Lord Stanley of Alderley, last Monday, challenged Lord Gran- ville
as to the intended Naval demonstration against Turkey, but did not take much by his motion. Lord Granville's reply told him nothing, except that our disaster in Afghanistan ought to have no sort of effect on our Eastern policy, inasmuch as that policy was intended to minimise the evil of the present alarming condi- tion of European Turkey ; and Lord Granville held that it would be very bad economy indeed to break up the concert of Europe, or diminish its resoluteness, only because we had made a mistake in Central Asia. He declared that by no possible abstention could we get rid of the perils of the situation in the East, though we might greatly increase them by any cowardly shrinking from our fair share of responsibility. Ho was no true friend to Turkey, said Lord Granville, who would have her let alone on her road to ruin. And there we quite agree. Only, as that man will certainly never be regarded as a true friend to Turkey who tries to arrest her on her road to ruin by the only possible remedy,—disintegration,—we fear true friends to Turkey,—admitted as such,—will not easily be found just now, Those whom Turkey so regards, like Lord Stanley of Alderley, are her worst enemies; while those who do most for her people, are considered by her Government to be her bitterest foes.
