The Russian civil agents (the first was withdrawn) have both been men with Russian ideas of government. The Austrians (the first of whom died) have been without sufficient support from Vienna. Hilmi Pasha remains absolute governor of the Rumelian provinces, and the second Austro-Russian programme remains at this writing, April 1906, little more effective than the first. Except in the district of Drama, where the British officers operate, there is little change in the condition of Macedonia. Soldiers and civil officials, left unpaid, continue their work of plunder and extortion, murders are numerous, and minor massacres take place from time to time; the insurgents maintain their organisation, skeleton bands continue to roam the country, and occasionally fights occur. During 1905 Lord Lansdowne again pressed for effective measures of reform. The Italian and French Governments again gave him some support. Towards the end of the year Austria and Russia ‘invited’ the other Powers to participate in an international naval demonstration to wrest from the Sultan financial autonomy for Macedonia. The British Foreign Office at once agreed to participate, and proposed that the demonstration should exact also effective reforms in the judicial administration of Macedonia, but the two most interested Powers again opposed whole-hearted measures. Germany advised the Sultan to accede, but would send no ships. * * * * * After the conference on Bigla Dagh, the voivodas, with their bands, separated, bound in different directions on various missions. Boris Sarafoff, with ninety men, dropped south from Bigla Dagh around Florina to convey news of the revolution’s end to certain other bands, and to gather arms from the peasants. The band were destined ultimately to return to Bulgaria, 120 miles away; but they were doomed to cover several times this distance, spending thirty-four days, on the march back to the free land. They now avoided encounters with the Turks, travelled by night and rested by day. At the limit of each revolutionary district the band were met by a guide, who conducted them on to the next. They found the local organisations, disarmed the ‘irregulars,’ and secreted the rifles and munitions. They dropped almost due south, passing along the crest of the mountain range to the east of Lake Presba, which Bakhtiar Pasha’s forces were then ‘driving’; but Sarafoff, with several other bands, slipped through and proceeded in safety down around Florina, then up across the Monastir-Salonica railway, and north by a zigzag trail past Prelip to the Vardar above Kuprili. [Illustration: THE MACEDONIAN.] At the side of the Vardar runs the railway from Servia to Salonica, utilising the cuts the water has made in centuries of flow through the mountains. At every mile-post along the railway was a military camp or a blockhouse. Here was the first failure of the organisation.