16 JANUARY 1886, Page 8

THE RUMOURS FROM EASTERN EUROPE.

IT is quite possible that the pleasing dream of peace in Eastern Europe may be rudely broken. We are not alarmist; and have, as a rule, no belief in Greek "designs,"

the little Kingdom seeming to us to lack energy as well as means for war. It is difficult to doubt, however, that this time the Greeks themselves believe that they are going to fight, or to read the reports from half-a-dozen capitals, all agreeing that the improbable is possible, without the idea that there may be danger at hand. The general current of the rumour runs in this way. The Greek Government, which, for reasons of its own, expected actual war with Turkey, has made such expen- sive preparations, and has excited national feeling to such a degree, that it now dare not recede. If it did, not only would the Government be in danger from insurrection, but the revolutionary committees in Epirus and Macedonia would take the affair into their own hands, and by attacks on the Turkish troops, force Greece either to protect them or to de- stroy her own future prospects. The Government of Athens, therefore, it is asserted, will declare war to "carry out the postponed clauses of the Treaty of Berlin," and believes that once in the field, it will have help from the Albanians, from Montenegro, and from Servia, whose King apprehends that he will be dethroned unless he satisfies his subjects' aspirations.

They will, he calculates, forgive his defeat by Bulgaria if only he can wrest Old Servia from the Turks. It is calcu- lated that, with three such enemies in the field, and Macedonia and Epirus in insurrection, the Sultan's army, numerous as it is, will be bewildered and, it may be, overmatched.

We are quite aware that this story will seem to most of our readers dreamy ; and it seems so also to ourselves. We can- not believe that the Greek Cabinet will display such energy, or that it will risk invasion by a huge Turkish army at a juncture when no Great Power in Europe is prepared to support it. Such action is unlike the whole history of the Greek State, and would, if it occurred, materially modify the European conception of the Greek people.

Moreover, the Greek Government may be hoping by "tall- talk" to induce the European Powers to compel the Sultan to grant them some further concession in order that peace may be maintained. The Greeks love finesse too much, and may be finessing even in their ruinous expenditure. Still, the rumours all point one way, and two material facts must not be for- gotten. The rumoured war really would offer a road of escape for the Servian dynasty ; while the position of Macedonia and Epirus, crushed as they are by the requisitions of the masses of Turkish soldiery now living within their villages, may be absolutely beyond endurance. If these provinces move, Greece must move ; and it is not inconceivable that, when there is no other way of escape, even Greece may resolve to put everything at stake, or, to use humbler words, avoid bankruptcy by setting the old house on fire. No Great Power, except England or France, could coerce Greece without moving an army, and there is not the smallest chance of either of them committing such an error.

As we have said, the most reasonable belief is that at the twelfth hour Greek political nerve will fail ; but it is useless to go on imagining that war is out of the question, or that it would not be a very serious one. The Turks are ready to fight, and they would not have been in motion for three weeks before Europe would be stirred to its very soul. They despise, as well as hate, the Greeks ; and they would do acts which neither the Russian people, who are of the Greek Church, nor the cultivated classes of Western Europe, would

be able to endure. The Powers might threaten to leave

Greece to her fate as much as they pleased ; but their peoples are not at one with their statesmen, and even the latter have no intention of allowing Turks to regain their old dominion. If the Greeks fire a shot, the Eastern Question will be open again, and the English certainty that they will not fire one, highly reasonable as it is, may prove illusory.