70 



BULGARIA. 



819 were Turks, and the rest were Greeks, Jews, 

 gypsies, Russians. Servians, and other Slaves, 

 Germans, etc. Sofia, the capital, had 30,428 in- 

 habitants. Bulgaria had 3,844 elementary 

 schools in 1890, in which 129,777 boys and 42,- 

 206 girls were taught. The state subvention 

 for education is 2,000,000 lei or francs per 

 annum. Education is free and obligatory, and 

 the school period is four years. There is a uni- 

 versity at Sofia, and a gymnasium in every town 

 of importance. 



The Army. The system of obligatory mili- 

 tary service is in force. The army consists of 

 24 infantry regiments, of 2 battalions each, with 

 a depot battalion for each regiment, 4 cavalry 

 regiments, and 6 regiments of artillery, consist- 

 ing of 4 batteries of 4 guns each, the battery 

 numbering 120 men, besides 2 artillery depots 

 and 1 battery of siege artillery. The field bat- 

 teries have 8 guns in time of war. There is 1 

 company of engineers of 2 battalions and 1 

 of disciplinary troops. The army is organized in 

 3 divisions of 2 brigades. The total strength on 

 the peace footing is about 125,000 There is a 

 fleet of 3 war ships, 10 gun sloops, and 2 tor- 

 pedo boats, manned by 12 officers and 334 men. 

 Bulgaria is guarded on the northern frontier by 

 the fortresses of Vidin, Rustchuk, and Silistria. 

 Varna is a fortified port on the Black Sea, and 

 Shumla is a strong place in the interior. 



Finances. The budget for 1891 makes the 

 total revenue 80,478,700 lei, and the expenditure 

 80,208,233 lei. The army required 20.617,435 

 lei; the public debt, 13,078,618 lei; financial ad- 

 ministration, 13,720,732 lei ; the interior depart- 

 ment, 8,385,430 lei ; public works, 7,722,243 lei ; 

 education, 5,140,985 lei. Of the revenue, 39,- 

 952.000 lei were derived from direct taxes and 

 15,893,500 lei from customs and excise duties. 



The public debt is made up of the remainder 

 of the Russian occupation debt, which is to be 

 extinguished in 1896, and which amounts to 21,- 

 700,000 lei and of loans of 50.000,000 and 30,- 

 000,000 contracted lei in 1887 and 1889. Bul- 

 garia has agreed to pay the contribution of 118,- 

 000 Turkish liras a year to the Porte for Eastern 

 Roumelia, and 21,000 liras that are in arrears. 

 The tribute to be paid to Turkey by Bulgaria on 

 her own account has never been fixed by the 

 powers, and the obligation has thus been suffered 

 virtually to lapse. 



Commerce. Bulgaria is a large producer of 

 wheat, of which great quantities are exported, 

 and also raises wine, silk, tobacco, and considera- 

 ble quantities of live stock, particularly sheep, 

 goats, and swine. The total value of the exports 

 in 1890 was 71,051,123 lei. The exports of wheat 

 amounted to 54,348,570 lei. Other exports are 

 wool, tallow, attar of roses, butter, cheese, hides, 

 flax, and timber. 



The total imports were valued at 84,530,497 

 lei, of which 26,806,000 lei represent textile manu- 

 factures, 19,243,000 lei articles of food and drink, 

 10.296,000 lei chemical products, 8,363,000 lei 

 metals and metal manufactures, and 5,025,000 

 lei machinery. Of the total imports, 20,020,397 

 lei came from Great Britain, 33,005,757 lei from 

 Austria, 10,393,425 lei from Turkey, 5,201.724 lei 

 from Russia, and the rest from France, Germany, 

 Roumania, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Servia, 

 Greece, the United States, and other countries. 



The United States furnished only 40,652 lei of 

 the imports and received direct none of the ex- 

 ports of Bulgaria. Of the total exports, Turkey 

 received 21,928,218, Prance 19,496,331, Great 

 Britain 14,936,811, and Austria 5,750,589 lei. 



Communications. The Bulgarian and East- 

 ern Roumelian Railroads had in 1891 a total 

 length of 507 miles. The Oriental Railroad, bring- 

 ing Constantinople into communication with the 

 European Continental system, passes through the 

 length of Bulgaria, connecting Sofia with Con- 

 stantinople and with Belgrade. 



A railroad is projected to connect Sofia with 

 Salonica and the Mediterranean. The Turkish 

 Government has already granted a concession for 

 the construction of a line that is to traverse 

 Southern Macedonia, running from Salonica, via 

 Drama, to Dedeagatch. The proposed railway 

 would descend directly southward from Sofia by 

 the towns of Radomir and Dupnitza, enter Mace- 

 donia by the Struma valley, and follow the 

 course of that river to Seres, where it would 

 form a junction with the South Macedonian Rail- 

 wav already mentioned. 



I'he state telegraph lines, including those of 

 Eastern Roumelia, have a total length of 2,800 

 miles. The number of messages sent in 1890 

 wa_s 765.295. The post-office traffic in 1890 com- 

 prised 8,070,000 pieces, including letters, cards, 

 and newspapers. 



Franco-Bulgarian Incident. Serious com- 

 plications arose between France and Bulgaria 

 about the expulsion of the French newspaper 

 correspondent Chadourne from Sofia. Cha- 

 dourne appealed to the French Government, 

 whose charge d'affaires protested against the 

 exulsion as constituting a flagrant violation of 

 treaties, and demanded that the decree should 

 be rescinded and that the Government of the 

 principality should pledge itself in writing not 

 to molest the correspondent in the event of his 

 return to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Government, 

 in its reply, reminded the acting French diplo- 

 matic agent of the repeated representations made 

 by the Government to him regarding the cor- 

 respondent in question, who, for some time past, 

 had systematically given currency to false and 

 calumnious reports in the European and es- 

 pecially the French press regarding Bulgaria 

 and its Government, and that twice before the 

 Government had decided to expel him, but had 

 refrained from doing so in hopes that, owing to 

 the representations made to the agency and the 

 warnings given to the correspondent, the latter 

 would change his attitude toward the Govern- 

 ment. The Bulgarian Government were of the 

 opinion that they had not violated any treaty, 

 and persisted in carrying out the expulsion. 

 Upon receipt of this note the French Govern- 

 ment broke off diplomatic relations with Bul- 

 garia, insisting that the French agency should 

 have been advised of the charges against the 

 correspondent, and the request to leave the 

 country should have been conveyed to him 

 through the French agent. His summary appre- 

 hension and forcible expulsion before he had any 

 order of expulsion served upon him, and before 

 he could make any arrangements for his depart- 

 ure was a violation of the capitulations. They 

 submitted the whole matter to the Porte. The 

 Porte, after due consideration, decided that the 



