UNITARIANS. 



727 



of Scutari, Janina, Kossovo, and Monastir. An or- 

 ganic statute was deemed by them to be the only 

 means of preventing the periodical occurrence of 

 bloodshed due to the intrigues of Greece, Servia, 

 and Montenegro. A feud between the Mohamme- 

 dans and Christians of northern Albania gave occa- 

 sion for diplomatic representations on the part of 

 Montenegro. It began with the murder of a Chris- 

 tian notable in Berane. The Christians avenged 

 his death by killing a number of Moslems sus- 

 pected of being concerned in the crime. The 

 Mussulmans, calling friends from other districts to 

 their aid, attacked the Christian villages and after 

 much fighting robbed and burned them, the inhab- 

 itants fleeing over the Montenegrin border with 

 what cattle they could save. The Montenegrins 

 had supplied both parties with rifles. The Sultan 

 sent troops into the disturbed district to restore or- 

 der and ordered Saadeddin Pasha, who had recently 

 finished his Macedonian investigation, to find out 

 the cause of the troubles, which were renewed in 

 June with greater violence and ferocity. Many 

 Christians were killed and hundreds of houses were 

 destroyed. The Montenegrin Government com- 

 plained that Mohammedans pursued Christian fugi- 

 tives beyond the f rontier, and made a demand for 

 the restitution of the latter to their lands and for 

 the rebuilding of their burned houses at the cost of 

 the Turkish Government. The Porte dispatched 

 troops once more to the scene and ordered that the 

 villages should be rebuilt, charging the Monteneg- 

 rins, however, with having instigated the murders 

 and pillage that drew forth the vengeance of the 

 Mussulmans. In September Saadeddin Pasha re- 

 turned to pacify the Berane district once more. 

 Mohammedan mountaineers were again ravaging 

 the plains and plundering the unarmed rayahs, 

 causing excitement among their warlike Monteneg- 

 rin neighbors. 



Armenian Grievances. The Huntchak com- 

 mittee in London endeavored at the beginning of 

 1898 to raise anew the Armenian question by peti- 



tioning the powers to insist on the execution of the 

 promised reforms. The Turkish authorities in 

 Asia were accused of persecuting Armenians. The 

 Russian Government requested the Porte to keep 

 the Hamidieh cavalry under better control and to 

 withdraw the unruly forces from the frontier. 

 There were 56 of these Kurdish regiments formed 

 under the command of the tribal chiefs. In Van. 

 where a revolutionist from the Caucasus named 

 Deroyan was secretly active, the police searched 

 every house and expelled several thousand Arme- 

 nian refugees whom they found. A military tribu- 

 nal tried 33 Armenians and sentenced several to 

 death. There was an Armenian Kaimakan at Van, 

 and when in February the Porte removed the Gov- 

 ernor of Zeitun the British ambassador pressed for 

 the appointment of a Christian in his place. The 

 Sultan promised the Armenian patriarch to comply 

 with many of the national demands. In the begin- 

 ning of June the Russian ambassador urged the 

 Porte to restore to their homes 40,000 destitute Ar- 

 menians who were living on charity in the Cauca- 

 sus. The Grand Vizier raised difficulties, stating 

 especially that the property that was abandoned 

 by these fugitives had been divided among the 

 Turks. The Russian Government repeated the de- 

 mand until the Porte finally gave way months 

 later and provided for their repatriation. In the 

 beginning of August the Kurds were reported to 

 be pillaging Armenian villages in the district of 

 Ahlat, in the vilayet of Bitlis, where the Vali had 

 been guilty of torturing Armenians in searching 

 for revolutionists and hidden arms. 



Revolt in Yemen. The chronically discontented 

 Arabs of Yemen, suffering in the spring of 1898 

 from a partial famine, rose in rebellion against their 

 Turkish masters, whom they accused of injustice 

 and extortion. The Sheikh Haraideddin headed 

 the rising, which was quelled finally bv the concilia- 

 tory policy of the new Vali, Hussein HilmiEffendi, 

 rather than by the 16,000 troops that were dis- 

 patched to the disturbed region. 



IT 



UNITARIANS. The Unitarian churches in the 

 United States returned for 1898 551 ministers, 454 

 churches, and 75,000 members. The numbers show 

 an increase during the year of 16 ministers and 

 5,000 members, and a decrease of 1 church. 



The annual meeting of the American Unitarian 

 Association was held in Boston, Mass., in May. The 

 Hon. Carroll D. Wright presided. The treasurer re- 

 ported that his total receipts had been nearly $73,000, 

 and that a balance remained of $11,000. The secre- 

 tary represented that the necessity resting upon the 

 association not to spend more money than the 

 churches contributed had required the temporary 

 abandonment of a business organization with a sys- 

 tem of local superintendents for aggressive work 

 which had been carefully planned by the National 

 Conference and had achieved good results. The 

 year had been signalized by the application for the 

 first time of the budget system in making appro- 

 priations, under which the expenditures of the as- 

 sociation were divided among the four departments 

 of maintenance, publication, foreign missions, and 

 home missions. The plan had worked well and had 

 produced the most satisfactory financial record the 

 association had been able to make for many years. 

 The bequests received during the year, amounting 

 to $7.297, had been used to increase the general 

 fund, which now amounted to $58,067. A resolu- 

 tion had been passed by the board ordering that 



the general and special funds of the association, 

 with certain defined exceptions, be collectively in- 

 vested, and that at the close of the financial year 

 the income from the securities thus held shall be 

 credited to the various funds according to the 

 amount of their capital. In connection with the 

 Japanese mission a union had been brought about 

 between the Unitarian magazine "Shukyo" and 

 the chief organ of liberal orthodoxy in Japan, 

 "Rikugo Zasshi." The new magazine was to be 

 called by the latter name and to be published by 

 the Japan Unitarian Association. The educational 

 institution in Japan, the Senshiu Gakuin, would 

 cease to be a normal school and become more a cen- 

 ter for university extension work, and the activity 

 of the mission " would be more concentrated on 

 church extension, the new magazine, the post-office 

 mission, and publication work. The beginning of 

 this mission was spoken of as "a frank departure 

 from the customary aim and method of foreign 

 missionary work. It was commissioned 'not to 

 convert, but to confer,'" had proclaimed a new 

 missionary motive, seeking to discover the good in 

 all existing forms of faith, and had " recognized 

 the underlying sympathy in all religions, and em- 

 phasized unities rather than diversities." The cost 

 of conducting tin- experiment that had In-en made 

 in this direction had diminished more rapidly than 

 was usually the case with the home-mission work, 



