The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-16 00:00:00

ATHENS, March 10.

Lord Derby has officially informed the Hellenic Govern-
ment of his having irstructed the English Ambassadors at
the Courts of the Great Powers to propose that Greace
should be represented at the Congress. The initiative taken
by England in this coestion has produced an enormous im-
pression here, as authorizing a well-founded hope of a closer
ccnnexiou between English and Greek policies on the sub-
ject of the Eastern Question, which answers to the universal
wishes of this country.

The Daily Telegraph of Monday publishes the fol-
lowing from their Special Cortespondent at Pera :
"The exact position of Russia and Turkey was thus des-
cribed to me by a very high authority :—Russia says
seer:fly to the Porte— Our quarrel is over, if you are wise,
and faithful to our hidden agreement. I must, however,
k tay in possession of your capital and its waters till you have
settled with me. When we meet the Powers in Congress
you must tell them it is needless to discuss an arrangement
which is quite satisfactory ; but if you dispute or object,
then our unders.tantlitig conies to an end, and I shall con-
tinue the war, seize Constantinople and the Straits, and
drive your Sultan into Asia.
"Cajoled and threatened alternately in this way, Turkey
is in the utmost embarrassment. She does not want to give
Russia any excuse for re-opening the conflict, but to accept
even the terms now being secretly thrust on her is tanta-
mount to ruin. If, on the other hand, Turkey proclaims
aloud to Europe the monstrous schemes which are pressed
upon her acceptance, denouncing the cruel avarice of Russia,
the war will once more break forth with no prospect of
assistance front the other Powers. Russia tells Turkey that
the Powers cannot interfere, if they wished to do so ; her
position is too strong, and therefore Ignatieff urges the
Porte to have done with false friends, who give nothing but
selfish and diplomatic sympathy to her, and to trust in her
best and only friend the Czar.
"To all this Turkey opposes a patient resistance, rogarding
anything which may evertually be concluded as no more
binding upon her, morally, than a bill signed in a robber's
cave. If opportunity ever offers, she will again strike at her
enemy's face or back without hesitation. If events give
her allies—who are really prepared—they will find plenty of
fighting force left in her Government and the people, who
have been betrayed, nay actually swindled, into their pre-
sent difficulties. The Ottoman nation and Government are
stricken hard, but not by any means mortally, arid they
would put themselves freely in the hands of any Power or
Powers, as regards future reformations, if they were saved
from the greedy and brutal grasp of the Muscovites.
" Well knowing the precariousness of their victory, the
exhaustion of their resources and finance, and the desperate
measures which the Porte may yet adopt, the Russians are
accumulating their last forces to meet attack from outside
or from the Porte. But while the worn-out means of the
Czar are thus being refurbished, the most plausible promises
are daily made to the Porte to induce a profession of content
in the Conference, and the ratification of the terms.
"Turkey is unable just now to resist except by delaying,
and therefore she professes acceptance, though bitterly dis-
gusted at the greed and falsehood of her enemy. She will
finally do as she must in this direction; but, if Europe knew
what the Russians are negotiating in the dark it would be
seen that if the Ottoman Empire is abandoned every safe-
guard for future peace will be lost, and Russia will get all
she ever wanted in spite of the British conditions.
"This is the account given me from the lips of one who
must know the truth."

A San Stefano telegram in Monday's Times says that the
Sultan has ratified the treaty. It is stated that the hit
clause is to the effect that the contracting parties regard the
treaty between them as solidaire. This implies that with
the exception of the Straits question and the appointment
of a European Commission to define the boundaries of Mon-
tenegro the contrasting parties will not recognize the right
of any Power to interfere with the terms of the treaty.—The
Constantinople correspondent of the same paper says that
he has seen or heard nothing to conflict with his former
suggestion that a secret peace had been fully agreed upon
at Adrianople about the middle of February, and that the
subsequent delays, discussions, and the final formality of
announcing the signature of a treaty, were only parts
in a programme fully agreed upon at that time
between the Russian and Turkish Commissioners.
The announcement of an immediate conclusion of peace at
Adrianople would have found the Russian troops too far
away from the Bosphorus and Constantinople to prevent a
possibly hostile fleet from entering the Black Sea and cutting
the newly-established line of communications; but by the
time the signature was announced at San Stefano, Europe
had become accustomed to the probability of a Russo-
Turkish Alliance It was necessary, meanwhile, to establish
an entente cordiale between the two lately opposing armies;
and to attain this end the freedom of communication be-
tween the two lines was permitted, as well as the strange
mixing up of Russian said Turkish troops after the advance
from Tchataldja to the San Stefano lines. The Russian
diplomacy (the correspondent says) has been most ably
managed, and the result will probably be the attainment
of its objects without the danger of any active European
interference.