THE POLITICS OF NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—In your leading article last week, you speak of London
and Newcastle as being strongholds of pro-Turkish feeling. This, as far as Newcastle is concerned, is a complete miscon- ception, founded on the fact that Mr. Cowen, the senior Member,. and his property, the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, are, and have been since its inauguration by Lord Beaconsfield, supporters of and apologists for his Imperial foreign policy, with its quasi- Turkish proclivities. Bnt this circumstance requires some words of explanation. Mr. Cowen was returned to Parliament for the first time in 1874, and he and his newspaper were, at that time, staunch supporters of both the home and the foreign policy of Mr. Gladstone. When Mr. Cowen took up the almost unique position of a fol- lower of Lord Beaconsfield in foreign and of Mr. Gladstone in home politics, the Liberals of Newcastle certainly did not follow his leading, or the teaching of his paper. How came he,. it may then be asked, to have headed the poll at the great election of 1880, when this was the main question at issue P Well, in the first place, Mr. Gladstone made a special appeal to the Liberals of Newcastle to put aside all consideration of the difference that had arisen between Mr. Cowen and him; in the second place, the Liberal Association determined to prefer the interest of their party to the gratification of their feelings, and return two Liberals at such an important juncture, although one of them was anything but to their mind on the burning question of the hour; and in the third place, it was the Tory voters splitting between Mr. Hammond and Mr.. Cowen, in the vain hope of keeping out the staunch supporter of Mr. Gladstone on foreign and home policy, Mr. Dilke, that returned his colleague at the head of the poll. But it would be a great mistake to interpret this as an expression of the public feeling of Newcastle, as in harmony with Mr. Cowen's spurious affection for Turkey. No,—there is only one small body of men here who are sincere in their love of the Turk, and that is the Foreign-Affairs party. They have stuck to him through thick- and-thin, through evil and good report, through right and wrong. And one can but admire their devotion, consistency,. and sincerity ; but the Tories and Mr. Cowen have only made a stalking-horse of the poor Turk, whom they have driven to his own destruction. In the case of Mr. Cowen, nothing shows this more clearly than his absence from the meeting in question, after all that he has said and written against our present action in regard to Turkey.
There is no town in the kingdom where greater indignation was felt than in Newcastle at the tortuous policy of Lord Beaconsfield, which ended in the partition of Turkey, and none where greater confidence is felt in the straightforward dealing of Mr. Gladstone, which is not only real friendship, but the only course that can save her from utter destruction. I hope that I have made clear that Mr. Cowen and the Newcastle Daily Chronicle must not be taken as representing the feeling in Newcastle towards Turkey. They, in fact, represent no one but themselves and a few personal followers, and it is in reality nothing but enmity to Mr. Gladstone, and not love of Turkey, that finds expression in their utterances. The Liberals of New- castle, who are an overwhelming majority, indignantly repu- diate the assumption that they agree with their senior Member- and leading journal in the course they have pursued.—I am,.
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