26 JANUARY 1895, Page 17

The Government of the Sultan pretends that it desires a

full and impartial inquiry into the recent massacres in The Government of the Sultan pretends that it desires a full and impartial inquiry into the recent massacres in

Armenia, but is doing all it can to prevent the inquiry being either impartial or full. It has declined to allow the American representative to take part in it, has decorated the Pasha who gave the orders which caused the outrages, and has forbidden the correspondent of the Times to enter the country. The inquiry, moreover, will not be conducted by the Consuls of the protesting Powers, but by a Commission

appointed by the Porte itself, the intention clearly being to conceal all that can be concealed. The new Armenian Patriarch has now announced that he intends to send a representative

of his own, but the ecclesiastic selected will probably be arrested and made to suffer for his employer's temerity. The

effort at concealment will almost certainly fail, the Euro-

pean Governments knowing perfectly well what has occurred, and the European Press having servants who will risk arrest ; but the effort will increase the readiness of the Armenians to appeal to Russia to secure them justice. Russia can guarantee a refuge to the witnesses, and no other Power can. We trust Lord Kimberley is alive to this point in the case, and ready, if there are any more delays, to publish the con• fidential reports which he must have received.