790 



SEIIVIA. 



with 4,930 kilometres of wires. The dispatches 

 sent during the year numbered 496,088, of which 

 840,082 were paid internal and 139.973 interna- 

 tional, 13,673 were transit dispatches, and 2,380 

 were connected with the service. In 1889 the 

 post-office forwarded 4.021,000 domestic and 

 2,935,000 international letters. 



Expulsion of Queen Natalie. In January, 

 1891, M. Ristich renewed the offer made in the 

 name of the regency and the Cabinet in July/ 

 18S9, by Col. Gruich, which was that the Queen 

 should reside abroad, but that she should pay 

 two or three visits annually to her son as his 

 guest in the palace, and when in Belgrade should 

 be treated with royal honors. This compro- 

 mise, though it virtually recognized the invalidity 

 of her divorce, was not satisfactory to her, and 

 was still less acceptable to King Milan,- who en- 

 tered a strong protest. M. Ristich, in a letter 

 replying to Natalie's complaints, accused her of 

 unscrupulous ambition and of conduct toward 

 her husband such as a daughter of M. Kechko 

 ought not to have followed toward an Obreno- 

 vieh who had raised her to the Servian throne. 

 An agitation against the Queen was started 

 among the Radicals, who represented her as 

 striving to usurp the Government. She returned 

 M. Ristich's letter, and wrote that her self-re- 

 spect would not allow her to hold any further 

 relations with the regency or the Government. 

 In the course of the controversy King Milan, 

 who was alleged to have accepted HKXOOO francs 

 as the price of his leaving Belgrade, accused 

 Milutin Garashaninof having had Helena Mark- 

 ovich, who shot at the King on Oct. 23, 1833, 

 and her accomplice, Helena Knicanin, both se- 

 cretly murdered in prison to conceal his own 

 connection with their crime. Garashanin, who 

 continued to be Milan's Prime Minister for five 

 years after the mysterious death of the two 

 women, confirmed the statement that they were 

 assassinated, but sought to fasten the guilt upon 

 the ex-King. The mutual calumniations inter- 

 changed by the chief actors of the last reign led 

 the Skupshtina to amend the press laws by 

 making attacks on King Milan or any member 

 of the royal family, or upon the Regents, punish- 

 able with imprisonment, adding an amendment 

 making criticisms of acts of the Legislature 

 equally punishable. On March 22 the chief re- 

 gent and the Prime Minister submitted to King 

 Milan a draft agreement providing that both he 

 and' Queen Natalie should reside abroad till 

 King Alexander's majority, and should each re- 

 ceive a month's visit annually from their son, 

 whom, in case he should fall dangerously ill, the 

 King should be permitted to visit in Belgrade ; 

 that King Milan should be paid an allowance of 

 30,000 francs a month ; and that the question of 

 the legality of the divorce should be adjudicated 

 by the Consistory of the Servian Synod. An 

 arrangement was arrived at with Milan, who, on 

 the receipt of 1,000,000 francs in cash and the 

 promise of a pension of 300,000 francs a year, left 

 Servia in the middle of April and agreed to re- 

 main away till Aug 1. 1894. when the young King 

 attains his majority, making it a condition that 

 the Queen should also be kept out of the coun- 

 try. At the last sitting of the Skupshtina a res- 

 olution was passed after a stormy debate ex- 

 pressing the hope that the Government would 



use measures to induce Queen Natalie to leave 

 the country. Her friends of the Progressist 

 party, including M. Garashanin and Gen. Hor- 

 vatovich, advised her to yield only to force. On 

 May 8 M. Pachich gave her official notice of the 

 resolution of the Skupshtina. She expressed her 

 determination to stand on her constitutional 

 right to remain, not for the purpose of meddling 

 in politics, but to prove to her son that she had 

 not left him of her own free will. On May 18 

 the Government made an attempt to expel her 

 by force. A company of gendarmes surround- 

 ed her house, and the prefect of police carried 

 her off in a carriage; but on the way to the 

 wharf where the royal yacht was waiting to tal;e 

 her on board, university students stopped the 

 carriage, detached the horses, and dragged it 

 back in triumph to the Queen's residence. Re- 

 spectable citizens and students who volunteered 

 to defend the house were fired on by soldiers, 

 who killed two and wounded several. The 

 whole garrison was called out. and the streets 

 were the scene of severe fighting, in which many 

 casualties occurred among both citizens and sol- 

 diers. The fighting ceased, and the Queen's de- 

 fenders dispersed only after a promise had been 

 given that the decree of expulsion would be 

 withdrawn. The way having been cleared by 

 this falsehood, at daybreak the Queen was con- 

 veyed by force to a railroad train and escorted 

 to Semlin, in Hungary, after protesting against 

 the illegality of the proceeding; for the Con- 

 stitution and laws of Servia provide no power 

 of banishment, even by judicial decree and for 

 criminal offenses, and recently the Skupshtina 

 had refused to pass a bill to supply the omission. 

 The object of the Radical party and the Govern- 

 ment in expelling Queen Natalie was not so 

 much to prevent her from making trouble by her 

 political activity, for her immediate followers 

 were few and powerless, but to insure the ab- 

 sence of King Milan. All the Opposition news- 

 papers were confiscated, a great number of the 

 Queen's friends were arrested, and the garrison 

 at Belgrade was strengthened as a precaution 

 against an uprising of citizens. Col. Miletich, 

 the Minister of War, disapproving the intended 

 action of the Cabinet, offered his resignation on 

 May 15, which was not accepted by the regents 

 at first, but when he decliued-to make the desired 

 military dispositions he was replaced provision- 

 ally by Col. Jankovich, chief of the General 

 Staff. ' On May 19 Col. Z. D. Praporchetovich 

 was appointed Minister of War. 



The expulsion of the Queen was condemned 

 by a part of the Radical party as a violation of 

 the Constitution, and a larger.number blamed the 

 ministers for the brutal and unskillful manner 

 in which her removal was effected. On May 24. 

 M. Djaia,. the Minister of the Interior, offered his 

 resignation, which he was induced a day or two 

 afterward to withdraw. The prefect of police 

 and commander of the gendarmerie were super- 

 seded. Much as the ministry and the regency 

 were discredited, the Queen-mother was in a 

 worse position than ever. If she had accepted 

 the proposal made to her at Wiesbaden in June, 

 1888, her son would have been permitted to re- 

 side with her for nine months in the year. After 

 the divorce, proceedings were instituted she in- 

 timated her willingness to accept these terms, 



