BULGARIA. 



85 



belonged to the Zankoffist party. Ministers Da- 

 neff and Sarafoff, through the influence of the 

 Russian court, secured in Paris a contract for a 

 loan of 100,000,000 francs at 5 per cent., to be 

 taken at 83, on the security of the tobacco-tax 

 revenue without the concession of a monopoly 

 of tobacco. For the purpose of ratifying this 

 agreement and of voting supplies the Sobranje 

 was summoned in extraordinary session on May 

 5. The election of the aged Dragan Zankoll' as 

 president of the Sobranje indicated that the re- 

 constituted ministry could rely on its narrow 

 majority. Since the reconciliation with Russia 

 the old party programs had lost their value. 

 The Government policy was to seek the good-will 

 of Austria-Hungary as well as of Russia and to 

 cultivate friendly relations with Roumania and 

 N'i via and a loyal understanding with the Porte. 

 A good harvest and returning prosperity offered 

 the best chance for a reestablishment of the na- 

 tional finances and the attraction of foreign capi- 

 tal for the development of the resources of the 

 country. This ministry was not easily to be 

 dragged in the wake of the Macedonian agita- 

 tors; yet it would not be harsh or hasty in its 

 treatment of the popular heroes, whom the Prince 

 himself privately abetted in order to prove him- 

 self a true Bulgarian. The Macedonian trouble 

 assumed a more serious aspect in 1902. The 

 organizers of revolution in the Turkish vilayets 

 Avere Bulgarian officers who left active service 

 for the reserve in order that they might teach 

 Macedonian rebels to fight effectively under mili- 

 tary leading. Ihe situation in Macedonia for a 

 year past had been one of demoralization and 

 clanger. Large bodies of troops from Asia Minor 

 quartered there held in check the threatened re- 

 volt in 1901, but this military occupation of the 

 country, where distress was felt from natural 

 causes as well as from political agitation ren- 

 dered the situation of the Christian inhabitants 

 more intolerable. The quiet ones often suffered 

 for the misdeeds of the rebels and brigands: All 

 the Turkish troops on the frontier could not 

 prevent such acts as the kidnaping of Ellen 

 Stone. The lawless acts of Macedonian bands 

 provoked reprisals from the Mussulman inhab- 

 itants, who formed themselves into guerrilla 

 bands to take reprisals, and, when caught by the 

 Turkish troops, they were more leniently dealt 

 with than the Christian lawbi-eakers. A con- 

 stant stream of Macedonian emigrants passed 

 over the border into Eastern Roumelia. The 

 Macedonian committees smuggled many thou- 

 sand* of rifles into Turkey. Weapons and ammu- 

 nition were hidden in churches and other places 

 in towns as well as in secret nooks in the moun- 

 tains. The Bulgarian Government appealed to 

 the powers to force Turkey to carry out the re- 

 tf'orms promised in the treaty of Berlin and 

 'threatened to strengthen the frontier garrisons 

 if Turkey continued to mass troops on the bor- 

 ' der. The Russian and Austrian embassies in 

 Constantinople called the attention of the Porte 

 to the situation in Macedonia, and in conse- 

 quence of these representations the Sultan 

 appointed the Grand Vizier, the Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs, and the Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion a commission to consider measures of re- 

 form. Russia had advised the Porte to proceed 

 with severity against disturbers, but carefully to 

 avoid injustice. Russia and Austria jointly 

 warned the Government at Sofia. The extreme 

 wing of the revolutionary party, led by Boris 

 Sarafoff, was enabled by the ransom paid for 

 the release of Ellen Stone to resume active 

 operations early in the spring. Bands of Bul- 



garians entered Macedonia, levied blackmail and 

 committed outrages, attacked Turkish patrols, 

 and intimidated the Christians by murdering 

 those who condemned the proceedings' of the 

 Macedonian committees. The Bulgarian Govern- 

 ment proved its loyal intentions by removing 

 Macedonian refugees into the interior and taking 

 possession of all firearms found in the frontier 

 districts. At the same time it reminded Russia 

 and Austria that the Berlin treaty assured to the 

 Christians of the vilayets some such degree of 

 self-government as the Cretans already enjoyed. 

 On detecting the chief agents of the Central Mace- 

 donian committee in the business of forming 

 bands, the Government threatened to dissolve the 

 committee. The Macedonian committees and the 

 Bulgarian clergy tried to prevent the consecra- 

 tion, which at last took place on June 30, at 

 Uskub, of a Servian bishop, Monsigor Firmilian, 

 whose acceptance by the Porte was due to the 

 intercession of the Russian ambassador. The 

 Turkish investigating commission recommended 

 minor modifications of the civil administration, 

 building of roads, the establishment of schools, 

 and a reorganization of the gendarmerie so that 

 the revolutionary bands might better be hunted 

 down and the peaceful inhabitants protected. 

 The local authorities in the disturbed vilayets 

 disarmed the Christians, who by law are not al- 

 lowed to keep weapons; nor are Mohammedans, 

 but in their case the law is never enforced. The 

 extortion of the Turkish officials often drove 

 impoverished rayas into the revolutionary bands 

 which combined brigandage with patriotism. 

 For that reason the Austrian and Russian am- 

 bassadors advised the Porte to choose a better 

 class of officials and to pay them their salaries 

 regularly. When a congress of Macedonian com- 

 mittees was called to meet in Sofia the Austrian 

 and Russian representatives advised the Bul- 

 garian Government to interdict it and the Turk- 

 ish representative called for the arrest of Boris 

 Sarafoff, the former president of the central com- 

 mittee, who had been tried for the murder of the 

 Roumanian professor Mikhaileano, and whose 

 chief lieutenant, Deutcheff, was supposed to have 



Planned and directed the abduction of Ellen 

 tone. Sarafoff was still the leading spirit in 

 organizing the Macedonians for revolution, while 

 Gen. Zontcheff, the president, and the other mem- 

 bers of the committee who succeeded Sarafoff 

 and his colleagues devoted the funds they col- 

 lected to recruiting and fitting out the bands of 

 Bulgarians who invaded Macedonia. These bands 

 were much larger than the groups of 6 or 7 men 

 which Sarafoff founded on the Nihilist plan, 

 pledged to obey every order from the superior 

 committees and to murder traitors. The Bul- 

 garian bands were military bodies of 100 or more, 

 led by professional officers. They traversed the 

 Turkish provinces as far south as Salonika, aided 

 by Macedonian peasants who kept them in- 

 formed of the movements of the Turkish troops. 

 Wherever they could engage the troops on equal 

 terms they did so, in order to give their actions 

 the appearance of regular warfare. The gen- 

 darmerie and troops, on the other hand, sought 

 to evade encounters, and often let the bands escape 

 when it would have been easy to capture them, 

 bribed perhaps to do so by the Bulgarians. The 

 Zontcheff and Sarafoff factions were bitterly hos 

 tile to each other. Sarafoff asserted that the new- 

 committee had no object but the aggrandizement 

 of Bulgaria, and he put forth a program of 

 Macedonian autonomy instead of annexation to 

 Bulgaria. When the congress met on Aug. 10 

 he appeared with delegations from 45 societies, 



