A MACEDONIAN POLICY.
EVERY one who sees in politics anything higher than a cynical pursuit of narrow and short-sighted self- interest will sympathise with the letter from Mr. Nowell Smith which we print in another column. The difference in the feelings which the accounts of the Bulgarian massacres in 1876 and those of the Macedonian massacres in 1903 have excited in England is alike remarkable and discreditable. There is no longer, indeed, any attempt, as there was in 1876, to deny the truth of the stories that reach us every day. The defence, such as it is, takes the form of a tu quo que. The insurgents murder as freely as the Turks, consequently they must be included in a common condemnation. This easy way out of a difficulty avoids all reference to the origin of the insurrection. If there were no misgovern- ment on the part of the Turks, Macedonia would be at peace; or if there were still occasional revolts, they would count for no more than a similar outbreak in any other European country. It is the constant provocation given to revolt that makes the lot of the Macedonian peasant unlike that of any other peasant. Dr. Dillon in this month's Contemporary Review assigns a part of this differ- ence to the military finance of the Sultan. The daily pay of the troops stationed in Macedonia is about £10,000 Turkish. Of this sum only a portion is ever paid, and the soldiers are thus compelled to quarter themselves on the population. They must live, and as long as there is food to be had they must take it. The military authorities could not, even if they wished, exercise a very severe supervision over soldiers to whom they owe large arrears, and the result is seen in a general relaxation of discipline. The troops quarter themselves on the Christian houses, and murder and ravish at their pleasure. Probably no army would come very well out of a test of this kind, and in the case of the Turks difference of religion does away with any possible scruple of conscience. These simple facts deprive the tu quogue of all its force. The insurgents are what Turkish oppression has made them, and unless Europe interferes the see-saw will go on until there are no Macedonians left to do their part in the process of alternate oppression and revolt.
The last paragraph of Mr. Nowell Smith's letter is a complete justification of his own action in speaking up for "the political faith that is in him." The position which Britain holds at this moment in reference to the Near East is one that none of us can view—at all events, that none of us ought to view—without shame. The present condition of Macedonia is mainly the work of tyro Powers, and England, we are sorry to say, is one of them. But for England and Germany there would not.noir be a single Turkish soldier in the country. The whole territory would have. been set free by the Treaty of San Stefano. Rightly or wrongly, the two Powers thought that the execution of that Treaty would be dangerous to Europe. They may have been mistaken in taking this view, but having taken it they went the right way to work to give effect to it. Their con- tention came to this Russia is right in desiring to im- prove the condition of the Turkish Christians ; she is wrong in the way she proposes to do it. We will substi- tute Europe for Russia as the protector of the Christian subjects of Turkey. This was the meaning of the Treaty. of Berlin. Equally with the Treaty which it displaced, it proposed to set up a decent government in Macedonia. But while the Treaty of San Stefano would have been a reality, the Treaty of Berlin was a make-believe. Neither England nor Germany has given the execution of it a thought from that day to this. Probably, however much zeal they had shown, the result would not have been very satisfactory. The Sultan is afraid of Russia ; he is not afraid of Europe, because he trusts to the warring interests of the several Powers to make any common action im- possible. Sometimes, as in the case of Crete, his confidence deceives him ; but on the whole he thinks with reason that the members of the European Concert are hard to bring together and harder to keep together, and in this conviction he finds substantial consolation. But as regards the Treaty of Berlin he has never had any need to alarm him- self. Europe, at the invitation of England and Germany, took on itself the obligation to secure decent government for the Christians whom it gave back to the Sultan's paternal rule, and having done this, it has consistently left the obligation unperformed.
The misfortune is that what we undertook to do, and might have done, in 1878 is not now in our power to do with any probability of success. This is a consideration which Mr. Nowell Smith seems to leave out of sight. We were then closely co-operating with Germany; now we are no longer so. Germany was one of the two authors of the Berlin Treaty, and though her sincerity in the matter VMS never put to the trial, we are bound to assume that if her partner had called upon her to do her part in enforcing the Treaty she would not have refused co-operation. But the position of things in Europe has changed, and Germany from being a warder of the Sultan has now become his friend and protector. Russia has naturally resented our interference with the arrangements made by her at San Stefano, and having been forbidden to set the Macedonians free in her own fashion, is not at all disposed to join in setting them free in our fashion. Her whole policy in the Near East has changed. Her experience in 1878 convinced her that the Turkish pear was not yet ripe, and she is determined to wait till its ripeness is assured before she makes a second attempt to pluck it. France is not likely to take any strong line of her own in a matter which affects Russia so nearly. Austria has no wish to quarrel with Russia while her own internal condition supplies excellent reasons for not provoking war in any direction. Finally, we are sorry to say, any representa- tions on the part of the British Government are likely to be viewed with indifference after the disclosures of the War Commission Report. However determined the English people may be to put their military house in order, that Report leaves the reader in no doubt as to the fact that it is not in order now. Added to all this, the attitude of the Balkan States towards the Macedonians is the reverse of .heroic. Only Greece, indeed, has gone the length of actually ranging herself on the side of the Sultan, and this despicable act is, we may hope, the work rather of her politicians than of her people. But throughout the Penin- sula the emancipation of Macedonia from the Turk is regarded as expedient or inexpedient according as it will promote the interest of this or that element in the popula- tion. Greek, Bulgarian, and Serb have this, and only this, in common,—that they would rather see Macedonia -remain Turkish than pass into any hands but their own.
Still, bad as the outlook is, thereis something which the British Government might do. The insurgents, as a letter signed by Mr. Brailsford, Mr. Noel Buxton, and others which has appeared in the daily papers reminds us, "have limited their demands to a perfectly feasible policy," and one, moreover, with which Russia and Austria have already associated themselves in principle. The reforms which they pressed upon the Sultan some little time back, and which he at once accepted, recognised the necessity of taking the government of Macedonia out of the hands in which it has hitherto been vested. What deprived this recognition of all its value was the inadequacy of the par- ticular proposals. That made it certain from the very first that the reforms themselves would come to nothing. But the principle of interference between the Sultan and his Subjects having once been admitted, it is not obvious why Russia and Austria should stop short of demanding the one condition which can make their reforms of any value. That condition is the appointment of a Christian Governor, who has never been a. Turkish official, responsible to the Powers, irremovable except with their consent, supported by a gendarmerie under the command of European officers, managing the local finance, and con- trolling the military and civil officials. That is what Britain ought to insist upon at Constantinople if she were in a position to insist upon anything This is whit, at all events, she may, and ought to, press upon the other Great Powers, especially upon Russia and Austria. It would be exceedingly difficult for these two Powers to refuse to join in a demand so closely resembling those which they themselves formulated in the spring, and the more so that their own demands have altogether failed of their purpose. The appointment of a Christian Governor and the employment of a gendarmerie under the command of European officers would leave every territorial and other question just as they are. No one Power would be bene- fited by such a measure at the expense of another. The future of Macedonia would be left as uncertain as it is now. The only difference would be that its present would be made tolerable. It is the plain duty, as we read it, of Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne to support this demand with all the insistence they can command.
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