LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MACEDONIA.
[To THE EDITOR 01 THE "SPECIATOF.."]
SIR,—I am afraid your article on the Macedonian question in the Spectator of September 19th overlooks the complete change that has taken place in the policy of Russia towards Turkey and her subject races since 1878. The Pan-Slav movement of that period, which was inspired not merely by national ambition but by generous humanitarian ideals, has given place to the rigid utilitarianism of the iron policy of centralisation, political, economic, and religious, which is represented to - day in Russia by the Plehves and the Pobiedonostzeffs. Within a very few years of the War of Liberation, Russia discovered that the Bulgarians had no intention of submitting blindly to the dictation of masterful Russian Residents. They meant to take Russia at her word, and whilst grateful to her for their liberation, they resolved to work out their own destinies for themselves, and not for the benefit merely of Russia. Thus when Russia, having at first encouraged the movement for the union of Eastern Roumelia with the Principality, declined to sanction a revolu- tion at Philippopoli at a moment which did not happen to suit her convenience, they dispensed with her sanction and carried out the union by a bloodless coup de main. Russia marked her displeasure by recalling all the Russian officers in the Bulgarian Service on the eve of the Servian attack upon Bulgaria, in the hope that her young Army, suddenly deprived of the services of its leaders, would be defeated, and the Bulgarians properly chastened. The Bulgarians were not defeated. Russia then proceeded, in the same spirit, actually to propose at the Constantinople Conference of Ambassadors that Turkey should receive a mandate from the Powers to occupy Eastern Ronmelia mann militari. Though she had the support of Austria and Germany, Great Britain, admirably served at Constantinople by Sir William White, and backed by France and Italy, refused to countenance such a step. The Russian proposal was dropped, and a diplomatic formula was ultimately discovered under which the union has endured to the present day. I need hardly recall the kidnapping of Prince Alexander and the boycotting of Bulgaria by Russia during the Sofia Regency and the early years of Prince Ferdinand's reign. It was not until after the murder of Stambouloff and the baptism of the infant Prince Boris into the Orthodox Church that Russia began to relent ; but she has never become reconciled to the sturdy independence which the Bulgarians have continued to show in all essentials.
The present Government at Sofia is especially distasteful to her because its members played a considerable part in defeat- ing her last attempt to secure controlling positions in the Bulgarian Army for the leading conspirators employed in kidnapping Prince Alexander. Until the Bulgarians have become more tractable Russia has no intention of strengthen- ing an element she distrusts by doing anything for the Macedonians. She is, in fact, pursuing exactly the same policy as she pursued at the time of the Armenian atrocities, when her diplomacy obstructed and defeated at every turn the well-meant efforts of Lord Salisbury to bring European pressure to bear upon the Sultan. Anything in the shape of autonomy for the Armenians might have meant another Bulgaria in her path in Asia Minor. How jealous she is of Armenian nationalism she has shown again since then,—first by driving the unfortunate Armenian refugees from Turkey back across the frontier into the Sultan's dominions, and more recently by the measures she has taken against the Armenians on her own territory, and the practical confiscation of the property of the Armenian Church.
In spite even of the close connection between the reigning families at Athens and at St. Petersburg, Russia never moved in 1897 until the Turkish. armies had crushed the Greek forces, though if she bad raised her little finger the Sultan would no more have ventured to march into Thessaly than he ventured to remain there in presence of the tardy veto of the Powers. Russia and Austria—and in this case Austria may practically be ignored, as in her distracted condition at home her one anxiety is to avoid any risk of falling out with her ally—have assumed an initiative of which they cannot shuffle off the responsibility by pretending that the other Powers might not ultimately be willing to leave them a free hand. If they really entertain any such apprehensions, they can easily put the matter to the test by stating that, in their opinion, such-and- such measures are necessary—let us say the occupation of the Macedonian vilayets or a naval demonstration at Con- stantinople—and inquiring whether the other Powers are prepared to acquiesce or to co-operate. But until they do so it is difficult not to believe that, for reasons of their own, they are perfectly willing to see the Sultan continue his bloody work upon the unfortunate Christians of Macedonia, whilst they reserve their righteous indignation for the Bulgarians of the Principality who allow themselves to get excited over the slaughter of a few thousands of their kinsmen. The intima- tion which Count Lamsdorff is stated to have conveyed to Sofia, that Turkey as the suzerain Power has a right to send troops into the vassal Principality for the purpose of pre- serving order, is none the less significant and none the less out- rageous because the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs fathers this suggestion upon the German Chancellor, who has, at least, the brutal courage of his opinions as the chartered
champion of the Sultan.—I am, Sir, &c., NEAR EAST.
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