Lord Carnarvon on Friday week raised an important debate - upon
Armenia. He declared the situation of the province to be well-nigh desperate, 144 villages having recently been swept away by the Kurdish ravages, and neither life, property,
nor honour being safe. He recommended the appoint- ment of an irremovable Christian Governor-General, with the disposal of the local revenue. Lord Granville assented fully ; but Lord Salisbury, while admitting all the evils painted by Lord Caruarvon, declared that he knew of no remedy. The Government of the Sultan had neither the knowledge, nor the money, nor the will to introduce reforms. The six European Powers were too divided to govern the country. No pressure would be of any use, for the Turkish Government "was not strong enough to convey the pressure from the centre to the extremities." He looked only to the gradual effect of European opinion, acting through the Consular authorities. The "only other solution of the Eastern difficulty was the entire extermination of the people." The whole speech, which was long and, from its pessimist point of view, able, implied that Lord Salisbury had in his own heart given up hope, that the Anglo-Turkiah Convention had become in his mind an imposture, and that he intended to do nothing, even if the whole people of Asiatic Turkey were exterminated. A more melancholy or humiliating confession of utter failure was never made by a statesman.
