3 OCTOBER 1903, Page 18

A very large and entbusiastie meeting was held in St.

James's Hall on Tuesday to protest against the feebleness of British action in Macedonia. The speeches, particularly those of the Bishop of Worcester and Mr. Bryce, were most eloquent, and their general demand that Macedonia should be placed under a Christian Governor-General independent of the Turk was sound, but the speakers hesitated a good deal as to the means to be adopted. There is, of course, but one means,—the despatch of a combined fleet of British, French, and Italian ships into Turkish waters, with orders, if the troops did not leave Macedonia, to appear before Constantinople. If Austria and Russia thereupon occupied the Balkans, so much the better, for they will not take that step without terminating the European rule of the Turk. A Prime Minister who knew his own mind could exercise immense pressure at Constantinople without running any risk of involving his country in war.