CHAPTER III.

RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND THE MINOR STATES OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE.

I. RUSSIA.

Whatever may be the verdict of history as to the Power responsible for plunging Europe into war, it would not have taken place if Russia had not supported Serbia, for Serbia would have accepted the whole of Austria-Hungary's demands if she had not been assured of Russian active intervention in her behalf. Russia, with the magnanimity of a great people, was not prepared to stand idly by and witness the wanton attack of Austria upon a weaker state, which had already offered ample reparation for any offence for which she could be held responsible. The attack made on Serbia by Austria-Hungary was, however, regarded by the party under the Grand Duke Nicholas as an imperative call to action, even though the Army was not quite ready; but the Government made every effort to arrive at a pacific solution, and it was not until the equivocal attitude of Germany made the situation menacing that the Tsar, wavering between his love of peace and internal reform on the one hand, and the just outcry of the Nationalists and the "Orthodox" Church on the other, was at length persuaded to take the side which was sure to be the most popular, at least so long as success should crown the Russian arms. It was not, strictly speaking, a war "between Slav and Teuton," for many of the Slavs outside the Russian Empire declared themselves against Russia, and fought on the side of her enemies. The enemies of "the Teuton" among the Slavs, apart from Serbia and Montenegro, were only the Russians; the Poles, the Czechs, the Croats, and even the Slovaks and Slovenes, were on the side of Austria-Hungary. There were some mutinies of Czech and Croat regiments, which were due to the racial hostility of the Czechs to the Germans and the Croats to the Hungarians (A.R., 1912, p. 337; 1913, p. 328). The "Orthodox" clergy in Russia regarded the war as a sort of crusade against Catholicism; but their agitation met with little success among the Austrian Slavs except in some districts of Galicia and Hungary inhabited by Ruthenians of the United Greek Church (p. 327), many of whom were shot during the war for having given the Russians information of the movements of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Ruthenians of the "Orthodox" Church, on the other hand, who inhabit the province of the Ukraine in Russia, had started a separatist movement at Kieff in March in favour of union with Austria.

The most important event of the earlier part of the year was the retirement on February 11 from the post of Premier and Minister of Finance of M. Kokovtsoff, under whose administration Russia had attained to unprecedented welfare and a greater political stability than it had enjoyed for many years. His retirement was believed to have been brought about by the intrigues and disloyalty of his colleagues--a frequent cause of the fall of Ministers and other high functionaries in the Empire, and also by his having insisted, in opposition to the Ministry of Agriculture, M. Krivoshein, on the maintenance of the brandy monopoly as the safest and most productive source of the Imperial revenue. The new Premier was M. Goremykin, a reactionary bureaucrat who held the same post at the time of the first Duma (A.R., 1906, p. 319), and M. Bark, an eminent banker and a personal friend of M. Krivoshein, was appointed Minister of Finance. In a rescript addressed to the new Minister the Tsar directed him to carry out a policy of "radical reforms in the financial administration of the State and the economic life of the country," as "it is inadmissible to permit the favourable financial position of the State to depend on the destruction" (owing to the national vice of drunkenness) "of the moral and economic strength of the great multitude of Russian citizens, and it is therefore urgent that financial policy should be conducted on the principle of obtaining revenue, not from the sale of spirituous liquors, but from the produce of the inexhaustible wealth of the country and of the labour of the people." The Council of the Empire at the same time adopted a series of extremely drastic provisions in favour of temperance contained in a bill passed by the Duma, at the instigation of the peasant deputies, giving powers of local option to all communes, townships, and villages by a simple majority, with the right either of completely prohibiting the sale of liquor or restricting it to specified shops to be opened on certain days or at certain hours; women being allowed to vote on these matters. Count Witte, who with M. Kokovtsoff, had been the founder of the brandy monopoly, now joined the opposition to it, declaring that he had made "a mistake which was leading Russia to her ruin." According to his estimate, the total revenue derived from the monopoly was about 100,000,000_l._ and had been increasing every year since it was established. The first step towards temperance reform was taken on March 26, when an order was issued to suspend the sale of spirits at all railway stations; it was also announced that the penalties on illicit trading in spirits would be increased, that the people would be taught the advantages of temperance in the churches and schools, and that the plea of extenuating circumstances would not be admitted in the case of crimes committed under the influence of drink. The outbreak of the war in August gave the movement a new impetus; the Government shops for the sale of spirits were nearly all closed, and it was announced by the Tsar in October that they would not be opened again. The result of this measure was not only an enormous increase of the efficiency of the troops, but of the wealth of the peasantry, which instead of being dissipated in drink was employed in agricultural improvements and a great increase of their investments in savings banks. A further result of the interest taken by the Tsar in the moral and physical welfare of his people was the creation of a "Department of Physical Culture," for the promotion of outdoor sports, and during the war the sale of spirits was strictly forbidden in all the Galician towns occupied by the Russians; the keeper of a restaurant at Lemberg was fined 2,000 crowns (83_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._) for having sold a customer a glass of cognac. The chief difficulty in the adoption of the proposed reforms was that which had hampered the Tsar's intentions since the issue of the October manifesto of 1905 (A.R., 1905, p. 319), namely the want of harmonious co-operation between the Ministry and the Legislature on the one hand, and the members themselves of the Ministry on the other. The new Premier, M. Goremykin, was appointed by the Tsar without a Ministerial portfolio, apparently with the object of placing him above departmental rivalries, and he was directed by an Imperial Rescript on March 20 "to work in harmony with the Legislature." Cooperation with the Duma was attempted by conferences between the Premier and its leading members, the intention being, if it should prove impossible to secure a majority for the proposed reforms, to hold a general election. The first of these conferences held in the Duma did not relate to internal reforms, however, but to a proposal made by the Government to increase the peace effectives of the Army by 460,000 men, bringing up the total to 1,700,000, at an extra cost of 50,000,000_l._ spread over three years. This was the Russian answer to the increase of the German Army in 1913 (A.R., 1913, p. 307), and to an anti-Russian campaign in the German and Austro-Hungarian Press, and all the Russian party leaders, except the Socialists, sanctioned the proposal. It was further determined, with the consent of the Duma, that the service of time-expired men should be prolonged for three months after the legal limit, which brought up the peace effective at once to almost the number fixed above.

The Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonoff, made a remarkable statement on the subject to a representative of the Hungarian Journal _Az Est_. He said that he could not understand the reason of the excitement in Germany and Austria-Hungary with regard to Russia; tension certainly did exist between the monarchy and Russia in the previous year, but the relations between the two countries were now "excellent." The increase of armaments, he continued, was initiated by Germany, whose initiative had reacted on France, and led to an increase of the peace strength of Austria-Hungary; it was therefore natural that Russia should have taken steps in the same direction. With a birth rate of 2,500,000 she could allow herself "the luxury" of an increase in the peace footing of her Army. A "test mobilisation" of about 500,000 reservists was begun on April 15, and in June the Duma approved of an extraordinary credit of 10,000,000_l._ for the construction of warships for the Black Sea Fleet, to be spent on one 27,000-ton Dreadnought, two 7,500-ton cruisers, eight torpedo boats and six submarines, all to be built at Nikolaieff and commissioned not later than the spring of 1917. The Minister of Finance at the same time stated that Russia would have to spend 752,000,000_l._ in the next five years for the Army and Navy.

On April 2 the Imperial assent was given to a bill providing that married women, separated from their husbands, should enjoy full liberty of movement and enjoyment of property, even if minors, and that the courts shall have no power to order restitution of conjugal rights; cruelty to the children, rudeness, violence, dishonesty, immorality, or dangerous or loathsome illness to be sufficient cause for separation, and the husband to provide alimony, the care of the children being awarded to the injured party.

The report of the Budget Committee of the Duma on the Budget for 1914 was issued on April 6. It fixed the expenditure at 358,032,609_l._, or nearly 33,000,000_l._ more than in 1913, and the revenue at 361,265,916_l._, or 36,200,000_l._ more than in 1913, and proposed that the surplus of 3,233,109_l._ should be devoted to the building of ways of communication, also that as the temperance campaign was likely to diminish the revenue, fresh taxes should be introduced. The Opposition groups took advantage of the debate on the Budget to protest against the intended prosecution of one of their leaders, M. Tcheidze, for propagating Republican ideas. Hereupon, on the proposal of the President, the Duma voted the suspension for a fortnight of fifteen Socialists, including M. Tcheidze, who were removed by the Serjeant-at-Arms and the guard. Notwithstanding the efforts of M. Gozemykin to establish more friendly relations between the Government and the Duma, there was no alleviation of the discontent manifested by all classes in the previous year (A.R., 1913, p. 336). On May 17, after voting a reduction in the Home Office Estimates as a protest against its policy, the Duma, by 186 votes against 95, censured M. Maklakoff, the Home Minister, for his persistent disregard of the representative institutions of the Empire, thereby "undermining the welfare and safety of the State." In June there was a serious crisis on the Stock Exchange at St. Petersburg, ascribed chiefly to the reactionary and repressive policy of the Home Minister, who discouraged foreign capital by the vexatious restrictions imposed upon joint stock companies with regard to the participation of Jews in their management. He was also held responsible for the enormous increase in so-called political strikes (A.R., 1913, p. 336), the work of a clandestine organisation which threatened to paralyse trade and industry. In the May-day strike 130,000 men took part in St. Petersburg alone, and such widespread drunkenness had never before been observed among the working-men. The strikes continued through the months of June and July; on July 23 there was fighting in different parts of the capital until midnight, the strikers having raised barricades against the police, upon which they were charged by the Cossacks, many being killed and wounded. On the following day 110,000 workmen were still out on strike, and the _Novoe Vremya_, the most influential of the Russian papers, declared that the existing system of police repression had proved a failure, and "unorganised masses had been thrown defenceless under the yoke of revolutionary agitators," adding that both the Government and public opinion were responsible for the abominable excesses which had disgraced Russia. The strikes ceased, however, on July 26 without further recourse to violence, and they were not renewed in view of the greater issues confronting the Empire.

On July 13 Gregory Rasputin, the peasant "fakir" whose influence with the Empress and the ladies of the Russian Court had given rise to much scandal in the society of the capital, was stabbed in his house near Tobolsk by a woman, a follower of his rivals the monk Heliodorus and Bishop Hermogen, who had sought to obtain his banishment. A report presented by the Holy Synod to the Tsar stated that defections from the "Orthodox" faith were growing more and more numerous, and that the Socialists and others, dreaming of a new revolution, were sapping the foundations of the Church. The seceders were mostly Baptists, Stundists, Old Believers, Flagellators, and Atheists.

The cordiality of the reception on June 24 of the officers of the British First Battle Cruiser Squadron at Tsarskoe Selo was somewhat marred by the unfavourable impression produced at St. Petersburg by the acquisition by the British Government of a preponderant interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (p. 123), which Russian politicians regarded as tantamount to the establishment of British preponderance in the neutral zone in which the Anglo-Russia Convention of 1907 had stipulated equality of opportunity. In the Duma on May 24 M. Sazonoff, the Foreign Minister, had declared that the foreign policy of Russia "continued to be based on the unshakeable alliance with France and friendship with Great Britain; the establishment of a sound friendship between France and Great Britain, and also between Great Britain and Russia, had brought Great Britain within the sphere of political communion previously existing between Russia and France which had helped to maintain peace." Although there was not a formal alliance between Russia and Great Britain, there was a "political combination imposed by unity of aims," and therefore "friendly co-operation is assured irrespective of the form and the scope of the written word." The Triple _Entente_ was "responsible for the equilibrium of Europe, and ever ready to co-operate with the Triple Alliance in the general interests of peace." Russia "continued to seek the maintenance of the old friendly relations with Germany," but unfortunately the endeavours of the two Governments in this direction "did not always meet with due support from the Press of their countries." As to Austria-Hungary the Minister merely re-echoed the friendly sentiments of Count Berchtold with regard to neighbourly relations, and in the Balkans, he said, Russia's task was pacification. "She would impartially assist all the Balkan States, asking in return only neutral sincerity and confidence." Her relations with Turkey had improved since the Balkan crisis, and she was disposed to assist Turkey in the internal reform of her Asiatic possessions, as "only the peaceful development of Turkey would assure the freedom of the navigation of the Straits"; and the conciliatory spirit of the Turkish Government was shown by its attitude towards Armenian reforms, in which matter "Germany had co-operated with Russia." Finally, M. Sazonoff said that a "comparative lull" had been noticeable of late in Persia, "thanks to the continued friendly co-operation of Russia and Great Britain and the efforts of the Russian legation and the Persian Cossack brigade in quelling disturbances in the Western districts." The majority of the Russian troops at Kazvin had consequently been recalled, but in the northern provinces order was still dependent on the presence of the Russian troops. Russian policy towards Persia, the Minister concluded, remained unchanged and was devoid of aggressive intentions. "Our object is, as hitherto, to contribute to the establishment in this bordering country, so closely joined to us by important economic interests, of that stable order so necessary for the further development of our mutual commercial relations and the progress of Persia herself."

The visit of President Poincaré to Russia (July 20) elicited an enthusiastic welcome on the part of the people, and on July 23 the Tsar, in proposing the toast of the President and France, said that France and Russia had for nearly a quarter of a century been bound by close ties in order the better to pursue the same end, "which consists in safeguarding their interests by collaborating in the equilibrium and the peace of Europe," adding that he was convinced that "the two countries will continue to enjoy the benefit of peace," remarkable words, considering that they were spoken only a few days before Europe was plunged into war.

On July 26 the Tsar left St. Petersburg on a trip to the Finnish Skerries, after having authorised, in consequence of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia (p. 330), the issue of orders for a mobilisation of fourteen Army Corps on the Austrian frontier, and of the rest of the Russian Army immediately upon mobilisation in Germany.

Russia and Germany had never since the partition of Poland been in antagonism until now. Austria had given the Poles liberty and self-government, and they were naturally ready and willing to fight for her. But Russia had alienated them by her incessant persecution of their language and national institutions, and by her fruitless attempts to crush their national existence and turn them into Russians, while Germany, acting by more subtle means with a similar object, was feared as well as detested. Both, now that Poland was to be the battlefield, appealed to the Poles for their support, making golden promises to them of which the motives were only too evident, and which a tragic experience had taught them were not to be depended upon. By the side of Germany, as Russia's most formidable enemy, they were ready though reluctant to fight. But of the many thousands in the Russian Army who surrendered to the Austrians many were Poles, and thousands more escaped from Russian Poland to join the Polish legions which were formed under Austrian auspices. The feeling of the other Slavs in Austria-Hungary and elsewhere with regard to Russia was equally hostile. The Czech _Glas Naroda_, commenting on one of the appeals of the Grand Duke Nicholas to the Poles, saying the war "is a war of liberation for the Slavs," and promising "to unite all the parts of Poland now under the rule of Austria-Hungary and Germany, give them self-government, and restore Poland under his sceptre," asked: "From what are the Slavs to be liberated? From the freedom and self-government which they enjoy under Austria-Hungary? They will hardly be tempted to exchange these benefits for the despotic rule of a corrupt bureaucracy. As for the Czechs, they often oppose the Government, but are always warmly attached to the State with whose existence their own is inseparately bound. Austria-Hungary gives equal rights to all the nationalities in the Empire and enables them freely to develop themselves. Russia does not tolerate any other nationality in her dominions, not even a Slavonic one." Shortly after the bombardment by the Turkish fleet of the Russian towns on the Black Sea a deputation of Ruthenians from the Ukraine came to Constantinople and issued an address to the Ottoman nation, saying that Russia had always been the enemy of Turkey, that the treatment of the Mohammedans in Russia was a crime against humanity, and that thirty millions of people in the Ukraine hoped to be rescued from such sufferings by Turkey, the old ally of the Cossacks of the Ukraine. In Bulgaria, too, the _Rabotniczewski_, an organ of the Labour party, described Russia's claim to pose as the liberator of the smaller European States as a "shameless piece of cynicism," as 180,000,000 people, Russians, Poles, and Finns, were suffering under her despotic rule. While in France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria-Hungary the Socialists joined with the other parties in supporting the Government, in Russia they declared in a letter to M. Vandervelde, the eminent Belgian Socialist and ex-Minister, who had urged them to join in the war against Germany, that they would continue their struggle against Tsardom with more energy than ever, and take every opportunity of reversing it: "The Russian as well as the German Government is the enemy of democracy; even now that it is at war it persecutes the working-men and the non-Russian nationalities, and should it be victorious it would be the propagator of political reaction in all Europe."

At the beginning of the war the Russian troops were removed from the frontier districts to the great fortresses of Ivangorod and Brzesc Litewski, where they were formed into three Armies, one to advance through East Prussia and Silesia towards Berlin, another to break through the Carpathians into Hungary, and the third and strongest to march upon Galicia. The advance into Prussia was to be a powerful diversion with the object of weakening Germany's invasion of France by forcing her to send troops from there to the East to defend her own territory, while the object of the advance to Hungary was to help the Serbians against the Austrian invasion. To strengthen these Armies the whole of Finland, nearly the whole of Russian Poland and large districts in Central and Northern Russia, as far as Siberia, were left without troops. The Grand Duke Nicholas, the nephew of Alexander II. and husband of the Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, was appointed Commander-in-Chief, and General Sukhomlinoff, Minister of War, Chief of the General Staff. As not only the troops, but the gendarmes and the Customs officials, were removed from the frontier districts, and the Custom houses were closed in anticipation of an Austrian advance before the Russian mobilisation was completed, people could pass into Austria without examination at the frontier, and many Poles took the opportunity of thus escaping enlistment into the Russian Army and joining the Polish legions which were being formed at their own expense by the Poles in Galicia for service with the Austrian Army. On marching with his troops into Russian Poland the Grand Duke Nicholas issued the following address to the Poles: "Poles, the hour has struck when the sacred dreams of your fathers and ancestors can be realised. A century and a half ago the living body of Poland was torn to pieces, but its soul did not die. She lived in the hope that the hour of resurrection would come for the Polish nation and its fraternal reconciliation with Great Russia. The Russian troops bring you the solemn news of that reconciliation. May the Poles of Russia unite under the sceptre of the Russian Tsar, under that sceptre Poland will be born again, free in her religion, her language, and her autonomy. Russia only asks that you should respect the rights of the nationalities to which history has allied you" (_i.e._ the Ruthenians). "With open heart and hands fraternally held out, Great Russia comes to meet you. The sword which struck down the enemy at Grünwald (an allusion to the battle in which the Polish King, Ladislaus Yagiello, defeated the German crusaders and made them his vassals) has not yet rusted. The Russian Armies march from the shores of the Pacific to the North Sea. The dawn of a new life begins for you. May the sign of the Cross, the symbol of the suffering and the resurrection of the nations, glitter in that dawn." A reply to this address, signed by some Poles in Warsaw, expressed their loyalty to the Tsar and their wish for the success of the Russian arms, but among many of the Poles the Grand Duke's promises were regarded as merely a device for keeping them quiet. The address produced more impression among the Russians than among the Poles; at Moscow and Kieff large sums were subscribed for the relief of the Poles who were suffering from the total devastation of their country caused by the war, and there was a revulsion of feeling in favour of the Polish nation.

While the Russians were massing their armies in the "Trilateral" (Ivangorod, Novo Georgievsk and Brzesc Litewski), Austrian troops crossed the frontier and occupied Kielce and other towns in Russian Poland, and were at first well received by the people, but when subsequently their place was taken by German troops, who imposed contributions, took hostages, and bombarded churches and villages, the feeling for their new rulers naturally changed. There were 1,300,000 Polish soldiers in the Russian, German and Austrian Armies, military service in all three States being obligatory, and their country, seven times as large as Belgium, was even more devastated by the constant marchings to and fro of millions of troops, which destroyed everything that could be of advantage to their enemies; and often, notably the Cossacks, the Honveds and some of the Germans--as in Belgium--burnt villages and plundered country houses.

Directly after the declaration of war, on August 2, a strong Russian column, with guns, crossed the Prussian frontier near Biala, and marched to Johannisburg. The Germans, on the other hand, occupied Bendzin, Kalisch, and Czenstochowa in the Kingdom of Poland. On August 1 the Russians occupied Stallupönen, east of Insterburg, and Lyck, after five days' skirmishing with the Germans at Eydtkuhnen and Wirballen. These, however, were merely reconnaissances in force; the general advance of the Russian Armies did not begin until August 18, when they sent two Armies into East Prussia and invaded Galicia from the north and east, converging upon Lemberg. On crossing the frontier the Grand Duke Nicholas published an appeal to the Ruthenians in Galicia, addressing them as brothers "who had languished for centuries under a foreign yoke" and calling upon them "to raise the banner of united Russia."

The first great battle of the war between the Russians and Germans took place on August 20 between Pilkallen and Stallupönen, on the road to Tilsit; it lasted fourteen hours, and the four German Army corps which took part in it were driven by the Russians towards Gumbinnen with a loss of 3,000 men and thirty guns, and followed to Insterburg, which the Russians captured on August 23 without resistance. Then came a Russian attack on Kielce and Tomaszow, in the Kingdom of Poland, which had been occupied by the Austrians; the Russians were driven back with great loss, and the Austrians then occupied Sandomierz. Meanwhile the Germans brought up three Army corps of 160,000 men near Gumbinnen, and endeavoured to turn the Russian left, but without success, and the Russians then occupied Soldau, which commands the railway to Dantzig, and took possession of nearly one-half of the territory of East Prussia. Their attempts to enter Galicia were less fortunate. They were beaten at Sokal on the road to Lemberg with the loss of a whole brigade and two generals, one of whom was killed and the other taken prisoner. At Pavosielica, on the frontier of Bukovina and Bessarabia, 20,000 of the Russian cavalry were driven back by the Austrians; on August 24 an Austrian Army under General Dankl, engaged the Russians in a three days' battle on a line of fifty miles at Krasnik, on the road to Lublin, and on September 2 another Austrian Army, under General Auffenberg, attacked 280,000 Russians in eight days' fighting on a front of 200 miles at Zamosc and Komarow. A fresh Russian Army, however, under General Russky, coming up from the south-east between the two Austrian Armies, which had lost 20,000 killed and wounded, with 76,000 prisoners and 300 guns in the previous battles, inflicting on the Russians a loss of 19,000 prisoners and 200 guns, forced them to retire, and occupied on September 3 Lemberg (which they renamed by the Polish name Lwow), the capital of Galicia, which remained in the hands of Russia till the end of the year, with a Russian administration, Russian clergy (the Ruthenian Archbishop having been banished to Russia) and obligatory teaching of Russian, instead of Ruthenian, in the schools. Meanwhile the Russians, who had completed the mobilisation of 8,000,000 men, divided into four Armies, to be sent into the field one after the other, marched two of them into East Prussia, and were so confident of victory that they expected to reach Berlin within three weeks. One, under General Rennenkampf, occupied Tilsit and marched on Königsberg; the other, under General Samsonoff, started for Thorn and Posen, but on reaching Tannenberg, near Ortelsburg, it was confronted on August 28 by the Germans under General Hindenburg, who, using a similar manoeuvre to that of Hannibal at Cannæ, drew on the Russians with apparently inferior forces into the swampy region of the Mazurian lakes, and then, attacking them on both flanks and in the rear, compelled them to surrender with a loss of 50,000 killed and wounded, including three of their best generals and several staff officers, 90,000 prisoners and 516 guns. The second Army under General Rennenkampf, which had come too late to prevent the disaster, was also routed by General Hindenburg on September 10, and for the time being the Russian offensive in East Prussia was abandoned. The remnants of the Russian Army were again defeated on September 15 at Elk, and were pursued by the Germans into Russian territory as far as Augustowo, near the fortress of Ossowiec, which they invested on September 30.

Although the capture of Lemberg was a great blow to Austrian prestige, the Austrian armies, together with some German corps which had been brought up to their assistance after the Russian defeat at Tannenberg, pursued their attacks upon the Russians at Rawa Russka, after a battle which lasted from September 7 to September 11, with terrible loss on both sides. The Russians had still 2,000,000 men in the field on the Austrian and Prussian frontiers, and their attempt to break through the Germans in the direction of Königsberg and Thorn having failed, they now made the fortresses of Przemysl and Cracow their objective, as if these were taken the road would be clear to Berlin and to Vienna. After seventeen days' fighting they advanced towards Przemysl, and attacked the Austrian Army while it was crossing the river San, capturing the whole of its rearguard, amounting to 30,000 men. The Austrians fought well, but the Russians, as regards fighting efficiency were more than equal to their opponents. Nearly the whole of Eastern Galicia and Czernowitz, the capital of Bukovina, were now in their hands; on September 18 they occupied Sandomierz, on the 22nd Jaroslaw, on the railway between Lemberg and Cracow, and on the 28th they began the siege of Przemysl, while other Russian forces advanced to the passes of Uszok and Dukla, in the Carpathians, for a raid into Hungary, which, however, was beaten back by the Hungarians and the Polish legionaries on September 30. When the Russians arrived at Medyka, near Przemysl, they were also attacked by the Austrians, who inflicted on them a loss of 5,000 killed, 40,000 wounded, and 10,000 prisoners. This, combined with their losses in attempting to take Przemysl by storm, when whole regiments perished under the deadly fire of the Austrian artillery, and the menace of the Germans in Northern Poland, led to a retreat of the Russians from Western and South-Eastern Galicia, though not from Lemberg and the adjoining territory. The Austro-German Allies were at the beginning of October again strongly posted along the Vistula and the San, and in possession of the whole of Western Galicia, the Bukovina, and the passes of the Carpathians, besides one-half of the Kingdom of Poland. The Russian attempt to invade Prussia and to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army had, therefore, so far failed. But new Russian forces were brought up from Warsaw and the adjoining fortresses which caused the Germans to retreat towards the frontier, while the Austro-Hungarians took the offensive in Galicia on the line from Sambor to Stanislawow. The main Armies of Austria-Hungary and Germany and Russia were now in close touch over a front of 270 miles, and on October 14 the whole of Poland west of the Vistula, including the important town of Lodz, "the Polish Manchester," which was captured after severe fighting on October 8, was in the possession of the Austrians and Germans, who, with the Polish legions, penetrated to within half-a-day's march of Warsaw, and caused much indignation among the people by their aviators throwing bombs on the town and killing or wounding many civilians, but they were attacked both on the front and on the flanks by four Russian Armies of 200,000 men each, who after seven days' fighting forced them to retire on October 20. The Polish legions, furious at the order to retreat being given when they were within sight of Warsaw, made a rush forward and had to be surrounded by the Germans to prevent their being annihilated. The German line was then pushed back to Skierniewice, fifty miles west of Warsaw, and on October 27 the Russians reoccupied Lodz, but the battle continued to rage on both fronts with unprecedented tenacity, the Russians fighting with intense energy and spirit. On November 3 they took Kielce, having captured Radom on the previous day, and on November 4 they entered Sandomierz, on the Vistula. On November 8 they resumed the invasion of East Prussia, advancing to Stallupönen, Soldau, and Pleschen, in the German province of Posen. In Galicia, however, the Austrians still held to the left bank of the San, notwithstanding the vigorous attacks of the Russians, who inflicted upon them a loss of 100,000 men besides those who suffered on the other lines of retreat. Meanwhile the Germans, who had brought up fresh troops from the West, resumed the offensive in Russian Poland on November 18, and broke through the Russian lines at Kutno, between the Vistula and the Wartha, compelling the Russians to retire several miles in the direction of Lowicz. In this battle the Russians were stated to have lost 45,000 men, including the Governor of Warsaw, who drove inadvertently into the German lines. After their victory at Kutno the Germans again advanced towards Warsaw, driving the Russians before them, and on the 22nd they were within forty miles of the Polish capital. In East Prussia, too, they drove the Russians from their fortified positions and captured 23,000 prisoners at Wloclawek, on the road to Thorn. The Russian Armies, on their western frontier, now numbered 3,500,000 men, while the Austro-Hungarian and German Armies combined did not exceed 2,000,000. Another great battle took place before Lodz, which, after a fortnight's desperate fighting, with immense loss on both sides, was recaptured by the Germans on December 8, who after being almost enveloped by the Russians broke the ring which was being drawn round them and put back the Russian front before Warsaw. This check was attributed to dissensions among the Russian generals, and General Rennenkampf, who arrived too late to relieve the Russian centre, was, with seven other generals, arrested and brought before a court martial. General Hindenburg, on the other hand, was made a Field-Marshal for what was described by the German General Staff as "one of the finest deeds of arms in the whole campaign," having captured 60,000 unwounded prisoners and 100 guns. The Germans were not able, however, to pursue their advantage; the powerful attacks of the Russians prevented their getting any nearer to Warsaw than Sochaczew, about thirty miles to the west of that city. They strove hard up to the end of the year to push through to Warsaw, but were unable to get any farther than the Rivers Bzura and Rawka, where they entrenched themselves and made a series of fruitless attacks on the Russian positions on the other side of those rivers, Farther north, however, Mlawa, near the Prussian frontier, was retaken by the Germans on December 26. The German main line at the end of the Ysar ran from Mlawa to Ilow Lowicz, and Tomaszow, all of which towns were in their hands, but the Russians remained in occupation of about 8,000 square kilometres of Prussian soil.

Meanwhile in Galicia, the Russians occupied Tarnow on November 13, resuming the siege of Przemysl on the following day, and on December 2 they entered Wieliczka, the centre of the salt mines in Western Galicia, three and a half miles from the outer fortifications of Cracow, which were now invested by them. There was much fighting north, west, and south of Cracow (especially at Limanowa, where the Russians lost 40,000 prisoners), but the city itself escaped damage, none of the shots of the Russian artillery having reached it, and at the end of the year, both Przemysl and Cracow still remained free from the invaders, who temporarily abandoned the advance on them on December 12 after a series of battles in which they suffered heavy losses and were driven eastward for a distance of forty miles. Although Russia had yet made little progress towards Berlin, she had conquered a great part of Galicia, and she had given valuable help to her Allies by compelling Germany to detach large forces from France in order to protect her frontier in Poland.

In November Russia was involved in another war, owing to the attack of the Turkish fleet on the Russian ports in the Black Sea (p. 352). On November 4, Russian troops entered Asia Minor and advanced for seventeen miles along the road to Erzeroum, and on November 8, they successfully resisted an attack by the Turks armed with German heavy artillery, at Kuprikeui in Armenia, from which there are mountain paths in the direction of Erzeroum. Further attacks were made by the Turks during the rest of the month, and, also in December, in the Euphrates Valley without any notable result, until they reached Ardahan and Sarakamysch in an attempt to regain Kars, when in a three days' battle with the Russians at the end of the year they were driven back with enormous losses, the whole of one of their Army corps having surrendered.

Apart from the two wars, there is little to record in the Russian history of the second half of the year. On September 1, an Imperial order was issued directing that the city of St. Petersburg should in future be designated as "Petrograd" (Peter's City). This was an outcome of the hostility in Russia to everything German, as was a decree issued in November, depriving German and Austro-Hungarian subjects of Russia of their rights to immovable property either leasehold or freehold situated in rural districts near the Russian land frontier, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azoff. In November an income tax was imposed on all incomes exceeding 1,000 roubles (100_l._), at the rate of from 16 roubles (1_l._ 15_s._) up to 15,600 roubles (1,700_l._) for incomes exceeding 190,000 roubles (19,700_l._), together with a tax on men exempt from military service. As regards Finland and Poland there was no alleviation of the methods of Russification previously practised, although the devastation caused in Poland by the war produced a current of more friendly feeling towards the Poles among some sections of the Russian people. At Petrograd a society was formed for a reconciliation between the Russians and the Poles, which struck medals representing a Russian and a Pole shaking hands; but these were promptly confiscated by the Government, and in the Duma but little was said on behalf of the Poles. The Socialists were pursued with the utmost rigour, their members in the Duma were arrested, and when M. Burtzeff, known by the part he took in the exposure of Azeff and other Russian _agents provocateurs_, left Russia in 1907 with a regular passport, not having been prosecuted for any offence, returned to that country in order, as he stated in a letter to _The Times_, to promote "a unity of all nationalities and all parties" in pursuing the war, he was arrested on his arrival in November on a charge of having insulted the Tsar in a Paris newspaper while he was living in France, and sentenced to deportation to Siberia.

As regards foreign affairs, on September 5, Russia joined in the declaration that none of the Governments of the Triple _Entente_ would conclude peace separately; and on October 24 Russia declared to Italy that she would order the liberation of all Austrian prisoners of Italian nationality, provided that the Italian Government would undertake to keep them in Italy during the war, but Italy replied that she could not give such an undertaking, as "every Italian or foreigner arriving on Italian territory, not having been guilty of any crime, was free, and his liberty could not be restrained in any way," upon which Russia withdrew the condition attached to the offer.

II. TURKEY AND THE MINOR STATES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

While war was raging in Central and Western Europe, all the States of the Near East except Serbia and Montenegro, and afterwards Turkey, remained neutral, though they mobilised their forces so as to be ready in case of need.

The most important event in Turkey at the beginning of the year was the appointment as War Minister of Enver Bey, the hero of the Young Turkish Revolution of 1908 (A.R., 1908, pp. 323-7). As a former military _attaché_ at Berlin, he had long been in intimate relations with German military circles, and his influence in strengthening the ties between the German and Turkish Governments soon made itself felt. On January 8 an Imperial Iradeh was issued confirming the appointment of the Inspectors-General of the four Armies and the Commander of the thirteen Army Corps into which the Ottoman Army was to be divided, and among the former was the German General, Liman von Sanders (Liman Pasha), who was also appointed Commander of the First Army Corps. Over 160 superior Army officers were at the same time placed on the retired list. Enver Pasha (he obtained this title on his appointment in the place of that of Bey) was also appointed chief of the General Staff, with a German officer as one of his assistants.

The matters dealt with by the Powers in connexion with the Balkan Wars which had remained unsettled at the end of the previous year (A.R., 1913, pp. 356-7) were the proposed Armenian reforms, the question of the Ægean Islands, and the formation of the new State of Albania. As regards the first of these, the Russian _charge d'affaires_ at Constantinople arrived at a complete agreement in February with the Grand Vizier on the subject. The Armenian community in Turkey was to be represented in the Ottoman Parliament by seventy deputies to be designated by the Armenian Patriarch, and the general inspection and supervision of the judicial and administrative officials in the two sections into which the six Eastern Anatolian vilayets were to be divided was to be confided to two foreign Inspectors-General, to be appointed by the Powers from the subjects of minor European States. Christians and Mohammedans were to be equally represented in the provincial councils of Bitlis and Van, and in proportion to the numbers of each religion in the other councils, but as regards appointments to the public service there were to be as many Christians, if possible, as Mohammedans. The Ægean question, on the other hand, nearly led to a war between Turkey and Greece. In reply to a collective European Note on the subject presented to the Grand Vizier on February 14, the Porte, knowing that the Powers had failed to obtain unanimity for the enforcement of their decisions, stated that it was indispensable for Turkey to possess not only the islands in the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles, but also those which, like Chios and Mytilene, "form an integral part of the Asiatic possessions of the Empire." While accepting, it added, the restitution by Greece of Imbros, Tenedos, and Castellorizzo, the Ottoman Government "will endeavour to secure its just and legitimate demands." Greece, on the other hand, agreed to comply with the decision of the Powers, but demanded a rectification of the proposed Albanian frontier near Argyrokastro (A.R., 1913, p. 357) on ethnological grounds, and offered in exchange a strip of coast line and a grant to Albania of 100,000_l._ Further, as the islands to be retained by Greece were not to be fortified, the Greek Government proposed that guarantees should be required by the Powers of Turkey against her attacking them, expressing its readiness to give similar guarantees on its part, and also to prevent contraband trade between the islands and the Continent, adding that it would protect the Mohammedans in the islands to be ceded to Greece if the Porte would give a similar undertaking as to the Christians in the islands left to Turkey. The Powers of the Triple Alliance then guaranteed equality of religion and speech in the whole of Albania and the proposed rectification of the frontier, except as regards Koritza, which was to remain Albanian, as soon as the Greek troops should evacuate the portion of Epirus which had been assigned to Albania. The period, however, fixed for the evacuation (A.R., 1913, p. 357) was allowed to pass, and a Greek Note to the Powers of the Triple Alliance, who had insisted on such evacuation, suggested in April that it should be postponed pending the acceptance by Turkey of the proposals of the Powers as to the Ægean Islands. To this the Powers replied on April 24, insisting on an immediate evacuation, and on May 14 the Sultan, in opening the Turkish Parliament, referred to the efforts the Porte was making for a pacific solution of the Ægean question "in conformity with the essential interests of the Ottoman Empire."

Meanwhile great indignation was expressed at Athens on learning that the Turks were subjecting the Greeks in Thrace and at Smyrna to systematic persecution in order to bring about their emigration. In reply to a Greek Note on the subject the Porte stated on June 18 that the troubles in Asia Minor and elsewhere had been caused by the arrival of 250,000 emigrants from Macedonia, and that the Government was taking steps to restore tranquillity in the disturbed districts, implying that the condition of the Greek subjects of the Sultan is a question of internal politics in which Greece has no right to interfere. Prompt steps were, however, taken to punish excesses committed against the Greek populations; sentences of from three to five years' imprisonment were passed on forty-seven Mohammedans found guilty of pillaging Greek houses, and the whole of the Smyrna district was placed under martial law. The disorders were to a great extent caused by the policy adopted by the Turkish Government of quartering Mohammedan immigrants in Greek villages, apparently with the object of interposing a barrier between the islands and the adjoining districts on the Continent in the shape of a solid mass of Mohammedan inhabitants all along the coast, thereby effectively checking the Pan-Hellenic propaganda which had been going on for many years among the Greeks in Turkey (A.R., 1913, p. 354).

Although Turkey had declared at the beginning of the war that she would be neutral, when Enver Pasha became Minister for War preparations were at once made for her taking military and naval action against the Allies. Liman Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the Turkish Army on August 27, the German cruisers _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ (p. 183) were added to the Turkish Navy and entered the Black Sea on October 20, with their German officers and crews, though the Russian and British ambassadors had stated to the Porte that they did not regard the sale of these two vessels as valid, and that the Allies would attack them the next time they came out. Meanwhile, on September 9, the Porte announced to the Powers that the judicial and financial Capitulations, under which each Christian nation was allowed to govern its own subjects within the Ottoman dominions, would be abolished from October 1. The Ambassadors of all the Powers, including Germany, protested against this step, which became practically nugatory when Turkey entered into the war. As regards the measures taken for common action with Germany, the Grand Vizier and most of the other Ministers, though resenting the retention by the British Government of the Ottoman warships building in England,[20] were opposed to them, but had to yield to Enver Pasha, who had the whole Turkish Army at his back, and had adopted the view promulgated by German agents that the only way to save Constantinople and the Turkish Empire from being seized by Russia and her allies would be to enter into an alliance with Germany. Large numbers of German officers, soldiers, and sailors were imported from Germany to serve in the Turkish Fleet, the forts of the Dardanelles, and the Turkish Army, and German merchant vessels served as bases of communication and auxiliaries to the Turkish ships of war. The officers of the German military mission organised military preparations in Syria for an attack on Egypt, and the Syrian towns were full of German officers provided with large sums of money for suborning the local chiefs.

The Ottoman military action began, after a protest against the watch kept by British warships at the mouth of the Dardanelles to prevent the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ from escaping, and against the British navigation of the Shatt-el-Arab, by an incursion on October 28 into the Sinai Peninsula of an armed body of 2,000 Bedouins whose objective was the Suez Canal; and on the same day the Turkish Fleet bombarded Odessa, Theodosia, and Novorossyisk, Russian unfortified harbours in the Black Sea. No reply having been given to the protest of the ambassadors of the Allies against this outrage, they demanded their passports and left Constantinople on November 1. The Dardanelles forts were bombarded by a combined British and French squadron on November 3, and the fort and troops at Akaba in the Red Sea were shelled by H.M.S. _Minerva_, upon which the town was evacuated and a landing party destroyed the fort, the barracks, the post office, and the stores. On November 5 "a state of war" was declared to exist between Great Britain and Turkey and the former annexed Cyprus (p. 226). On November 13 Turkey responded by a declaration of war against Great Britain, alleging that the bombardment of the Russian ports in the Black Sea had taken place because the Russian Fleet had tried to lay mines outside the Bosphorus and committed other hostile acts against Turkey. A British and Indian force also made its way up the Shatt-el-Arab to Basra (Nov. 8-22; p. 245). On November 18 another naval encounter took place in the Black Sea, in which the Russian Fleet engaged the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_ off Yalta, compelling them to retire, and inflicting severe injuries on the _Goeben_.

The failure of the Turkish invasion in the Caucasus (p. 348) caused much friction between the Turkish and the German officers, the latter having preferred the plan of an invasion of Egypt. On December 30 the Sultan of Turkey deprived Hussein Kamel, the new Sultan of Egypt, of all his decorations for rebellion against Turkey. The attempt to start a Holy War in Egypt and other Mahommedan countries proved an utter failure, as it was disregarded by the Mohammedans outside the Ottoman Empire.

Among the minor incidents which occurred in Turkey during the year was the death of "Kutchuk" Said Pasha, who was seven times Grand Vizier (_post_, Obit.), and the trial by court-martial in April of Colonel Aziz Ali, a distinguished Egyptian officer who had gained popularity and renown among the Mohammedans by his leadership of the Arab resistance to the Italians in Cyrenaica, on charges of having caused loss of life among his troops in Tripoli, of having provoked the enmity of the Senussi, and of having appropriated public funds to his personal needs, and his condemnation to death in consequence of the pressure put upon the members of the Court by his enemies in the Young Turkish party. The news had caused great perturbation and distress in Egypt, where Aziz Ali was well known and highly esteemed, and he was finally pardoned by the Sultan. Another court-martial, which was not influenced by party motives, showed considerable activity in dealing with offences committed by Mohammedans against public morality and the State religion. It ordered the expulsion from Constantinople of fifty Turkish women found guilty of practising or abetting clandestine prostitution, and steps were also taken against "white slave" traffickers, two Turkish women having been found guilty of selling their daughters to Egyptian houses of ill-fame.

In Albania affairs were in a very disturbed state throughout the year. In January an Austrian steamer arrived at Valona from Constantinople with Turkish troops to proclaim Izzet Pasha, the late Turkish War Minister, as sovereign of Albania, but they were at once arrested by the Provisional Government in agreement with the International Commission of Control and the Dutch gendarmerie officers. A more formidable candidate for the throne was Essad Pasha (A.R., 1913, p. 356), whose troops had a sharp fight on January 11 with those of the Provisional Government. On January 15 Ismail Kemal Bey handed to the International Commission his resignation of the Presidency of the Provisional Government, which he had held since the winter of 1912 (A.R., 1912, p. 356), and Essad Pasha then concluded an agreement with the British and German delegates on the International Commission of Control to the effect that he would resign his position as Minister of the Interior and meet Prince William of Wied as the representative of the people of Albania. On February 8, the Powers having agreed to guarantee a loan of 3,000,000_l._ to Albania, Austria-Hungary and Italy made an advance to the Prince of 500,000_l._ for immediate requirements, and Essad Pasha started from Durazzo at the head of a deputation of Albanians for Neuwied, the ancestral castle of the Prince, who was to bear in Albania the title of "Mpret," a corruption of "Imperator." The deputation, whose leader was described by the Bishop of Durazzo as "a brigand in the best and worst sense of the term," and "a fox who would require an iron hand to keep him under control," were received at Neuwied by the Prince on February 21, one of its members bringing with him a small casket containing sand, earth, and water from Albania. Addressing the Prince in Albanian, Essad Pasha said that the deputation represented the whole of Albania, and that the Albanians were happy to welcome their new sovereign, to which the Prince replied in German, formally accepting the Crown. The difficulties and responsibilities, he said, had at first made him hesitate, but now that he had decided to meet them he would give all his heart and strength to Albania. He proceeded to St. Petersburg, however, on a visit to the Tsar, before taking up his new duties. Meanwhile an insurrection broke out in Epirus, the Greeks in the districts assigned to Albania demanding a Government of their own under M. Zographos as its chief.

Prince William arrived at Durazzo on March 7, and was welcomed by two members of the International Commission and Essad Pasha, whom the Prince at once appointed an Albanian general. On reaching the palace he appeared on the balcony, while deputations from the neighbouring towns and Albanian societies abroad marched in file before him, but the Albanian people were scantily represented, as the date of his coming was not generally known. The difficulties of his task were considerably greater than those with which the sovereigns of newly formed States have in past times had to contend; the northern clans of the country are totally different in character, language and religion from those of the south, the former, 140,000 in number, being Roman Catholics, and the latter, about 260,000, followers of the "Orthodox" Church, while there were 600,000 Mohammedans scattered all over the country; and the Albanians generally, who had been the spoilt children of Turkey, to whom they furnished some of her best statesmen, generals, and soldiers, had not only hitherto never been taxed, but had received substantial grants of money from the Sultan, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Moreover, Albania is a land of barren mountains, without roads or railways, which it would require a considerable State revenue to develop. Only a week after the Prince's arrival, the Albanians attacked the Greeks at Koritza, and an intertribal feud broke out between the partisans of Essad Pasha and those of Ismail Kemal Bey; a force of 100 gendarmes under Dutch officers was sent to restore order, but the officers were imprisoned and the fighting went on, houses in the villages being ransacked and women outraged.

On March 18 the first Albanian Cabinet was formed under Turkhan Pasha. Of the other Ministers two were Roman Catholic, two "Orthodox," and the rest, including Essad Pasha, the War Minister, Mohammedans. The first task of the Minister was to deal with the rising in Epirus. The Dutch officer who had been appointed High Commissioner for Southern Albania offered the Epirotes an autonomy which almost limited the union with Albania to a personal one, though he rejected their claim that the Greek language should be allowed absolute equality with Albanian; but the Government repudiated even the concessions he had offered. On March 29 the Ministry requested the Powers, through their representatives at Durazzo, to use their influence with the Greek Government in order that "the regrettable situation in Epirus" should come to an end, pointing out that while the Greek troops were being withdrawn from the districts to be evacuated their place was being taken by insurgent bands (Komitadjis) organised and armed by the Greek authorities; and as no steps were taken to put down the rising, the Prince decided to take over by force if necessary the territory occupied by the insurgents, and himself to take the command of the troops to be sent against them. Meanwhile men were arming in all parts of Albania for the liberation of the threatened territory, and a force of some 10,000 volunteers marched against them. Several encounters took place between them and the Epirotes with varying success.

Events now took a sudden and unexpected turn. Essad Pasha, Minister of War and of the Interior, and hitherto the virtual ruler of the country, was arrested by Austro-Hungarian and Italian sailors on May 19. Essad's house, which was within 300 yards of the Prince's palace, had for some time been filled with armed retainers, and it was no secret that he was planning to dethrone the Prince and take the Crown for himself. On the evening of the 18th it was ascertained that a number of insurgents were marching on Durazzo, and at daybreak on the following morning the Dutch commandant of the gendarmerie called upon Essad's men to lay down their arms. Essad then ordered his men to fire, upon which 300 Austro-Hungarian and Italian marines landed and occupied the town, sending a detachment to Essad's house to escort him to the jetty, where he was placed on board an Austro-Hungarian man-of-war and deported to Italy. The insurgents, however, who had now come within gunshot of Durazzo, assumed such a threatening attitude that on May 24 the Prince and his wife and children took refuge on board an Italian warship, though they returned to the palace two days afterwards. Negotiations were opened with the insurgents by the International Control Commission, but without result. Their demands were chiefly of a religious character, as they asked for guarantees that the Catholic Albanians (the Malissori) would not be sent against them, and they objected to the banishment of Essad Pasha, whom they regarded as a martyr to the Mohammedan religion; but the promoters of the rising appear to have been some officers of the Young Turkish party at Constantinople who were present in the insurgents' camp. One of the demands of the insurgents was for the appointment of a Mohammedan member of the Control Commission. They attacked Durazzo on June 15, but were repulsed by the Prince's adherents, chiefly Mirdites. A two days' armistice was concluded between the Prince and the insurgents on June 22, but at its conclusion the fighting was renewed without any decisive result. On July 9 Koritza was captured by the Epirotes after three days' fighting, and a severe bombardment by the regular Greek Army. As no progress was made in dealing with the insurgents either before Durazzo or elsewhere, a meeting of the loyal populations was held on July 19 at Valona, at the instigation of many influential Albanians, including Ismail Kemal Bey, at which it was unanimously decided to beg the Prince and the protecting Powers to dismiss the Cabinet and place the Government in the hands of the International Commission of Control, as no Albanian Cabinet could deal with the existing crisis, and the Commission alone "can maintain the sovereign on the throne, assure national unity and territorial integrity, and save from certain death over 100,000 refugees." The Prince on his part summoned to the palace the Ministers of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, and Italy (Great Britain and Russia having no representatives at Durazzo), and addressed them in a brief speech, stating that from the outset the Albanian problem had been complicated by the Epirote question and that the slightest sign of unrest elsewhere only increased the trouble in the South; that the Powers who had placed him on the throne had shown singularly little readiness to assist him in coping with his difficulties; they had helped all the other Balkan States, but had rendered little or no assistance to their special creation; that immediate help was imperative, and he therefore urged the Ministers to address a final appeal to their Governments for military and financial aid. A collapse of the Albanian Government seemed to be imminent; the towns of Klisura and Tepelen, as well as Koritza, were captured by irregular Greek bands with, it was said, Greek troops in disguise, the Mohammedan villages were in flames and horrible atrocities were committed upon their inhabitants. M. Venezelos, the Greek Premier, admitted that deserters from the Greek Army had assisted the Epirotes, but declared that he was powerless to prevent "Greek national sympathies being so strongly engaged on the Epirote side." He added that he thought "the Powers had taken insufficient measures for the creation of an Albanian State." On August 31 a detachment of insurgents with the Turkish flag occupied Valona without opposition, and on the same day another, with artillery, attacked Durazzo, firing several shots at the palace. Next morning they sent a letter to the representatives of the Powers, stating that they expected the Prince to leave the country, and issued a proclamation to the people declaring that as the Prince had not left, the town would be bombarded unless its inhabitants agreed at once to surrender. The Prince then left Durazzo (Sept. 4), and on September 11 Burhan Eddin Effendi, son of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, who was practically the leader of the insurrection, succeeded him, though in the proclamation issued by Prince William to the people on leaving he did not abdicate, but stated that he thought it was best for the task "to which he had sacrificed his strength and life" that he should go for a time to Western Europe, and that the International Commission of Control would carry on the Government during his absence. The Government, however, was taken over by Burhan Eddin, the self-constituted Prince, with Essad Pasha as his Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief. At the end of the year Albania was under six different regimes. Scutari and its neighbourhood was governed by a local Commission composed of Moslems and Christians. Valona was also administered by a Commission. The Mirdites formed a separate State under Prenk Bib Doda. The Malissors remained isolated under their patriarchal institutions. The southern districts had been appropriated by the Greek invaders. Durazzo and the central regions obeyed Essad Pasha, who enjoyed the title of Prime Minister and was recognised by the International Commission.

On October 1 a noteworthy declaration was made by M. Venezelos in the Greek Chamber, to the effect that Greece would remain neutral, but that she had treaty obligations with regard to Serbia which she would fulfil; he hoped, however, that nothing would occur which should bind her to interfere, as Greece desired that the European War should not spread to the Balkan Peninsula, whose people required peace after the late war. Greece at any rate would not take the initiative in disturbing the peace. As to Epirus he had said on March 10 that the decision of the Powers involved a great disaster for the nation, and nobody could suggest that Greece was in a position to fight Austria and Italy. Greece considered Albania now necessary to the preservation of the balance of power in the Balkans, and, with Serbia, hoped for the success of the new State. On March 19 the Minister of Marine announced in the Chamber, amid enthusiastic cheers from all parties, that three battleships of the Dreadnought type, three armoured cruisers, and a proportionate number of lighter vessels, would be added to the Fleet. On June 13 Greece annexed Chios and Mytilene, the islands which the Powers had agreed were to be ceded to her on the evacuation of Northern Epirus and the cession of the Island of Saseno to Albania; but in October she announced her intention of reoccupying provisionally Northern Epirus owing, among other reasons, to the breakdown of the Albanian Government substituted by the Powers under the Prince of Wied and the expediency of putting an end to the sanguinary anarchy prevailing in that country, as the forces collected by the head of the provisional Epirote Government, M. Zographos, had not been capable of maintaining order or security for life and property against the Albanian insurgents. The Powers not having raised any objection, Greece occupied Northern Epirus with her troops, and at the same time Italy occupied the Island of Saseno, which completely dominates the sea approaches to Valona.

In Bulgaria Parliament opened on January 1 in a new guise, as the general election which had taken place at the end of the previous year in consequence of the resignation of the Cabinet (A.R., 1913, p. 358) had been conducted under a system of proportional representation, and had resulted in a considerable increase of the number of Agrarian and Socialist deputies, doubtless due to the disastrous issue of the last war. There were ninety-nine Ministerialists in the new Chamber, forty-nine Agrarians, thirty-six Socialists, fourteen Democrats, five Nationalists, five Radicals, and one Zankovist. As the Royal party entered the Chamber a Socialist member shouted, "Down with Monarchy, long live the Republic," and when the King began to read the Speech from the throne another Socialist member interrupted him with similar exclamations, saying that 60,000 of the sons of Bulgaria had been sacrificed to the ambition of the Monarchy; after which all the Socialists left the Chamber. The Speech laid stress on the resumption of friendly relations with Roumania and Turkey, and expressed the conviction that the Bulgarian people would now "recuperate its forces in lasting peace and work, and dream only of winning victories in the domain of peaceful development and progress." On the following day the Premier, M. Radoslavoff, resigned to test the strength of his party, and on January 5 the King re-appointed him together with the whole of his Cabinet. Another general election took place to include the newly annexed districts in Macedonia and Western Thrace, which were to elect forty-one members in addition to the 204 of whom the old Chamber was formed. The result of the election was that in the new chamber there were 128 Ministerialists, fifty Agrarians, twenty-eight Democrats, twenty-one Socialists, nine Nationalists, five Radicals, and three Zankovists, giving the Government a majority of twelve over all the Opposition parties, and showing a considerable loss for the Socialists, who seemed to have few supporters in the annexed districts, where the whole Turkish population voted for the Ministerial candidates, with the result that twelve Mohammedan deputies were elected, besides four from Northern Bulgaria. A provisional budget for the months of April and May was introduced by M. Jencheff, Minister of Finance, on April 12. As a reassuring symptom he pointed to the fall in the rate of exchange from 20 per cent. at the end of 1913 to 7-1/2 per cent. The expenditure for 1913 he estimated at 8,000,000_l._, and the floating debt of 19,000,000_l._ was to be consolidated. Diplomatic relations with Serbia were resumed on February 17. On June 9 the Prime Minister conveyed the regret of the Government for the attacks which had been made on Greek churches at Sofia, Varna, and Burgas by the people, who had been incited by the priests and an official of the Russian Consulate. During a debate in the Sobranje on the subject the Premier said Bulgaria would do everything to preserve neighbourly relations with the other Balkan States, but that it was difficult to follow this policy owing to the ill-treatment suffered by Bulgarians in Greece and Serbia; a number of refugees who had been beaten and outraged had arrived only on the previous day. Both the Greek and Serbian Governments had ever since the partition of Macedonia done their utmost to destroy all trace of Bulgarian life and culture in the districts which they had annexed. As regards the European War the Premier declared on October 29 that the Bulgarian Government felt it a duty to proclaim the neutrality of Bulgaria and to preserve such neutrality strictly and loyally, in accordance with international needs and principles and the interests of the country, and on the same day the organ of the Bulgarian Foreign Office, _Echo de Bulgarie_, said that now the dissensions between Turkey and Bulgaria had been settled by force of arms, a bond of friendship had been created by the persecutions to which both the Turks and Bulgarians were being subjected in Macedonia.

In Roumania, which also proclaimed her neutrality at the beginning of the war, at the same time informing the Russian Government that she would not agree to the Russian troops crossing her frontier, a very drastic law was proposed by the Government in May with regard to the districts annexed by her under the Treaty of Bucharest (A.R., 1913, p. 352). It deprived the population of Parliamentary representation, which it had enjoyed for upwards of thirty years under Bulgarian rule, denied them the right of association or public meeting, deprived of his land every landed proprietor who did not accept the Roumanian nationality within one year, and provided that all the Bulgarian schools should be closed or reopened under Roumanian teachers and their revenues confiscated. On June 14 the Tsar arrived with his family on board the Imperial yacht at Constanza, the Roumanian port on the Black Sea, and was enthusiastically received, the Liberal Government and its adherents among the people being in sympathy with the Triple _Entente_, though the King and his Court were notoriously in favour of Germany and Austria-Hungary. One of the strongest advocates of a policy of friendship with Austria-Hungary, the Roumanian statesman and historian Demetrius Stourdza, died at the beginning of October in his eighty-first year, and King Charles, who with Stourdza was regarded as the founder of the Roumanian State, also died a few days after his old companion and friend. On October 15, as the funeral procession was on its way from the palace to the railway station, an attempt was made on the life of Messrs. Charles and Noel Buxton, happily without any serious result, though both were wounded, by an Albanian Mohammedan who said he acted from political motives, as the Buxtons had been agitating against Turkey. King Charles was succeeded by his nephew Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, like his uncle a Roman Catholic, and married to the daughter of the late Duke of Edinburgh; their six children, however, are members of the Roumanian "Orthodox" Church.

In Serbia the War Minister stated to the Skupshtina on February 23 that the losses of the Serbian Army during the war with Turkey were 5,000 dead and 18,000 wounded, and in the Bulgarian War 7,000 to 8,000 dead and 30,000 wounded. In both wars 2,500 died of their wounds, 11,000 to 12,000 from sickness, and 4,300 from cholera, mostly during the Bulgarian War. A treaty of peace with Turkey was signed on March 13, under which Serbia agreed not to make any distinction as regards the franchise between her new Mohammedan and Christian subjects in the annexed territories, and to allow former Ottoman subjects residing in them three years to decide whether they would remain of the Turkish nationality or accept the Serbian, during which they were not to be liable for military service. In June a Ministerial crisis occurred in consequence of a Government decree giving the civil authorities precedence over the military in the newly annexed provinces. This measure was strongly opposed by the military party, and the Premier, M. Pashitch, asked the King to dissolve the Skupshtina in order to give the people an opportunity of expressing their views on the matter. The King refused unless the decree was first rescinded, upon which M. Pashitch resigned, but, all attempts to form a coalition Cabinet having failed, he was reinstated (June 11). On June 24 the King left Belgrade for the baths at Vranya on account of ill-health, and before leaving delegated full royal authority to his son, the Crown Prince Alexander, for the period of the King's illness.

When Austria-Hungary declared the answer to her ultimatum to Serbia (p. 330) insufficient, and her Minister accordingly demanded his passports and left Belgrade on July 26, the Serbian troops were at once mobilised. Austria-Hungary declared war on July 28, and on July 30 the Serbians partly destroyed by explosion the bridge connecting Belgrade with the Hungarian town of Semlin and attempted some raids across the frontier which were repelled by the Austro-Hungarian frontier guards. The Austrian artillery replied by a bombardment of the upper and lower forts of Belgrade, in which they were assisted by their monitors on the Danube and the Save. The war in Serbia did not really begin, however, until August 12, when the Austrian Army crossed the Save and the Drina and captured Shabatz and Lesnica. War had meantime been declared by Serbia against Germany on August 6. On August 17 the Austrians continued their advance against the Serbians, the Croats in the Austrian Army, who are of the same race as the Serbians, but are Roman Catholics while the Serbians are "Orthodox" Greeks, specially distinguishing themselves in the fighting. The Austrians were repulsed, however, in a sanguinary battle in the valley of Iddar on August 16 to 19, and had to retire to Shabatz and Lesnica. The fighting in these engagements was stated to have been much fiercer and more sanguinary than any in the recent Balkan Wars. On August 26 Shabatz was retaken by the Serbians, but meanwhile an attack made by them on Wyszegrad and Rudo, in Bosnia, had been repelled with great loss on August 20 and 21. On September 8 the Austrians were defeated in an attempt to cross the Drina near Sacha, and on the 14th the Serbians captured Wyszegrad; but notwithstanding the desperate efforts made both by them and the Austrians to penetrate into the enemy's country neither had for some time any success. Another sanguinary battle, which lasted three days, was fought on the road to Valjevo on September 15 to 18, but with no decisive result. The first effective attack was made by the Austrians down the Morava; it began on November 9 and ended in the occupation of Valjevo, the former headquarters of the Serbian Army, on November 15, and the capture after much violent fighting of Belgrade on December 2. On December 3, however, fresh troops were brought up by the Serbians,[21] which inflicted a heavy defeat on the Austrians, after six days' fighting over a front of more than sixty miles; on December 8 Valjevo was retaken, the Austrian retreat became a rout, and the Serbians re-entered Belgrade, after another battle in which the Austrians were stated to have lost 60,000 killed and wounded.

On September 19 Serbia declared that she would not conclude peace alone and would not act separately from the Triple _Entente_.

In Montenegro the Skupshtina was opened after a general election by the King on February 11. He said in the Speech from the throne that though "the snatching of Skutari from Montenegro was an incurable wound in every Serbian heart" the Peace of Bucharest had laid the foundations for a new order of things in the Balkans and had secured Montenegrin national interests. "Further national successes," he continued, "will depend solely upon constant joint effort with Serbia and upon traditional loyalty to our powerful Russia." Accordingly, when Serbia was attacked by Austria-Hungary, Montenegro mobilised her army at the request of the King of Serbia for her assistance. This _entente cordiale_ between the Kings of Serbia and Montenegro had not long been established, the two States having been for some time estranged by an attempt of Serbian subjects, with the alleged assistance of the Crown Prince of Serbia, on the life of the King of Montenegro similar to that which had just been made, with fatal results, on the lives of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife (A.R., 1908, p. 335). The two Balkan Wars, in which Serbians and Montenegrins fought side by side, had to some extent wiped out the memory of old quarrels, and the propaganda for a union of the two countries was now equally strong in them both, though it was not much to the taste of the astute and ambitious King Nicholas, who had hoped before the war that he and not King Peter would be the ruler of Serbia as well as of Montenegro. This, after the Serbian victories, and in view of the far greater material prosperity of Serbia, had now become impossible. The Montenegrins who fought in the war and were treated with special consideration by the Serbians, and especially those who had come from the United States to join their countrymen against the Turks, and found their country as backward in all the arts of civilisation as when they had left it, while the Serbians had made great material progress, were among the most ardent advocates of the movement for a union of their people with Serbia. On the other side, such a union would gratify Serbia's dearest wish--for a port on the Adriatic; and the great popularity of the aged Montenegrin King was the only obstacle to such a union, the Crown Prince Danilo not having gained any sympathisers either in Serbia or in Montenegro.

Montenegro, as Serbia's ally, declared war against Austria-Hungary on August 3. She made several attempts to invade Bosnia together with the Serbians, but without success.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] The money to pay for those two battleships (the _Sultan Osman_ and _Reshadich_, renamed the _Agincourt_ and _Erin_) had been raised in Turkey by public subscription, and their retention was bitterly resented, the more so as Greece had just purchased two ships from the United States (_post_, c. viii.).

[21] This rally was caused by the arrival of fresh ammunition, and by a speech from the King. Despite his age and infirmities, he went to the front and addressed the army as follows: "Heroes, you have taken two oaths, one to me, your King, and the other to your country. I am an old, broken man on the edge of the grave, and I release you from your oath to me. From your other oath no one can release you. If you feel that you cannot go on, go to your homes, and I pledge my word that after the war, if we come out of it, nothing shall happen to you. But I and my sons stay here." Not a man of the army left.