Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/308

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
292
THE BALKAN PENINSULA, ETC.: TEXTS.

The schemes of organization resulting from these labours shall be submitted for examination to the Sublime Porte, which, before promulgating the Acts for putting them into force, shall consult the European Commission instituted for Eastern Roumelia[1].


Greece.


Art. XXIV. In the event of the Sublime Porte and Greece being unable to agree upon the rectification of frontier suggested in the 13th Protocol of the Congress of Berlin[2], Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Russia reserve to themselves to offer their mediation to the two parties to facilitate negotiations[3].


Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Art. XXV. The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary[4]. The Government of Austria-Hungary, not desiring to undertake the administration of the Sandjak of Novi-Bazar, which extends between Servia and Montenegro in a south-easterly direction to the other side of Mitrovitza, the Ottoman Administration will continue to exercise its functions there. Nevertheless, in order to assure the maintenance of the new

  1. The appointment of these special Commissions was urged by Sir A. H. Layard, in a note verbale of 27th June, 1879. Ultimately, instead of appointing them, the Porte drew up a draft organic law, following substantially the Statute for Eastern Roumelia, and sent it to be examined at Adrianople, Salonica, &c., with a view to its adaptation to local requirements. It then, in April, 1880, invited the Powers to reassemble the Eastern Roumelia Commission for the examination of the drafts as thus modified. The Commission, on which Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice was now the British representative, met accordingly, and by its final act, signed on 23rd August, 1880, approved the drafts, and adjourned sine die. It also recommended to the Porte, as suitable for the government of Albania, a scheme prepared by the Commissioners of Austria and France. Parl. Papers, 1880, Turkey, No. 16.
  2. Q. V. supra, p. 25.
  3. Supra, pp. 25−27, 60−69.
  4. The Austrians issued a Proclamation on 28th July, 1878 (N. R. G. 2me Série, iii, 467). On the following day their troops crossed the Save into Bosnia, and a few days later entered Herzegovina from Dalmatia. Resistance collapsed towards the end of September. A law including these provinces in the Austrian customs-union was passed on 20th December, 1879.