Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7796, 16 November 1886, Page 4

As was to be expected Prince Waldemar of Denmark has deoli ned the proffered throne of Bulgaria. The ostensible reason of his decision is the refusal of his Royal father's assent, but the true one doubtless is that which we suggested as likely to govern any person of discernment and independence, that whoever accepts that position under existing conditions must stoop to become the helpless tool of Russia. The very fact that the only cause of the Czar's inveterate dislike of Prince Alexander was his steadfast recognition of the necessity of keaping himself in touch with the Bulgarian movement for union and independence, is quite sufficient to deter any man save the merest sycophant from accepting the situation. Probably, too, Prince Waldemar had a secret conviction that Russia did not really want to see him accept the position, and countenanced the proposal for his election merely to divert attention from her designs, and in the belief that he would feel constrained to decline the honour. The person whom all along the plotters at St. Petersburg have wished to occupy the place of Prince Alexander is Prince Nicholas of Montenegro ; and, now that Princo Waldemar's refusal is published, she is certain to urge strongly the claims of the latter. Indeed, the Russian Government seem to have been so thoroughly convinced that Prince Waldemar would decline the offer made him by the Sobranje that, even before his decision was intimated, they pronounced in favour of the Montenegrin Prince's candidature. How this significant proposal will affect the political situation it would be difficult to forecast. The Regency and the Sobranje have expressed their readiness in a general way to elect as their Prince the man whom Russia nominates, in the hope that thus the strained relations which now exist between her and Bulgaria might be improved. It is, however, very doubtful whether, having done this once, they will hold themselves under any obligatfon to do so a second time. And especially will they be disposed to resile from their formerly expressed intention when the fact is impressed on them, as it cannot fail to be, that the Prince of Montenegro is and

.hereditarily has been Russia's tool in forwarding her designs on the Balkan Peninsula. Knowing this, they will hardly be prepared to elect as their ruler a man who cannot, to use StamboulofFs phrase, become a Bulgarian, and who, by all his antecedents as well as the conditions of his candidature, must make it his aim to Russianise his subjects. On the other hand Russia may profess very strongly after her usual fashion that, if the Czar is gratified in this matter, all interference with the internal control of Bulgaria will be abandoned. She may also contrive to bespeak Austria's consent to this nomination by indicating her willingness that Montenegro should be placed under Austrian occupation, in much the same way as Bosnia and Herzegovina were by the Treaty of Berlin. Still it is scarcely probable that the Vienna Cabinet would, under present circumstances, be tempted with this bait. What the Austrian Court is bound especially to consider just now is the sensitive attitude assumed by the Hungarian portion of the Empire, and Count Kalnoky's address to the Hungarian delegation, the substance of which appears in to-day's telegrams, shows that this necessity is fully recognised. The conviction which prevails throughout Hungary is, that this Monarchy cannot be a passive spectator of the consolidation of Russia's power in the Danubian and Balkan territory, and that the means now employed by her agents, even if a forcible occupation of Bulgaria should for the present be abstained from, have a palpable tendency to place the whole Austrian Empire, but especially the Hungarian portion of it, in peril. To the Hungarians the election of the Montenegrin Prince must therefore foreshadow the incorporation of Bulgaria with the Russian Empire at no remote date, and the absorption thereafter of Roumania. Their own safety, consequently, demands that they should espouse the cause of the Danubian and Balkan nationalities, and insist that those processes which, with the toleration of the other Powers, Russia is employing to sap the foundations of Bulgarian independence should be abandoned. This will probably impose upon the Austrian Cabinet the duty of entering her formal protest against the encouragement which Russia is giving to the spirit of revolt in Bulgaria and Roumelia, and the outrage upon international law which General Kaulbars is guilty of in persistently requiring that the actors in any revolt should be released, and the approval which Russia by the presence of her warships at Varna and Burghas gives to such unprincipled procedure. Should Austria assume this mandatory attitude, there can be no doubt of her receiving the support of Britain; and Lord Salisbury's speech at the Guildhall banquet has been interpreted by Count Kalnoky to denote such an assurance. In that event, too, the Bul» garian Assembly will be fortified in their intention to elect a Prince in sympathy with the aspirations of their country; and their sending a deputation to the several European Courts to explain their situation, as they are said to be doing, is certain to secure for them counsel and aid [from the friends of national freedom in all lands.