As usual, the Turkish Government is doing all it can
to suppress evidence as to the atrocities it has committed in Armenia, and, as usual, confirmation of them is slowly trickling in. The special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph has already confirmed the worst stories ; and now the Daily
News, aided by a correspondent who knows Turkish, publishes the confession of a sick Turkish soldier who actually helped in the massacre of women and children at Moosh, and saw the corpses flung into a frightful pit. The Armenians who fled over the border into Russia are telling their tale to all who will listen ; and we fancy the Commissioners, though hampered by the want of interpreters, are piecing together more evidence than the Turks expected. The ultimate report will be a horrible document ; and we wish we could see more evidence that Europe intends to act upon it. At present, the disposition is to expend all energy in the flabby kind of pity which is the foible of this generation, and to shirk the whole question of what is to be done if these tales are true. The only practical policy is to make of Armenia an independent Principality ; but while we hear much of joint action between England and Russia in the Far East, we hear nothing of joint action to compel the Sultan to make reparation to the Armenians. It is only under com- pulsion that anything will be done, and the Principality will be the very least necessary to secure the future of the Armenians. It may be necessary yet to appeal to Mr. Gladstone, who freed Thessaly without firing a shot, and whose speech pointing out that of all Powers in the world Turkey is the most accessible to a fleet, which can separate its Asiatic from its European dominions, is still remembered by the Porte.
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