, 1880-07-10

Hohenlohe President OF the Conference
was, Of course, unanimously cearried. and
then, having thanked his colleagues for
the accepted honour, his Highness pro-
posed that the protocols or minules OF
meeting should be kept by N. de Mouy
and DR.. Busch, of the French and German
Foreign Offices respectively. whom be was
sure be did not require to further recon-
mend to their favour. Those prellmlna-
ries being thus settled, the Prince rose,
and in a mild and matter-of-fact speech
gave an historical resume OF the events
bearing on the relations of Turkey and
Greece which, occurring since the Congress
of Berlin, had led to the present act OF
mediation on the part of the six signatory
Powers mentioned 10 Article "a OF the
Treaty July IS. 1878. The Prince point
ed out the delicate nature OF the step they
were about to take, and insisted on the
necessity of their acting in perfect har-
mony with the international instrument
in virtue of which they were now assem-
bled.
1t was ultimately proposed, and agreed to
unanimously, that the better way OF exer-
cising their functions would be to req1est
the Technical Commission to meet here,
and. ON the basis Of the general line of
frontier mentioned in the 18th Protocol
of the Congress (that, to wit, OF M, Wad.
dington), elaborate a new boundary be.
tween Greece and Turkey, which will
have to be submitted for consideration
to the assembled Ambassadors as a pre-
liminary to all further action 10 the matter.
The Conference, therefore, will not meet
again, probably, until next week, TO Allow
the engineers and geographers ample time
to work out their theoretical problem, ana
it is feared that the, business may last
much longer than at first, was expected
1t wss previously thought that the Confer
ence itself would indicate more precisely the
general line OF the new frontier, and then
despatch the Technical Commission to
examine the scheme in detail /; but this, 's
will be observed, is not exactly the plan
adopted. The experts have already been
set down to work out a knotty problem
in applied geography, and if the solution
seems to the Conference a pretty llke!y
one the calculators will then have to pro-
coed to the ground in question tor the
purpose of discovering how lar their
figures tally with facts. Provided no DIS
crepancy between these two elements be
then brought to light, it is to be presumed
that the Powers will stamp the solution
with the mark of accuracy. ,r,,q ,n.
1t is to be particularly noted that the
only known quantity as yet in the equa-
ton is the fact that the experts have been
strictly euioiued to takeaha line of new
frontier generally indicated In sne l3sb
Protocol of the Congress as the oase OF
their survey. The ends of this line are
the mouths of the Calamas and SaIamyrlas
rivers, on the Ionian and Egean Seas res
pectively, which must not be departed
from, though the northward tending dlrec-
tion and defexions of the line uniting those
two points will have to be determined by
facts of race, language. and religion There
is thus little hope that the extreme
boundary line proposed by the Greeks
will receive much favourable consideration
from the Powers. This frontier would
run along the watershed CT Northern Ibes,
sally, starting from about the sunwatd
spur of Mount Olympus, and striking the
Ionian Sea near Cape Kephali, thus confev-
ring on Greece all the continent opposite
her insular possession, Corfu, and enabling
her, by the construction OF a hrst-class
harbour opposite Otrauto, TO enter into
more direct, easy, and profitable communl'
cation with the rest of Europe-a result
--kvShrfn moro