The Portland daily press., 1877-12-10
The Issue of the Eastern War.


In 1929 when Diebitch crossed the Balkans
aud seized Adrianople the Porte sued for
peace and purchased it on condition that
Turkey should pay the expenses Of the war
in ten yearly instalments of $2,5OO,O00 each,
should give an indemnity of 81, ,0OO, 900 to Rus
sian merchants and should surrender to the
Principalities the control of the left bank of
the Danube. Should peace follow upon the
capture of Plevna Russia will not impose less
severe terms, and as the Porte in the present
condition of the Turkish finances can paw no
money she will insist upon territorial indem-
nifty. 1t is not to be expected however that
the "turbaned and malignant Turk" will con-
sent to great sacrifices in Europe as long as
the line of the Balkans is unforced. He will
surrender Bulgaria because Bulgaria will be
in the possession of the Russians, and he NAV
be forced to give up Bosnia and recognize the
independence of Roumania. But all this will
avail Russia little, for she cannot take the
surrendered territory to hold.
If Russia had only Turkey to deal with she
might make her own terms, extend her lin
its to the Balkans at least, and perhaps fix
the seat of her empire in the old capital of
the Byzantine Caesars. But she is restrained
by the interests of two other European pow
ers. Austria is on the flank of her Bulgarian
armies, and the vast military power of Ger,
many is a continual menace. Austria will not
permit the control of the Danube to pass to
the possession Of so strong and dangerous a
neighbor as Russia. All her commercial in
terests forbid that. Nor can she with safety,
considering her own restless Sclavonic popu-
lation, consent to the assumption of soyer
eighty by the Gar over the Sclayonic peoples
of Turkey. With equal reason she will
oppose the creation of a great Sclayonic
state out of the disaffeeted provinces of the
Ottoman empire. She is under obligations
to Russia, for the armies of that nation pre-
served her unity in 1S49, but gratitude is an
emotion in which governments cannot afford
to indulge, and she showed in 1856 how faint
was her sense of favors received. 1t is not
probable that the feeling of obligation has
deepened any in the course of twenty
years. Germany is friendly to Russia, hut
the great Chancellor who controls the poll
tics of Europe will not view with complac-
ency the establishment of the Muscoyite
power on the right bank of the Danube, and
if he forbids the acquisition of the coveted
territory it will not be made. So Russia
must relinquish all attempt at territorial
acquisition in Europe The probabilities are
that autonomy will be granted to Bulgaria.
aud perhaps Bosnia, but the formation of a
Sclavonic kingdom, embracing all the revolted
states, will be forbidden.
Still Russia must have indemnity in Soma
form for her losses. As the Sultan has no
money he must part with portion of his farm.
Debarred from territorial acquisition in En-
rope, the Gar will turn to Asia and demand
Armenia which is now virtually in his DOS
session. To the increase of his dominions in
Asia Germany and Austria will have no obiec-
tion, England will of course protest. In the
Russian advance to the Euphrates she sees a
menace to her Indian empire. Already
alarmed by the Muscovite conquest of the
Central Asian Khanates she looks forward
with dread to the Russian occupation of Ar
menia and the possible alliance of the Gar
with the Shah. But her protest will avail
little. She can do nothing against the
will of the three Emperors. Her only
possible ally, France, is in no shape to
go to war, and without the aid Of France
contest against the Imperial powers
would bemadness. She will grumblingly sub
NIT, and we shall see as the outcome of the
Turko-Russian contest the restriction of the
Sultan's rule in Europe to the territory be.
tween the Mediterranean and the Balkans.
and the extension of the Russian dominion
in Asia by the annexation OF Armenia,