, 1880-07-24

fected, yet carry out effectively the decision of
the Conference. 1t seems to US that there is
only one snch course, namely, that Great
Britain, France, and Italy, the Powers sin
cerely interested for Greece, should request
her to occupy the assigned territories, and aid
her in so doing. 5000 men even from each
country, supported by the Greek Militia and
by the population of the ceded territories,
would in a few days place Greece 10 full pos
session of her frontier and of Jannina, the city
round which the struggle really RACES. Tur-
key would scarcely hurry on the final crisis o.
war on the four Powers, while the Albanians
would be powerless against such a force, and
have, moreover, the alternative of declaring
their own independence, which Europe has no
interest In refusing. Civil government the
Greeks are strong enough to provide, and that
once provided, a futur re Turkish attack would
be a war of invasion. which. as it could not be
successful, the Pashas would have little inter
est in commencing. No territory once enfran-
chlsed has ever beer reassigned to Turkey,
which received in the failure of the attempt TO
reconquer Servia a final warning as to the
limits within which Europe will tolerate its
action.
The objection to this decided course of action,
which is inevitable if Europe is to retain
peaceful control of the Eastern Question, will
arise in this country from two parties;-the
very weak one which ~favours Turkey for its
own sake, and the much larger one which
retains an antipathy. half-latent, half-avowed
to the cause of Greece. To the former party
the answer is simple. Only the action Of
Europe can protect the Sultan's Empire from
speedy dissolution, and Europe cannot act,
if it's awards are to be habitually disobeyed.
1t is 10 the interest OF Turkey, in theory at all
events. that it DEGREES concessions and if the
n ono rnk nod: runc
later, either coerce Turkey, or allow the disso-
luton which her friends desire to prevent.
The answer to the latter party is that they
are in error as to the facts. Gre ece, no doubt,
greatly to her discredit for political sagacity,
avoided fighting when in 1877 fighting might
have secured her everything, but she avoided
1t because she was civilised enough to under.
stand and to trust the assurance Of England
that she should not suffer for her acquiescencp.
Greece, it is true, has not paid her debt, but it
is because she has never received the territory
In the hope of which the debt was contracted.
She has not organised a Government such as
Europe approves, but it is because she is too
small and too poor to sustain the needful sci
enti6o machiuery-the strong police and army
for exa.nple-which make northern Italy safe,
For the rest, her whole tone and course of
political life and her whole aspirations are those
N oNOSO OuNy wv WOuCIbS Va q "
devoted to intellectual enlig htenmeDt and
commerce and The enjoyment Of peaceful life.
Her army is feeble, but her schools are the
best east of the Adriatio. She is not stern
en0u!h in maintaining either order or ~consurip.
ton, but her merchants all over the world rival
the Jews in enterprise and success. She has not
fought sufficiently to inspire respect. but her tena-
city in demanding that all Greeks shall be sub
jects of Greece, that her old possessions on the
mainland and her islands shall be restored to
her, alarms and initiates oil her antagonists.
Their charge against her is not that she is
dead, but that she is too completely alive
that she will not rest,-that, az the Times says
there is 10 security, when she has Epirus and
Thessaly, that she will be no more heard of.
Certainly there is none, any more than there
is security that England will be self-effaoed
because she swallows a province or two in
every decade. Greece has asked for no pos
session the inhabitants of which would not give
her q plebiscite, and in asking for them she
shows just that sense of vitality which is
needed in any State that is to succeed to any
portion of q decaying empire like Turkey.
The dislike of Greece is, from the English
blinds those who feel it to the fact that of all
the States rising 10 European Turkey, Greece
Is the least Slavonic, the best inollued to Eng.
land. having once elected an English Prince
to the throne, and the most stric. ly connected
with the maritime, as opposed to purely mill
tary Powers. She is the natural ally of the
Western Powers, both in the Adriatio and the
Egean, and whatever increases her direct