TOPICS OF THE DAY
THE SURRENDER OF DULCIGNO.
THE lesson of the Dulcigno affair is easy to read. The Sultan, when he pleases, has the power to obey the com- mands of Europe ; but, until resistance becomes too dangerous, he does not please. Nothing whatever has altered in the situation since, on June 25th, Musurus Pasha informed Mr. Goschen that the Porte would never consent to the cession of Dulcigno, or since the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs declared such a measure "morally and materially impossible," except that the Sultan, moved by a belief that Europe was growing weary of being ridiculous, has at last issued orders for the surrender of the place which his agents understood to be in earnest. The Albanians still profess to be hostile. The European Fleet is still rocking idly at anchor. The Monte- negrins are still holding back. The Concert of the Powers is no stronger than it ever was. Not a shell has been fired. Only the Sultan has decided on carrying out his engagements, and consequently, Dervish Pasha, after a momentary skirmish with Albanians who are provoked at having been ordered to resist and then disowned, has marched into Dulcigno, as Riza Pasha could have marched into it months ago. It is impossible, in such circumstances, to doubt that the account of the delay for- warded from the French Embassy at Constantinople to Paris. and published in the Yellow Book, is substantially correct. M. Tissot is certainly not writing to please Mr. Gladstone, and has never been accused of sentimental devotion to the interests of humanity; yet from first to last he adheres to the statement that the Albanianshave been paid, equipped, and directed by the Porte, that their resistance has been ordered from Constantinople ; and that the Sultan has been playing a comedy, the motif of which was his belief that Europe was not agreed, and that if he could only gain time the disunion would be avowed, and he himself enabled to set the Treaty of Berlin at defiance. He gained time by stirring up the Albanians, and providing them so liberally, that M. de St. Quentin, French Consul at Ragusa, writes to M. de Freyeinet :—" The League and the Porte are two terms which are generally identical. Who gave the Albanians the arms, cannon, and ammunition they have such an abundance of? Who provides them daily with the money and food necessary for the maintenance of a corps of 15,000 to 20,000 men ? It is certainly not the forced contributions of the small tradespeople of Scutari that can suffice for such enormous expenses. The victuals and pro- visions of every kind are brought by the Lake of Scutari and the Boyana, in boats belonging to the Ottoman Government. A great part of these provisions come from Trieste." What induced the Sultan to give way we shall probably never know accurately, for the intrigues of the Palace are unfathom- able ; but it is probable that he was at last alarmed by the steadiness of the British Government, by his own failure to divide Europe, and by the results among the Albanians of Lord Granville's proposal, accepted in principle by all the Powers, to confer autonomy on the Albanians. The clans of Albania, and more especially the Catholic clans, are not in arms for Turkey only, but for themselves ; they see what independence might do for them, and they are more than half inclined to set up for themselves, and to form, according to a remarkable account published in the Manchester Guardian by a well-known authority, a permanent alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Greeks. They would then occupy towards Greece the position which the Highland Clans in the last century occupied towards Britain. This combination would not suit the Porte at all, and it is a most significant fact that Dervish Pasha preceded his occupation of Dulcigno by an order commanding the League to dissolve itself, under pain of death. Whatever the immediate cause, however, the Sultan was at last alarmed, and the moment he intended the surrender of Dulcigno, Dulcigno was surrendered, as Mr. Gladstone from the first declared that it would be. Europe has been kept waiting by Turkey alone.
It will be the same with the Greek claim, and the Mace-
donian claim, and the Armenian claim. The Sultan's policy is an adroit one, but it has a weak place, which has been plainly revealed in the later phases of the struggle for Dul- -ngno. His idea, as avowed in journals encouraged by the Palace, has been to utilise the strength of the Mussulman clans or populations both morally and physically, to threaten the Christians with their vengeance, and at the same time to represent to Europe that he cannot restrain their affronted
patriotism and religious feeling. He uses as against Montenegrins an Albanian League, as against Armenians a Kurdish League, as against Greeks and Macedonians a Pan-Islamic League, now becoming active in Macedonia. That is an astute policy, if only because it enables his agents to plead that Europe is crushing patriotic nationalities, but it has this weakness. The Mussulmans hate Constantinople as much as the Christiana do, and, if encouraged. they would prefer independence for themselves. The Albanians, not having succeeded, will probably claim it at once. The Kurdish leader has already claimed it. And it is by no means impos- sible that even the Macedonian Mussulmans, once assured that their properties are safe, and relieved from the fears carefully instilled into them as to their religious freedom, will prefer the autonomy of the province to a civil war, which they are thoroughly aware cannot end to their permanent advant- age. The steady, determined pressure of Europe operates in the provinces as well as Constantinople, and arouses hopes of freedom and justice which are too strong even for the prejudices of race and the pride of ascendancy. Mussul- Mans, like the rest of mankind, like quiet and security ; the sacrifices demanded of them have been extraordinary, and brave and proud as they are, the prospect of endless civil war, with defeat in the end—for the Mussulmans of Europe have lost hope—shakes the strongest spirits. If Europe will but press on, the transmutation of European Turkey into a Federa- tion of the Balkans would, for all the resistance of the English Tories, be accomplished within five years, and a new and mag- nificent domain added to civilisation.
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