THE SURRENDER OF GREECE.
WE do not know that it is of much use to condemn either Europe or the British Government for the betrayal of Greece. " Europe " is too impersonal to be sensitive, and the British Government will say, with a certain truth, that peace is a moral interest as well as freedom ; that after the discre- ditable retreat of France, this country, had it attempted to coerce Turkey, would have been isolated, and that circum- stances are still unripe for that settlement of Asiatic Turkey which a war would have precipitated, Lord Granville has gained all he could for Greece without war, and in the inex-
tricable complexity of the situation may perhaps think he has reason for some thankfulness. - It is, as we said, of little use to indulge in sterile reproaches, but it pains us to see Liberals, in their eagerness for a peace which is no peace, but only an unrestful truce, misrepresenting daily both the • case and the
grievance of the Greeks. They have not been contending for a mere addition to the territory of their kingdom, greatly as they desired and needed it. If they had, they might be partially content, for although they have spent eight millions, and disorganised all industry for a year, and reduced the Treasury to momentary straits, they have acquired an estate well worth the cost,—the great Thes- salian plain, perhaps the richest morsel of European Turkey, and with the .ceded section of Epirus equal to about two Suffolks in extent. Ten years hence, Thessaly will be the best revenue-yielding province of Greece, and the home of the
largest number of subjects. The Greeks, however, were not contending for land, but for the freedom of their countrymen, who look to them for aid against the Asiatic oppression under
which they are stifled. They have for years declared them- selves the defenders of the Greek race throughout Eastern Europe ; have remonstrated and even threatened on behalf of Macedonians. Cretans, and Greeks, in the smaller islands ; and have in particular pledged themselves up to the lips to the Greek Epirotes, whose centre is Jannina. Europe, at last, pledged itself to assist them in their work of mercy. What- ever the promises actually made in 1878, they were so serious that the Greeks believed them ; that at the Congress of Ber- lin, Ambassadors hostile to the Greeks acknowledged their claims ; and that at a Conference summoned ad hoc all Europe confirmed them, granting to Greece the territory south of 40° N.L.,—that is, Thossaly and Epirus. Nothing whatever has occurred since to impeach the validity of this award. • The Greeks accepted it with delight. The inhabitants would vote for it by a majority of seven to five. The resistance of the Porte had been calculated on from the first. Suddenly, however, France, in a spasm of selfishness still totally unexplained, refused to act, and after long and unreal negotiations, Europe not only withdrew from its award, but announced its intention of diplomatically compelling Greece to abandon the Epirotos. She is to have Theesaly, but if the Ottoman caste choose to treat Jannina as Battik or to settle Cireassians in Epirus, as they have done in Armenia, they are to retain the full right, as far as international law is concerned, to commit, those acts. And not only is Greece expected to agree to this fcul treachery, but respectable Eng- lish Liberals, who go wild with indignation if a few roughs commit an outrage upon railway passengers, not only assent to the surrender of Epirus to Turkish Irregulars—for that is what the compromise means—but lecture the Athenians for not being "frankly grateful " for the good things they have gained, and talk about the obligation now resting on Greece to devote herself to works of peace. We wonder, if Cornwall
were being ravaged by Asiatics, and every day brought some new tale of outrage and dishonour done on English folk, whether London journalists would advise the British people to betake themselves to irrigation, and the increase of their bank balances: The Greeks have been betrayed, to suit the selfishness of France and the ambition of Austria, which has no more business in Greek provinces than Turkey has ; and Englishmen, who pledged themselves with the rest of Europe to the Greeks, read them stupid little lectures on the sin of impatience, and feel themselves quite a virtuous and charitable people. It is sickening.
The transaction is not in the least the better because the 'Greeks have gained a fat province, or because they have in a supreme crisis shown .ft want of the dogged deter- ' mination which is sometimes essential to a nation. The enfranchisement of Thessaly may, and, we trust, will, give Greece the means of organising a small but thoroughly dis- ciplined army, which will make her next remonstrance more effectual ; but it does not save Epirus, and the charge of weak-
ness does not lie in the mouths of those who have implored her to be weak. To order Athens not to fight and then sneer at Athens for not fighting is simply baseness, only excusable because those who are guilty of it realise the position of Eastern Christians under Mussulman rule so little, that they do not know what they are saying. That the Greeks are weak in their surrender, if they have surrendered, we sorrowfully but fully admit. It is essential to every nation to be ready, when need arises, to defend itself and its just claims, and there are times when a nation had better take counsel of despair, and risk extinction, than give way one foot. Such a moment had, as we conceive, arisen for Greece, when the Powers abandoned. their own award, and left the Porte master of the field. Greece ought, in our judg- ment, then to have occupied the provinces, called all Greeks to arms, and kept up a war, regular or irregular, till fighting was no longer possible, or till Europe, alarmed at the commotion, once more agreed to be honest and con- sistent.
In failing to run that risk, the Greek statesmen—cursed, as Greeks always have been, with too much cleverness—have, we fear, forfeited the loyalty of the Epirotes, have turned the Macedonians sick with despair, and have forfeited their own future. The enslaved provinces must now seek new allies, and whether they find them in Vienna or St. Petersburg, or even Sophia, they will equally cease to be Greek. But then what an additional humiliation this result is for Europe, and especially for Great Britain, which has declared the self-govern- ment of the different races in the Balkan, and their ultimate federal union, to be her permanent policy in Eastern Europe 1 It is not only that Greece is betrayed, and that the promises of a continent are broken, but the future, so far as it, is in human hands, is all spoiled. The Greeks, who, once united, could have made a great and progressive State as valuable to the Balkan peninsula as Piedmont was to Italy, are not only left divided, but half of them are flung violently into the lap of Powers whose interference it was intended to keep out, and who, though infinitely better than the Turks, will crush out national aspirations far more effectively. ilre suppose, when the Session reopens we shall have a chorus of self-gratulation about the settlement effected in the East without a breach of tho peace of the world, and yet with gain to the Greeks. Let them join it who please ; for us, we only remember that Eng- land has left Epirotes and Macedonians and Cretans, all Christian white men, with as much capacity for self-government as Londoners, still enslaved, and this after they had been freed by the Treaty of San Stefano, which she, in her madness, annulled.
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