The notification to the Powers in October of the AngloGerman Agreement (see p. 304) met with but a cold reception at St. Petersburg. In its reply the Russian Government "virtually" accepted the principle of "the open door," as also that of maintaining undiminished "the territorial condition of the Chinese Empire," and with regard to the clause by which England and Germany reserve to themselves the right of coming to a preliminary understanding as to the eventual steps to be taken for the protection of their interests should any third Power make use of the existing complications to obtain territorial advantages, it simply referred England and Germany to its declarations as to the temporary character of its occupation of Niu-Chwang and Manchuria.

At the beginning of November the total number of Russian troops in China and along the Chinese frontier in Siberia was 3,900 officers and 173,000 men, with 340 guns. Although the Chinese troops in Manchuria had been completely routed and disarmed, the speedy establishment of order in that province was not expected in consequence of the development of brigandage and guerilla warfare by fanatics. A large force was also necessary to protect the line of railway, which extended over 1,300 miles. As regards the railway from Tien-tsin to Shan-haiKwan, which belonged to an English company, and before the war had been worked by English officials, but had since been taken over by the Russian troops, Russia first undertook to return it to the allies; but subsequently, on the arrival of Prince Ukhtomsky with a mission from St. Petersburg, she decided to retain it "in the interests of China" until her troops were withdrawn from the country. The protests of the English press against this decision, the permanent British control of the line having been secured both by treaty with China and by the Anglo-Russian protocol (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1899, p. 318), produced a great deal of angry comment in the semiofficial papers of St. Petersburg, and the matter remained unsettled till the close of the year.

With France the relations of Russia remained very cordial, the two Powers going hand in hand in all the delicate negotiations with regard to China, even where French interests had for that purpose to be subordinated to Russian ones. On the investment in September of the French President, M. Loubet, with the order of St. Andrew, the Czar called him his "very dear friend," and laid stress on the value of the accord between the two countries "for the maintenance of the general peace, and in November the Czar sent him a telegram on the occasion of the unveiling of the statue of the late President Carnot, in which he referred to the latter's "active co-operation in the great work of the close rapprochement in an essentially pacific purpose" of France and Russia. With England and Germany there were constant bickerings in consequence of the appointment of Count Waldersee and the attempted encroachments of

the Russian generals in China on the English rights, but there is no reason to believe that the outpourings of the semi-official Russian papers on these subjects in any way represented the views of the Czar, whose illness detained him at Livadia in the autumn and winter. Dr. Leyds was received by him at Peterhof on August 25, but the reply given to Mr. Kruger when he asked if he could have an audience of the Czar was such that he had to abandon his plan of going to Russia. Considerable importance was attached at St. Petersburg to the appointment in December of a Russian consul at Bombay, shortly after that of one at Prague, both appointments being represented as of great value for the prospects of Russian trade with India and Bohemia respectively.

II. TURKEY AND THE MINOR STATES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

Another massacre of Armenians in the district of Sasun was the chief incident in Turkey during the year. The number of victims was variously estimated in the consular reports at from 60 to 400, and the British Vice-consul at Van proceeded to Bitlis to investigate the matter. On his way he was attacked by some Kurds, who appear to have been the chief agents in the massacre. Information having been given to the Turkish authorities that there were some "Armenian revolutionists" in a village called Spaghank, in the Sasun district, the village was surrounded by a strong force of troops under the military commander of Bitlis. The Armenians attempted to defend themselves, but the troops forced their way into the village, and all the inhabitants were then put to the sword and the village burnt to the ground. Some took refuge in a church, upon which the troops surrounded the building with fuel and set light to it, thereby suffocating the people inside, among whom were a priest, a woman, and a child. The Sultan, in consequence of representations made to him by the foreign ambassadors on the subject, dismissed the commandant at Bitlis and ordered a committee to proceed to the spot and punish the persons found guilty of having taken part in the

massacre.

In September the Sultan held a jubilee celebration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession, and Admiral Sir John Fisher was appointed a special delegate to present her Majesty's congratulations to him. Waterworks, a university, and a medical college and hospital were to be constructed at Constantinople at the Sultan's expense in commemoration of the occasion, together with a railway to Mecca and a telegraph line to the Hedjaz. The British squadron at Lemnos was illuminated, and the representatives of the other Powers also took part in the celebration. Shortly after the Shah of Persia paid a visit to the Sultan and was received with great honours.

Towards the end of the year some alarm was caused by the condition of Macedonia and Albania. In the former province there were some hundreds of assassinations of Greeks by Bulgarians, and in the latter one Mussulman chief alone was stated to have caused more than 200 Christians to be put to death. One Christian village was burnt, in two others the Turks carried away a number of Christian women, and in a third several persons were murdered because no ransom was paid for them.

In November, Prince George of Greece, whose term of office as High Commissioner of Crete was to expire in the following year (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1898, p. 284), proceeded to the chief European courts to negotiate as to his political position and that of the island under his administration for the future, as considerable difficulties had been caused by its remaining nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, although as regards all internal matters it was autonomous. The desire of the great majority of the Cretans was that they should stand in some sort of federal relation to the Greek kingdom, but that they should be wholly independent of that State as regards their internal affairs.

A very warlike feeling was created between Bulgaria and Roumania by the assassination of Professor Michaleano and other Roumanians by men who declared that they were acting under the orders of the Macedonian revolutionary committee at Sofia. The victims were chiefly wealthy merchants of Macedonian origin, who, being naturalised Roumanian citizens, sympathised with the Roumanian movement in Macedonia, but declined to support the Bulgarian movement directed by the Bulgarian revolutionary committee. Strong representations on the subject were made to Bulgaria by the Roumanian Government, supported by those of Germany, Austria and Italy, but the only reply was that the Bulgarian Government was prepared to prosecute the Bulgarian-Macedonians at Sofia on the production of evidence of their complicity in the crime, but that it saw no ground for interference so long as such evidence was not forthcoming. Shortly after, however, a more conciliatory note was sent to Bucharest, stating that the public prosecutor at Sofia had been instructed to open a judicial investigation into the matter. Meanwhile the Bulgarian military authorities fortified Widdin, Nikopol, and Sistova, the chief places on the Danube facing Roumanian territory, and steps were taken to mobilise the Roumanian army. It soon became clear that for Bulgaria to push matters to a war would have been an act of suicide, as Roumania had the support, not only of the Triple Alliance, but also of Turkey, Servia and Greece. In the course of the inquiry the accused not only confessed their guilt, but declared that they had been ordered by the president of the Macedonian committee also to kill the King of Roumania. On the other hand, the Macedonian committee, which had fre

quently received encouragement and support from the Bulgarian authorities ever since the time of M. Stambouloff, had become so strong as almost to have got beyond the control of the Government.

The trial at Sofia of the members of the Macedonian committee and the other persons implicated had not concluded at the end of the year, though at Bucharest a number of men charged with the assassination of Professor Michaleano and conspiring to assassinate the King were sentenced to various periods of imprisonment with hard labour. In the meanwhile the Bulgarian Cabinet resigned, owing to the refusal of M. Radoslavoff, the Minister of the Interior, to co-operate any further with the other ministers. As M. Radoslavoff had been by far the most powerful member of the late Cabinet, of which he had aspired to be the head, he was called upon by Prince Ferdinand to form a new Ministry, but none of his former colleagues would serve with him, and he was even deserted by a number of his followers. The result was that the late premier, M. Ivantchoff, formed a new Cabinet, of which the strongest member was General Petroff, who succeeded M. Radoslavoff as Minister of the Interior, and that the Sobranye was dissolved in order to obtain an assembly in which M. Radoslavoff's adherents should be less numerous, and an opportunity be given for the expression of public opinion as to the best means of meeting the country's liabilities. The revival of the old Turkish tithe, or payment of a tenth of the agricultural produce in kind, which had been introduced by the late Government for this purpose, had given rise to such gross abuses that in several districts the peasantry had risen in arms against the Government collectors.

In Roumania also the chief difficulty of the Government was finance. The actual deficit amounted to nearly 43,000,000 lei, and a large portion of the outstanding arrears was practically irrecoverable. The harvest, though fair, had disappointed general expectation, and there was a falling off in almost every department of revenue. The proposals of the Government for meeting the above deficit included the sale of the cigarette paper monopoly to the Berlin Disconto-Gesellschaft for 15,000,000 lei, the sale of the petroleum-bearing undersoil in the Western Carpathians for 10,000,000 lei, the disposal of the Government's shares in the National Bank for 13,000,000 lei, and the sale of a portion of the State forests for 5,000,000 lei.

Some sensation was caused in the latter part of the year by the assumption by the Prince of Montenegro of the title of "Royal Highness," and this revived the rumours of the approaching establishment, under Russian patronage, of a southern Slav confederacy under the prince's sceptre. It turned out, however, that the new title had been assumed by the prince at the request of his chief subjects in recognition of the fortieth anniversary of his accession to the Montenegrin

throne. The new title was recognised by all the European Powers. The idea of a South Slavonian confederacy was, however, really broached in the Russian and Servian press, though not in connection with the new title of the Prince of Montenegro, but with that of a projected railway connecting the Black Sea with the Montenegrin port of Scutari, on the Adriatic, and passing through Servia, Albania and Montenegro.

In Servia great rejoicing was produced by the announcement by King Alexander in July of his betrothal to Madame Draga Maschin, a widow who was formerly one of the ladies in waiting to Queen Nathalie, and the chief reason of the general satisfaction was that it was believed this event would remove from the country once for all the baleful influence of the ex-King Milan, who had strongly opposed the match. The announcement was followed by the resignation of the Ministry and the proclamation of a political amnesty, in consequence of which the sentences. passed on the accused in the great state trial of the preceding year (see ANNUAL REGISTER, 1899, p. 322) were either remitted altogether or greatly reduced. Ex-King Milan then left the country, first resigning his post of commander-in-chief of the Servian Army. The first sovereign to congratulate King Alexander on his approaching marriage was the Emperor of Russia, and the marriage was solemnised on August 5.

CHAPTER IV.

MINOR STATES OF EUROPE.

AMONG the minor States of Europe Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland have continued to give the example of a prudent and cautious policy, of steady industrial and commercial progress, of practical solicitude for the working classes; whilst in their international relations they displayed that combination of dignity and reserve which in different degrees has been an hereditary quality in all three countries. Each one was concerned in the attempt to solve the question of old-age pensions and insurance against workmen's accidents which was perplexing all civilised nations, and whilst the Netherlands with Switzerland had the honour and the advantage of becoming the seat of great international movements in favour of peace, Belgium continued to be the field for various bold and original experiments in the question of political suffrage. In the course of the year 1900 the last-named country abandoned the system of plural voting adopted in 1893 in favour of proportional representation and returned to the scrutin de liste which had fallen out of favour elsewhere. Lastly, whilst statesmen were engaged in rallying