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to restock their devastated farms, thereby checking their emigration to Asia Minor, where those who had gone thither on the faith of the promises of the Sultan had found that nothing was done for them. A further step in the direction of emancipating Crete from the control of the Porte was taken in August, when the Cretan Government signed a convention with the delegates of the Ottoman public debt by which the latter renounced all rights and privileges in the island in return for the payment of 1,500,000 francs and the concession of the salt monopoly for twenty years; and in November it was decided that the Cretan flag and Cretan passports should be recognised by the Porte, and that Cretans sentenced in Turkey for political or common law offences should be transferred to the island for further disposal.

In Macedonia, owing chiefly to the agitation of the Bulgarians of the revolutionary Macedonian Committee, there were constant disturbances which required troops for their suppression, Armed bands pervaded the country, rendering trade impossible, and the Christian population resolutely resisted the Turkish authorities at every opportunity, although the most prominent Christians in the province had been put in prison. In October Miss Stone, an American missionary, was captured by one of the Bulgarian bands and a large sum was demanded for her ransom. She had not been released at the end of the year.

Although the Macedonian Committee was officially repudiated in Bulgaria under the pressure of Russia and Austria, who, in pursuance of the agreement entered into in 1897 (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1897, pp. 296, 297, 299, 314), insisted that there should be no disturbance of the status quo in the East, the committee was very active in the earlier part of the year. Under the regulations issued by the Committee all the armed bands in Macedonia consisted of native Bulgarians, provided with weapons by the Central Council and recruited within the district where they resided, and the committee of each district was instructed to spread revolutionary ideas among the people by means of incendiary harangues. All persons designated by the Committee as traitors to the cause were to be put to death, and the steps taken for this purpose were to be reported to the headquarters of the Committee at Sofia, but acts of personal vengeance were strictly prohibited. The movement had strong sympathies among the bulk of the population of Bulgaria, and it was therefore very difficult for the Government to act against it. The troops and the civil officials were, however, forbidden under severe penalties to take any part in the agitation of the Committee, and in April all its leading members, including its President, M. Sarafof, who, though acquitted of the murder of Professor Michaleano (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1900, p. 333), was shown by strong evidence to have been one of its chief instigators, were arrested by order of the Government. M. Sarafof, in reply to questions addressed to him in the prison

where he was confined, declared that the object of the Committee was not to acquire Macedonia for Bulgaria; it would do all in its power to oppose any such incorporation, and if Macedonia was liberated from the Turkish yoke, it must be established as a separate State, independent of Bulgaria, Servia, or Greece.

The new Cabinet formed in Bulgaria at the end of the previous year (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1900, p. 334) had but a brief existence. The result of the elections for the Sobranye showed a total collapse of the party of M. Radoslavoff, but the adherents of the policy of the late M. Stambouloff failed to obtain a working majority. The Ministry consequently resigned. In the speech from the throne delivered at the opening of the new Sobranye, Prince Ferdinand laid stress on the financial difficulties of the country and the necessity for reforms in the internal administration. The situation was indeed very critical; the want of funds had necessitated the wholesale dismissal of many officials, which excited profound discontent in a country accustomed to violent methods and demoralised by incessant revolutionary agitation, and party strife and the lack of political education among the masses hampered all attempts at reform. A new Cabinet under M. Karaveloff, who was Prime Minister at the time of the abduction of Prince Alexander and afterwards a member of the Regency, was formed on March 4, and its first task was to deal with the financial question, which had become urgent, as there were no funds to provide for the payment of the July coupon of the State debt. For this and other purposes negotiations were opened with the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas for a loan of 100,000,000 francs, the Russian Government meanwhile advancing 4,000,000 francs for the July coupon. Russia was still regarded as the protector of Bulgaria, and out of the 136 deputies elected to the Sobranye 98 were described as Russophiles. To obtain the loan from the bank, however, was a very difficult matter, as repayment would have to be guaranteed by the concession to the bank of a monopoly in the preparation and sale of tobacco, and the Government was hardly strong enough to obtain the sanction of the Sobranye to this measure. After much discussion of the subject M. Karaveloff resigned, finding that the Sobranye was not disposed to accept the scheme. The Prince, however, requested him to remain in office, and the question was not settled at the end of the year. The Sobranye rejected the proposed loan by a majority of three, but the Government obtained from the agricultural banks a sum sufficient for the payment of the January coupon.

In Servia, too, financial difficulties were the chief feature of the political situation. In his address at the opening of the Skuptschina on January 12 the King, after referring to his marriage and thanking the Tsar for having consented to act as a witness on the occasion, sharply criticised the extravagance of the late Government, and expressed satisfaction at the departure

from Servia of the ex-King Milan. In the following month the ex-King died, upon which King Alexander issued a proclamation to the Servian nation stating that it would "always remain grateful to King Milan for having secured the independence of the country and the extension of the frontiers of the newly created kingdom." A week later the Cabinet was reconstructed by the appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dr. Vuitch, who had previously held the position of Servian Minister in Paris, and was one of the most moderate and enlightened members of the Radical party, and by the elevation of the burgomaster of Belgrade, M. Stefanovitch, to the position of Home Minister. The Cabinet now included two Radicals and two Progressists, and the other Ministers belonged to no particular party, being merely adherents of the King. Such a Cabinet, if an heir to the throne had been born, would, strengthened by the King's popularity, no doubt have been able to grapple effectually with the financial difficulties of the country, but the expectations which had been entertained in this respect were disappointed, and the Government became more and more dependent on the protection of Russia, under whose influence a rapprochement was also effected between Servia and Bulgaria. In April a new Constitution was promulgated by King Alexander which differed in some important respects from the Constitutions of 1869 and 1888 (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1888, p. 308). Under the Constitution of 1869 the Government was practically absolute, as the rights of the legislative assembly were so limited that it had very little real power. Under that of 1888, on the other hand, the executive power was almost entirely subordinated to the legislative assembly, while the latter was so fettered by minute regulations that its action was hampered at every step. The new Constitution, which was promulgated on April 19, the anniversary of the day when the fortress of Belgrade was finally evacuated by the Turks in 1867, gave similar powers to the Government and the Legislature respectively to those established in the other constitutional countries of Europe, and provided for a larger representation of the more enlightened classes than had previously been the case. It also created for the first time an Upper Chamber or Senate, whose task it would be to revise the laws passed by the Chamber of Deputies.

In Roumania a new Ministry was formed under M. Carp, whose efforts, however, to provide a remedy for the financial difficulties of the country (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1900, p. 334) were to a great extent foiled by the agitation carried on among the people by the Opposition. The Liberals under M. Stourdza denounced the Ministry for alienating the property of the State and imposing new taxes, while the old Conservatives under MM. Cantacuzene and Jonescu separated from the Yunimist party (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1891, p. 332), which supported the Government. On February 26 the Chamber, after a stormy

debate, rejected by a majority of 75 votes to 74 a vote of confidence in the financial policy of the Government; M. Carp accordingly resigned, and M. Stourdza, the Liberal leader, was entrusted by the King with the formation of a Ministry. The efforts of the Liberals to restore equilibrium in the Budget were more successful than those of their predecessors. Economies were effected in the various departments to the extent of 25,000,000 lei, and the increase of existing taxes was limited to a sum of 6,000,000 lei, while no new taxes were imposed. The result of these measures, though they did not cause any notable increase in the revenue, was that the Government realised a substantial surplus enabling it to meet all the coupons of the foreign debt. A close rapprochement was also effected between Roumania and Greece. A commercial convention was concluded between the two countries, the negotiations which had been started under the first Stourdza Ministry in 1896, and were broken off on the fall of that Ministry, having now been resumed. In May a meeting took place between the Kings of Roumania and of Greece at Abbazia, to which great political importance was attached as indicating a combination between the two countries under the ægis of Austria-Hungary to counteract the expansive tendencies of the Slavonic Balkan States which look upon Russia as their protector.

In Greece the most important incident of the year was the demonstration made in November by a meeting of about 10,000 people in the Temple of Jupiter to protest against the proposed issue of a translation of the Gospel into the form of modern Greek generally spoken in the Greek Kingdom. The meeting was dispersed by the troops, and some twenty persons were killed and wounded. The translation had been made by the Queen's order, but the students of the university objected to it on the ground that the original text was sacred and should not be tampered with, and that if the Gospels were promulgated in the Greek Kingdom in the dialect spoken there the feeling of PanHellenism might be weakened, as a different dialect is spoken among the Greeks in Turkey. Moreover, it was generally believed that the proposed issue of the translation had been instigated by Russia, with the object of supplanting Greek ecclesiastical influence in the Balkan peninsula by her own. Although the Holy Synod refused to authorise the translation. the students continued to agitate against it, and public feeling became so excited on the subject that the Ministry was obliged to resign. The new Prime Minister, M. Zaïmis, was a moderate Conservative, who had signed the treaty of peace with Turkey and the arrangement under which the finances of Greece were placed under international control (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1898, pp. 285-7).

Since the marriage of the Prince of Montenegro's daughter to the Crown Prince of Italy, who had now become King, the little mountain State had become a factor of some importance

in Eastern European politics, and had attained to a considerable degree of financial prosperity. All possible facilities were granted to Montenegrin merchants in Italy, in consequence of which there was a large development of trade between the two countries, and savings banks and small joint stock companies were founded in several districts. Prince Nicholas also obtained the support of the leading merchants of Skutari and other Albanian towns, and even of the Albanian chiefs, for the establishment of a trade between Italy and Albania through Montenegro.

CHAPTER IV.

LESSER STATES OF WESTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE.

I. BELGIUM.

THE question of the reorganisation of the Army was the most important of those with which public opinion had to deal during 1901. The Army is recruited by the drawing of lots, but all those whose fortunes permit can escape if the lot falls on them by a payment of 1,600 francs. For some years a party of everincreasing importance, including the Liberals, the Socialists, and a certain number of Catholic deputies, have endeavoured to establish the principle of absolute personal service, and the suppression of all monetary substitution. The King himself, as has been already mentioned in this Register, has over and over again expressed publicly his opinion in favour of the abolition of the substitution. But, on the other hand, the Catholic party, actually in power, refuse to entertain the idea on any account.

At the end of last year the Government appointed a commission, formed partly of members of the Legislature, and partly of officers of the Army, charged to examine the question of Army reorganisation, and declared through the War Minister that this commission alone was capable of informing the Legislature and the Executive on the nature and extent of the reforms to be made. From the first meetings of the commission some Catholic and anti-military deputies, with M. Woeste, the leader of the Right, at their head, separated from their colleagues, with the avowed hope of thereby causing the inquiry to fail. The commission, however, continued its task, and after long deliberations finished by voting by 24 to 2 the suppression of the substitution, a diminution of the length of service, and a proportionate augmentation of the annual contingent, which, now fixed at 13,000 men, should, in their opinion, be increased to 18,000.

Upon this, the Government, instead of agreeing, as they were held to have promised, to the decision of the commission, declared that having regard to the divergence of opinion, not only

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