on exports of minerals, and by a recent 

 decree foreigners are not allowed to own and oper- 

 ate mines. The fish taken in the Bosporus, valued 

 at T. 250,000 a year, and the sponges of the 

 Mediterranean, the mother-of-pearl of the Red 

 Sea, and the pearls of the Persian Gulf are val- 

 uable resources. Among the manufactures of 

 Turkey are turned-brass and hammered-copper 

 utensils, silk and cotton dress stuffs, embroid- 

 eries, rugs, and ornamental work in wood, metals, 

 and other materials. 



The export of salt in 1900 was 35,223,513 

 kilograms, against 39,478,668 kilograms in 1899; 

 of wine, 12,761,130 liters, against 7,397,360 liters; 

 of spirits, 211,787 liters, against 151,730 liters. 



Railroads and Telegraphs. There were 2,953 

 miles of railroads in the Turkish Empire in the 

 beginning of 1900, of which 1,240 miles were in 

 Europe and 1,713 in Asia, the latter figure in- 

 cluding the still unfinished line from Acre to 

 Damascus. A line from Damascus to Mecca was 

 being built and one from Konieh to Bagdad and 

 Basra was contracted for, being the continuation 

 of the Anatolian Railroad built by a German 

 company. The gross receipts of the railroads in 

 1899 amounted to 1,303,094. 



The length of telegraph-lines in the Ottoman 

 Empire is approximately 22,400 miles, with 39,600 

 miles of wire. 



Macedonian Agitation. The Bulgarian revo- 

 lutionary agitators were unusually active in 

 Macedonia in the spring of 1901. In February 

 the Russian ambassador called the attention of 

 the Porte to the situation and pointed out the 

 necessity of taking efficacious measures for the 

 punishment of the guilty and for the protection 

 of the peaceably disposed. The British, French, 

 and Italian ambassadors gave similar advice. 

 Turkish troops were massed in the European 

 provinces to guard against an uprising and to 

 suppress disorders. The Bulgarian Government 

 was warned by the powers against countenancing 

 the agitation. A national Albanian movement, 

 encouraged by Albanians in Italy, was called 

 forth by the spread of the Macedonian agitation, 

 by the Pan-Servian agitation which this occa- 

 sioned, the aim of which is to unite Servia, Mon- 

 tenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Old Servia un- 

 der one scepter, and by the project of an Austrian 

 railroad through the sanjak of Novi Bazar, 

 threatening eventually to establish the political 

 domination of Austria over Albania, a scheme 

 which touched the susceptibilities of Italy as well 

 as the patriotic aspirations of the Albanians. The 

 Arnauts in Old Servia have gradually acquired 

 the best of the land, and the Slavs have become 

 laborers. The Bulgarian committees extended 

 their operations into Monastir and collected forced 

 contributions from Greeks and others. Austrian 

 influence in Albania has long been pursued among 

 the Catholic Ghegs by the Jesuits and Francis- 

 cans, and the Austrians were stronger in Albania 

 itself than the Italians, whose propaganda was 

 spread by laymen; but the large Albanian colony 

 settled in southern Italy exercised a powerful in- 

 fluence in favor of Italy. More recently Italian 

 schools have been erected and Italian priests set- 

 tled among the Catholic Albanians. The Turkish 

 military and police authorities arrested and im- 



prisoned many persons in Uskub and other places 

 who were suspected of belong! nj to the Bulgarian 

 revolutionary party. The 'I urkish soldiers, whose 

 pay was in arrears, committed excesses. In April 

 19 prominent Bulgarian citi/ens .,j S.Uonica arid 

 150 persons arrested in other parts ol' the prov- 

 ince were tried in that city. The evidence 

 showed that 6 revolutionary bands were active, 

 and during the preceding month about jr> more 

 had been formed, each consisting ot from 12 to 

 15 men. The trial resulted in the sentence of :>> 

 of the accused to death, of 7 to life imprisonment, 

 and of several to imprisonment for long terms. 

 Servians as well as Bulgarians were arrested, but. 

 no Greeks. The Greeks helped the authorities to 

 detect the agitators. In Monastir a Bulgarian 

 pope who had joined the Greek Church was mur- 

 dered by revolutionists. The Macedonian commit- 

 tee of action gave authority to the bands, whose 

 leaders alone had any knowledge of the central 

 committee, to punish informers and renegades 

 with death. Special commissioners of the Turkish 

 Government discovered that some of the officials 

 of Salonica and other vilayets had been receiv- 

 ing money for the release of wealthy Bulgarians 

 who had been arrested. The Turkish troops on 

 the Bulgarian frontier stopped revolutionary 

 bands that endeavored to enter into Turkey, and 

 several sanguinary encounters took place. The 

 Servian frontier was disturbed by conflicts that 

 occurred between Arnauts and Servians. The 

 Servian Government protested at Constantinople 

 against the violation of its territory by Turkish 

 Arnauts. The Albanian aspirations were put for- 

 ward by committees of Albanians living abroad, 

 not only in Italian cities, but in Bucharest, 

 Athens, and Brussels. The Albanian chiefs united 

 in a petition to the Sultan for substantial au- 

 tonomy. They desired that a governor of Alba- 

 nian nationality should be appointed and that the 

 Albanian language should be used in religious 

 services and in the schools. When these demands 

 were first presented in 1898 they were peremp- 

 torily refused and the Porte threatened to send 

 troops into Albania to uphold and enforce the 

 Sultan's supremacy in case of further insistence. 

 In July the Servian Government appealed to the 

 foreign embassies in Constantinople. Albanian 

 bands had raided several villages over the border 

 as well as in Old Servia. In Prisrend churches 

 were pillaged. At Kolashin, in the district of 

 Mitrovitza, gendarmes and Arnauts on the pretext 

 of searching for arms killed 3 Servians, attacked 

 several villages, and threatened to expel the bish- 

 op and the Servian consul. The Russian ambas- 

 sador demanded the cessation of domiciliary visits 

 and the release of the arrested Servians. Turkish 

 troops sent into Albania had several encounters 

 with the Albanians. Both Austrian and Italian 

 war-vessels were despatched to Albanian ports on 

 the Adriatic. 



The Albanians continued their raids on the 

 Christian villages of Kossovo and Monastir, and 

 1,000 Turkish Serbs sought refuge in Servia. The 

 Servian Government demanded the dismissal of 

 the Turkish officials who had encouraged the out- 

 rages at Kolashin and other places. In Albania 

 the Turkish troops plundered villages, and the 

 judges and police refused to continue their func- 

 tions unless they received their pay. Through- 

 out Macedonia the Turkish soldiery, receiving 

 from the Government neither pay nor rations, 

 took what food they needed from the villages. 

 Central Albania lapsed into a state of anarchy. 

 On the repeated demands of the Russian am- 

 bassador the Porte removed, in September, the 

 Mutasserif of Prishtina and other officials of 



