AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



51 



2,765 miles were operated by the Government. 

 In 1885-'86 12,885,000 florins were appro- 

 priated for the construction of new lines in 

 Austria. 



The telegraph system of Austria in 1885 com- 

 prised 24,212 miles of lines and 62,447 miles of 

 wires; that of Hungary, 10,872 miles of lines 

 and 40,1 72 miles of wires. In Bosnia and Herze- 

 govina there were 1,730 miles of lines. The 

 number of dispatches in Austria in 1885 was 

 6,701,899, and in Hungary 3,636,830. 



The Post-Office. The Austrian post-office in 

 1885 transmitted 383,118,000 letters and postal- 

 cards, 86,604,400 newspapers, 53,389,000 cir- 

 culars and patterns, and 35,362,200 packages 

 of goods. The receipts in 1884 were 20,020,- 

 730, and the expenses 16,473,730 florins. The 

 extent of the postal traffic in Hungary was 

 120,651,740 letters and cards, 47,031,320 jour- 

 nals, 15,721,814 circulars, etc., and 10,502,302 

 parcels. The receipts of the Hungarian post- 

 office in 1884 were 8,801,264, and the expenses 

 7,215,917 florins. 



Shipping and Navigation. The Austro-Hunga- 

 rian merchant-marine in 1886 numbered 61 

 steamers of 69,452 tons, in the foreign trade ; 

 82 coasting steamers, of 14,491 tons; and 9,225 

 sailing-vessels of all descriptions, of which the 

 tonnage was 228,044. In 1884 there were 62,- 

 112 vessels, of 7,478,522 tons, entered; and 

 61,998 vessels, of 7,481,690 tons, cleared at 

 Austro-Hungarian ports. Of the tonnage, 87 

 per cent, was Austrian. 



The Occupied Provinces. The provinces of 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina were occupied by 

 Austria-Hungary under the provisions of tlie 

 treaty of Berlin, and have since been admin- 

 istered by imperial civil officials. The same 

 instrument stipulated that the Austrian mili- 

 tary should occupy the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar, 

 but that the civil administration should con- 

 tinue to be Turkish. Bosnia has an area of 

 16,200 square mile:?, and contained 187,574 in- 

 habitants in 1885. The area of Herzegovina 

 is 3,540 square miles, and the population in 

 1885 was 1,148,517. Novi-Bazar, with an area 

 of 3,522 square miles, had 168,000 inhabitants 

 in 1879. The revenue of the occupied provinces 

 for 1887 was estimated in the budget at 8,977,- 

 390, and the expenditure at 8,920,616 florins. 

 The cost of the army of occupation was esti- 

 mated at 5,119,000 florins. 



Secret Treaty with Rnssia. In April, 1887, the 

 German Government, through the semi-official 

 press, revealed the existence of a secret treaty in 

 which Russia agreed to an annexation of Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina, as the price of Austrian neu- 

 trality, long before the Russo-Turkish war. 

 The disclosure, which was intended to refute 

 complaints of Russian journals that Germany 

 had supported Austrian policy in antagonism 

 to Russia, was embarrassing to Austro-Hunga- 

 rian statesmen, and especially so to Tisza, the 

 Hungarian Premier, who resigned when the oc- 

 cupation of the provinces was resolved upon by 

 the Imperial Government, because his country- 



men, whose sympathies were with the Turks 

 during the war, considered it a betrayal of 

 Turkey. He withdrew his resignation, and ob- 

 tained from Parliament the supplies for the oc- 

 cupation, but it was by representing Austria- 

 Hungary's action as necessitated by the situation 

 resulting from the war. The secret treaty was 

 negotiated in 1876 during the meeting of the 

 Austrian and Russian Emperors at Reichstadt, 

 and was signed at Vienna on Jan. 15, 1877. 

 When the Russian troops entered Bulgaria 

 Count Andrassy did not proceed to the occu- 

 pation of the provinces, and is said to have 

 been driven from office by the pro-Russian 

 party at court because he would not act in 

 concert with Russia, and thus failed to obtain 

 the absolute possession of the promised ter- 

 ritory. The occupation finally took place by 

 an arrangement arrived at after the cession of 

 Cyprus to Great Britain, which Russia was 

 precluded by the previous secret understand- 

 ing from opposing. The Russian delegate at 

 Berlin therefore acquiesced in the proposal 

 of Great Britain to intrust Austria-Hungary 

 with the pacification and administration of 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina. M. Tisza, in an ex- 

 planation to the Chamber on May 21, 1887, 

 defended his statements made at the time by 

 explaining that the conditions of the secret 

 treaty were never fulfilled, and that the occu- 

 pation was undertaken in obedience to the 

 European mandate. 



The insgleich. A new ten-year treaty be- 

 tween the two states composing the empire 

 was finally settled in May, 1887. The negotia- 

 tions occupied an entire year, and on several 

 occasions came to a stand- still. The difficul- 

 ties which threatened to prevent a continuance 

 of the customs league were not solved, but 

 were simply waived or compromised for the 

 sake of averting the external and internal dan- 

 gers that would result from a breech of the fiscal 

 union. Count Szapary broke off the negotiations 

 in March, and refused to agree to a new basis 

 suggested by M. Tisza, but in the Cabinet crisis 

 that ensued was forced to resign his post as 

 Hungarian Minister of Finances, and allow the 

 Premier to conclude the arrangements. The 

 Hungarians were desirous of formally incor- 

 porating in their kingdom the small strip of 

 territory called the Militargrenze, which is an 

 integral part of Hungary, but is included in the 

 old military boundaries of Austria. They as- 

 sumed the share of this territory in the com- 

 mon expenditures, but, failing to obtain certain 

 concessions, would not agree to a new appor- 

 tionment of the burden which presses unequally 

 on Austria, whose share in the common ex- 

 penses for the ten years' period beginning Jan. 

 1, 1888, will be 68f per cent., while Hungary 

 pays only 31 per cent. 



Treaty Negotiations with Ronmania. There was 

 a conference at Bucharest for the negotiation 

 of a new commercial treaty with Roumnnia in 

 March, 1887, but it led no nearer to a conclu- 

 sion than the previous negotiations. The Rou- 



