Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1901 — Bulgaria Recalls the Eastern Question. [ARTICLE]

Bulgaria Recalls the Eastern Question.

The regular perennial eastern question has been somewhat obscured during the last year by the far eastern question, but the Balkan states are still an object of continuous anxiety to European cabinets. One of these, the principality of Bulgaria is par-

ticularly troublesome just at present for several reasons. Its finances, which were fairly well managed during the earlier part of its history, are now in a deplorable condition. Recent governments have been extravagant in the matter of expenditures, and the treasury has suffered especially through a fatuous state railway scheme which ended in dead failure. Meantime the country has ijad a series of bad harvests, so that while the demand for taxes has increased the ability to pay them has decreased. As a result the problem of meeting the charges on the public debt has become a very serious one, and the government has been obliged already to pass some of its obligations. Naturally, therefore, its foreign creditors are very nervous, and resorts to new for-

eign loans in lieu of taxes are not the promising expedient they once were. The situation would be quite serious enough without political complications, but Bulgaria has these in abundance. The science of ministerial government is so poorly understood that ministers come and go in quick succession, and thus encourage the rise of factions. Furthermore, the capital, Sofia, is the seat of a foreign conspiracy. From this place a Macedonian committee engineers its plots against Turkey and seeks to embroil Bulgaria with that country. The Macedonians inhabit the southwestern provinces of Turkey, none of which is now known by their name, and the agitators demand an entirely new arrangement between their people and the Porte. Their scheme includes a dozen concessions and reforms which they have set forth in a memorial to the great powers, but although the memorial hinted at danger of a revolution they have gained nothing by their appeal. In Bulgaria public sentiment concerning them is divided. Though they have a numerous body of sympathizers the government hesitates to cast in its lot with theirs, because it fears the interposition of the powers, by whose will Bulgaria exists as a quasi-independent state. The fate of Greece is a warning which Is not yet forgotten in any part of the Danubian principalities. Late in March there was a comic opera invasion of Macedonia by a few score men from over the Bulgarian frontier, but on the sixth of April the president of the Macedonian committee and some of his associates were arrested in Sofia. This would indicate that after considerable wavering the authorities had finally decided to clear themselves from all suspicion of a connection with the conspirators. The emperor of China is now said to be suffering from the effects of too much tobacco. According to reports he smokes cigarettes continuously and as many American cigars as he can get. Nearly all the tram conductors in Valparaiso are now women.