BULGARIA. 



109 



popolis, on the 24th, he proceeded to the Turk- 

 ish frontier, where the Roumeliotes had estab- 

 lished a line of fortified camps. Armed bands 

 of Bulgarians and Servians who prepared to 

 invade Macedonia were ordered to return to 

 their homes. Stringent measures were taken 

 to suppress a Servian agitation, and the jails 

 and fortresses were filled with imprisoned Ser- 

 vians. On Oct. 2d Bulgarian troops occupied 

 the port of Boorghas, on the Black Sea, and 

 sank torpedoes in the harbor. 



Prince Alexander addressed an autograph 

 letter to the Czar and to the Emperor of Aus- 

 tria, in which he assured them that he was sur- 

 prised by the events in Eastern Roumelia, and 

 had felt impelled to sanction with his name 

 what others had accomplished. The Czar an- 

 swered, through M. Kojander, that, without 

 doubting the word of the Prince, he regretted 

 the adventurous policy upon which the latter 

 had embarked, and that the Russian Govern- 

 ment would take measures to prevent the re- 

 currence of such surprises. 



Servian Action. King Milan hastened to Vi- 

 enna and declared that he dared not remain 

 inactive, that his people would rise against him 

 if he folded his arms and allowed others to 

 seize Macedonia. He insisted upon a new 

 equilibrium being established in the Balkans if 

 the Bulgarian union were suffered to remain. 

 Orders were issued for the mobilization of the 

 Servian army. The Austrian ministers warned 

 him against precipitate action, and declared 

 that the powers would restore any territory he 

 might seize ; but they promised that, if the 

 aggrandizement of Bulgaria should be sanc- 

 tioned, Servia would not be permitted to suffer, 

 but would be given compensation. By the 

 order of Sept. 22 the first ban of 60,000 

 troops was mobilized. The Skuptschina was 

 convoked to a special session. The liberty of 

 the press was curtailed. At a meeting of the 

 leaders of all parties in Belgrade it was re- 

 solved to defend by force of arms, if neces- 

 sary, Servia's claim to northern Macedonia, the 

 still Turkish portion of the old empire of Ser- 

 via that had its capital at Novi-Bazar. An 

 agreement was entered into by the sovereigns 

 of Servia, Greece, and Roumania not to per- 

 mit Macedonia to pass into the possession of 

 Bulgaria in any case. 



The Skuptschina was opened by King Mi- 

 lan on Oct. 1 in*a speech declaring that the 

 security of the Balkan states had received a 

 shock, and that measures to preserve the in- 

 terests of Servia would be presented for a 

 speedy decision. The sittings were secret. The 

 Skuptschina separated on the 4th, after adopt- 

 ing all the measures proposed by the Govern- 

 ment. One was for a war loan obtained by 

 pledging the tobacco monopoly, and subse- 

 quently increased to 25,000,000 francs. An- 

 other was the immediate extension of the rail- 

 road to the Turkish frontier. 



Servian aspirations were directed at first ex- 

 clusively toward Old Servia. The chief fear 



of the Servians was lest Bulgaria, strengthened 

 by the addition of 50 per cent, to her territory 

 and population, and thus overshadowing Ser- 

 via in power and importance, w,ould at some 

 future time annex Macedonia and the Vardar 

 valley, and, by shutting Servia off from the 

 ^Egean Sea, doom her to a state of dependence 

 and decline. The population of Macedonia is 

 in race more Bulgarian than Servian. In the 

 south the sympathies of the Slavic and Greek 

 population were with the Porte rather than 

 with any of the three aspiring Christian states. 

 Servia's aim was not so much the acquisition 

 of the "holy places " of her past glories, as ot 

 the strategic command of Salonica, conferred 

 by the possession of the mountains south of 

 Prisrend. Compensation in the form of the 

 cession by Bulgaria of the district of Widdin or 

 of part of the Sandjak of Sofia, districts which 

 Servia claimed in 1878 and on account of which 

 animosity toward Bulgaria has been evinced 

 recently, was deemed inadequate and unsatis- 

 factory at this stage of the Servian ferment. 



By the 3d of October the last ten annual 

 classes of the army were under arms, repre- 

 sented on the rolls by 53,000 troops. The 

 Government possessed 100,000 stands of the 

 new infantry arm a modification of the Mau- 

 ser rifle. The last three classes only were 

 trained in its use. The military preparations 

 were completed by the middle of October, and 

 the army was at Nish ready for action. 



If the veto of Austria restrained the Ser- 

 vians from breaking into Old Servia in the first 

 flush of patriotic excitement, the presence of 

 an army of Turkish veterans in Uskub was 

 an equally potent restraining cause later. The 

 warlike ardor of the Serbs was the more in- 

 flamed against the Bulgarians, who, without 

 the long struggle and the heavy sacrifices of 

 the Servian nation, but by a series of lucky 

 accidents, capped by the hardy impertinence of 

 trampling under foot the treaty that was the 

 charter of their national independence, to re- 

 spect which Servia had stifled her aspirations, 

 now threatened, not only to wrest from Servia 

 her hard- won prestige, but to doom her na- 

 tional life to slow suffocation and final extinc- 

 tion. While the ambassadors were consulting 

 in Constantinople and seemed likely to ignore 

 the 'Servian demand for compensation, which 

 was advocated by the Austrian representative, 

 King Milan issued a circular note in which he 

 declared that he could not restrain the martial 

 impulses of his people, and that he must either 

 go to war or lay down his crown. This an- 

 nouncement was followed by the breaking up 

 of the camp at Nish and a simultaneous ad- 

 vance in the direction of Bulgaria and Old 

 Servia. One army marched toward Pirot un- 

 der the personal command of the King; the 

 other concentrated at Leskovatz. 



Greek Preparations. In Greece the same 

 ground was taken as in Servia with regard to 

 the accession of territory for the purpose of bal- 

 ancing the addition to Bulgaria and of restor- 



