66 



BULGARIA. 



cavalry of 4 squadrons and 2 regiments of 5 squad- 

 rons; 6 regiments of artillery of 9 batteries of 4 

 guns each, and 9 mountain batteries; and 3 bat- 

 talions of engineers, each of 4 companies, and 3 

 additional companies for railroad and telegraph 

 service. In case of war the strength of the in- 

 fantry battalion is brought up to 1,050 officers and 

 men, and the number of battalions in the line and 

 reserve is doubled, and each field battery has 6 

 guns, while the cavalry and the engineer corps 

 have the same strength in peace or war. Every 

 Bulgarian is liable for service from the age of 

 twenty, and the term with the colors is two years 

 in the infantry and in other arms three years. 

 About 18,000 men are drawn annually out of 

 40,000 who are liable. The legal peace effective 

 in 1898 was 2,500 officers and 40,555 men, with 

 7,400 horses. The theoretical war effective was 

 208,966 officers and men, with 38,788 horses and 

 oxen and 432 guns. The infantry is armed with 

 the Mannlicher maga/ine rifle. 



Bulgaria has a naval force consisting of a steam 

 yacht of 650 tons, a steamer of 800 tons, one of 

 GOO tons, and one of 400 tons, a torpedo gunboat 

 of 715 tons, and 2 armored gunboats for the 

 Danube. 



Bailroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. There 

 were 835 miles of railroad in operation in Bulgaria 

 and Eastern Roumelia in 1899, and 130 miles were 

 under construction. The Government telegraphs 

 had a total length of 3,259 miles, with 6,728 miles 

 of wire. The telephone lines had a length of 915 

 miles. The number of telegraph messages sent in 

 1898 was 1,342,807. The post office carried 24,- 

 235,165 pieces of mail matter. The postal and tele- 

 graph receipts were 2,921,831 francs; expenses, 

 3,127,723 francs. 



Commerce and Production. The cultivators 

 in Bulgaria pay a tenth of the produce in money 

 or in kind to the Government. Of the whole sur- 

 face of the country 48 per cent, is pasture land, 

 25i per cent, under tillage, 171 per cent, forest and 

 heath, 3 per cent, meadow, 1 per cent, vineyards, 

 and 5 per cent, roads, building land, and water. 

 Over 70 per cent, of the people are engaged in 

 farming, and most of the farmers own their hold- 

 ings, from an acre to 6 acres. They raise wheat 

 for export. Wine, tobacco, and silk are produced 

 also, and the attar of roses made in Bulgaria goes 

 all over the world. The country is well stocked 

 with horses, cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, asses, and 

 mules. The minerals belong to the Government, 

 but the coal mines of Pernik, yielding 125,000 tons 

 annually, the salt springs at Burgas, yielding 

 12,000 tons, and the stone quarries are the most 

 valuable of the mineral industries, although iron 

 ore is abundant and gold, silver, lead, manganese, 

 and copper are found. Woolen and cotton cloth, 

 linen, filigree, cigarettes, leather, and spirits are 

 manufactured. The total value of imports in 

 1898 was 72,730,250 francs, and of exports 66,- 

 537,007 francs. The imports of textile goods were 

 21,955,629 francs in value; groceries, 5,354,898 

 francs; metals and metal manufactures, 10,722,336 

 francs; timber and wood manufactures, 4,131,573 

 francs; machinery and implements, 5,099,438 

 francs; hides, skins, and leather, 3,953,205 francs. 

 The exports of cereals were 48,491,343 francs; tex- 

 tiles and textile materials, including cocoons, 

 3,618,152 francs; live stock, 3,515,598 francs; ani- 

 mal food products, 3,377,468 francs; hides and 

 skins, 2,687.657 francs; attar of roses, 2,591,754 

 francs. Other exports are cheese, eggs, tobacco, 

 timber. The commercial class is made up of Jews, 

 Roumanians, Greeks, and Austrians. Wheat is 

 exported to Great Britain. Belgium. Turkey. Ger- 

 many, Austria, and France. The total commerce 



of 1898 was divided among different countries as 

 shown in the following table, giving values in 

 francs : 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered at 

 Bulgarian ports during 1898 was 9,926, of 2,780,545 

 tons; cleared, 9,873, of 2,771,331 tons. 



Crimes against Roumanians. The Rouma- 

 nian Government and people, by taking an interest 

 in the Koutzo-Wallachs of Macedonia and pro- 

 moting their education in their own language, 

 introduced a new factor into the Macedonian ques- 

 tion, and one not calculated to smooth the way 

 for the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee at 

 Sofia, which aims at uniting the Macedonian prov- 

 inces to the Bulgarian principality. Among the 

 Bulgars, Greeks, Serbs, and Albanians who inhabit 

 European Turkey the Wallachs form a compara- 

 tively small element. It is the A'iew of their 

 representative men that a peaceful development of 

 the country under Turkish rule, subject to Euro- 

 pean supervision, is better for them than absorp- 

 tion in a great Bulgaria would be, in which case 

 their separate nationality would soon be extin- 

 guished and the political and economic conditions 

 in no wise improved. .This view is shared and has 

 been encouraged by the Roumanian Government, 

 which is not only interested from racial sympathy 

 in the fate of the Wallachs of Turkey, but has an 

 equal interest with Servia and Greece in holding 

 Bulgarian aspirations in check. These aspirations, 

 although the Government and the dynasty in Bul- 

 garia have given them free rein, not wishing to 

 incur unpopularity by repressing the Revolution- 

 ary Committee, which represents the national ideal, 

 are no longer encouraged by the Panslavists of 

 Russia, and the money which the agitators on 

 drew from that source has been cut off. In the 

 spring of 1900 the Roumanian Government com- 

 plained to the Government at Sofia that Rouma- 

 nians resident in Bulgaria were threatened and 

 blackmailed by officers and members of the Revo- 

 lutionary Committee. Outrages were committed 

 against some of the leading Roumanians who make 

 the capital of Bulgaria their home, yet nothing 

 was done by the authorities to bring the perpe- 

 trators to justice. The terrorists even extended 

 their operations to the Roumanian capital, where 

 two persons marked out for vengeance were assas- 

 sinated. Both of these were Bulgarians by birth. 

 The first note from the Roumanian Government 

 received scant attention from the Government of 

 Prince Ferdinand, -which sent a very unsatisfactory 

 reply. Shortly afterward a more serious crime 

 than any that had preceded it was committed. 

 Prof. Mihaileano, the occupant of an official posi- 

 tion under the Roumanian Government, was mur- 

 dered in Bucharest. The crime was clearly one of 

 political revenge, for no one had done more than 

 its victim to antagonize the secret society at Sofia 



