BULGARIA. 



101 



Roumelia, and signed the protocol of April 5, 

 1886. Russian agents then renewed their 

 efforts to upset the Battenberg prince in Bul- 

 garia, and his cousin, the Czar, repelled every 

 proposal for a reconciliation. 



The Turkish Agreement. Gadban Effendi, the 

 Turkish commissioner to Bulgaria, convinced 

 himself that the personal union of the two Bul- 

 garias was inevitable, and returned to Constanti- 

 nople bearing proposals from Prince Alexander. 

 The prince asked to be appointed Governor of 

 Eastern Roumelia for the statutory term of five 

 years, and proposed that the Bulgarian So- 

 branje and the Roumelian Assembly should 

 continue to legislate independently for the 

 state and the province, but should appoint 

 delegations to consider common affairs; that 

 Bulgarian officers might serve in the Roume- 

 lian army, and Roumeliote officers, with the 

 consent of the Porte, in the Bulgarian army, 

 while appointments of generals to commands 

 in Eastern Roumelia should be subject to the 

 approval of the Porte ; and that the question 

 of the tribute should be determined by a finan- 

 sial commission. Gadban Effendi returned to 

 Prince Alexander on Jan. 11, with the assur- 

 ance that the Porte would sanction the union, 

 provided it could be accomplished without im- 

 pairing the sovereign rights of the Sultan. An 

 agreement was concluded between the Porte 

 and Prince Alexander by the end of January. 

 It included a defensive alliance between Turkey 

 and Bulgaria, and provided that the Governor- 

 General of Eastern Roumelia should receive his 

 appointment for the first period of five years, 

 subject to the approval of the signatory powers, 

 but that for future terms the nomination of 

 the Porte should be sufficient. 



Conference of the Powers. A diplomatic con- 

 ference was held at Constantinople for the 

 purpose of taking action upon the separate 

 agreement arrived at between the Porte and 

 Prince Alexander. This Turco-Bulgarian agree- 

 ment was approved without reserve by Great 

 Britain, France, and Italy on Feb. 4 ; but Aus- 

 tria and Germany withheld their answer in 

 order to consult with Russia and with each 

 other. The Russian Cabinet objected strongly 

 to the provision promising the assistance of 

 the Bulgarian army in case the dominions of 

 the Sultan should be attacked by a foreign 

 power. Upon Russia's persisting to oppose 

 the union, a definite counter-proposition was 

 demanded of her, while Great Britain expressed 

 a desire to come to an agreement with the St. 

 Petersburg Cabinet and accept modifications 

 not incompatible with the main principle of a 

 personal union. Russia would have accepted 

 the Bulgarian arrangement with Turkey if it 

 had provided for a union of Bulgaria and East- 

 ern Roumelia under the Prince of Bulgaria, 

 without designating Prince Alexander. The 

 Russian Government at first objected to the 

 limitation of the term of the governor-general- 

 ship of Eastern Roumelia to five years. After- 

 ward, when England, Austria, and Italy had 



repeated their recommendation to make the 

 Prince of Bulgaria Stadtholder of Eastern Rou- 

 melia without limit of time, and when Ger- 

 many had expressed approval of the principle, 

 the representative of the Czar changed about, 

 at the time of the conclusion of peace with 

 Servia, and proposed that the governor-gen- 

 eralship should be for five years, and that a 

 renomination should proceed from the Porte, 

 and receive the approval of all the powers. 

 This proposal was accepted at once by all the 

 powers, though France raised an objection to 

 the immediate approval of the Turkish agree- 

 ment on the ground that the inclusion of 

 Eastern Roumelia in the Bulgarian customs 

 district would be prejudicial to French, com- 

 mercial interests. The Turco-Bulgarian nego- 

 tiations had reached their final stage and the 

 treaty was ready for the signature on March 8, 

 when Prince Alexander created a difficulty by 

 refusing in advance to accept the governorship 

 of Eastern Roumelia if it were offered to him 

 only for the term of five years. A few days 

 later he recalled Zanow, his plenipotentiary, 

 from Constantinople, and expressed his will- 

 ingness to accede to the limitation of five years, 

 provided the renomination for a further term 

 of five years should come from the Porte, but 

 not if it were made dependent on an agree- 

 ment of the Great Powers, thus enabling Rus- 

 sia or any other of the powers at the end of 

 every five years to defeat or place new condi- 

 tions on the continued union of the two Bul- 

 garias. In a note to the Porte, dated March 

 30, he renewed his protest, and Italy was dis- 

 posed to support his view. Yet, in order to 

 bring the Balkan complications at length to a 

 peaceful issue, the western powers accepted 

 the Russian proposals, and signed a protocol 

 of the modified agreement on April 5. The 

 Bulgarian prince accepted the conclusions of 

 the conference, with a reservation as to the 

 point to which he had objected. 



The Armistice. During an exchange of views 

 between the powers the Russian Government 

 issued a circular note in favor of insisting on 

 the immediate and complete disarmament of 

 Bulgaria and Servia. The powers accepted 

 this suggestion, and concluded to include Greece 

 in the proposal. They accordingly made a joint 

 proposal that the three Governments should 

 agree on a simultaneous partial demobilization 

 in a collective note, presented Jan. 12. The 

 Bulgarian and Roumelian reserves had already 

 been sent home on furlough till the 1st of 

 March ; but the Servian Government had just 

 issued a decree recalling the reserves, and was 

 providing itself with new batteries of Bunge 

 cannon, and seeking to raise another war loan. 

 The officers and official press spread the opin- 

 ion in the country that Servia had not been 

 beaten in the war, notwithstanding the de- 

 cision as military experts of the international 

 commissioners for the armistice. The Bel- 

 grade Government still insisted on the restora- 

 tion of the status quo ante in Roumelia, and 



