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 re-opened 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.

A

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. 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,' 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,

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.

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 AustriaHungary on August 3. She made several attempts to invade Bosnia together with the Serbians, but without success.

CHAPTER IV.

LESSER STATES OF WESTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE.

I. BELGIUM.

UNTIL the abrupt violation of Belgian neutrality by the German armies on August 3 the political antagonisms of Clericals and Liberals and of Flemings and Walloons seemed to be growing more acute. The German invasion, with its almost incredible atrocities, swept away the memory of these feuds. The Belgian nation saw all but a small fraction of its land swept by the invaders, and either found refuge and hospitality in Holland, Great Britain, and to some extent in Switzerland, or became dependent

for its very subsistence on the charity of the people of the United States. But it did not flinch in its determination to maintain its independence, and at the close of the year it was gallantly aiding the resistance of the Allies to the German advance on Calais and Northern France.

When the year began the Chambers were still debating the Bill for subsidising voluntary schools, and the Flemish Nationalists in both the Liberal and Clerical parties were endeavouring (unsuccessfully, as it proved) to amend it so as to promote the spread of their own tongue at the expense of French. But another question arose which tended to injure the Government. Towards the end of January a severe frost closed the waterways and blocked the State railways with their traffic. The efforts. made to cope with the block showed grave defects in the management and the equipment of the lines, and the Central Industrial Committee of manufacturers and traders formally complained to the Minister of the Interior that factories had been stopped and orders and consignments diverted to foreign countries and ports. Politics were said to influence the management, and the financial administration was condemned as defective and unintelligible. A scheme of reorganisation was contemplated, under which the Railway Budget would be rearranged and the management of the system assigned to a Board of fifteen paid members, Senators, Deputies, and State officials being ineligible. This Board would be under the supervision of a Council of seven members, chosen from and by the Parliament, and subordinated to the Minister of Railways. But the scheme was left over till a convenient season.

After much debate and some critical situations, the Schools Bill finally passed the Chambers on May 20, thus terminating the struggle begun by M. Schollaert in 1911. The Liberals and Socialists in the Senate formally denounced the measure as unconstitutional, but declined to take part in the division. The debates on it had crowded out some measures of social reform, but a Bill passed the Chamber providing for the insurance against old age, sickness, or premature disablement of all employed persons, including such State or municipal officials as were not already provided for by pension or disablement funds. But all persons were exempt whose income exceeded 2,400 francs (967.) annually, as also home-workers with more than one employer. As in Great Britain, the funds were provided by payments from workmen, employers, and the State.

This Bill was hurried through before the elections for the renewal of half the Chamber (May 31), the representatives affected being those of East Flanders, Limburg, Hainaut, and Liège. The Ministry had offended its rural supporters by the new taxes of 1913, and by making military service and school attendance compulsory, and the Moderate Liberals had begun to return to their party, which they had left in 1912 owing to its coalition with