The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-11 00:00:00

COLONEL LOYD-LINDSAY, MP.
AT ABINGDON.

Colonel !Loyd-Lindsay, M.P. for 13erkshire, who
has recentlyseturned /mingle seat of war in the-Emir
speaking on Monday evening at the annual dinner of
the Abingdon Agricultural Association, said he be-
lieved they had been all very much interested in the
events going on in the East of Europe, and he-was
sure that all of them were very much relieved by finds
ing that, for a short time fit least, those hostilities
which they had been watching had been brought to a
close, and, at all events for the next two months, they
wotild not be renewed. lie believed the question- was
better understood in England than it was in any
other country in Europe, or bY 'people who had
been engaged in the war. It was a fact,
he firmly believed, that the Servians could
not tell them why they had been making war on
Turkey. He had himself put the qiiestton to them,
and asked it plainly:aid honestly, and -also toethe
ministers and the most instructed men in the country,
why they were making war on Turkey, and all they
could do was to shrug up their shoulders, and say they
did not know why. They quite well understood that
the Serviane had no grievance against the Turkish
G Jvernment, for their ceuntly was thoroughly inde-
pendent. They had no cause for any grievance they
could mention. The Powers of Europe had guaran-
teed to them the integrity of their cot:tatty, and by ho
possibility conk! anybody—the Turks or any one else—
interfere with the little kingdom of Servia. Well, he
thought they would say that the Servians must be a
very foolish people not to understand their business.
He thought they were, and had been made foolish
by the Russians; and not only had they been made
foolish but ruined—they had been brought to ruin by
the Russian/3. The Russians promoted the war in
Servia; the Russians atiered up rebellion in Turkey;
toe Russians had been giving bad advice—interested
bad advice—to the Turkish Government. Thousands
of men of the Servians had gone 'to their homes
crippled and disabled be engaging in a war which was
really a Russian war, n011,1""-'- unU peen
kilted. Re rep:meet emcee ing_y when he read lately nn
account in the newspapers that an arsenal Phioh had
been established by the Servians had been destroyed by
the Parks. lie asked what business had niittle country
like Servia with a standingarmy, or still more with an
arsenal. The State had been guaranteed by the Powers
of Europe againet any interference by Turkey, and
he saw no reason whateeer why it should maintain a
sinDle soldier, or even put a single gun into the field.
Goaded into action as these men had been by the
Russian officers put over them, it would be no metter
for suprise when he told therte—and it wee a fact,
because he had indisputable evidence before him—
goaded as the peasants had been by the Russians to go
into action, they had shot down their own officers.
Russian officers had been shot down by.Servian
peasants, who were so disgusted with the iPlai In which
they had been treated by Russia that at the end they
had absolutely refused to fight any longer, and had
given up the cause. As they saw, the war had com-
pletely collapsed, and Turkey had taken possession
finally of Alexinatz and Deligrad, During the whole
of the negotiations Russia had been peetendinie
ere &deice at Coitetabtihople thrptigh her aea-
batseador, while at the • Bathe tithe • Ate ' !Ad
fifteen or twenty thousand men fighting against
Turkey in the field. That was a state of things which
they would all admit to be outside all international
lews, and which ought bevel- to be permitted to go on.
Now, England had had three objects in view during
the negotiations which had taken place. The firer. of
these was to preserve peace—that, of course, would
occur to every one—and to limit thelvar as far as pos-
sible from spreading beyond, the natio* area in whieh
during the last six months it had been raging. The
second object was to keep Russia out of Turkey. The
third was that with which he was satisfied every Eng-
liahman sympathised, namely, to bring about a
better form of Government for the Christians and
Mussulthan population of the Ottoman Empire.
(Cheers.) That, of coerse, must follow after the other
objects had been obtained, but the ,ne thing which
was fatal to that which he had just mentioned, and
fatal to all the other objects he had endeatoured to
enumerate, Was the occupation of Turkey by a Russian
army. The occupation of Turkey by a Russian army
would arouse a war in Europe-compared to which what
had been going on in Servia, fearful as, it was—and he
had been re Witness of the horrors of the war—the in-
Aston of Turkey by Russia would light up a war,
compared with which what had been going on in Servia
would be a mere trifle. They might depend upon this,
that the Turks would fight in a desperate way to de-
fend their awn country and their religion in etch a manner
as he belieted the Eurasians theihselves Would never be
able to drive them out. (Cheers.) The Russians would
be beaten as they had been beaten before. Army after
army had perished in Turkey and he asked them what
would be the sympathies of Europe if this war broke out
again in the spring. On which side would their sympathies
be in such a war, which he hoped was not before theme
but which might be in the future? He thought their
sympathies mtst be for the people defending their
Ootintey, and fighting for their own cease. (Cheers.)
As he had said, to preserve peace was the first object
which the English Government had had, and in order
to do that they might be thankful for the great powers
which they possessed. That power should be devoted
and should be brought to beer Upon the couhtry which
first breeks the peace of Europe, and when Russia
began to show a disposition to cross the Danube he was
divulging no secret when he said English cannon and
English regiments would then be moved from this
country into Turkey. (Cheers.)