The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-04 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTION IN CRETE.

GENEVA, drxe fr.
The following is an extract of a letter written by
a gentleman who has just returned from Greece :
After my recent visit to Greece you will tot feel err.
prised at my beingqnite disheartened—and that locomen
with almost everybody I meet with here—at the opinions
manifested on the Cretan question by Lord Stanley in the
House of Commons and Lord Derby in the House of Lords.
No doubt there are reprisals exercised by the Greeks
against the Turks, in return for the cruelties of the latterj
and is it possible it (meld be otherwise ? But are the
horrors that are committed a reason for not endeavouring
to put an end to the contest, if it be now but too certain,
as it is, that Turkey will not be able to recover peruanent
possession of Candle? Such at least is the °plaice, as I
hese before told you,of the most competent foreign judges
at Athens. Then, the cession of Candle will not weer
eerily entail that of Thessaly and Epirus, any
more than that of Venice has led the way to the
cession of the Italian Tyrol. The Greeks of Thessalaped
Epirus are in no hurry to be annexed to Greece; they have
never yet tasted the sweets of independence, and until
Greecehas a better government and a better constitution,
they do not wish to fall from Scylla intoCharyb.lis. There
is more chance just now of the Christians of Bulpris
turning out the Turks than those of Thessaly and Epirus.
But Cantlia, it should be remembered, had freed herself
forty years ago by her own efforts, and (like Venice and
Genoa in 1815) was given back to the Turks in comperes.
tion for the island of Negropont. After that, can it he et.
petted that she should not take every opportunity of re.
covering her independence? The English government, by
their policy on this question, are doing just what they
profess to wish to avoid:-1. Weakening Turkey instead
of strengthening her—just as the possession of Venice
weakened Austria, and caused her to be beaten in the last
war. Turkey has 30,000 of her best troops and her two
best generals in Candle, and the consequence is that she
has no means of putting down the insurrection in Bab
guilt. Persuade her to evacuate Candia, aced she will
perhaps then be able to keep order in the rest of he
dominions. 2. Throwing the Greeks into the arms
Russia. In spite of what is generally supposed. las
convinced the analogy of religious creed between the
Huuians and Greeks has not as yet produced anything
like political sympathy. " How can it be imagined," I
heard everywhere from the most intelligent Greeks,
" that we, who live under the most democratic monarchy
of Europe, and use and abuse to so great an extent tie
liberty that we enjoy—how can it be imagined that vs
should sympathise politically, still less wish to throw our.
selves into the arms of the most despotic government
of Europe ? Our earnest desire is to owe everything to
the Western Powers, with whom see all our sympathies.
But if they persist in refusing to interfere in the affairs
of our fellow-countrymen the Cretans, who have as much
right to be Greek as ourselves, we shall at last be forced
to seek redress elsewhere." The fact is, with the pre.ent
dispositions of Russia, Prussia, Italy, and even Imre,
Ragland alone—for Austria can hardly be counted nos-.
England alone stands out, to prevent the settlement of
this arduous question ; which once settled, instead of re.
opening the Eastern question, would probably contnbute
to quiet it, at least for a time. In my humble opinion the
conduct of the English government shows not only a great
want of feeling for the sufferings of fellow-Christians. but
in this case is altogether a political miscalculation. The
Daily News advocates, to a certain extent, this opinion:
even the Theta begins to doubt the policy of sustaining
the sick man at all hasards and at any cost ; but till now
I confess the opinion and acts of the government seem to
be approved by a majority of the nation. It is now as it
was forty years ago ; the English, who send hundreds of
thousands to India, China, and Australia to make Chris-
tians of people who know not what Christianity means,
were the last then, as they will be the last now, to rescue
the oldest Christian population of the world from the
hands of their oppressors.