The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-06-08
GREECE AND TURKEY.
Tie smouldering Eastern Question Likely
to Blaze Up at Any Moment-Bis-
marok Still the Arbitrator The
Perilous State Of
Europe.

has again entered upon that series OF kaleldo
schopic changes which in the days
Of the telegraph are the despair OF co..
respondents. I can tell you exactly what
the political situation here is at this moment,
but the only thing | Can predict with certain
ty is that it will be entirely different when
this reaches you.
II we believe the universal opinion Of the
diplomats, the question Of the Greek frontier
is settled, by the fact that the Turks have
agreed to give up Thessaly, and the Greeks
have agreed to take it and the Times and
other leading organs Of public opinion III
England have committed themselves to con-
gratulatory articles Id this sense. One
would have supposed, with the experience
or Dajcigno fresh il their recollection, they
would have hesitated to take q sanguine view
Of negotiations which depend upon Turkish
good faith and Greek simplicity but it
seems impossible either for Western diplo-
mats or the government they serve TO realize
the depths OF Oriental duplicity, or to mag
inc the manifold devices TO which it resorts
for the purpose of escaping from a dilemma,
evading an obligation, or attaining an end.
At this moment, for instance, Turkey has
agreed to give Thessaly to Greece, but there
Is not q Greek in Athens who believes that
the Porte really intends to make any such
Cession. And Greece has accepted the gift
of ThessaIy, and has ostensibly abandoned
its claim 10 Epirus but there is not a Turk
in ConBtantinople Who Is not perfectly con-
WINGED that the only reason OF the Greek
Government for accepting Thssaly, is that it
may, immediately after occupying it, attack
Epicus with greater chances Of success. The
object Of the game they are both playing is
that each may throw the responsibility OF all
obstacles III the way Of O peaceful settlement.
upon the other.
Both powers are firmly persuaded that the
final resort must be TO arms, but each is aDX-
ious TO secure the moral support Of Europe
rrior to that struggle. Therefore the Sultan,
feeling assured that If he offered Thessaly
without Epirus Greece would not accept il,
offers it it gracefully, and secures the sup
port of Europe Greece. determined not to
be outdone, accepts it ungracefully, it is
true, and throws the responsibility Of the
next move upon Europe.
If [ am not very much mistaken Turkey
will now insist, in her conditions under
which the province is to be evacuated, upon
which it will be almost impossible for Greece
TO accept; such, for instance, as a guarantee
that no attack shall be made upon Epirus
for o term Of years. Greece may meet this
by giving the guarantee and then instantly
breaking it. [ find no sentiment more COM
mon in Greece than this one, that treaties are
not worth the paper they are written upon
are, ID fact, only made 10 be broken. They
irStifr fbFa& art# t.,a rvnlJp1 tho thau ARC w
Titled 20 treat Europe as Europe has treated
them. Thus, at the conference Of Berlin the
powers OF Europe guaranteed to Greece o
frontier line including Epirus, but on finding
thai they could not induce the
Turks to consent to this, they substituted an
other, leaving out Epirus. The whole pro
ceeding from beginning to end is SO immoral
that it would be absurd, to expect good faith
from any OF the parties concerned.
The Turks say, and With reason, that Eu-
rope has no moral right TO force them to give
up territory which they have occupied for
five hundred years, simply because some Of
its inhabitants belong to the race of q neigh
boring country.
EMMY to promise them more territory-eyen
though it does not belong to them-one day,
and substitute another for il the next.
Europe says Turkey has no right to make
promises, and then escape from them on the
first opportunity and that Greece has no
right TO risk q general c%onlagration because
she wants territory which does not belong
to her.
At this moment the great powers and Tur-
key and Greece are all engaged like SO many
kettles in calling the other pot black. The
comedy they are playing is one in which al
the performers are trying who can be most
dishonest. That the comedy will end in a
tragedy Of the most fearful description there
can be no doubt the only question is when
the catastrophe will come. Both Greece and
Turkey are shrinking from the collision,
which they know to be inevitable, and each
is waiting until the conditions should be
more favorable.
The first symptom Of q dlsc0rd between
the European powers would be the signal for
two Eastern Governments to throw off the
mask and begin hostilities and as the Eu-
ropean powers know this, and more or less
anxious TO keep the peace, they are clinging
to each other with q degree Of diplomatic
affection which, when one considers how
much they internally fear and hate each
other, Is truly edifying.
AS usual, the man who holds the string
which sets all the wires in motion as he
wishes is Prince Bismarck. The question
WHICH agiates me OOsoms OF European States
men is, does he wants war or not Those
who maintain that he does, point to the ex-
ceptiOnably favorable combination of cir
cumstances which the political situation now
offers in Europe. Russia, it is admitted on
all sides, is paralyzed by the recent %assassi-
nation Of the Gear and the development of
the Nihilist movement. England is paralyzed
by her complications in India and Africa
and by the %well-knoWn pacific tendencies Of
the Radical Administration now in Tunis,
and her action there is jealousy watched by