The Turkish Circular, bearing date August 12th, rejecting the recommendations
of the Congress with respect to the rectifi- cation of the boundary of Greece, was transferred from the German papers, which had got hold of it first, to the English journals, last Saturday (August 24th). Hence it is clear that, as usual, Sir. Charles Dilke was better informed on the subject of Turkish policy than the British Foreign Office, when he questioned Mr. Bourke on the subject, and was told that our Foreign Office knew. nothing of the existence of such a Circular. It is hardly possible to imagine a more uncompromising snub to the Con- gress than this Circular contains. Lord Beaconsfield's boast that Greece had received from the Congress a larger accession of terri- tory than any of those " rebellious " States which were so " scurvily " treated by the Congress, seems especially ludi- crous, when we find the Ottoman Minister treating this accession of territory as one of the most absurd and groundless suggestions which had ever been broached under the influence of Greek finesse. The Turkish Foreign Minister boldly asserts that genuine insurrection in Mea- nly, Epirus, and Crete was unknown, and that what Greece called by that name, was nothing but the result of the invasion of filibusters. "It is, on the contrary, perfectly clear," writes Safvet Pasha, "that the inhabitants of Epirus and Thessaly have always lived peaceably, and willingly submitted themselves to the Ottoman authorities ; that they have never taken up arms to make good supposititious claims ; that they have sometimes endured, but never invoked, the intervention of a neighbouring Country; and that, in fact, if rendered secure from the enter- pnses set on foot by that neighbour, they would continue to live happily and prosperously under the laws of the Ottoman Empire."
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