NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE news of the week is the rupture between Turkey and Greece. The affair is encumbered with details, true and false, but the pith of it appears to be this,—Greece has been assisting the Cretans with money and arms, and since Lord Stanley's speech at Lynn has rather paraded than concealed the fact. The Sultan, out of patience, transmitted an ultimatum to Athens threaten- ing war unless King George granted him redress. The Great Powers obtained an extension of time to the 17th inst., but on that day the Athenian Government finally rejected the ultimatum. Both Ministers have been withdrawn, Hobart Pasha in a Turkish steamer has been engaged with the Enosis, a Greek blockade- runner, and were Greece quite independent, war might be said to have begun. The guaranteeing powers, however, still hope to com- pel Greece to withdraw from her position, either by threats of leaving her to her fate or by direct compulsion. The itioniteur expresses only a faint hope of success in this endeavour, and the affair leaves an impression that somebody bigger than King George, or the Sultan either, secretly likes the prospect of war. Lord Clarendon's view will, of course, be to try to maintain peace, and the country can only hope that he will not, in maintaining it, drift into war. If we arm again to defend the Turks, now that Germany can and will prevent the Czar from seizing Constantinople, we deserve a two-shilling income-tax.
