Excerpt from A Reply to Mr. Samuel Harden Church's Pamphlet on "the American Verdict on the War" You say in your letter: We are all going deeper than the surface in our search for the truth. Permit me to point out here a few assertions in your letter which, as fan as your person is involved, certainly do not bear out the preceding statement. I. Well, we all know that Austria, away back in 1908 made seizure of the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A thing like that enrages the human spirit, and the brains of some men will not act normally under such extreme provocation. This assertion is based on surface knowledge only. Article XXV. Of the Berlin Convention, 1878, expressly stipulated that austria-hungary will occupy and rule the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In handing over these provinces to austria-hungary the suzerainty rights of the Sultan over them were - it is true - recognized, but only to a very limited extent. The mandate which we received in 1878 to occupy the two provinces was unlimited as to terms and subject to no conditions whatsoever. On December 24th, 1879, a close tariff and trade uni-on was established between the two provinces and the dual monarchy. In all matters of trade, customs, austria-hungary was to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad. Our currency, on tobacco, salt and gunpowder monopolies were extended over the territory of the two provinces. The same is true concerning the indirect taxation of beer, alcohol, sugar and other articles, later on of the direct taxation; austria-hungary had the exclusive right of mint in the two provinces, which, from olden time, has always stood as the right of the rulers Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted our measures and weights. Our {postal and telegraph service was also extended over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1879. On November 13, 1881, a law was enacted introducingmilitary service in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the benefit of austria-hungary. What remained really to indicate the sovereign rights of the Ottoman Porte? Two prerogatives, to wit: that on official Turkish holidays the Green Flag of the Prophet was hoisted, together with ours, on public buildings, and that the name of the Sultan was in cluded in the public prayers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.