LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CRETE AND THE SULTAN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—There can exist no doubt whatever in the mind of any reasonable man in the least conversant with affairs in Con- stantinople that all the projected reforms of the Ottoman Empire are absolutely futile. The Sick Man is dead, and no stimulus administered by the doctors can galvanise him into life again. The Eastern question resolves itself into the partition of Turkey. So far the Great Powers cannot agree upon the division of the inheritance. But why in the world should they hinder the revolt of Crete and its union to Greece ? It is a consummation devoutly wished by the large majority of the inhabitants of the island ; Turkish incapacity to govern is manifest beyond all further need of demonstra- tion; the addition of Crete to the Hellenic Kingdom need cause jealousy to none of the six Powers; it is the logical sequence of the policy already initiated by them ; and their sanctioning this act would bring home to the Sultan—in the only way in which anything ever can be brought home to him—that Europe is weary of his heartless incapacity and eternal procrastination, and will put up with them no more. He has not heeded the writing on the wall, and he must pay the penalty. Nothing can be easier than to allow the Greeks to take Crete, nor would there be any great difficulty in pre- venting the active intervention of the Sublime Porte.—I am,
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