Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-09
His Probable Course in the Venez-
uelan Question.
TURKISH TROUBLES MAY AFFECT IT
He is There, However. Treading on
Familiar Ground.
THE PRESIDENTS DUTY

Interest in Lord Salisbury. both as diplo-
mat and statesman, is now very great. That
he is an able man of the first class Is con-
ceded, and that he has a large majority at
his back in parliament is well known
While not SO snowy or rhetorical as Lord
Beaconsfield or Mr.. Gladstone he is ac-
credited with rarts more solid than either.
and with the fighting qualities behind his
mask as a diplomat that have made his race
famous. How may such a man be expected
to carry himself in this Venezuelan BUSH
ness?
There is an impression in certain quarters
that the present complications in Turkey
will operate as a restraining influence on
Lord Salisbury when he faces this way. He
is playing the leading part there, and it is
held that he already has his hands full on
his side of the water. 1t may be. And then
again It may not be-
Trending Familiar Ground.
AS the Turkish matter has been brought
I'D IL is thought to be well to remember
that Lord Salisbury is treading familiar
ground there The situation in its leading
aspects is strikingly like that he met and
in the end mastered twenty years ago. 1t
ought not to give him much, If any, more
trouble than that situation did. England
took then, as she is taking now, the lead
barism, and insisting on reforms in the in
terest of humanity. Lord Salisbury was
her spokesman, her special commissioner.
He met Russia and all the rest of them at
Constantinople. The difficulty had grown
out of the Bulgarian rising, which Turkey
had put down with her bloody hand. Eng
land, Russia and the other Christian pow
ers over there demanded reforms and the
establishment of international commits
sion for the reorganization of Bulgaria.
This the sultan, after the usual and useless
interchange of meaningless forms, refused
to grant. At last Lord Salisbury, after
sending an exceedingly pointed note to the
porte, withdrew from the conference and
returned home. The step showed pluck on
his part, and the English people sustained
him en- Enthusiastically The Berlin congress
grew out of this, and to that congress Lord
Salisbury was sent as Lord Beaconsfield's
first assistant. There the English triumph
was complete. The sultan brought to
terms. Russian aggression was checkmated
and d European war averted.
A Similar situation.
mere glance shows how very much the
present situation is like that situation.
Here again is the same story Of bloody
work by the Turks against their Christian
neighbors, the protest of the Christian
powers against that work, with England
as chief sportsman, and the Turkish
thorities, as always, long on promises and
short on performances. No special English
fleet Is. Russia, Germany, Italy and the
other powers also have ships within easy
distance. While the situation is grave,
Lord Salisbury understands it Thoroughly
Why should his hands be full with that?
The Only Difference.
The only difference between the two stu
atoms is in Lord Salisbury's favor, so far
as his government should care to note it.
The contention of twenty years ago was
Itch nod Of Go iSh, 70
choosing He helped formulate the policy
he went to Constantinople, and afterward
to Berlin, to have adopted He therefore
rot only understands his case, but was in
an authors complete sympathy with it in
all of its phases. The present contention
was formulated by the liberals, largely
der Gl1dstoaan influence. The work is not
such as Lord Salisbury himself would have
turIAd out. But his Is the English idea of
foreign policy. He stands up loyalty for
what has been done in England's name,
even by his opponents in domestic affairs,
and is insisting the contention in the
east as stoutly If he and his friends had
raised it and set it afoot
Duty of the President.
May Lot Lord Salisbury be expected to
follow this same course in this Venezuelan
affair? The question in one form or an
other has been approved by former Brit
tsh ministers. And if his note shows that
he has done this and that is understood to
be the case; if he refuses arbitration
on such points of the case will leave
England, in the popular Interpretation over
here, violator of the Monroe doctrine.
what will be the duty of the President?
Obviously, it is insisted, to stand up as
stoutly for what former American admins
trations have contended for on the subject
of American rights and influences on this
side of the water against all the world.
stand up to him." is likely to be the cry
from Maine to Texas, and to bring into full
voice more what Mr.. Lincoln char
acterizcd as 1.-The chorus of the Union
Cavalier Against Roundhend.
And if the contention takes this turn
there will be actual, lneal revival, after
two centuries and half, of the spectacle
of cavalier pitted against a roundhead.
Lord Salisbury comes of cavalier stock.
The Cecis are high up in the scale in Eng
land. Mr.. Olney, who is holding the pen
for the United States is a son of the puri-
tans If he will show in this business the
traits of that strain his reward may be d
great monument some day. He'll not be
present to inspect its erection, of course,
but it will go up all the same.