Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/327

 1899.] Turkey. — Macedonia. [319

as "the Eussian Transvaal." In November the Czar and Czarina visited the German Imperial Court at Potsdam, and thereby manifested once more the rapprochement between the Emperor of Eussia and Germany, the latter of whom was notoriously averse to taking advantage of England's reverses in South Africa.

In October Eussia at length agreed that the long-standing dispute between her and the United States as to the seizure by Eussian cruisers of three American sealers in the Behring Sea should be settled by arbitration. The aggregate value of the sealers seized was estimated at $150,000, but the claims were chiefly on account of the sufferings of the officers and crews while they were detained. The cases differed from the claims presented by the British sealers and settled by the Behring Sea arbitration in this respect, that, while the British vessels were seized by American cutters on what the arbitration court de- clared to be the high seas, the Eussian warships seized the American sealers within seven miles of the Asiatic coast. Eussia contended that the marine jurisdiction of a country ex- tends to at least this distance. There was to be only one arbitrator, Dr. Asser, the Dutch jurist.

n. TURKEY AND THE SMALLER STATES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

In the early part of the year the disturbed condition of Macedonia caused a good deal of anxiety at the Porte. Besides sending considerable bodies of troops to the province, a counter movement to the agitation among the Christians was got up among the Mahometan population. A great meeting of Alba- nian notables was held at Ipek in February for the purpose of taking steps to defend the State and the Mahomedan religion against the disaffected Christian tribes of Old Servia, Montenegro, and Macedonia, and it was decided at this meeting to form a new Albanian League, the members of which were to pledge themselves to defend every inch of the Sultan's territory and to oppose any change in the administration of Macedonia. The Macedonian committees in Bulgaria, on the other hand, de- manded that Macedonia should be placed under a Bulgarian governor-general, assisted by a general assembly composed of representatives elected directly f>y the people, which was to decide on all questions connected with the internal administra- tion of the province, and to fix the Budget and the taxation, subject to a payment of 25 per cent, of the revenues for the general needs of the empire, and addressed an appeal to the Powers for their support. The demand was laid before the Porte by the Bulgarian Government, but, as was to be expected, was quietly ignored at Constantinople.

In October steps were at length taken to redress the grievances of the Armenians. An imperial irade was issued sanctioning the following measures • —