The San Francisco call., 1895-10-13
Must Eventually Work In In.
dependence on Armenian
Controversies.
STRIKE AT THE BELFAST YARDS
An Important Industry Crippled
When Great Britain May Most
Need WarShips.
copyright, 1895, by the New York Times.l ]

LONDON, Eng, Oct. 12.-Lord Salisbury
did not complete his holiday abroad after
all He was to have returned to-day, but
Tuesday he privately crossed the channel
by the least Travelled route and went
through to Hatfield without observation,
where his secretary was waiting for him
with dispatch-boxes. 1t was not till the
evening of the next day, after he had put
in a long and arduous days work at the
Foreign Ofhce, that it became known that
he was in England. The next day Goschen
returned from Switzerland quite prema-
turely and was closeted all day at the
Admiralty or with Salisbury. These signs
of urgency naturally gave rise to rumors
that the situation abroad had assumed a
grave character and bred circumstantial
report that there would be an emergency
Cabinet meeting early next week. This is
now denied, but the public uneasiness is by
no means allayed.
AS regards the immediate situation at
ConstantinOple matters seem less alarming
than they were. An understanding exists
in various quarters that the Sultan has
conceded to the combination of all the six
powers most of the things which he
deemed it safe to refuse to the original
three intervening powers. The Armenians
who were huddIed in various Stamboul
churches have after being scolded sharply
by their foreign diplomatic protectors,
gone home again, and thus far no news
OF their being worse for it has reached us.
Unfortunately we have passed the stage,
however, when press statements of what
does happen to them can be at all relied
upon. The correspondents at CONSTANT
nople are sending what their papers want
for political purposes at home, and it is
impossible not to see that the tales of
massacre, torture and hideous atrocities
Iiled up by Armenian sympathizers are
largely made to order. From the fairest
observers we get a general impression that
the Turkish police have behaved very well,
except in one instance, where their vio-
lence inside prison to Armenian captives
is explained by the assertion that the latter
were armed and resisted forcibly.
AS to the unofficial bloodshed, the Arme-
mans were the original aggressors, and the
Moslem population had been told for
months that the Armenian secret societies
were armed and preparing for riots, and
acted accordingly when the riot came.
Both sides represent a state of civilization
not at all ours. and they fight with much
natural brutality. But a dozen OF the
worlds great Christian cities could be
named which witnessed in our day equally
bloody combats, accompanied by infinitely
greater disasters to those actively engaged
in the row. However, it is taken for
granted that there will be no recurrence
OF this particular form OF disorder.
Interest centers rather on the deveI op-
ment of the differences between Russia
and England. That they have any COM
mon ground for working together nobody
now believes. Everything. on the con-
trary, is showing now what these dis
patches have insisted upon from the begin
ning-that their ostensible partnership is
nonsense. Their interests are antipodal,
and now that the whole Turkish question
stands reopened their mock relations to
each other must give way to real ones.
This Encouragement has really been i'm
mensely facilitated by the Stamboul riots.
These compelled the Triple Alliance to in
terfere and join the other powers in COM
mon representation to the Porte. When
this party of six separates I fancy it will
be found that England has shifted her
position and has retired by one door with
3
and France have passed out through the
other door. This at least is what the i'm
mense majority of Englishmen are hoping
for.
Nine Novikoff's temperance in London,
writing saucy letters to the radical papers.
strikes every one as an important sign of
the times. This curious lady may not
have any deliberately provocative mission,
but she always turns up at a juncture
when Russia's policy comes into sharp
conflict with England's, as in 1875, and
again in 1885, and she writes articles more
ingeniously calculated to set John BULBS
teeth on edge than anything else one can
imagine in types. This time she mocks.
taunts and derides the English with pe-
culiarly free tongue. They Go not exhibit
anger as yet, but they give evidence of
their perception of the fact that it is in
tended they should get angry, which is
perhaps more significant.
Naturally :he French for the moment
are thinking of nothing but the culmina-
tion Of the Madagascar campaign, over
which they had grown extremely de-
pressed and unhappy. There will still be
some bitter words in the Chamber about
the gross mismanagement and the cruel
waste OF life, but it is no longer thought
that the Ribot Ministry is in peril. Dis
cussion as to what France will do with the
island that it now has monopolizes the at
tention of the Paris press. The so-called
colonial group of politicians are not un-
likely in the end to have their own way in
this matter, as they had in starting the
expedition. Their idea seems to be to de-
clare a protectorate, not specially different
from annexation, set up dummy King in
the person of Hova Prince of the
Rhadama branch of the royal family, who
was educated in Paris as a Catholic, and
institute government which will keep
Protestant missionaries and merchants
equally at arms length. Already it is in
sisted that the commerce of the island