THE DEPOSITION OF PRINCE ALEXANDER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2210, 7 September 1886, Page 3

THE DEPOSITION OF PRINCE ALEXANDER.

The following extract from the London letter of the Argus correspondent affords some insight into the recent arrest and deposition of Prince Alexander of Bulgaria :—: — Clouds are again gathering over the Balkans. The St. Petersburg authorities have asked the Porte to call Prince Alex ander t«> his senses. It is suggested that the Prince has been puilty of a violation of the Organic Statute, and that heis attempting to set aside any European arrangement ! The specific acts, of which complaints are made are— first, that in sending a message to the National Assembly at Sofia, he has assumed the functions of ait independent sovereign ; and next, that in his message he has declared the absolute union of the two Bulgarian, whilst ho is openly endeavouring to amalgamate them into a sniffle state. The action of Russia has found backing in the St. Petersburg Journal, which is exceedingly angry with Prince Alexander. The semi-official position ot the St. Petersburg Journal is notorious, and consequently the article which it has published has caused some sensation alike at Berlin ,and at Vienna. The result [a not likely to be altogether satisfactory to Russia's amour propre. Before receiving the Russian note, or complaint, the Sultan had asked Punce Alexander to be cautious, and had been told that he meditated nothing contrary to the just influence of the Porte. This has satisfied the Sultan, and he has since shown no disposal to take-action against his vassal. On the coutrary, hobeems to de.site above all things to conciliate the Prince, and this is a point of which much is made by the Russian journalist. This week only the Sultan has despatched his commission to undertake, with the other authorities appointed by Prince Alexander, the revi.sion of the Organic Statute. The newspapers of Germany and Russia warn Russia in very emphatic language that she must not assume to act in the name of Europe in this matter— that she is but one of sit powers comprising the areopagus, and that this action on her part originates entirely out of objects and purposes of her own. We now see why the Porte has bpen in no huny to disband the burdensome army which was concentrated on the borders of Thessaly and Epirus, and why it has been, determined to form two gieat entrenched camps at Ufkub and Adrianople, ostensibly "to prevent foreign intrigue in Macedonia." We may also here find the explanation of the recent visit of the Prince of Bulgaria to the King of Roumania. and of the phrase attributed more recently to the former that what Bulgaria more particularly needed just now was neither schools nor churches, but powder and guns and riHes. It appears that Piin'ce Alexander has had no official communication from Russia since September last— the date of the revolution ; that all his letters and despatches, reporting this, that, and the other, ha\ebeen deliberately ignored; and that all direct overtures to the C/-ar have been repidsed. He stated the>e facts to a deputation of his people which waited upon him the other day to ask him to be reconciled to the Czar. He added that he did not know what Russia demanded of him, but when it was hinted that the dismissal of the KanvelofF Cabinet was the first step towards an arrangement, he put his foot down and said that it was a matter which could on no account be discussed.