The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-30 00:00:00

'4.‘`.‘l,l‘

THE INSURRECTION IN CRETE,

(PROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPIXTDEST.)

IN,I*I;(4.NT IIEADQUARTF.ItS, THOURPROURA,
..... _

us SLOPE OF MOUST IDA, APRIL 9.

Whatever may be the scope of foreign inter-en-
ti•at as n.garils Cretan politics, it should secure
ii.msliate burying of the dead on both sides.
There are so many bodies rotting in the sun that
tli,% Islay well breed a pestilence with the increas-
e,: h..it of •r. It is not a subject upon
%Ouch I care to enlarge, but assuredly something
sh•.slld be done, and much can be done when inter-
,. ninon shall have put a stop to the desperate
141 w een Christians and Turks. But there
sill n•utaiu 1 'reds of dead women and children
.I.i, away high up on the mountains, where
they s,aight refuge when their homes were de-
str•ae.l, and where they died of cold or hunger.
The-e victims to the balance of power leave their
among the rocks to testify that European
elii%:dry gave the Turks every chance. With other
insurrections it has been different. Our Western
>hips of war cruised off Sicily in 1860, die-
oganling the feelings of the Neapolitan go-
%eminent ; but the feelings of Turkish stockholders
in 1567 have been scrupulously spared. True
a I:ritislt officer was found to take upon him-
self the charge of saving as many refugees as his
ship would carry. He well deserves the thanks of
his countrymen for having redeemed our name
from utter disgrace in these waters. But why was
11. •t the act of mercy repeated a dozen times by
order from home I I wish that the noble lords and
right honourable gentlemen who scrupled to offend
the Turks by removing their victims could know
how sovereign rights have been asserted in Crete,
and could dream of such knowledge every night
for a twelvemonth.

Many stories of Turkish cruelty towards the in-
surgents have doubtless reached you, and it is pro-
bable that some of them were over coloured by the
warmth of party zeal. lam sorry to say, however,
that only too much is strictly true. Things have
been done which the delicacy of modern society
forbids me to record. Outrages have been com-
mitted like the worst of the bad old times of Turkish
conquest; and who can wonder I There is an outer
gloss of civilised life on many of the pachas, edu-
cated abroad or by foreign masters ; but the Turk-
ish soldiery is as rough as of yore. Then
there are the Cretan Mahometans, burning for
vengeance, and a horde of wild Albanians, brought
hither because they understand mountain warfare.
With such elements of mischief left freely to work,
you may easily believe that there are stories which
it would be hard to over-colour. I have met wit-
nesses enough to prove a score of murders before
an English jury; and when I see the sorrow-
stricken faces and flashing eyes of those who speak,
it is not difficult to imagine that they retaliate in
terrible earnest when they have the power. It is
more from a wish that the struggle should be
quickly stopped by intervention from abroad than
to persuade you that Turks and Albanians are
cruel that I mention these horrors ; yet as regards
the class above referred to, of semi-civilised pachaa,
of whom much capital is made by Western Turk°.
philes, I have a word to say. In a village named
Apodoulon, not far from our present quarters,
stands a house built by an English gentleman, who
was married to a Cretan. The Englishman had
been dead for several years, but the house remained
in possession of his family, and being well
furnished, offered some temptation to plunderers.
Now it happened that the Turks came to Apo-
doulon under the command of a semi-civilised
pacha, and this officer allowed his men to sack the
English house, watching with pleasure their work of
destruction. Su much for neutral property. Of
what next took place, and which concerns a couple
of young Cretan girls, the prettiest in the village,
I will only say that this semi-civilised pacha out-
raged instead of protecting them.
The Christians cannot take the sea-coast for-
tresses, and the Turks are unable to reduce the hill
country, so that intervention seems to Ibe the only
means of escape from a continued scene of horror
and suffering. How far diplomatists have advanced
we do not know, since our communication with
Europe is very uncertain, but we hope every day
to hear that some decided step has been taken.
Pint an armistice, then a permanent settling
of the question. This is the course which would
save the island from utter ruin, and leave diploma-
tists free to act as they thought best upon reflection.
I do not doubt but that the Christians can keep up
the struggle for a long while, perhaps until Turkey
shall be disturbed in other quarters. The islanders
are still full of spirit, and their mountains are as
rugged as ever. But is it right to let any more
villages be destroyed, any more Turks and Cretans
slaughtered, when the end must come from outside
pressure I It has been said that were the island
freed from her tyrants, the Mahometan islanders
(Greeks by birth and language) might be massacred
in revenge for what Mahometan strangers have done
in Crete as well as for their own deeds of violence.
This would be the case only with a few particular
chiefs and families. The MI NS of Cretan Mahe-
metans could safely be left to their Christian neigh-
bours, if only the large towns were held for a while
by some third party until passions had cooled down,
and wrongs were to some extent forgotten.
There are in the kingdom of Greece many Maho-
metan subjects of George I. who live quite con-
tentedly under Christian rule, and, speaking Greek
in their homes, have a strong attachment to the
common country.

A sale of pictures, sketches, water colour draw-
ings, Ac., by Ingres took place on Saturday at the Hotel
brouot, Paris. A sketch of the " Death of Leonardo da
Vinci " fetched 2,soufr, ; a small copy of " Stratonice,"
; another, 4,220 fr. ; a drawing of " Phillip V.,"
; a small copy of the " Tu Mareellus eris," 5,7001 r.;
"Odalisque," in monochrome, 5,730 fr. ; a copy in
small of " fieint.Symphorien," 12,000 fr. ; "The Virgin
with the Holy Wafer," 17,100 fr. ; • small copy of the
Aze of Gold," 27,0110 fr. ; and another " Odalisque," a
eorepleted picture, 44,000 fr. Seven other., making in all
17, re.tlift,l smaller prices, the total amount of the sale
heingll:l,73ufr.

• - -
An American paper says that New York has
beton.: the third German city in the world ; nearly
'"•(") ;ernians land there annually. The president of a
I,ennan life assurance company there gave a German
e:nner to fifty German New York agents of the company.
that city there are German meerschaum manufactories,
lager beer saloons, churches, schools, news-
book stores, theatres, balls and masquerades, and
isushal societies. The orchestra of every New York
tbstre is largely composed of German musicians.
IiRITIAH AND FOREIGN FREEDMEN'S AID So-
--A baza., r, in aid of the funds of this society and of
the Protestant Native Female and Industrial Schools,
I 'all., Gold Coast, will be held to-day, to-
morrow. and Thursday, at the Hanover-square Rooms, to
oannieocn each ,lay at I I o'clock. A great variety of use-
-141 and fancy articles will be exhibited for sale, with
``noun curiosities from Jamaica and Africa. The Laser
is under the patronage of the Duchess of Argyll and other
ih,auguislied ladies, while the usefulness of the Freed-
n,elC, Aid Society is well known to our readers.
ANTI-SLAVERY CONFERENCE.—The united
"rnmittees of the British and Foreign Anti :Slavery So-
the Spanish Abolitionist Society iLa Sociedad Also-
ne !tuna Rstanola), and the Comite Francais d'Emanci-
awn have agreed to postpone the holding of the Inter-
.tnti.Slavery onference in Parts until the 'Xth
.1%4 -t nest. The period originally fixed was the third
aces in June.