but ont envoyé des émissaires à Tornavo, Philibé, Varna, et Sophia. Cette nouvelle est confirmée par l'un des journaux paraissant en Bulgarie. || Bien qu'il ignore jusqu'à quel point des résolutions prises par les Comités de Sophia pourraient réussir et jusqu'à quelle limite le Gouvernement Bulgare les laisserait agir dans le cas où ce Congrès serait décidé, il ne manquera pas de prendre toutes les mesures pour en empêcher la réunion. Il ajoute que les Comités sont très actifs en ce moment pour répandre leur propagande néfaste. Dans ces circonstances le Grand Vizir invite le Ministre des Affaires Étrangères à communiquer cet état de choses aux Puissances.

Communication du Ministre de l'Intérieur au Ministre des Affaires

Etrangères, le 12 Mai, 1902.

Des bandes du Comité Bulgare fréquentent les villages habités par les Chrétiens pour faire de la propagande et elles n'hésitent pas à tuer les personnes qui s'opposent à leurs agissements néfastes. || Dans le Vilayet de Monastir ces bandes ont parmi les personnes qui refusaient de leur donner de l'argent tué deux habitants et aussi le fils du guide du Capitaine Mukhtar, qui était aux environs du village à garder ses moutons. Ce malheureux fut pris, entraîné jusqu'à la porte de sa propre maison, où il a été égorgé; son frère a été également mis à mort par un des rebelles que le sort avait désigné pour ce meurtre.

Communication du Ministre de l'Intérieur au Haridjié le 14 Mai, 1902.

Les nommés Cambir et Sherif appartenant au village d'Isnova, district de Radovitza, qui allaient voir leurs enfants à Djuma-Bala, ont été rencontrés pendant la nuit par une trentaine de Bulgares près des Balkans de Karagouslé. On leur a lié les mains et ils ont été emmenés aux Balkans de Sarigouslé. Là Sherif a été mis à mort et Cambir grièvement blessé. Ce fait ayant été porté à la connaissance des autorités Impériales par le blessé, on a envoyé immédiatement un détachement de soldats et on a pris d'autres mesures pour s'emparer des coupables. Londres, le 4 Juin, 1902.

Nr. 12825. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Der Gesandte in Sofia an den Minister des Ausw. Bemerkungen zu den türkischen Beschwerden.

(Extract.)

Sophia, June 16, 1902. (June 23.)

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 7th instant, transmitting to me copies of two

Memoranda communicated to you by the Turkish Ambassador in regard to the proceedings of the Macedonian Committees in Bulgaria and of their emissaries in the Turkish provinces, and instructing me to furnish my observations on the statements made in them, and on the request of the Porte that the Great Powers should press the Bulgarian Government to dissolve the Macedonian Committee. || The first Memorandum contains, in the first place, a communication from the Grand Vizier to the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, dated the 7th May, and relating to the efforts of Sarafoff's party to convoquer un Congrès pour fusionner les différents Comités". This, no doubt, refers to the attempt, the failure of which I had the honour to report in my despatch of the 28th May, to hold a meeting of representatives of Macedonian Societies for the purpose of bringing about the resignation of the present Committee and the election of a fresh one. It is not clear whether the expression „fusionner les différents Comités" means to bring the different local Societies an their managing Committees into agreement", or "to bring about the absorption of the present Central Committee by the old one". The object is the same in either case the re-establishment of the influence of Sarafoff and his party and it has failed for the present. The attempt is to be renewed at the meeting of the ordinary Macedonian Congress in July, when I understand it will be met by the exposure of Sarafoff's peculations to the amount of some 150 000 fr. It is possible, however, that the meeting of the Congress will be postponed. || The statement in the same communication that ,,les Comités sont très actifs en ce moment" is, I think, exaggerated, whether it refers to the Central Committee, to Sarafaff's organization, or to the local Societies. The first Memorandum continues with two communications from the Turkish Minister of the Interior to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, which only shows - what is a matter of common knowledge that brigand or insurgent bands are active in Macedonia, and that the authorities are unable to capture or disperse them. The statement that these bands do not hesitate to kill other Christians who are not of their way of thinking, is undoubtedly true, and the fact is the direct consequence of the dissensions in the Councils of the Macedonian Societies. It can hardly be wholly distasteful to the Turkish Government. || A recent number of the „Pravo“, a new Macedonian paper published at Sophia, describes how a band of some 150 men under one Doncho, an emissary of Mikhailovski's Committee (not the man of the same name concerned in the abduction of Miss Stone), is operating in the neighbourhood of the Vardar, sometimes engaged with the Turkish troops, and sometimes with the bands employed

by the organisation intérieure", whose whereabouts Doncho even denounces to the Turkish authorities. || The second Memorandum communicated to your Lordship by the Turkish Ambassador, and dated the 4th June, suggests that the Great Powers should press the Bulgarian Government to dissolve the (Central) Macedonian Committee. Upon this point I have the honour to observe that the reply of the Bulgarian Government to any demand of that nature would be that the Committee is a lawfully constituted body which it is impossible to dissolve so long as it does not transgress the limits of legality. I beg leave to add that its dissolution if it were possible, would, in my opinion, do more harm than good even from the point of view of the Turkish Government. The consequence of it would be that the Committee would become a secret body, whose operations would be less easily controlled than they are at present. The separation of Sarafoff's party from the official Committee has not made their action any less dangerous to the cause of order. || The Italian Agent (the only one who has yet received from his Government this communication of the Turkish Ambassador) and the Austro-Hungarian Agent have already reported upon it to their Governments in the above sense. The German Consul - General and the French and Russian Acting Agents appear to be of the same opinion. || I have the honour to add that in my opinion it is impossible to ask a Bulgarian Government to suppress all expression of sympathy with the populations of Macedonia, such as finds vent in the support of the Macedonian Societies in the Principality, and that any Government which attempted it would be very short-lived. It is the duty of the Government, of which, no doubt, they frequently require to be reminded by the foreign Agents, to see to it, that legitimate and peaceful agitation is not distorted into criminal action.

Nr. 12826. GROSSBRITANNIEN.

Der Gesandte in Sofia an den Minister des Ausw. Hat Vorstellungen gegen die mazedonische Agitation erhoben.

Sophia, July 16, 1902. (July 21.)

My Lord, My attention having been called to an article in the „Reformi“, the organ of the Macedonian Committee, declaring that the system of small bands has proved a failure, and that the only thing that remains to be done is to raise a general insurrection, and calling upon all patriots on both sides of the border to unite for the purpose, I went yesterday morning to the Bulgarian Foreign Office and, not finding the Minister, spoke to the Secretary-General about it. I said I had heard

that the Committee had received a warning from the Chief of the Police to restain their language and their actions, but it appeared to me that something more than a warning was required to meet the case of such an article as that of the „Reformi", and that the responsibility of the Government was gravely involved by the escape of Colonel Yankoff, who was, by way of being watched across the frontier (as reported in my preceding despatch), and by the existence at Kustendil of the principal depôt of arms and ammunition, destined for Macedonian revolutionary work. The Secretary-General professed complete ignorance, but said he would mention what I had said to the Minister. Later in the day he brought me a message from his Excellency to the effect that, on account of the article in the „Reformi“, and of other proceedings on their part, the Committee had been warned that they ran the risk of being suppressed, and of having those of their number who are Macedonians, and not Bulgarian subjects, expelled the country. || I shall return to the subject the first time I see the Minister. F. Elliot.

Nr. 12827. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Der Botschafter in Konstantinopel an den Minister des Ausw. Derösterreichischungarische und russische Botschafter haben gemeinsam Vorstellungen bei der Pforte erhoben.

Therapia, July 23, 1902. (July 28.)

My Lord, I was not surprised to learn a few days ago that the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador had been making serious representations to the Sublime Porte with a view to arousing the latter to a more lively sense of the dangerous course which events seem to have been taking for some time past in Macedonia. || Mr. Block was informed, confidentially, at the Sublime Porte, that both Baron de Calice and M. Zinovieff, the Russian Ambassador, had insisted in an interview with the Grand Vizier and the Foreign Minister on something being done to prevent the Macedonian question assuming a more threatening aspect. The matter was accordingly thrashed out in a series of conferences between the Grand Vizier, the Foreign Minister, and the Minister of the Interior, and a Report to the Palace drawn up urging that special instructions might be at once sent to the Valis in the Macedonian and Albanian provinces. The nature of these instructions, which had received the Sultan's approval, Mr. Block did not apprehend very clearly; but he gathered that greater powers than they had hitherto enjoyed are to be given to the Valis, and that it is intended that they shall be consulted in future in the appoint

ment and dismissal of officials, and take all necessary and urgent measures for the preservation of order, without referring every point, as they now do, to the Palace. || M. de Calice has since admitted to me the general accuracy of this information, except that he was not aware of the precise decision come to by the consulting Ministers. He told me that he had confined himself to pointing out the danger, and that he had not recommended any particular line of action. His Excellency appeared satisfied on the whole with the alleged result of his representations, in which he did not say that the Russian Ambassador had joined. It was something to have got the Sublime Porte to move in the matter, and if a beginning had really been made it would be easier in future to urge the adoption of further measures. || Since writing the above I have been informed by the Grand Vizier that, in addition to the instructions already sent to the Valis, of which he gave me no details, he had agreed with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Interior to recommend to the Council of Ministers the adoption of a series of reforms in Macedonia and Albania, in order to place on a better footing the system of public instruction, agriculture, and commerce and trade in those regions, and to afford the inhabitants a better guarantee that the public peace and security will be maintained. The nature of these reforms, if accepted by the Council, would depend on the Report of a Technical Commission which it was intended to dispatch to the provinces in question.

M. de Bunsen.

Nr. 12828. GROSSBRITANNIEN.

Der Botschafter in Konstantinopel an den Minister des Ausw. Bericht über die geplanten Reformen in Mazedonien.

Therapia, August 11, 1902. (August 18.)

My Lord, || Little, if any, progress appears to have been made with the projected reforms for Macedonia, as recommended by the Special Commission of Ministers, presided over by the Grand Vizier. The AustroHungarian Ambassador tells me that the Council of Ministers issued a Report in favour of the proposals of the Special Commission, which, as already reported in my despatch of the 23rd ultimo, were intended to effect improvements in the field of public instruction, trade, commerce, agriculture, the administration of Justice, and the maintenance of order and security. It was also recommended that larger powers of initiative. should be given to the provincial Governors, obviating constant reference to the Sublime Porte in an emergency. Baron de Calice hears that the