The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-17 00:00:00

The Cretan Insurrection.

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
ATHENS, Aug. 8.
The bad success of the insurrection in Crete
having destroyed the prospect of an immediate
union of that island with the Greek kingdom, a
deep gloom has fallen over Greece. All the plans
and dreams of the political leaders at Athens have
been dissipated. There will be no garrisons to send
out, no rich staff appointments to bestow, and no
places with which to reward hosts of hungry em-
ployes. Yet in one important point the manoeuvres
of the Greek Government have been attended with
complete success. The cry for foreign intervention
on the ground of humanity has been listened to by
the Cabinets of the Continent, and France, Russia,
and Italy, persuaded that humanity ought to pre-
vail over every political consideration, have sent
ships to Crete to carry off all the Christian families
in Sphakia who may desire to leave the island. At
first Omar Pasba objected to this act of intervention,
as tending to injure the cause of humanity by pro-
longing hostilities ; but he subsequently accorded a
tacit consent to the measures adopted by the French
Admiral.

Already more than 3,000 women and children
have been embarked on the shores of the district of
Sphakia and landed in Greece by French, Russian,
and Italian men-of-war. This morning a French
corvette has entered the Piraeus with upwards of
300, and in the course of a few days the French and
Russian Admirals are expected with as many as
they have already brought. Nor is it only with
foreign ships of war that refugees are arriving from
Crete. Numbers escape in the Arkadi to Syra every
week, and small sailing vessels carry families to the
islands of Cerigo and Milo. Before the end of the
next week there can be little doubt that the new
emigration will have added upwards of 6,000 re-
fugees to the number already in Greece, and will,
in all probability, carry it up to 20,000 souls.
The funds supplied by private charity from Eng-
land, Russia, and the United States being nearly
exhausted, the Greek Government is compelled to
undertake the charge of feeding these emigrants,
who have been dispersed about in different towns of
the continent and in the islands which afforded the
greatest facilities for lodging them. The security
in which the whole insurgent population of Sphakia,
Selinos, and the neighbouring districts has now
placed its non-combatants will enable it to take
measures for recommencing a vigorous guerilla war,
fare, and as soon as Omar Pasha withdraws hie
troops into the fortresses and the posts which he
proposes to occupy permanently bands of armed
men will issue from the fastnesses of the Spbakian
mountains and the heights of Mount Ida, where
they have concealed themselves.
The Ottoman Government protested energetically
against this intervention on the part of the Euro-
pean Powers, declaring that the massacres reported
to have occurred by the Consuls at Canea were in
most cases mere fabrications, that the prolongation
of the insurrection is due to the same agency as that
which fabricates these reports, and to the direct
supplies of troops and ammunition which are con-
stantly sent into the country from Greece, that if
numbers of families are really wandering about in
the mountains and on the sea shore thisis caused by
the instigation of Greek agents, who promise them
support in Greece. The Ottoman Government
declares that it is anxious to transport these families
back to their native villages, but, though it has
objected to all direct interference on the part of
the European Powers, it will now give orders that
no impediment be placed in the way of removing
the women and children whom the foreign admirals
may desire to embark.
Even concerning the embarkation of these fugi-
tives we have had the most absurd reports put in
circulation at Athens, in order to increase the hatred
which the Greeks bear to the Turks. Omar Pasha
was said to have cannonaded the rocks of Sphakia
that overhang the sea, in order to drive away the
women and children before the arrival of the foreign
ships, and the French Admiral was told that it
would be needless to visit Sphakia, as ho would find
nobody to save. Count de Gobineau and Admiral
Simon were not deceived by this imaginary assault
of Omar Pasha on the rocks. The admiral hastened
down to Sphakia, and embarked nearly a thousand
women and children who were assembled in the
villages on the coast waiting for foreign interven-
tion, but who had not yet heard of the cannonad-
ing. The condition of the refugees who have arrived
in Greece recently differs greatly. Those brought
by Admiral Simon were in good condition, and ap-
peared to have suffered comparatively little of the
miseries of war, for they belonged to the families of
the Sphakians, and had been living almost until the
time of their einbarcation in their native villages.
But those who have arrived subsequently by the
Arkadi were refuges from Selinos, whose villages
were destroyed some time since, and who have
been long wandering up and ace,
and
mountains
of Sphakia in a state of absolute destitution, often
n w ant of bread. The hardships which these fami-
lies have suffered, and the state of misery in which
they were found at the time of their embarkation is
indescribable.
The newspapers of Athens, with that contempt
for numerical exactitude which has characterised
their general treatment of the Cretan insurrection,
boldly assert that there are alre t3y about 40,000
Cretan refugees in Greece, and that their support
costs the country 60,000 drachmas a month. How
Greece will employ and educate these emigrants is
a subject of deep interest and great political im-
portance, even though the number may not exceed
01ie-half of that which the papers report. In all
probability before many months are past the Bri..ish
Government will have good reason to congratulate
itself A having abstained from interfering to aug-