CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. Presented to the House of Commons by Command of Her Majesty, in pursuance of their LONDON: PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS: RETURN to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 17th March, 1879; for "Copy of a despatch from Lord Salisbury to Lord A. Loftus, dated the 26th day of January." My Lord, No. 1. The Marquis of Salisbury to Lord A. Loftus. Foreign Office, January 26, 1879. IN his letter to your Excellency of the 3rd instant* (a copy of which was inclosed your despatch of the same date) Prince Gortchacow makes the following observation : with "Si les difficultés continuelles suscitées au sein des Commissions Internationales auxquelles cette tâche a été confiée devaient en retarder l'exécution jusqu'à l'époque fixée pour l'évacuation des contrées occupées par nos troupes, il en résulterait une situation dont je n'ai pas besoin d'exposer les dangers, et dont le Cabinet Impérial répudie la responsabilité." In addressing these words to your Excellency his Highness appears to intimate an opinion that any divergencies which have arisen in the discussions of the International Commissions, and which, as he justly observes, may lead to serious embarrassment, are due to the resistance offered in each of them by the English Delegates. An examination of the Protocols, which are by this time in your hands, will clearly indicate the erroneous character of his Highness' impression. If the English Delegates had been habitually found voting alone against the Delegates of the other six Powers, and especially if in any case they had stood in that position in the final division which definitively recorded a divergence of opinion among the Powers, and preceded the separation of the Commissioners, there would have been a fair ground for the complaint made by Prince Gortchacow. But this has not been the case. In the Bulgarian Frontier Commission there was found in the end an insuperable difference among the Commissioners in respect to the boundary near Silistria, and this was recorded in a division in which the Russian Delegates voted on one side and all the other Delegates on the other. In the Commission for defining the Southern Boundary of Eastern Roumelia, there was in like manner a difference of opinion upon the question, whether the attitude of the Bulgarian mob, and of the Russian authorities in respect to it, was such as would justify the Commission in continuing at that time to prosecute its work. But in this case as in the other, the division shows the Russian Delegate on the one side and all the other Delegates upon the other. The International Commission for the organization of Eastern Roumelia has happily not yet arrived at any divergence of opinion of a character to arrest its labours. But in such divisions as there have been, the English Delegate has commonly found himself in accord with the majority of his colleagues. The real causes of the delay which has attended the proceedings of this Commission have within the last two or three days been indicated in a resolution which was moved by the Austrian Delegate, and which met with no negative vote except that of Russia. of I do not recall these circumstances to your Excellency's mind for the purpose inferring that any kind of blame is due on account of them to the Russian Commissioners. Doubtless they had substantial reasons for the action they thought it right to take. I refer to them merely for the purpose of demurring to the accusation contained in Prince Gortchacow's note, and pointing out that, as against the English Delegates, the charge of delaying the progress of the various Commissions by the creation of needless difficulties in their proceedings is wholly destitute of foundation. * This despatch will be included in a collection of correspondence about to be presented to Parliament respecting the European Commissions appointed for the Demarcation of Frontiers under the Treaty of Berlin. Her Majesty's Government fully coincide with his Highness in the opinion that the execution of the Treaty of Berlin is a delicate task, which requires alike goodwill and harmony among the Governments and their Agents. Her Majesty's Government will continue to impress upon all their Representatives who have a share in superintending the execution of the Treaty the imperative necessity of pursuing the conciliatory policy indicated by his Highness. But, at the same time, it would not be fair upon the Russian Government if we did not take the opportunity of pointing out some material respects in which, according to our information, the Agents of Ilis Imperial Majesty are not acting up to the loyal and enlightened policy which he has declared his intention of pursuing, but are rather pursuing a course calculated to impede and to imperil the tranquil execution of the Treaty of Berlin. In order to prevent resistance to the execution of the Treaty, it is essential to persuade those to whom it is unacceptable that it will certainly be carried into effect. No longer distracted by the expectation of some other arrangement which they may prefer, they will be able to estimate more justly the advantages which the Treaty offers to them, and will submit to it without active objection. Both for the purpose of executing the Treaty, and of preventing any possible renewal of bloodshed, it was to have been hoped that the Russian functionaries who were entrusted with the temporary government of the province would have made it their duty to labour to this end. In so doing they would only have been giving due effect to the resolution proclaimed by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia as one of the Signatories of the Treaty. This has not, however, been their policy. On the contrary, the distinct tendency of their action has been to persuade the inhabitants of Eastern Roumelia that it will not be replaced under the political and military dominion of the Sultan, but that it is likely, on the contrary, to form part of the Principality of Bulgaria; and to give those among them who desired this result the means of resisting the establishment of a separate Government when the period arrived for terminating the Russian administration of the Province. The general administration of Eastern Roumelia, which remains in the hands of the Russian Government, is not placed under an independent Commander or Governor residing in the province, but is subject to the Governor-General of Bulgaria. The capital from which Eastern Roumelia is now governed is not Philippopolis, but Sophia; and this arrangement, as far as we can ascertain, is to be continued up to the evacuation, Thus, up to the last hour of the Russian occupation, the people of Eastern Roumelia will, in matters of administration, be in the closest union with Bulgaria. The change from one system to the other will be as violent and sudden as it can be made, and those who are disposed to resist it may draw from the action of their present Government a plain encouragement to do so. The arrangements with regard to a local militia indicate the same intentions. A large number of recruits from Eastern Roumelia have been armed, and are being sedulously drilled within the Province. Under the Treaty they ought to be placed under officers named by the Sultan. But actually these recruits are being drilled under Russian officers. They are mixed up indiscriminately in regiments with the militia of the Principality of Bulgaria; and the staff of this combined force- the militia both of the Principality and the Province-is at Sophia. Instead, therefore, of a local militia, consisting entirely of Roumeliotes under officers selected by the Sultan, there is a combined militia of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, under Russian officers, of whom the chiefs are quartered in Bulgaria. Her Majesty's Government cannot believe that this arrangement is in accordance with the wishes of the Emperor. They are convinced that it is not in accordance with either the spirit or the letter of the Treaty of Berlin. The time is now not far distant when the Russian army and the Russian administration will evacuate the province. The union which under their dominion has been maintained between Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia will be dissolved. The military dispositions to which I have referred have the double effect of disposing the most active and martial portion of the inhabitants to struggle against the execution of the Treaty in this respect, and of placing in their hands the means of doing so, not indeed with ultimate success, but for a time sufficient to involve their country in fresh calamities. Their resistance cannot be effectual, for it will be against forces of greatly superior number. But it may lead to a renewal of the unexampled sufferings to which these regions have been subjected during the recent war, and which have been equally deplored in Russia and in England. The responsibility of encouraging illusions which may lead to these consequences will be very great. It appears to Her Majesty's Government to be highly desirable that the temporary Government of Eastern Roumelia should be wholly independent of Bulgaria; and they |