Sir Edward Grey in his reply goes to the root
of the matter,—the financial difficulty. At present the Macedonian Budget is burdened by an enormous charge for the Turkish garrison, which starves civil reforms and causes a deficit of 2300,000, which the Porte, in spite of its solemn pledge, has failed to make good. He adheres to his original proposals as the best means of reducing this burden, and declares that, unless the necessary reforms can be secured by some other means, the British Government will feel bound to press this solution on the Powers. Meantime, as an alternative method of obtaining the funds required, they propose that the civil needs of the provinces should be the first charge on the Budget, that the Inspector-General and the Commission should be empowered to retain such proportion of the receipts as are necessary for this purpose, and that they should hand over the balance to the Porte for military purposes, the deficit, if any, to be made good by the Porte.
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