It is stated by the Times correspondent at Isohl that
in the afternoon a long conference took place between Baron von Aehrenthal, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, and Sir Charles Hardinge. Subsequently a joint communication was issued to the Press. This stated that the conversation between the two statesmen dealt par- ticularly with the new state of things created in Turkey by the re-establishment of a Constitution. "It is known that the Cabinets of the Great Powers, and among them those of Vienna and London, have resolved to observe in regard to this development a sympathetic and expectant attitude, while hoping that the new regime in Turkey will bring about the improvement of the Administration and the consolidation of a state of things in Turkey which the Powers have tried to assure during recent years." That is perhaps a not very illuminating statement, but we have no doubt that the two able diplomatists found it almost as difficult to say what was really going on in Turkey as any two Englishmen do who meet in a club smoking-room or a railway-carriage. The beat thing, perhaps the only thing for the present moment, is for the Powers, if they can, to agree to "stand by," as the sailors would say, ready to put out any fire that may appear in South-Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, fires are sometimes beyond the control of even the most vigilant brigades, organised under a competent authority, inspired by a single purpose, and acting under a chief whose single object is fire- suppression ; and it must be admitted that the Concert of Europe is hardly a brigade of that sort.
