freedom of the voters was an endeavour to suppress a manifesto issued by the deposed King on April 13.

The result of the plebiscite, which was duly held on April 13, was that 758,742 votes were cast for a Republic and 325,322 for a Monarchy. The Royalists faithfully accepted the verdict of the people, and declared that they would loyally support the Republic. The nation, after a long period of discord, seemed to be once more united, and M. Papanastasiou had undoubtedly to a certain extent succeeded where M. Venizelos had failed. Nevertheless the Government thought it advisable to issue on April 23 a decree prohibiting, under severe penalties, propaganda against the Republic or in favour of the deposed Monarchy for a period of ten years-a measure which aroused considerable ill-feeling. The election of a President was postponed till October, and meanwhile the post was filled by Admiral Kondouriotis. On April 23 the Republic was formally recognised by Great Britain, a step which had already been taken by Italy and Turkey.

On May 19 the Chamber re-assembled after an interval of nearly two months. Its chief business was to bring a Senate into existence, but before its constructive labours could bear fruit they were interrupted by a series of internal troubles due largely to the activities of members of the military and naval forces both in and out of the Government. On May 26 a strike of ships' crews commenced which paralysed shipping at all Greek ports, and this was followed by a number of sympathetic strikes which caused grave inconvenience to the general public. On June 9 Colonel Kondylis, the Minister of War, resigned on the ground that the Government did not take sufficiently strong measures against the strike movement, which in his opinion was the outcome of a Communist plot. He attacked the Government in the Chamber, but could not prevent it obtaining a Vote of Confidence by a majority of 78. Thereupon he publicly announced his intention of forming a Fascist Party to combat Communism.

The seamen's strike was settled on June 13, and was immediately followed by a kind of strike in the Navy. On June 25, 81 out of 170 higher officers in the Navy demanded that the Minister of Marine, Captain Hadjikyriakos, should be removed on the ground of his having shown favouritism in making promotions, and that these promotions should be declared invalid. The Government obtained a Vote of Confidence in the Chamber on June 27, and proceeded to take disciplinary measures against the recalcitrant officers. These, however, were joined by others, till the number of malcontents rose to over 130; and on July 5 M. Papanastasiou deemed it best to accept the resignation of Captain Hadjikyriakos and take over the Ministry of Marine himself. Soon afterwards he reinstated the officers who had resigned. This, however, led to further trouble. On August 21, Captain Kolialexis, commanding the battle cruiser Giorgios

Averoff, who had not struck with the other officers, telegraphed to the Minister of Marine demanding the cancellation of the decree by which the strikers had been reinstated. The Minister responded by dismissing Captain Kolialexis and ordering him to report himself at the Ministry. The Captain, however, remained on board off the Piræus, and in view of his threatening attitude. the Government deemed it prudent to place guns and troops in the town to prevent him from landing with an armed force. At this point Captain Hadjikyriakos intervened, and persuaded Captain Kolialexis to return to his allegiance, only, however, after the Government had undertaken to cancel the reinstatement of the officers who had resigned.

In the meanwhile the Government of M. Papanastasiou had been overthrown owing to its association with General Pangalos, who had succeeded Colonel Kondylis as Minister of War. This General was suspected of aiming at a military dictatorship, and consequently had numerous opponents who were not long in finding an opportunity to compass his downfall. On July 16 parties of soldiers entered two newspaper offices in Salonika and killed four pressmen, in revenge for the publication of insults. against their Colonel. General Pangalos was charged with conniving at the outrage, and his denials of the charge failed to satisfy not only the Opposition but also certain of the Government groups in the Chamber. After an all-night sitting on July 18, accompanied by violent uproar, the Government was defeated by 131 votes to 178, and resigned. M. Sophonilis, an old colleague of M. Venizelos, became Prime Minister and Minister of Marine, and on July 30 obtained a Vote of Confidence by 181 votes to 131; after which Parliament was prorogued till October 1. The advent of the new Ministry caused a faint revival of Royalist hopes, but the Republic remained undisturbed for the rest of the year.

Early in the year a report was issued by the Settlement Commission appointed by the Council of the League of Nations, under the chairmanship of Mr. H. Morganthau, to devise measures for relieving the Greek refugees, to the number of over a million, who had been driven from Thrace and Asia. Minor as a result of the agreement with Turkey. The Greek Government had assigned 1,250,000 acres of State lands for their settlement, and the Commission proposed to raise a loan of 6,000,000l., secured partly on Greek public revenues, for the purpose of equipping them. Mr. Morganthau stated that so far" the Greek Government and people had grappled with this problem in a manner worthy of the highest praise." Pending the floating of the main loan, a second loan of 1,000,000l. was negotiated by Mr. Morganthau in London on May 7 to enable the works of settlement to be carried on for several months.

In foreign affairs the year was uneventful. Some excitement was caused in Greece by the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors in May to assign to Albania, under the new frontier

settlement, fourteen villages occupied by Greeks and hitherto under Greek administration; and the Government promised the Chamber to protest, and, if necessary, to appeal to the League of Nations. On July 26 a somewhat serious "frontier incident" took place in Macedonia, seventeen Bulgarians being bound and killed in cold blood by a party of Asia Minor Greeks. A League of Nations Commission which investigated the affair found that the local Greek authorities were responsible and entirely exonerated the Greek Government; but the affair did not improve Bulgarian relations with Greece.

In April the Byron centenary was celebrated at Athens, the British Government being officially represented by Sir Rennell Rodd, the British Ambassador at Rome.

ALBANIA.

In the Parliamentary elections which were held at the beginning of the year, the head of the Government, Ahmed Zogu, failed to secure a majority, and his position became precarious. On February 23 he was shot at and slightly wounded by a young Albanian student in the corridor of the Parliament House. On March 3 a new Ministry was formed by Shevket Verlaci. On May 22 the young Liberal deputy, Avni Rustem, was assassinated at Tirana, and Ahmed Zogu was accused of instigating the murder. Great demonstrations took place at the funeral, and discontent with the Government became more and more marked. Towards the end of May, Shevket Verlaci resigned and was replaced by Ilias Vrioni.

This change failed to appease the democratic and Liberal elements. The army of the South and the garrison of Scodra declared against the Government, and troops marched on Tirana. After a slight resistance Ahmed Zogu and a few of his partisans fled to Belgrade. A number of deputies who supported him took refuge in Italy and in Corfu.

On June 16, Monsignor Fan Noli, the leader of the Democratic and Liberal Party, formed a Government. He issued a proclamation, stating that the revolution was a protest against the illegalities and corruption of the previous régime, and its attempt to perpetuate the feudal privileges of the nobility and large landowners. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved, but no steps were taken to hold new elections. Also three members of the "Council of Regency" (which holds the place of the Monarchy in the Albanian constitution) had been deposed, while the fourth considered himself under notice; consequently the new Government was never properly legalised, and was therefore insecure from the beginning.

In December, before the election which had at length been proclaimed could take place, an insurrectionary movement broke out in the North-East of Albania. It had been organised and set on foot from Belgrade by Ahmed Zogu, who entered Tirana

on December 24. Fan Noli, with his Government, immediately fled to Italy.

In addition to her internal political troubles, Albania has had to endure cruel blows from without owing to the exchange. of the Greek and Turkish populations stipulated by the Treaty of Lausanne. It had been understood that Albanians on either side should not be affected, but Greece in spite of this insisted on expelling from her territory Albanian Moslems from Epirus and Macedonia, and confiscating their goods. Albania appealed to the League of Nations, which considered the matter on three occasions, and charged the Mixed Commission which supervised the exchange to see that the Albanians should not be included. In spite of this, more than 20,000 Albanian Moslems have been forced to leave their homes and abandon their property in Greece.

BULGARIA.

The year 1924 passed in Bulgaria in comparative calm, in spite of the continued presence and activity of turbulent elements.

The extremists-Communists and Agrarians-were not in a position to organise a serious movement for the overthrow of the Tzankoff Cabinet, and in different parts of the country they formed bands of brigands for terrorising the population, and more particularly the officials of the Government. In April the Government was informed of the intention of the Third International to provoke trouble in the Balkans. The Bolshevik propaganda finds favourable soil among the Communists and the Agrarians in Bulgaria, not on account of the social conditions. in the country, or because Bolshevik doctrines appeal to the masses, but simply in consequence of the events of last year, when many members of these parties perished in the struggle against the Government of M. Tzankoff. The Cabinet was somewhat alarmed, and prepared itself for all eventualities. The Allies also, to assist its efforts, gave their consent for raising about 3,000 volunteers above the number fixed by the Treaties. While it is a fact that Moscow was doing all in its power to incite a rising in Bulgaria, the peril was highly exaggerated in Bulgaria as well as abroad for reasons of internal and external policy. In any event, Bulgaria passed the autumn without any internal commotion.

The only regrettable incident caused by the Bolshevik activity was the murder, on August 31, of the famous leader of the Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Organisation, Todor Alexandroff, organised and executed by the Federalist Fraction of the same revolutionary organisation, but inspired by the agents of the Soviets. In reprisal, the murder of Alexandroff was followed by the murder of several Federalist and Communist leaders, ending with that of Tchaouleff at Milan.

In external affairs the Government adhered to its policy of

seeking peace and rapprochement with all Powers, and particularly with its neighbours, and undertaking the sincere execution of the obligations imposed by the Treaties. Nevertheless, the Cabinets of Belgrade and Athens accused Bulgaria of allowing various organisations to make great preparations on her territory for revolutionary action in Macedonia in the spring. To allay this suspicion, the Government, at the beginning of March, arrested several hundreds of Macedonians from the frontier towns, and interned them in the interior of the country, liberating them, however, after a certain time.

As a proof of the desire of Bulgaria to live in peace and on friendly terms with her neighbours, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Kalfoff, signed at Geneva with M. Politis, the representative of Athens, a protocol for the protection of the minorities in their respective countries. It was expected in Bulgaria that by the conclusion of such an agreement the relations between Bulgaria and Greece would be sensibly improved, and that the exodus of the Bulgarian population from Western Thrace and the portion of Macedonia under the rule of Greece would be stopped. For Bulgaria this emigration is not merely a matter of political importance, but also an economic question, as the hundreds of wretched families which are still arriving daily constitute a heavy burden on the meagre Budget of the State. Unfortunately the execution by Greece of the protocol seems doubtful, on account of the strong national opposition against it. The Government of Athens will probably be obliged to denounce the protocol, or at least to ask for its revision.

The efforts of the Cabinet of M. Tzankoff have been appreciated by the Allies, and Bulgaria has obtained some concessions from them. The expenses of the Inter-Allied Commission of Reparations, which constituted a heavy charge for Bulgaria, have been reduced to 12,0007., and the Military Commission of Liquidation will be soon abolished, and in its place the military control will be assumed by the League of Nations.

Towards the end of the year M. Tzankoff paid visits to Belgrade and Bucharest in order to form a personal acquaintance with the leading statesmen of Yugoslavia and Rumania, to come to a better understanding with the neighbouring countries, and to organise a joint effort against the common danger of Bolshevism.

The economic situation has not changed greatly during the year. Though commerce and industry are steadily improving and many legislative measures have been taken for the amelioration of the conditions of life, the cost of living has gone up considerably. One of the reasons for this is the bad harvest of the year. Bulgaria, though an agricultural country which used always to export cereals, is now obliged to import wheat and flour from abroad for the feeding of the population of the towns.