TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEGOTIATIONS.
I F the proposals now under discussion are sincere, and are intended to mean what the public understand them to mean—both which propositions we still doubt—the negotia- tions are nothing less than disgraceful to all concerned, and especially to the Government of Great Britain. The Russians propose, it is stated, that the Powers shall reaffirm, on paper,
the necessity of the reforms settled in Conference, shall allow Turkey an unspecified time to carry them out of her own accord, and if they are not carried out, shall consider what "action" —in the French, not the English sense of the word—it may then be expedient or agreeable to adopt. In other words, the Russian Government, after pledging itself in the most solemn manner, through the Emperor's own mouth, in a public speech, not only to protect the Slav Christians, but to secure "guarantees" for their good treatment, deliberately pitches them, for one more year at least, as a prey to the Pashas. For one more year, at the very least, every Turkish official, tax-gatherer, and soldier is at liberty to plun- der, torture, or ravish any Christian within the Turkish dominions, except possibly the Americans, with the certainty, as Mr. Gladstone has shown, that if he makes himself con- spicuous in the work he will be immediately decorated, pro- moted, or otherwise rewarded. Be it remembered, the Govern- ment which, it is alleged, proposes this is not, as Lord Derby affects to be, deluded by any hope of internal Turkish reform. Its one permanent argument, reiterated till it wearies the world like any other truism, is that reform in Turkey is impos- sible, and it therefore surrenders its prote'ge's to a doom which it acknowledges beforehand to be inevitable after that surrender. If the Russian Government really intends this—and it is this which it is alleged to intend, though we do not believe it—it intends an act of political treachery—treachery not to equals, but to suppliants—such as has never yet discredited its annals, full though they are of acts of violence and oppression. The suppliant asks justice,the Judge has promised a trial, and then the executioner is authorised by the same Judge in writing to do his work. The conduct of Russia, however, is creditable beside that of Lord Derby. General Ignatieff may plead, though he has not yet pleaded, the argument of necessity ; but the British Foreign Minister not only cannot plead it, but goes out of his way to make it needlessly certain that the Christians shall not be protected. The resolutions of the Conference, if they were ever made exe- cutive, do at least prohibit the employment of Turkish Irregulars in these unhappy countries, and provide for the appointment of decent Governors ; but Lord Derby throws the resolutions over, thereby making Lord Salisbury's action appear ill-advised and ridiculous, and demands that instead of the Conference proposals, the Turkish proposals—mere shams, even if they were carried out, inasmuch as they provide no protection against the soldiery—shall be the proposals approved. Moteover, it being certain, as he well knows, that Turkey will yield nothing except to terror, and that the only instrument availabhif or inspiring terror is the Russian Army— we are quoting Statement deliberately and emphatically
bury in his place in the House of Lords- made by Lord hdition precedent that this Army shall be he demands
demobilised, ds in fact that the Turks shall feel them- selves formally and visibly permitted to deal as they please with the wretched races whom he wilfully casts back under their sway. And he does this knowing, and officially admitting in despatches carefully made public, that the atrocities com- mitted before the Turks were relieved of European pressure passed all endurance ; knowing and officially admitting, through Mr. Bourke, that his own remonstrances were entirely unavail- ing, and knowing and admitting that the Turkish promises are the merest words. He objects even to the word "action." He will not hear of a sentence which decent men might, by a slight -train upon its meaning, construe into a promise to consider the propriety of protecting the Turkish Christians from massacre and outrage. That word must be struck out, and the Protocol reduced even in form to a base pretence, be- fore the British Minister will sign it. Such wilful callous- ness to the claims of humanity, of justice, and of British character has never been exhibited in our time, not even by the Ministry who, when a word would have saved the Cretan fugitives, refused to interfere between the Mussulman oppressors and their Christian victims.
In spite of all the evidence, and we fully admit that all evidence points to a design to mask a concession of unlimited license to the Turks—a license to be officially emphasised by the return to Constantinople of the very Ambassador who wrote that it did not signify, as far as the interests of Great Britain were concerned, whether 10,000 or 20,000 Christians had been murdered,—we do not believe that this iniquitous arrangement can be carried through. We do not believe that General Ignatieff, wide as his powers may be, and greatly dis- posed as he may be to whittle away every other demand to which England may object, and to prefer insurrection in
Turkey to war with Turkey, has authority to pledge his master to the demobilisation of the Russian Army,—to a visible admission, that is, that ten millions sterling have been wasted on a game of brag, that the mighty autocracy which so presses on Russia is unable to compel Turkey to make even a courteous feint of attending to its threats, that after preparing for a great war it must go back with nothing but a piece of paper, carefully deprived of all efficacy even for its apparent object, not accepted even in form by the Turks, not providing for the safety of the Slays in insurrection, and not mentioning the gallant little State which, even in this extremity, retains alone in Europe the nerve to bid the Turks an armed defiance. There are humiliations to which great dynas- ties do not submit, whatever the consequences ; and in asking that Russia should behave as if Turkey had conquered her in the field, the British Foreign Office has overshot its mark, and reached at last the point at which the Russian Government can make and will make no further concession. There is Russia to be considered as well as British policy ; and Russia, though perfectly prepared to trust the Emperor wholly with all preparations, all negotiations, and all means of securing European tolerance, is not prepared to see its Government visibly retreat before a Turkish defiance. It will be needful at least to postpone the demobilisation of the army, and while the army is not demobilised, nothing, not even the mean ob- ject of peace at any price to the oppressed, can be even repre- sented on 'Change as being secured. It is certain that affairs in Bosnia are going from bad to worse, that the Slays in the Austrian Empire are rising to a fury which impresses even the Emperor, that everything in Constantinople portends a danger- ous explosion, and that therefore at any moment a surge of feeling may sweep across Russia which will set her armies, if they are still ready when fair weather has arrived, in motion in an hour. A single death, a new atrocity, the torture of a single Englishman or American, and the whole face of affairs might be changed, and the elaborate system of diplomatic precautions for protecting the " independence " of the Ottoman caste might be swept to the winds. Demo- bilisation is indispensable, and if Russia demobilises under British compulsion,—well, it will remain for the Russian people to see whether their resolves are to count for less than nothing in the question whether their co-religionists are to be slaughtered down amid the mocking indifference of the world.
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