BALKAN CRISIS
PROVOKED BY
POWERS’ GREED
NATIONS NOT IN ACCORD
Alliance to Press Reforms Upon the Porte Crippled
by Inability of Christian Governments to Agree
—Quarrel Among Themselves Over Loot and
Self-Interest—Peace or the World Imperiled.
Marquis of Argenson, Louis XV.'s
great minister, wrote: ‘'The first
;treat change that will trike place in
Miirope will probably be the conquest
nf Turkey. This empire grows weak
• •r because of its bad government, and
because it is impossible that this gov
ernment should become better, and
quite sure that it will grow worse. ■
_ .jit CZZ-LZ? of /?o^7SZ-4
and if slie had the intention, site has
not the money. This road would cost
millions, and goes through a difficult
and what railway men call a very
"lean" country. It would never pay;
that is. not within the ken of the
present generation, and could only
serve a political purpose which Russia
will be unable to pursue for many
years to come.
On the other hand. Austria lias the
right to build her railway, or rather
the gaps in the present system. It is
a tight that was granted by an article
of the Berlin treaty, and it lias not
lapsed simply because the Austrian
government has allowed the matter
to lie in abeyance for so many years.
The other rumored Austrian project of
ltuilding a road from her lVsnian
Herzegovina system to the Adriatic,
and then down the coast to Montene
gro. and ultimately to Greece, is a
sound idea, and one that would pay
for itself handsomely, at least so far
as Cattaro. and probably there is no
idea of pushing the road much fur
ther in the immediate future.
Ready for Roads.
t'nder the fostering care of Herr
von Kallav, the provinces of Bosnia,
of Herzogovtna. and in a measure, too.
Dalmatia have flourished under Aus
trian rule and development. They are
Map of the Disturbed Region.
They are rising in the Ottoman em
pire. Every day a feather fails from
the wings <>t the Turkish eagle."
So it seemed to this far-sighted man
several centuries ago. but to-dav there
is only one fact of the Balkan situa
tion it [ton which all sane westerners
agree, and that is the growing
strength of the Turkish military re
sources, writes Stephen Bonsai in the
Philadelphia Ledger. That is a formid
able body of trained and fanatical
men. some 300.000 strong, that tram
ples the Christian peasants of Mace
donia under foot, and, after looking
• he situation over, the intervening
powers of Christianity have not fallen
on this rugged host, but have fallen
out among themselves on a question
of railway concessions.
Thirst for Advantage.
The czar of holy Russia ami Em
perur Joseph, who was called to rule
i lie holy Roman empire, are exchang
ing letters, which, while the diplomat
ic forms are still observed, recall the
wordy wars of tail way kings. The al
liance or entente between the powers
which was to press reforms upon the
portc that would make it possible for
he Christian subjects of the portc
to live in peace and yet live Christian
lives, has been disrupted by the greed
of gain and the thirst for political ad
vantage experienced bv the powers,
which have in the last decade plumed
t hemselvcs upon exercising a mandate
in Macedonia which they had received
from outraged humanity.
It is a pitiful end of the reform
decade, and the best tHat can lie said
of the situation is that to-day the
Christian peasants are not much worse
off than they were before, and that
those v,ho have survived their hard
experiences are probably much wiser
than they were when they began their
political schooling Sunder such august
patronage. Taking the optimistic
view, the Turkish soldier is not al
ways a brute and the Turkish effendi
not always a thief. Looking backward
now. the more than decimated peas
antry of the Macedonian highlands
doubtless recall the pleasant days of
before the uprising, the days when
they had not heard of a Pan-Slav or a
Pan-Hellene- propaganda, when they
didn't know whether they were Servi
ans. Roumanians, Bulgarians or
Creeks, and didn’t much care.
The Railway Row.
The railway row is clearly a pretext
for and not the cause of the split in
(he joint Macedonian policy of Russia
and Austria. Russia has not even the
remotest Intention of building a rail
way from the Danub? to the Adriatic.
ready for railways, and many more of ^
them. Ten years ago the complaint of
little Servia and the veto of Russia
would, of course, have brought these
projects to an untimely end. but to
day the balance of power in the near
east has changed as greatly as it has
in the far east, and the protests are
more likely to fall to the ground than
are the projected railways.
The story of the so-called reforms
in Macedonia is a sad and a sordid
one. Officially, at least, all Christen
dom "with a long pull and a pull alto
gether." has been unequal to the task
of making the “sick man of Kurope" sit
nn, or of bringing the “unspeakable
Turk" to book. In England alone of
all the great powers interested, and.
indeed, morally responsible for the
horrors of daily and hourly occurrence
in the luckless vilayets, is there any
appreciation of the dreadful situation.
Almost weekly the Macedonian com
mittee, of which I.ord Newton and Mr.
Gurney are the most active members,
publish statistics setting forth as
plainly as cold figures can make them,
that the present Iaissez faire policy
of the powers lias only served to repro
duce a tableau of what in the iron age
the world must have been.
t-nyitfiiu ndmpcrca.
The English humanitarians art" ham
pered in their work by the undeniable
fact that through the action of the
earl of Beaconsfield and Lord Salis
bury at the Berlin congress, when they
thwarted Ignatieff's plan of a greater
Bulgaria, including a free Macedonia,
England is primarily responsible for
the present status of affairs. They
are further hampered by the presence
in Constantinople of an incompetent
ambassador, who has given undeniable
| proofs of his want of capacity in such
important posts as he has occupied in
Sofia, in Pekin and in St. Petersburg.
The first whisper of reform—in
what we call Macedonia—came in vir
tue of the accord of 1879 between Aus
tria and Russia, and their recognition
by other European states as the pow
ers most directly concerned. The ad
vice of the powers was accepted
gracefully—it always is—by the sul
tan, and with the purpose of forestall
ing any possible drastic action the
sultan himself drew up a program of
reforms, and appointed that adroit
diplomatist and profound student of
| human nature, Hussein Hilmi Pasha,
inspector general of the disturbed
provinces.
Drawing Up Programs.
The moment Hilmi Pafriia arrived at
Salonica to assume Ids herculean task
the late Count Lamsdorff, the Russian
minister for foreign affairs, set out
for a visit to the capitals of the Balkan
peninsula. He visited Sofia and Hel
! grade. and advised file Servians as
; well as tlie Unitarians to cultivate
I tile more peaceful and above all more
| lawabiding methods in their Mace
| (Ionian propaganda.
Cumit l.amsdorff thou.proceeded to
j Vienna, where lie had many confcr
ences with Count Goluehowski. tlie
j Austro-! fungarian minister of foreign
affairs. Together they drew up ar
’ other program of reforms, which
was. of course, immediately accepted
j by the porte in February, 1S03. The
details of the proposed reforms are
unimportant hero and now. They
! never passed beyond (tie paper stage.
The Integrity of tlie sultan's domin
ions and his unimpaired sovereignty
; wore safeguarded by them, and in
their proposals the powers remained
j well within the limits of policy de
fined by that important article 33 of
the treaty of Merlin.
A Bloody Insurrection.
The result of the application of
■ these paper reforms did not remain in
doubt for more than a week. Instead
I of the pacification and a peace ap
proaching ihat of paradise, which the
bureaucratic Russian count prophe
sied would descend upon the blood
drenched land, came the most Moody
and formidable insurrection that the
I rebellion-ridden country had ever
seen. It required ".00,000 of the best
troops of the Ottoman forces to up
hold Turkish authority, and even with
rbis tremendous display of force, the
Turks made hut little headway against
ihe insurrection until tin fall, when
many of the Bulgarian hands, yielding
rather before the onset of winter ihati
of the Turks, withdn tv across the
frontier.
To holster tip their shattered pres
tige in the Balkans, in consequence
of the summer’s b!ood> work, the
czar of Russia and the emperor of
Austria met at Muerzsteg in October.
As a ' "suit of this impciia! conference
(he intervention of Europe in Mace
donian affairs became for the first
time direct, but the results of the
new course fell far short of expecta
tions. in the firs' place because ol the
wonderful ability of llilrni Pasha to
checkmate every move made by the
agents of the powers, and in the sec
ond because of the well-nigh insupera
ble difficulty that was experienced in
bringing the agent of the powers to
act with unanimity or even in good:
faith.
Buffers—on Paper.
However, at least, the Muerzsteg pro- i
pram created two organs of control,'
or buffers between the Turkish au
thorities and the Christian peasants
of Macedonia. Two civil agents, one
Motts. Demerik. a Russian, and the
other Her; von Muller, an Austrian.
be easily converted into cash. Others
were given brilliant decorations and
honeyed speeches. It was quite no
ticeable that many of the foreign offi
cers soon began to exhibit very little
interest in the people whom they
were sent to protect. ‘"A vermin
stricken, mangy lot," is the way one
of tlie officers was reported to have
described the Christian peasants at a
concert in Yihiiz Kiosk, and shortly
afterward his wife appeared with a di
amond tiara, which Pera gossips
averted she had never been seen to
v, ear before.
Making No Progress.
Hu much time was taken in negotia
tion am! discussions, and, above all, in
entertainments, that few of the for
eign officers reached their respective
posts until tlte fall of 1905. The
French were sent to Seres, the Eng
lish to Drama, the Austrians to I'sknb.
iite Italians to Moriastir and the Rus
sians to Saloniea. The (termans held
hack even at this early date in the
reform era. They only sent one ofli
cer. and he was instructed to refuse
to enter the disturbed districts. He
contented himself with teaching Turk
ish recruits the goose-step in the bar
racks yards of Saloniea.
As il has well been said, every one
of the powers wishes to modify the
present situation, hut. unhappily, it
would appear that each one wished
to modify it for its personal advan
tage. and. alas, profit. In a word the
news from Macedonia is that the
champions of Christendom have come
to blows, not with the assassins of the
sultan, who are seeking to destroy the
remnants of the congregation ti’.ai Si.
Paul loved, but among themselves
over a sordid question of political loot.
Worlds Peace Imperiled.
However, the statements made in
,ihe British parliament recently by
government otficials in regard to the
Macedonian question go to show that
there was something in the reports
telegraphed some days ago about the
possible disruption of the conceit of
the Hu rope a n powers and subsequent
trouble in the near east. The secre
tary for foreign affairs said emphat
ically that it' Macedonia continued to
be neglected a catastrophe would
follow.
It is. indeed, time th;»t effective re
form measures should bo put in force
in Macedonia for the good of the
Christian inhabitants of the province.
A foreign general officer has been
in charge of the Macedonian
gendarmerie with other foreign offi
cors under him, but supreme control
lias remained in the hands of Turkish
officials. As long as that is the case
real reform is otti of the question.
The British government, recogniz
World-Wide Distribution of the Mostem Faith.
At the present mom**nt there is a great revival of Pan-lslamit: feeling. which Is
th« uus*' of many new arid difficult problems wherev* r cast and west conic into
contact. Moslems throughout tic- world followed the Ilussc-.Iapanrsi* war with tin*
greatest interest, and they ar*» keenly alive to the problem of Turkey. A writer
in the Times lias pointed out tlmt it is a mistake to believe that the awakening
is dm* t«» a movement on th** part of iin Yildiz Kiosk, /is causes lie de per, ami
Mohammedans are an\nms to sl ake oil the reproach that their religion is only for
degenerate or conquered races. Tin* distribution of Islamism is shown in black.
were authorized to aud expected to
control the action of the Turkish au
thorities. They were expected to
shadow the inspector-general, to indi
cate to him the reforms which the;,
thought would prove helpful, and to
listen attentively to the complaints
of the Christian inhabitants. They
were ordered and authorized to inves
tigate all complaints that were
brought to their attention, hut unfor
tunately the investigation had always
to be held in the presence of a Turk
ish functionary—in other words under
circumstances where no Christian
peasant, after GOO years of Turkish su
premacy. would dare to tell the truth.
Something more than moral support
was required to make the slave of cen
turies stand up **nd defend himself.
In addition to the restraint of the
civil agents, there wore apiiointed a
large number of foreign officers to
serve with the Turkish constabulary.
An Italian general was placed in com
mand of the Constabulary reorganiza
tion scheme, and to him were attached
many of the foreign officers. The
scheme proved ineffectual from the
beginning. Instead of commanding the
gendarmerie in the field, the sultan
held, and imposed his view upon the
powers, that the foreign officers were;
merely, to act as instructors in schools
for aspirant constables. Six months,
a delay of tragic importance to the
hunted Christian peasantry of the
Macedonian highlands, was spent in
discussing the question whether the
European officers should wear Chris
tian caps or the Turkish fez.
In the meanwhile the wily sultan
was more than friendly. Those of the
foreign officers who could be reached
in that way were loaded with rich
presents. Some of these presents
were undeniably of a kind that could
Zkt <5&£TAV_ or romzy'
ing that, raises the uuesiioh whether
the time has not come for the appoint
ment of a Christian governor for
Macedonia. The sultan may he ex
pected to resist such an appointment,
for he would see in it the prelude to
the loss of the province. Turkish his
tory has taught him that.
The secretary for foreign affairs
says the concert of powers must either
justify or stultify itself. That is, it
must either demand further conces
sions of Turkey or split up. If it. shall
do the latter, then Turkey will he ob
durate and the peace of Kurope may
be imperiled once more. Whether
any power is prepared to side with
Turkey and block reform in Mace
donia remains to he seen. There have
been rumors that one or another
power would do this, but as yet noth
ing is certain.
! MILE RO(
_
! STORY OF BUILDING OF
REMARKABLE STATION,
THIS
I
Alt Who Enter or Depart from the
Harbor of San Francisco Mark
It as One of the Sights of
the Passage.
The story of the building of the fa
mous Mile Rod; lighthouse, which
passengers always observe as they en
ter and depart from the harbor of San
Francisco, is an interesting and in
some respects a thrilling one—replete
with human daring and danger.
This little station was completed
and the iight first displayed early in
; January. 1900. More than a year was
consumed in the construction of the
station. For the past half a century
Mile Rock has been a constant menace
to shipping. Every vessel entering
or departing from the Golden Gate
during darkness or heavy weather ran
I the gauntlet of danger.
Mile Rock stands just one mile from
the south mainland, opposite the en
trance to San Francisco harbor, and
about three miles from the North
I Heads. It was originally a mere pin
: nacle of sharp, ragged rocks, jutting
just above the ocean's surface. At ex
treme low title the points of the rock
were only 14 feet above the sea. At
I high tide the rock was practically sub
| merged, and during stormy weather
j was constantly waveswepl.
To construct a iight station on such
' a foundation was certainly a very dif
I ticult an<’ perilous task—next to an
I engineering impossibility.
Congress appropriated $100,000 for
the work, but no contractor, after
(knowing all the difficulties and dan
gers of the work, liked to undertake
j .such a task, and much delay followed
! before the contract was let. ” it was
finally awarded James McMahon of
San Francisco, who at once began op
I orations.
No regular skilled workmen could
I,e persuaded in engage in such haz
ardous work, and so finally Contract! ■
McMahon had to hire raw seamen,
fur he could secure none others. These
unskilled men were set to work under
an experienced foreman, and gradual
ly initiated into what was necessary.
i These "tars' had but little fear of the
| sea and its perils.
Srom the original shape of Mile
Rock it was impossible to build up a
1 perfectly round cylinder; blit it was
| constructed in an elliptical form.
I teet tile narrow way and 40 feet the
I long way. The metal plates of which
| this huge cylinder was built were 2‘v
A MYSTERY SOLVED
WHEN ALEXANDER I., CZAR OF
RUSSIA, DIED.
Legend That He Abdicated and Died
Forty Years After His Sup
posed Death Has Been
Disproved.
Certainty as to the death of Alex- i
ander I. has resulted from the find
ing of documents by the Grand Duke
Nicholas which disprove the accuracy
af the legend, common enough among
Chapel Erected Over the Tomb of the !
Hermit.
!
1 :he Russian people, that the czar, in ,
I itead of dying, really abdicated amt
| etired from the world, and expired
n the year ISOi. The hermit Feodor
Kozomitch. who had been identified
is Alexander I., is now proved to have
been the natural son of i’aul i.
From such a source there now ap
pears to be no reason to doubt the
ruth of this strange story, and a
French journal recently gave currency
o the following remarkable solution
>f the old mystery:
It must be recalled that the alleged
leath of the Emperor Alexander 1.
was at least mysterious. There was
Hirrent a story that he had been
lropped by the hand of an assassin,
it was said also that lie had suc
cumbed to a bilious fever, called in
Russia the Crimea fever. Whichever
way his death is viewed, it was mys
.erious. Alexander as ruler of Rus
sia never was a happy man. He came
o a throne which had been stained
iv the blood of his father. Paul I.,
ind the murder of his parent made a
leep impression upon him. At night
while Paul was asleep in the Michael
>ff palace, bold assassins, after killing
lie sentry at the door, rushed upon
I he sleeping czar, and. calling upon
him to abdicate, strangled hint bru
mby when he refused.
The murder of his father occurred
n 1801 and Alexander sat on the
throne until, in 1825, when bis death
was officially announced, and what
was supposed to he his body was
borne on a bier to the tomb.
According to the legend, Alexander
slipped av.av and caused to be pub
lished the proclamation of his death.
He went to Siberia, according to the
story, which appeared to be impreg
nable with the evidence of two ser
vants at the court, a letter written
by Alexander and by the remarkable
likeness existing between the suppos
edly dead monarch and a hermit
named Feodor Kozomitch. who for
many years was an exile in Siberia.
Nothing in fiction is more strange
than the tale of the effacement of
Alexander I., and Tolstoy has given
the popular version of it in one of his
stories, for the legend is common
enough in Russia, but ignored when
not contradicted in official histories.
Among the documents which have
lain unknown in the personal archives
of the piesent czar are the journal
of the Kuipress Elizabeth. widow of
Alexander, who was with the emperor
in his last moments, and the letters
of the emperor's familiars, who at
tended hint in his last hours: the
death mask of the emperor, the cer
tificate of the nine doctors describ
ing the nature of his disease and the
result of the autopsy. It is also
maintained that, under the circum
stances, it would have been impossible
for a body to have been substituted
for that of the emperor.
The solution of th»• mystery, then,
had to be looked for in another di
rection. This notv has been accom
plished. and it is asserted that the
circumstances surrounding the death
of the natural son of Paul I. were pe
culiar. Front midshipman he became
an officer in the British navy and is
said by one account to have died
while his vessel was in the Antilles
in 1T9-4. Another account of his death
relates that he was drowned at Cron
stadt. and still another version states
that he died in the Indies. The inves
tigation has shown thai. 4-hile appar
ently drowned, the young man was
resuscitated ami became the exile.
The Grand Duke Nicholas, in mak
ing his search, also found that the
names Feodor and Kouzma, or Koz
ina. which are the same as Feodor
Kozmitch, occur with frequency In
the family of Semen Velikii, under
which- name.-the son of Paul I. was
known. In discovering the identity
of Paul's natural son with this per
son, the grand duke believes he has
settled a vexed question and set at
rest for all time the curious legend.
As tile half brother of the Emperor
Alexander, the hermit not un
naturally resembled him suffi
ciently for court retainers to
recognize him and to give the impres
sion that the czar was not dead, but
living incognito as a holy man in Si
beria.
ZK LIGHT
by 5 feet in diameter and live
eighths of an incli in thickness. They
were very strongly bolted with steei
rivets. As rapidly as the cylinder was
built upward all the interior space was
tilled with strongly reinforced con
crete. very firmly tamped. This cyl
inder foundation was constructed 12
feet high—thus making a solid con
crete mass 25x40x42 feet. More than
1.200 barrels of cement alone were
used in building this foundation, and
many tons of steel plates.
The concrete, while in u pliant state,
settled all around the lagged points of
_J
Mile Rock Lighthouse.
the jocks that jutted fur upward inside
the immense cylinder: and uniting
with them thus formed an anchorage
that was simply impregnable.
From the top ot' this massive founda
tion the gradually tapering super
structure rises 5t> feet—making the
iota! distance from the mean sea level
to the light about 100 feet. The upper
part of the station is of structural
steel massively anchored into the con
crete foundation.
It is a noteworthy fact that during
all the time work was in progress on
the station—over a year—not a life
was lost, no person was even injured,
and no sort of accident, occurred to re
tard the construction. Considering
the constant perils that, beset (he un
dertaking the record is a remarkable
one.
