his health proposed by the Tsar, said that he hoped "the ties which unite the two countries, and which are already so firm, will be drawn still closer than they have been in the past." A new loan of 10,000,000 roubles, under the designation of "the Persian Gold Loan of the year 1902," was taken up for the Persian Government by the Discount and Loan Bank of Persia under the authority of Russia, in addition to the loan of 1900 (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1900, p. 327), on the security of the same Customs receipts as those pledged for the previous loan. A concession was obtained by the Bank, which is practically a Russian institution, for building a road connecting Kasbin and Tauris with the Russian frontier. It was expected that this road, together with the one from the Caspian to Teheran, would be most useful for the development of Russian trade in Persia.

Attempts were also made to open up a trade with Afghanistan. Permission was sought of the Ameer for admitting Russian caravans on the routes between Khushk, Herat and Kabul, and also for establishing trade relations between Russian and Afghan Turkestan, but the Ameer replied that such requests should be addressed to him through the Indian Government, and nothing more was heard of the matter. A proposal was at the same time made by the Russian Government to England that direct relations should be established between Russia and Afghanistan with regard to frontier questions, such relations to have no political character. This proposal also was not carried any further, as the explanations asked for by the British Government were not given.

Although the German Emperor was almost cringing in his efforts to establish a friendly understanding with Russia, his overtures were but coldly received. He proceeded in August to meet the Tsar at Reval during the naval manoeuvres there, and assurances were exchanged between the two Emperors as to their desire to maintain the peace of Europe, but it was at the same time pointed out in the Russian Press that the scheme for the Bagdad Railway, which implied the ulterior development of the German railway system in Asia Minor as well as the establishment of German colonies in Mesopotamia and the extension of German influence in the Persian Gulf, was an undertaking too prejudicial to Russian interests to allow the policies of the two nations to be reconciled in Asia, while the proposed German Customs tariff would be so injurious to Russian trade and industry that if it were maintained it would hardly be possible to renew the Russo-German Commercial Treaty of 1894. The antipathy between Slav and Teuton was now a practically indissoluble quantity, and the Pan-German propaganda in South-Eastern Europe contributed in a very large degree to intensify this feeling.

In May the President of the French Republic came to St. Petersburg, and the cordiality of his reception by all classes of the population was in strong contrast to the frigidity of the

comments of the Russian Press on the visit of the Emperor William. The official Journal de St. Pétersbourg stated on this occasion that the Franco-Russian alliance was a guarantee of universal peace and an essential element in the balance of power, not merely in Europe, but also in other parts of the world.

The King of Italy paid a visit to the Tsar in July, accompanied by his Foreign Minister, Sgr. Prinetti, and it was understood that the chief political topic of the conferences between the two Sovereigns and their Ministers was the policy to be adopted by them in the Adriatic and the Balkans and with regard to the proposed German Customs tariff. The Tsar expressed great gratification at this visit; it was certainly remarkable that so soon after the renewal of the Triple Alliance, the first visit of the King of Italy should have been to St. Petersburg.

The

In the Near East Russia maintained the most friendly relations with the Balkan States, while using all her influence, in conjunction with Austria-Hungary, for the maintenance of peace. Commercial agreements were concluded with Bulgaria and Servia with a view to developing Russian trade with those countries. A Russian consulate was established in September at Mitrovitza, in Old Servia, the starting-point of the railway to Uskub and Salonica, and the headquarters of the Albanian agitation against the Servians in that district, with the declared object of protecting the latter against Albanian raids. Grand Duke Nicholas was present at the fêtes at the Shipka Pass (see p. 330) and made a speech on the occasion in which he said that the Russian guests had come among their brethren the Bulgarians" solely for the purpose of taking part in peaceful and solemn celebrations," that" the sacrifices made by Russia" in the war of 1878 "had borne good fruit," and that the Tsar "was pleased to give a fresh token of his goodwill towards his Royal Highness the Prince of Bulgaria and the nation of which he is the ruler." The Grand Duke afterwards paid a visit to the Sultan, who in his turn sent an extraordinary mission to the Tsar at Livadia bringing presents and the Sultan's greetings. The Tsar also sent a cordial telegram to the King of Roumania in reply to his announcement that he had laid a wreath on the grave of the Russian soldiers killed at the battle of Plevna.

On the Macedonian question an important communiqué was issued by the Russian Official Messenger on December 13, stating that the Government had made representations to the Porte on the dangerous state of affairs in Macedonia and had recommended a series of reforms in the administration of that province which it considered to be urgently necessary; that it had at the same time urged the Servian and Bulgarian Governments to do all in their power to check the Macedonian agitation; that its efforts in this sense had met with the complete sympathy of the other Powers; and that Austria

Hungary had joined Russia in its representations to the Porte on this subject. The final paragraph of the communiqué ran thus: "In conclusion, the Imperial Government, which has given so many proofs of its constant desire to maintain the very best relations with Turkey, cannot but express the hope that the Government of the Sultan will take the necessary steps to put an end to every kind of outrage and cruelty, and will appreciate at their proper value the friendly representations made by Russia on behalf of the Christian population of Macedonia, the speedy pacification of which constitutes the best means of averting complications fraught with the most serious dangers to the Ottoman Empire." On December 22 Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, proceeded to Belgrade, Sofia and Vienna to communicate personally with the Governments in those capitals in regard to the policy enunciated in the above communiqué.

II. TURKEY AND THE MINOR STATES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

The most important incident of the year 1902 in Turkey was the outbreak of the insurrection in Macedonia, which threatened to disturb the status quo in the Balkan peninsula and caused much anxiety in Austria-Hungary and Russia. The population of Macedonia is a mixture of Bulgarians, Servians, Greeks, Turks, and Roumanians, the Bulgarians being the majority and the leading spirits of the rising; and all these nationalities, backed by the adjoining States representing them, had for many years been striving among each other for predominance in the province. The Macedonian Committee in Bulgaria, which was the headquarters of the agitation, was at the beginning of the year less active than it had been previously owing to dissensions among its members. Miss Stone, the American missionary, who had been captured by one of the insurgent bands acting under the orders of the committee (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1901, p. 306), was liberated, and the Bulgarian Government, hoping to obtain a foreign loan and anxious to be on good terms with Russia, gave no countenance to the revolutionary propaganda. The consequence was that the committee split into two parties; one, under Colonel Zontcheff, professed to aim at developing the Bulgarian element in Macedonia by legal means through the agency of the schools and the clergy, while the other, led by M. Sarafof, the former president of the committee, which had been somewhat discredited by its crimes and extortions, strove to gain popularity by a scheme for the general rising of the Christian populations of European Turkey. Under this scheme the Servians were to have a free hand in the district of Old Servia and the Greeks in Epirus, while to the Bulgarians was reserved the task of emancipating the other Christian populations. This wild plan found no favour in Greece, where the Government even went so far as to promise to co-operate with

Turkey to defeat it, and the Servians showed no inclination to associate themselves with a movement conducted under Bulgarian auspices. Under these circumstances M. Sarafof decided to continue the agitation by Bulgarian means alone, and to reserve his forces until everything should be ripe for the proposed general rising, but he strongly opposed the plan of a revolutionary propaganda restricted to Macedonia. Meanwhile the state of affairs in that province was so alarming that the Grand Vizier appointed a committee to draw up a project of reform embracing an effective reorganisation of the gendarmerie, the reform of the judicial administration, the construction of roads, the establishment of schools, and improvements in the financial administration, which was approved by the Sultan, but, as usual, not carried out. In September Colonel Zontcheff, the president of the more moderate section of the Macedonian Committee, was arrested by the Bulgarian Government owing to the attempt of a revolutionary band armed by the committee to cross the frontier into Macedonia. Shortly after M. Sarafof

was arrested at Nitch, so that the two rival leaders of the committee seemed to be disabled for further action; but the opportunity was taken by the revolutionists, who were now free from their control, and whose hopes had been excited by the Shipka celebrations (see p. 330) to take the field. Bulgarian bands appeared in the districts of Macedonia inhabited by Bulgarians under the leadership of a retired colonel of the Bulgarian army named Yankoff, and a provisional Government was formed to direct the operations of the insurgents. A large Turkish force was sent into the province to suppress the rising, and the Porte at the same time issued a circular note to the Powers complaining that Bulgaria was not effectively supervising her frontier, and that commands in the revolutionary bands were allotted among officers of the Bulgarian Reserve at the Monastery of Rilo, on Bulgarian soil. To this the Bulgarian Government replied that they could not repress the movement so long as the reforms needed for Macedonia were not carried out. Meanwhile both Colonel Zontcheff and M. Sarafof escaped from their Bulgarian prison, and issued manifestoes, in which the former proclaimed that the great struggle of the Bulgarian people had begun, and that they would fight for freedom until they were extirpated, while the latter boldly declared that the time had not yet come for a rising, and that neither insurrections nor insurgents existed in Macedonia.

The Turkish troops carried out their task with their usual unscrupulousness. Several Christian villages were destroyed, some of their inhabitants were massacred, and crowds of old men, women and children fled across the frontier into Bulgaria. A mass meeting was held at Sofia, under the auspices of the Macedonian Committee, to protest to the Powers against "Turkish atrocities," and by the middle of November the insurrection collapsed. It had nowhere struck deep root, and

though it met with a certain amount of sympathy in the purely Bulgarian districts, the number of the inhabitants who actually joined the insurgent bands was small. Moreover, the insurgents treated the Mahomedan inhabitants as cruelly as the Turkish troops did the Christians, and they burnt even Christian villages when the peasantry refused to supply them with provisions and ammunition. Yet, although the larger bands had been defeated and dispersed, it soon became evident that the lull in the Macedonian troubles was but temporary. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and the withdrawal of most of the Bulgarian raiders beyond the frontier, several small armed bands still remained in the country, obtaining food and shelter in the remoter villages and in some districts exercising a kind of independent jurisdiction over the people. The assassinations and other crimes perpetrated by the emissaries of the Macedonian Committee continued unchecked, and the culprits were rarely, if ever, brought to justice. The state of desperation to which a large proportion of the naturally submissive Christian population was reduced by the maladministration of the Government and the outrages of the insurgents made the situation a very perilous one, as the peasants, long the victims of an iniquitous system of taxation, were now harried both by the insurgent bands and the Government troops and gendarmes, and their homes had in many instances been pillaged and burnt, so that they had nothing more to lose.

Albania was in almost as disturbed a condition during the latter part of the year as Macedonia. Italian influence, owing to the efforts of the Società Dante Alighieri, made considerable progress among the Christian population; there were nearly 500 Italian schools, an Albano-Italian college at San Demetrio, and a technical and commercial school at Skutari. In August the Albanian League (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1897, p. 314) addressed a petition to the Sultan asking for the grant of autonomy to the Albanian districts of Skutari, Kossovo, and Janina, under a national governor, Prince Aladro Kastriota, an ex-diplomatist who claimed descent from the Albanian hero Skanderbeg. The League had, however, very little influence in the country, and the Prince, a wealthy man who resides abroad, seems to have been merely a tool in the hands of unscrupulous agitators. Albania possesses no elements out of which an autonomy could be formed; the country is sterile, with no industry or commerce, and its population, 1,500,000, belongs to different religions and tribes who detest each other and are continually fighting among themselves. Numerous outrages

were perpetrated upon the Bulgarian inhabitants, who are Orthodox Greeks by religion, by Albanian bands composed of Mussulmans, and the Albanian Christians, who are Roman Catholics, suffered equally from the depredations of their Mahomedan countrymen. The appointment of a Russian consul at Mitrovitza (see p. 324) was resented by the Mussulmans and