No. 6C6]                                 SERYIA.                       [14 Nov., 1885.

[War with Bulgaria.]
 

No. 606—DECLARATION OF WAR by Servia against
Bulgaria,    Nisch, 14:th November, 1885.

(Translation.)

The King hereby declares that, in consulting the Skupt¬
china, he has taken all the necessary measures to show clearly
that Servia cannot remain a disinterested spectator of the change
which has taken place amongst the people of the Balkans, and,
above all, cannot allow it when it is to the advantage of a
State which has employed all its liberty to prove itself a bad
neighbour towards Servia, and to be unwilling to respect either
the rights, or even the territory, of Servia.

The nnjnstifiable Customs regulations which Bulgaria has
introduced against Servia,, and which have put a stop to all
commercial intercourse between the two countries, have had, on
the part of Bulgaria, for their exclusive object to give evidence
of its unfriendly disposition towards Servia, dating from the
commencement of Bulgaria's existence.

The forcible and unlawful seizure of the district of
Bregovo,* and the protection granted to the refugees in their
intrigues against the internal order of the kingdom, I have
pardoned, as I wished to give a proof of the patience which
becomes a State which has bought its liberty with its own
blood, which—assisted by the sympathy of Europe—has made
progress, and which, at each step of its development, has pre¬
served and respected the rights of others as if they had been
its own.

But the ill-treatment of our subjects in Bulgaria, the closing
of our frontiers, the gathering of undisciplined masses on our
frontiers, their acts of aggression against our border population,
and even against our Army, to which is entrusted the defence
of the Servian territory, all constitute a provocation to which I
cannot remain indifferent, having regard to the great interests of
the country, to the dignity of the people, and to the honour of the
Servian arms. For these reasons, I have accepted the state of an
open rupture which the Bulgarian Government has commenced,

^ See Protocol between Bulgaria and Servia of 25th October, 1886
(No. 619) ; Act of SOth March, 1887 (No. 620) j and Act of |^^ Decen^ber,
1888 (No. 625).

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