NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE recommendations of the Powers in favour of Armenia are still officially kept secret ; but an account of them has oozed out in so many ways that it is probably accurate. The Turkish Government is requested to appoint a High Com- missioner who shall not be a European, but who shall be Approved by the Powers, to watch over the administration of Armenia and secure justice. He shall supervise the appoint- ment of fit and competent Governors in the districts, one- third of whom shall be Christiana, and who shall be supported by a mixed gendarmerie of Christians and Mahommedans. A mixed Commission sitting at Constantinople shall watch over the application of reforms, and generally the Powers :shall observe and control all that takes place in Armenia. This, if correctly described, is a most lame and impotent conclusion, obviously arrived at by a compromise among the Powers, and affording no security to the wretched provincials whose actual Governors will still be Pashas dependent for promotion upon Constantinople. There will probably be fewer massacres in Armenia, but the daily tyranny, which renders life so intolerable to Christians under Turkish rule, will continue as horrible as ever. All witnesses who have testified to the cruelties will be persecuted to the death ; and every failure to pay taxes will be an excuse for quartering troops upon the villagers, whose business it will be to secure submission by continuous outrage. The recommen- dations are an affront to common-sense, and prove that the Governments have been anxious to evade, rather than satisfy, the consciences of Western humanity. They will amply justify the Armenians in insurrection ; and in an appeal to the only Power which, by occupying Armenia, can secure the final release of the people from their oppressors. The weak- ness of Lord Rosebery's Government has, in fact, handed over Armenia to Russia; precisely the result which it was desirable to avoid.
