TURKEY. 



795 



been met by Messrs. Merlin and Blunt, two 

 British consuls, who had conferred with them 

 on the terms of pacification. The insurgents 

 presented their proposals to the Porte, through 

 the consuls. They demanded a general amnes- 

 ty and mutual disarmament. The Turkish ir- 

 regular troops, Gegs and Arnauts from Alba- 

 nia, and Zeibeks from Asia, who had perpe- 

 trated terrible outrages, were to be removed 

 from the provinces, and the Greek volunteers 

 were to be conveyed home in British men-of- 

 war. 



A serious political riot took place in Con- 

 stantinople on May 20th, led by a fanatical 

 Softa named Ali Suavi. On that day he went 

 with about 100 armed men to the Tcheragan 

 Palace, where ex-Sultan Murad was confined, 

 and demanded to see him. The crowd persist- 

 ing after being refused admittance, the ring- 

 leader, Ali Suavi, was shot by one of the sen- 

 tries on duty, and the mob then dispersed. 



In the latter part of May the Sultan appoint- 

 ed Mahmoud Damad Pasha Minister of War. 

 As this appointment was made without the 

 consent of Sadyk Pasha, the Prime Minister, 

 the latter resigned. The Sultan then appoint- 

 ed Mehemet Rushdi Pasha as his successor, 

 and at the same time restored the office of 

 Grand Vizier. Mehemet Rushdi did not, how- 

 ever, hold office over a week. On June 4th 

 Savfet Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier in 

 his place, while Mustapha Pasha succeeded Mah- 

 moud Damad Pasha as Minister of War. These 

 changes were made necessary by the prevailing 

 dissatisfaction with Mahmoud Damad Pasha, 

 while Mehemet Rushdi, who felt himself una- 

 ble to cope with the impending questions, coun- 

 seled the recall of Midhat Pasha. This, how- 

 ever, the Sultan declined to do, and instead 

 called Savfet Pasha to the head of affairs an 

 appointment which gave general satisfaction. 

 As the attempts to pacify the insurgents in the 

 Rhodope Mountains did not succeed, the Rus- 

 sians began operations against them from two 

 directions. On May 27th they marched in five 

 columns by a simultaneous movement from the 

 east and the south against the insurgent posi- 

 tions in the Upper Arda Valley, but only the col- 

 umn which set out from Yenidshei in the south 

 was successful in dislodging the insurgents from 

 their position at Memkova, in the Sultan Yeri 

 district. At other points the insurgents not 

 only kept their positions, but inflicted severe 

 loss on the Russians, pursuing them in some 

 instances. On the west and north hostile prep- 

 arations were also being made. With this in 

 view the Servian troops were concentrated to 

 act in the direction of Sophia, primarily to cut 

 the communications of the insurgents in the 

 Rhodope Mountains to the west with Macedo- 

 nia, and were pushed forward to Radomir and 

 Dubnitza on the road to Kustendil and Uskub. 

 The condition of the country was represented 

 by all authorities as truly horrible, although 

 they differed as to the causes. On July 

 8th Mr. Fawcett, the British Consul- General, 



returned to Constantinople from Lagos, and 

 brought with him a report of the intense suf- 

 ferings of the refugees and population in the 

 districts south of the Rhodope Mountains. The 

 supplies Mr. Fawcett took with him were only 

 a drop in the ocean of starvation and misery 

 prevailing in that region. In one instance the 

 Kaimakan sold for his own benefit the corn 

 intended for the relief of the poor. Mr. Faw- 

 cett's report proceeded to enumerate the hor- 

 rors perpetrated by the Bulgarians and Cos- 

 sacks, and sometimes even by the regular Rus- 

 sian soldiers, upon the defenseless popula- 

 tion. The evident design of these malefactors 

 seemed to be the extermination or utter dis- 

 persion of the Mussulmans and of Christians 

 favorable to them. In the Domodea district 

 alone fifty-three villages were plundered and 

 burnt by Russian and Bulgarian troops within 

 two months. Twenty-three villages were equal- 

 ly laid waste and burnt in the district of Has- 

 kiev, and in the Philippopoli district twelve 

 villages were burnt. In numerous villages 

 named in the report there had been wanton 

 destruction attended by deeds of unheard-of 

 barbarity. The cases of men and women de- 

 liberately burnt alive were frequent ; in one 

 instance an old woman was thrown alive into 

 a burning house. Violation of the young was 

 very frequent. The report spoke of a girl who 

 was tied. to the ground, hands and feet, and 

 subjected to outrages till she died under their 

 infliction. 



Immediately upon the signing of the treaty 

 of Berlin (see EASTERN QUESTION), the Austro- 

 Hungarian Government opened negotiations 

 with the Porte for the occupation of Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina, as provided for in that treaty. 

 The Turks were at first disposed to put serious 

 obstacles in the way of the Austrians, and 

 made some conditions which the latter declared 

 to be unacceptable, as fixing the time of occu- 

 pation at six months, having a Turkish Com- 

 missioner in Bosnia, demanding a guarantee 

 against any attack from Servia and Montene- 

 gro, and that all Turkish officials should be 

 kept in their places. On July 29th the Austrian 

 troops which had during the negotiations been 

 massed on the frontier, crossed into Turkey. 

 Asa preliminary to the occupation, the Aus- 

 trian Government issued a proclamation to the 

 population stating that the Austrian troops 

 came as friends to restore peace and prosperi- 

 ty to the country. The proclamation stated that 

 all would be protected, none oppressed. Es- 

 tablished customs and institutions would be 

 respected, the revenue would be applied solely 

 to the wants of the country, and the arrears 

 of taxes for the past year would not be col- 

 lected. Early on the morning of Monday, the 

 29th, the Austrian troops crossed the Save at 

 Gradiska, the Turkish garrison of that place 

 retiring on their approach. The main body of 

 the troops crossed the Bosnian frontier on the 

 following day. General Philippovitch, the Aus- 

 trian commander - in - chief, entered Turkish 



