Mr. Asquith and Mr. Churchill were the chief speakers at
the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall on Monday. Mr. Asquith first surveyed events in the Balkans. It was an easy task to blame the Great Powers because they had been impotent to prevent or curtail that lamentable effusion of blood, but it should rather be a matter for surprise and con- gratulation that the area of conflict bad been circumscribed. The Foreign Offices of Europe had plenty of troublesome business before them in the Balkans, and such settlement as had been reached they were resigned to, and were prepared to make the best of. It was the desire of the Government that the integrity of Asiatic Turkey should not be infringed. In the Asiatic provinces were to be found the Holy Places of Mohammedan religion, held sacred by the whole body of Mussulmans, many millions of whom were loyal and devoted subjects of the Crown. We could not without lively concern see anything that threatened the Holy Places or their possible transfer from Mussulman possession. The most necessary safeguard was internal reforms. Such reforms could not be effectively carried through without the direct assistance of the Powers. Great Britain gladly offered any help which the Turkish Government might invite, without forgetting that there were other Powers which had a special concern in Asia Minor,
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