The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-12 00:00:00

THE BULGARIAN CRISIS.

A conspiracy organised by Bulgarian refugees in
Servia, for invading Bulgaria simultaneously with an
invasion from the Dobrudsha, has been discovered by
the Servian Government, which at once took steps to
prevent the intended movement. No formal meeting
of Ambassadors had taken place on Monday at Con-
stantinople in connection with the Bulgarian question,
although their Excellencies had been waited upon by
the Bulgarian delegates in the Turkish capital. It
was understood that the Porte will submit three can-
didates for the Throne to the Sobranye, among them
being the Prince of Mingrelia.

The military officers stationed at Philippopolis have
received letters from some of the exiled rebel
Bulgarian officers, informing them that Bulgaria will
shortly be the scene of a general revolution, and that,
accordingly, unless the hitherto loyal officers change
their political opinions and go over to the Zankoffite
ctnd Russian Party, they have nothing to expect
but to be sacrificed—that is, to be cashiered
and ruined. On learning that these communi-
cations bad proceeded from the rebel Bulgarian officers
in Adrianople, the Porte ordered them and all the
Zankoffite refugees to leave at once for Constantinople,
where they will be kept under the surveillance of the
authorities.
The conference between the representatives of the
Iwo parties of Bulgaria and the Grand Vizier and Said
Pasha was to have taken place on Monday, but had
to bo postponed owing to the reception of the Am-
bassadors.

A Vienna telegram on Wednesday states that
Prince Alexander of Oldenburg is now regarded as
the likeliest candidate for the throne of Bulgaria.
M. Zaukoff, in an interview with Kiamil Pasha, the
Turkish Grand Vizier, stated that in his conversa-
tions with the Bulgarian delegates the latter had
given evidence of a spirit of conciliation, and he hoped
that an amicable settlement would be arrived at. A
meeting was held at Constantinople on Tuesday, at
which the Grand Vizier, M. Zankoff, and the Bulgarian
delegates were present, when an agreement is reported
to have been arrived at to reconstitute the
Regency and to recognise the Zankoffist party.

On Tuesday a Blue Book and a Parliamentary
paper oil Turkey were issued. The principal de-
spatches refer to the events in Bulgaria. Writing on '
November 1, 1886, to Lord Iddesleigh, Sir R. Morier
gives an account of a conversation he had had with M.
de Giers respecting the arrival of Russian war ships at
Varna, and the proceedings of General Kaulbars.
"When asked (says Sir R. Morier) whether instructions
had been sent from St. Petersburg authorising the use
of force by the ships, M. de there did not give me a
Perfectly direct answer; nevertheless, his words dis-
tinctly conveyed the meaning that no such orders had
been sent. I said that the Russian Consul at Varna
had threatened bombardment. He absolutely refused
tit believe this, and said that the idea of Russia's bom-
barding a Bulgarian town was absurd on the face of
it. His Excellency's language as regards the three
days' ultimatum was very different from the above,
and quite explicit. General Kaulbars had been in-
structed to insist under this threat on the immediate
cessation of the ill-treatment of Russian subjects and
protected Bulgarians. The matter was one which
concerned Russia only, and was wholly uncon-
nected with international arrangements respecting
Bulgaria, on which Russia stood on a line with
other Governments; for she, and she only. was
the judge of what concerned her own dignity." In
another despatch which is given M. de Giers says:
" Russia, who called Bulgaria into existence, has
certainly no wish to attack her independence. She
wishes to restore it to her. It is the right and the
duty of Russia not to permit that the Bulgarian
people, for whom she has fought, the people who do
not concern themselves with politics, but who work,
who wish to live in peace and in order, and who non-
tai within themselves the germ of the country's future,
should be oppressed by a minority of Radical agita-
tors, should be turned aside from their natural course
and transformed into a centre of anarchy, of revolu-
tion, and of hostility towards the nation which gave
them their national life, and which has no other desire
thai to preserve it to them. His Majesty the Em-
peror does not despair of achieving that object, his
Majesty will continue to devote his efforts to attain it.
He will strive after it by pacific means, and without
departing from treaty obligations, as long as
the latter are equally respected on the other
Power. These are the circumstances under which

our august master will await the development of the
situation." In reply to this dispatch Lord Iddesleigh
Bald: "Her Majesty's Government will be happy to
take Dart in any discussions between the Powers
parties to the Berlin Treaty with a view to the attain-
ment of these objects, whether in the form of an ex-
change of ideas, of a conference of plenipotentiaries,
or of an International Commission to determine the
conditions of the union between Bulgaria and Eastern
Roumelia. It would, they think, be most in accord-
ance with the course of procedure prescribed in the
Treaty of Berlin on'the occasion of the original con-
stitution of the principality, that such deliberations
should precede any decision as to the choice of the
new ruler of Bulgaria, and her Majesty's Govern-
ment wouid themselves prefer to reserve their opinion
on this point until the conditions of the union have
bcen entwined and settled?'