The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-08 00:00:00

.TURKEY AND CRETE.

The following is the text of the identical note ad-
dressed by the Governments of France, Russia,
Prussia, and Italy to the Porte relative to the Cretan
question :
" Since the beginning of the lamented events
which have occurred in the Island of Crete the
Great Powers took a great concern in the state of
things, which not only wounded their feelings of
humanity, but which would also exercise amongst
the Christian population in Turkey an influence en-
dangering the tranquillity of the East and the gene-
ral peace.
" Several of those Powers have agreed to advise
the Porte to stopthe effusion of blood, and to con-
cert with them a solution to that deplorable conflict
by means of an impartial inquiry on the complaints
and the wishes of the Candiotes.

"Meantime, they insisted upon saving the fami-
lies of the insurgents from the calamities of war.

"The Ottoman Government did not materially
oppose that work of humanity, but they met the
counsels, the exhortations, and the urgent and
reiterated demands of the Cabinets with an inert
strength nothing could victoriously attack.
" The amnesty the Ottoman Government granted
to suspend hostilities does not give any of the guar-
antees which would render such a step truly serious,
and their definitive refusal of a collective inquiry
leaves no hope for any solution of the open ques-
tion, nor any remedy to the abuses which provoked
the rising of the Candiotes, which agitated the
Christians in the East, and won the solicitude of
the Great Powers in Europe.
" In spite of their pressing demands, not a single
organic reform has been resorted to till now to
satisfy the wishes of ,the other Christian populations
of the Ottoman Empire, for whom the sight of that
stubborn conflict is a permanent cause of excitement.
"In those conjectures the Powers who have
offered their counsels to the Porte have the satis-
faction of having accomplished the dictates of
humanity, and of their feelings of sympathy, not
only for the general interests of the Christian races,
but for the well-being of Turkey herself ; for that
well-being is indissolubly connected with the hap-
piness and tranquillity of the:populations placed
under the Sultan's sceptre.

" The Cabinets apprehend that the prolongation
of that sanguinary conflict, and the obstinate'r e-
sistance of the Porte to listen to friendly exhorta-
tions, should dispel among those popnlations the
hope of seeing their situation really improved just
at the moment when they are most fervently enter-
taining such hopes. By following such a policy the
Porte is precipitating the crisis the Cabinets are so
anxious to avoid.

" They believe that they have exhausted the efforts
of conciliation and the advices of foresight.
"Therefore, without renouncing the generous mis-
sion their consciences impose upon them, they have but
one alternative—to redeem their responsibility, and
to let the Porte bear the possible consequence of her
actions.

"It is certain that the Ottoman Government
could not reckon upon a material assistance from
the Christian Powers in the path it has chosen, and
which it continues to follow.

" But the Cabinets, after having vainly tried to
enlighten it, think it is their duty to declare to the
Ottoman Government that henceforth it would be
useless to ask their moral support in the middle of
the embarrassments in which Turkey is involved in
consequence of the trifling importance she has
attached to their counsels."