The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-24 00:00:00

GLADSTONE.

The Servian Minister presents his compliments to
the editor of the Times and begs to enclose a copy of
his letter to Mr. Gladstone in answer to Mr. Glad-
stone's letter to Mr. Gueshoff, which appeared in the
Times of Saturday last.
, Servian Legation, 7, Gloucester-place, Oct. 19.

7, Gloucester-place, Hyde-park, Oct. 17.
Sir,—A few days ago I read, with deepest venera-
for you, your letter to M. de Itaveleye. Your words
—" I express myself with reserve, because my mind
is perplexed, for I see the Halgarian Union, excellent
in itself, may produce immeasurable evils "—were
touching and wiso. It was the cry of sorrow of a
great heart full of love and sympathy. It was the
cry of alarm from a statesman, to whom it is given to
see in more distant prospective than most mortal
can see. It was a fresh proof of your genuine inte-
rest for the Bulgarialis, and at the same time a fresh
proof that the Servians and the Greeks have a place
in your sympathetic preocccupation.
And now this morning I read your letter to M.
Gueshoff. You explain the meaning of your expres-
sions to M. de Laveleye, and you add that you
'entirely deprecate, so far as your knowledge goes,
movements like those apparently threatened by Servia
and Greece, "whose title to intrigue with countries
beyond their own borders you are entirely unable to
recognize."

I -venture to express most respectfully my deep
regret Oat you should have thought it just to qualify
the present attitude of Servia and Greece in the terms
which I have quoted from your letter.
Abstractly taken, no one within the sphere of moral
humanity has a title to intrigue wherever that may
be. Neither could any one have expected for
a moment that you, who have been so successfully
striving to raise politics to a higher standard of
morality, should ever be able to recognize anybody's
title to intrigue.
But practically the question is, do Servis and
Greece claim "a title to intrigue in the countries
beyond their own borders ? "

7rhough I have not the slightest doubt about the
unimpeachable morality of the patriotic movement
among the Greeks, yet I am not called to speak for
Greece, which is so ably represented in this country.
But knowing perfectly well the motives and the aims
of Servia's present attitude I feel it my duty to deny,
in most emphatic nianncr, that we are "intriguing in
the countries beyond our own borders."
It is true I do not see exactly what " borders " you
mean. If political, then I must take the liberty to
remind you that the Bulgarians were the first to go
beyond their own borders. If you think the Bul-
garians were justified in doing so, because on the other
side they had natural claims on political and ethno-
graphic grounds, then all I say is, that the Servians
and the Greeks have the same natural claims on the
same grounds beyond their own present political
borders. And surely there is no one who could assert
that our present political borders comprise all that we
ethnographically may claim as our own.
I believe I may fairly claim for my country that its
aims and motives have been perfectly clear and open
from the beginning, and that they have been com-
pletely free from even the slightest touch of intrigue.
It is our deep conviction that the independence and
freedom of all the Balkan nations can be secured
only by a-confederation, and that such a confedera-
tion is impossible, if one nation should attain to mate-
rial and political hegemony over others. Besides,
such a hegemony could be attained only by one
nation absorbing parts which ethnographically, his-
rically, and morally belong to others. We have
en against a policy which, in our opinion, is com-
omising the independence and freedom not only of
Servia, but of all Balkan nations. We have risen for
a political principle which, excluding the hegemony
of one race, prepares the way for a healthy and last-
ing defensive union against foreign invasion. Provi-
dence has created something like an ethnographic
balance among the principal nations of the Balkan
peninsula. We rise to prevent the ambition for
political hegemony destroying that natural basis for
the establishment and preservation of a political
equilibrium.
I do not know the motives of the statesmen who
worked out the Treaty of Berlin. But I know that
we desired the security of the political equilibrium,
and that we reconciled ourselves to the enormous
sacrifices which that treaty imposed on us, only
because we found that it established something like
the needed equilibrium. Now we hear scmetimes
that the Powers had no idea of establishing such a
thing. If so, the more the pity. And if so, the more
the need that two out of three principal Christian
nations in the peninsula should not lose this opportu-
nity of declaring, by words and by deeds, that they
consider the principle of political equilibrium—based
on the existence of the ethnographic balance—the
sine qua noa of our liberty and independence, the
corner-stone of the future confederation.
Naturally enough, Englishmen look at the Union of
Bulgaria and Itoumelia only in the light of their own
sympathies for Bulgarians. But not less natural it is
in us to look at that event in the light of some other
facts which are less known to outsiders, but which
touch us deeply. The Bulgarians, during the first
seven years of their political existence, have consis-
tently behaved as if Servians and Ureeks were quan-
tities which relay be left cr,nipletely out of all conside-
ration. They have been constantly annoying and
irritating the Servian people; and they have been
working assiduously to undermine by political agita-
tion even those Macedonian regions which Servians
and Greeks consider their lawful inheritance. No one
regretted more than we Servians that the Bulgarians
persisted in treating us in an unfair and unfriendly
manner. Only nine months ago we desired earnestly
to settle our differences in a friendly spirit. We
accepted even the proposals of their own Prince for
that settlement; but the Bulgarians rejected them,
and preferred to leave their relations with us in a
state of dangerous tension. And yet, after having
offended the Servians and alienated the Greeks, they
thought by a bold, though one-sided and precipitate
action, to accomplish an important stride in the rea-
lisation of the San Stefano scheme of a Great Bul-
garia, a scheme against which both Greeks and
Servians must defend themselves to the utmost.

No, sir, the responsibility for the disheartening events
in the east does not lie with us. We know very well
that without friendly co-operation of Bulgarians we
hardly can realise our national aspirations. But the
Bulgarians must learn, if not otherwise, then by hard
facts of bitter experience, that they also cannot
realise their own national and ligitimate aspirations
without the friendship of the Servians and the
Greeks.

I know—and I know it with something like pride—
that there is no other man in the British realm so
painfully and so deeply concerned about the present
events in the peninsula as you are. But do you nct
think that, through God's merciful provic:ence, from
this darkness which is now overshadowing the Balkan
may yet, and will, come light? The cloud will glide
away, and we shall, I trust, all be wiser and bettet
for the experience through which we are passing. If
Panslovenic interests are opposed to the Pan-
hellenic, the Servian interests are not opposed to the
Hellenic ones, nor must Bulgarian ones necessarily be
so. I hope God will preserve you long enough to see yet
cordial relations established and secured between the
Bulgarians, Servians, and Greeks, No man is more
in a position to contribute to that glorious obiect than
you are. Let us all bear your counsels of wisdom,
moderation, and justice. Preach to us all equally
the gospel of forbearance and fraternity. Let us all look
to you with equal confidence as to the great apostle
of our Christian and political regeneration. I say
Christian regeneration because the events of the last
seven years have confirmed me in my belief, that
political regeneration without the spirit of Christian
charity may prove a source of most dangerous
troubles and temptations.
I have the honour, Sir, to remain with the highest
consideration, your most obedient, bumble servant,
CH. MIJATOVICII.
To the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Scc.