BULGARIA. 



had shortly before ordered a commissioner to 

 proceed to Sofia for the purpose of interfering 

 in the administration of the railroads, and de- 

 sisted on receiving representations from the 

 Austrian ambassador and explanations from 

 Vulkovich, the Bulgarian agent. The Russian 

 ambassador endeavored to persuade the Turkish 

 Government to protest against an Anglo-Bulga- 

 rian Commercial Convention. In regard to the 

 Jamboli-Bourgas Railroad, the Russian note 

 claimed that the rights and obligations of the 

 Sublime Porte with respect to the Eastern Rou- 

 melian railroads were maintained in their en- 

 tirety by the Treaty of Berlin, and, further, that 

 its hypothecation 'impaired the security for a 

 debt due to Russia on account of the occupation 

 of Eastern Roumelia. The Bulgarian Cabinet 

 answered that the line in question formed but a 

 small part of the North Bulgarian system affect- 

 ed by the loan ; that the Sultan, in appointing 

 the Prince of Bulgaria Governor - General of 

 Eastern Roumelia, had essentially ceded his 

 rights in that province, and that the sum due 

 on account of the occupation of Bulgaria was 

 ready, and had accumulated in bank since Rus- 

 sia first declined to hold communications with 

 the Bulgarian Government. The Russian Gov- 

 ernment did not longer neglect to claim the 

 money, which was applied to the uses of Russia, 

 notwithstanding the promise that it should never 

 be withdrawn from the country, but should be 

 employed to build up institutions for the benefit 

 of Bulgaria. The powers took no notice of the 

 Russian protest, save Germany, who supported 

 it, and the Turkish Cabinet declined to take any 

 action. The acceptance of the payments of the 

 costs of the Russian occupation was considered 

 an indirect recognition of the legality of Prince 

 Ferdinand's Government, though it was not so 

 interpreted by Russia. 



A new quarrel broke out in February between 

 Bulgaria and Servia. The Servian Government, 

 having instituted a political propaganda in 

 Macedonia, offered to give twenty young Bui- 

 gars from the Turkish provinces a free educa- 

 tion in the College of St. Sava. They accepted 

 the offer, but, when they found that the price 

 they were expected to pay was to deny their 

 nationality, and language "and become 'propa- 

 gandists of the idea that all Macedonia was 

 Servian, nineteen of them applied to Minko- 

 vich, the Bulgarian agent at Belgrade, to send 

 them to Sofia. He complied, and the Servian 

 Government demanded his recall and punish- 

 ment and an official avowal that he had acted 

 improperly, and denounced him to the Porte for 

 illegally issuing Bulgarian passports to Turkish 

 subjects. In spite of this the Bulgarian Gov- 

 ernment expressed its full approval of the course 

 he had taken. The Servian Government showed 

 a determination to break off diplomatic relations, 

 and when it seemed likely that war would result 

 from this trifling incident, the Austro-Hunga- 

 rian agent at Sofia, M. de Burian, vigorously in- 

 terfered to induce Stambuloff to give way and 

 thus escape the trap prepared by Russian in- 

 trigue. Minkovich was recalled and a new 

 agent appointed, without even demanding that 

 Servia should send a regularly accredited diplo- 

 matic agent to Sofia instead of the secretary who 

 was acting as agent. 



The racial jealousy of the Balkan peoples 

 was rekindled, and a fierce controversy between 

 the organs of opinion in Bulgaria, Servia, and 

 Greece was set going by a Machiavelian proceed- 

 ing of the Slav Benevolent Society, presided over 

 by Count Ignatieff, which is the central agency 

 of Panslavistic propaganda. In its annual " Al- 

 manach " it published a map, accompanied with 

 tables, showing that the entire Slav population 

 of Turkey, including the inhabitants of Old 

 Servia, are Bulgarian in language and race. In 

 May, Dr. Vulkovich went to Athens for ihe pur- 

 pose of seeking a confidential understanding as 

 to which parts of Macedonia should be consid- 

 ered Bulgarian and which Hellenic. He found 

 the Greek Government determined to abate none 

 of its extravagant claims to the greater part of 

 Macedonia, which are based on the fact that be- 

 fore the establishment of the Principality of 

 Bulgaria the Christian Slavs of Turkey claimed 

 Greek nationality, in order to enjoy the protec- 

 tion of the Greek consuls. The Roumanian Gov- 

 ernment, which, by fortifying the capital and in- 

 creasing its army, proved that its quarrels with 

 Austria-Hungary do not blind it to the dangers 

 from Russia, concluded in April a convention 

 with the Bulgarian Government to prohibit per- 

 sons reasonably suspected of being political con- 

 spirators from residing in the towns on either 

 bank of the Danube, with the object of prevent- 

 ing refugees and agitators in the pay of the Pan- 

 slavist committees from carrying on their mis- 

 chievous operations in these frontier places. The 

 Austro-Hungarian Government followed the ex- 

 ample of Great Britain in negotiating a com- 

 mercial treaty with the Bulgarian Government 

 without the intervention of the Porte. On the 

 expiration on March 13, 1890, of the treaty of com- 

 merce between France and Turkey, the Bulga- 

 rian Government gave notice that French mer- 

 chandise would be subject to the general tariff 

 unless the French Government would enter into 

 a separate commercial convention with Bulgaria. 

 This the French Cabinet hesitated to do for fear 

 of offending Russia. 



The Panitza Conspiracy. The Bulgarian 

 peasants, who formerly lived under the delusion 

 that the rule of the 'Osmanli was the cause of 

 every ill and that the tax collector was a specif- 

 ically Turkish institution, when they discovered 

 that under their National Government the taxes 

 were higher and more rigorously collected, and 

 that in addition there was the military service that 

 took away the young men when they were needed 

 in the fields, listened readily to native and inter- 

 national agitators who sought to persuade them 

 that the public funds were wasted in the luxu- 

 ries of the court and embezzled by the ministers, 

 that Prince Alexander's only object in coming 

 to Bulgaria was to acquire a fortune, and that 

 the country would never thrive except under an 

 orthodox ruler and in the enjoyment of the pro- 

 tection and bounty of the Czar. When the Bat- 

 tenberg prince showed a determination to frus- 

 trate Muscovite plans, there gathered about the 

 Russian consulates and legations in the Orient a 

 swarm of malcontents of every kind disap- 

 pointed office-seekers, superstitious priests, and 

 mercenary adventurers the success of whose ef- 

 forts to overthrow the throne of the " German " 

 was only delayed by the brilliant victories of the 



