17 OCTOBER 1908, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE foreign situation has distinctly improved during the week, and on Friday an authoritative statement was issued by the British Foreign Office declaring that the exchange of views which had taken place between M. Isvolsky and Sir Edward Grey had resulted in a complete agreement. A Con- ference will be necessary, but a Conference confining itself to questions arising from the violation of the Treaty of Berlin, and the first object of it must be compensation for Turkey, "a point upon which there is general agreement among the Powers." Provision will also have to be made "for effectively strengthening the present regime in Turkey, which affords the best safeguard for the maintenance of peace. It is also to be hoped that means will be found to meet the reasonable wishes of the smaller Balkan States, with the proviso that this should not be done at the expense of Turkey." Though there is good reason to believe that the Cretan question will be solved satisfactorily, it will be provisionally excluded from the scope of the Conference. There is no intention of sub- mitting the question of the Straits to the Powers. That is a question with which Russia and Turkey are primarily con- cerned, and there is no desire on the part of Russia to settle it in any sense hostile to Turkey, or by way of compensation, "for Russia enters the Conference as one of the disinterested Powers."