THE GREEKS UNDER THE TURKISH MISGOVERNMENT.
WITH that bland determination to be satisfied with every- thing Turkish as long as possible which constitutes the special Tory attitude on the Eastern Question, Lord Derby persists in expressing his satisfaction at the condition of the Greek subjects of the Porte. "The kind of local constitution given to Crete," he told the deputation on Wednesday, "has worked in a satisfactory manner." From whom can Lord Derbybe in the habit of receiving intelligence so contrary to the facts of the case? From that useful Englishman, Hobart Pasha, who is reported still to be on the roll of the British Navy, while commanding the Ottoman ironclads which overawe the mari- time populations of Greece ? We could wish our Foreign Minister a more credible informant. Hobart Pasha has not shown himself to be very accurate in his descriptions of the relations between his adopted Government and its Christian subjects. The other day he wrote to the papers declaring that perfect contentment and tranquillity reigned in Crete, and yet what is the true state of affairs ? In the first place, Hobert Pasha had hardly made his rose-coloured report on Crete, when the telegraph informed us of arrests among the leading mem- bers of the Christian community, and in particular of the sum- mary seizure of a leading Christian delegate to the local Assembly, and of his imprisonment on board one of the Turkish war-ships. Secondly, we find the Berlin correspondent of that pro-Turkish journal, the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, writing as follows regarding the news which had reached the German capital, though it does not seem to have reached Downing Street :— "" The discontent in Crete continues, though there has been no
serious disturbance as yet The exasperation at the arrest of one of the most distinguished of the Greek politicians of the island is very great." Lord Derby, however, continues to ignore the discontent of the Cretans, and Hobart Pasha's peculiar sources of information cause him to deny it altogether. We are not left to these unofficial testimonies. It is already some weeks since we called the attention of our readers to the official reply of the Government of Constantinople to the peti- tion of the Greek Members of the Assembly for a redress of grievances. In that reply, which was posted up all over Crete by the Turkish Vali, the Porte refused every sort of redress to the Cretans, — refused to place the taxation on the basis promised to Europe at the time of the Cretan insurrection, refused to put an end to the ascendency of the Mahom- medans in the police force and judiciary of the island by which all legal proceedings are made so many engines for oppressing and despoiling the Christians, refused to alter the mockery of equality by which the majority is always secured to the non-Christian side in the Assembly. As a consequence, the Greek inhabitants are still unable to exercise any control over the Administration, the Christian members of the judicial tribunals see that their post is purely nominal, the Christian inhabitants of every class find themselves handed over to the tender mercies of fanatic Moslem policemen and soldiers, sure of immunity for every outrage againt the Giaours. "The kind of local constitution given to Crete," nevertheless, is so satis- factory to Lord Derby, that its example encourages him to try to obtain such another sham for Bosnia and Bulgaria.
But Crete is not the only province of Greek faith and nationality which is oppressed by the dire misgovernment of Turkish masters. We have repeatedly urged upon the Govern- ment the necessity of taking the state of Epirus, Macedonia, and Thrace into the most anxious consideration. We suppose that just as our statement of the horrors in Bulgaria was allowed to lie unheeded for full three weeks, from the 3rd of June until the appearance of Mr. Pears's
memorable telegram in the Daily News of the 23rd June, so the Cabinet is resolved to be blind and deaf to the miseries of -the Greeks of Turkey till a similar or a still longer interval has been wasted in something worse than sublime indifference. We repeat that our accounts from the Greek provinces, which were so unfortunately left separated from the mother-country half a century ago, reveal a condition of things only less shocking than in Bosnia and Bulgaria, because a popular rising has not yet provoked Turkish brutality to the " repression " exemplified at Batak. For the rest, the circumstances of Bul- garia and Thessaly, for instance, are the same. Even the planting of Circassian colonies of brigands and cattle-thieves has been lately added to all the other grievances of the down- trodden people. To quote another pro-Turkish authority, the Vienna Politische Correspondenz, which subserves the general bent of Austro-Hungarian policy in this crisis, and even finds an apology for the Porte's use of the Circassians, there is the following wretched picture of the state of things among a Greek population under the Turkish yoke :—" With the settlement of Circassians in our neighbourhood, near Larissa, the Turkish Government has not only brought a heavy calamity upon the land, but has done itself a serious dis- service. It cannot be denied (I) that the Porte had only good intentions in promoting the Circassian immigration, be- lieving that the Circassians were susceptible of civilisation. Unfortunately this has been a profound mistake. Down to the present, at least 800 Circassian families have been planted in our locality, and notwithstanding the plight of the Turkish Exchequer, every Circassian family receives thirty livres in gold on its settlement, in order to provide cattle and imple- ments. The Circassians refuse, however, to be peaceable huabandmen. They pursue their old trade, which is nothing but rapine and plunder, and the state of the public security in Epirus and Thessaly is sorely compromised." This was written a fortnight ago, and we can fully judge, by an additional de- . tail, of the pretended "good intentions" of the Turkish Gov- ernment in sending these banditti into the midst of peaceful 'Christians, after all the terrible experiences of the past six Months :—" The Turkish authorities know very well the real state of affairs, but they take care to wash the Circassians clean of all responsibility for the dangerous condition of the public peace. They roundly deny that the Circassian settlers are to blame, and accuse pretended Greek Klepts of being the authors of the crimes." Perhaps Lord Derby will accept the views of these respectable "Turkish authorities." We have only another word to say on this branch of the subject, and that is, that the outrages of the Circassians are bringing about the
same results in Thessaly and Epirus as in Bulgaria. The wretched Greeks are taking to the hills, and using such arms as they possess to defend themselves, and to avenge their robbed and murdered kinsmen and families. The " Klepts " are appearing to match the Circassians. The correspondent of the Viennese journal has read some of the proclamations which Greek insurgent bands are beginning to scatter over the country, calling on their countrymen to rise against an intoler- able yoke. When the insurrection gets a little bigger, the Porte will send some thousands of Bashi-Bazouks and other Asiatic scum to make a Bulgaria of the Greek districts ; and Lord Derby, we suppose, will again indignantly repudiate any complicity in such an awful business, while our Turkish Press will wax eloquent upon the sad plight of the Porte, which is provoked to use Bashi-Bazouks and similar instruments by the "secret societies" of Lord Beaconsfield.
We are quite sure that we have said more than enough to convince every serious man that the root-and-branch reforms demanded in Turkey must be applied beyond the area of the Sclavonic provinces. We are equally sure that our Government is resolved to interfere with the "integrity" of Turkey—mean- ing the rascality, the Bashi-Bazoukism, and the despotism of Turkey—to the smallest possible extent. We would, never- theless, venture to address one argument to the Russophobism which is, or seems to be, so prominent a characteristic of what the Ministers call their policy. If the Tory Cabinet is really in quest of means to check the undue advance of Rus- sian influence in Turkey, why not insist upon the Greek pro- vinces getting the autonomous rights which, in spite of diplo- macy, are now in store for the &lays ? Turkey is in reality a part of Greece from the Gulf of Arta to the gates of Con- stantinople, and further. At the same time, we know, and Lord Derby knows, for he has said so, that there is not the slightest desire among the Hellenes to be absorbed in any Pan- Sclavic movement whatever, and in fact, there is very little lave lost between Greeks and Sclavs. Why not, we urge again, insist that the Hellenes shall be at least as well off as the Belay Christians must be / England would gain a host of friends, and in case of aggression, Russia would gain a host of enemies. Even Turkey might be expected to welcome, or at least comparatively to welcome, reforms which would place her Greek subjects in a condition to counteract the threatened "Russification" of the Christian provinces. When the Pashas have been made to see that Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria in its widest extent are gone irretrievably from Turkish caprice and Turkish lust, they will also see that it is so much clear gain to what remains of Turkish stability if the Greeks of the Empire are placed on a level with the kinsmen of Russia. If Turkey has a chance of surviving, this can only be through the grant of complete though tardy justice to the Christians of all races, and as a necessary deduction, in the fostering of the Greek nationality on terms of equality, at any rate, with the races likely—if any are likely—to favour the designs of "the heirs of Peter the Great." The Greeks are the heirs of Constantine the Great, we know, and we have every reason to believe that they are not disposed to yield to the non-Hellenic claimants. On the other hand, if Lord Derby wants to secure the speedy ruin of the Turkish Empire in its last vestiges, let him do no more for the Belays than he can help. That will keep them suppliants of Russia, instead of self-governing communities, with a pride and an ambition of their own. In the next place, let him leave the Greeks out of account altogether. That will give the rival Hellenic stock no chance, in the competition of races for the ultimate division of the lost dominion of the Ottomans in Europe.
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