29 DECEMBER 1866, Page 2

The "own correspondent" of the Times at Athens reports that

about the 20th inst. the Cretan insurgents, about 6,00) strong, were concentrated in the hills above Alikianu, and intend to risk a general engagement with Mustapha Pasha, who, on his aide, is ordering all villages which will not submit, to be burned, and threatens to give no quarter. The Greeks are wild with enthusiasm, Greek soldiers in uniform have landed in Crete, the Turks threaten to declare war on King George, an insurrection is talked of in Thessaly, and altogether the Times evidently fears that the Eastern question is on us again. It appears to be believed in Athens that the British, who have helped to remove the Cretan women and children out of the reach of the Turks, who would have first ravished and then sold them, are favourable to the insurrection, but they reckon without the Foreign Office. If the Cretans succeed, they will be patriots ; if not they will be massacred with- out interference from a country which, for the moment, believes only in success.