New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-10-16
TIE EASTERN QUESTION AGAIN.


Despite the prodigious exertions of European
powers TO prevent the Eastern Question from
arising to disturb their peace, the impossi-
bility of effectualy keeping it down Is so
well known that even apparently trii1lng incl
dents acquire an importance beyond their In
trinsic character. The misunderstanding be-
tween Austria and Turkey, announced In
the kilograms published yesterday and
to-day, may lead to serious European
complications, or the momentary excitement
may be alayed without producing any greater
ill-feeling than would ordinarily arise from an
insignificant affair. AS far as we may Judge
from the circumstances made public, the Porte
Ia not without some excuse for the remon-
STRANGE which it directed to foreign powers
Milan w., the reigning Prince of Servia, is a
vassal of the Sultan. The reception which
was accorded him by the Emperor of Austria,
when the Prince repaired to Vienna about a
month ago, was likely to offend the susceptl-
bilities of the suzerain, for 1t was not Drought
about by the Turkish ambassador, as etiquette
required in the case of the presentation OF q
subject of the Porte. The proceeding was a
tolerably plain intmation that the Emperor OF
Austria chose to regard the Prince as an lnde-
pendent ruler.
The excuse offered by the Austrian Govern
ment that the Princes of Roumania and Mon
tenegro were received in like manner, Is
naturally regarded AZ insufficient. In the case
of Prince Charles an assurance was gwen 10
the Porte that u recognition OF independent
sovereignty was not implied, he being OF the
imperial family. In the case of the Prince OF
Montenegro, il IL not astonishing that the
Government Of Turkey should be dislnclined
to make any trouble where the affair was
one of little concern. 1t seems that, az a
matter of form, il was asserted at the time
| that he should be presented by the Turkish
ambassador; but, in accordance with prece-
dents for such course, the right was c0nsld-
erately waived AS far as Scryia is
concerned, reasonable regard for the
political intrigues by which that primer
| pality is surrounded should have i'm
pressed upon the Austrian Government
| the proprlety of proceeding with greater cir
| cumspecton. Such course was the more ad-
yisable from the fact that some bad feeling
had been created by the efforts of the Prince
| to withdraw himself from the authority OF the
Porte, and by the claim, which he maintained
with some asnerity, for the possession OF a
village within the Turkish frontiers. Unless
it was the object of the Austrian Government
| to precipitate contest by openly taking the
| part of the Prince sound policy required that
! strict construction of the obligations OF the
! Prince should be made.
| This course was the more necessary az Aus
tra had already brought upon herself the sus-
| picOn Of instigating the Slaves in the Turkish
| province of Bosnia to measures inconsistent
| with the claim which the Porte asserted over
their allegiance. A month or two previously
a deputaton from Graditzka, in Bosnia, was
received by the Government at Vienna in
such a way as to suggest very strongly that
the Government was disposed to entertain
their complaints against the Turkish authOrl-
ties in affairs OF domestic character. Not
only must it be admitted that the
course of the Austrian Government was
not dictated by the prudence which the ma
| ture of the circumstances required, but the
consciousness which it now manifests IN the
face of the remonstrance of the Porte is even
| suggestive of previously conceived lnten-
ton to pursue policy inimical to the inter-
| ests of Turkey. To some minds 1t Will be a
! subject of speculation whether these mani
| festations, taken in connection with the ap-
preaching visit of the Emperor Francis-JOseph
| to the Car, and other signs of an entente cor
dale between those monarchs, are not signifi-
cant of preconcerted arrangement for the
spoliation of the Sultan's dominiOns.