In support of these demands, and possibly also to overawe
Bulgaria, a Russian squadron has been despatched to Turkish waters, and is now anchored in Iniada Bay, on the Black Sea, some sixty miles from the Bosphorus. Ger- many, though angrily denouncing Bulgaria, and affecting to believe Turkish stories, has as yet done nothing ; while the line taken by Great Britain and France is still ob- scure. Officially they are both "in accord with Russia and Austria." Much depends on the action of Bulgaria, where the Ministers, in the absence of Prince Ferdinand, who has retired, pending events, to his Hungarian castle, have called out their Reserves, some forty-five thousand strong, "to protect their frontier." The expenditure embarrasses the Turkish Treasury, but the Sultan as yet has refused to declare war on Bulgaria; and at the end of the week all await final decisions. On the whole, the chances of an explosion which may compel Europe to coerce the Sultan are greater than the chance of a subsidence.
