The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-25
RUSSIA AND TURKEY
And Their Reported Atiance--The Unkiar
 Skelessi Compact of 1888 Recalled.

And Their Reported Ai,iauce-The Unkiar
 skelessi Compact of 1883 Recalled.
 Yesterdays New York Sun in speak Ing of the reported treaty between Rus sia and Turkey remarks:
 Inasmuch as the alleged treaty is said to be modelled on the Unkiar Skelessi compact, it is we'll to recall precisely what this was, and under what circum- stances it was framed. In 1883 Nah mould II. found himself in stradts we'll nigh as desperate as those in which the present sultan was but yesterday in volved. It is true that he had freed himself from the mutinous Janissaries toy exterminati ting them, and had reor- ganized his army in conformity with the military principles of Christian Eu- rope But his navy had been almost annihilated at Navarino; he had been forced to renounce the sovereignty of Greece; and in three great battles his new army had been beaten and nearly destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha, the war
 like son of his rebellious vassal, Niche met Ali, already master of Egypt, Syr- it and part of Asia Minor. In his ex-
 tremity Mahmoud II. turned to Russia, and at the palace Unkair Skelessi was signed a treaty between the sultan and
 the czar, which practically lowered Turkey to the position of a dependent state.
 This treaty gave Russia the right of
 intervention in the internal affairs of
 the Ottoman empire, for each power pledged, itself to render assistance to
 the other, not only against the attack of an external enemy, but whenever and wherever the internal peace and secur- ity of its ally might be endangered. An other article declared that in order to
 diminish the burdens of the porte. the czar would not exact the material help to which the treaty entitled him, but, in lieu thereof. would accept an agree ment on the part of the porte that when ever Russia should be at war the Dar- danelles should be closed to the armed vessels of all other nations. Against
 this transfer of the control of the Dar-
 danelles from Turkey to Russia, and
 the conversion of the entrance to the Black Sea into a Russian fortified out post, the two western powers, France and England protested furiously. and. owing to their combined opposition, the
 treaty of the Unkiar Skelessi became from the outset dead letter. About ten years later Russia herself renounc- ed it. and united with the other powers in a declaration that the ancient rule of the Ottoman empire, forbidding the pas sage of the Dardanelles to the warships of all nations, except when the porte should itself be at war. was accepted by Europe at large.
 The international situation is now entirely different from what it was in 1888. It may be pronounced absolutely certain that France will now side, mot
 with England, but with Russia. Not only is it inconceivable in the existing state of Europe that France and Rus
 sia shoudl have divergent policies, but 1t Is obvious that the moment Turkey becomes a vassal of the czar her in- l fluence is sure to be exerted for the purpose of enabling Frenchmen to sup plant Englishmen in Egypt. It is not to | be expected, on the other hand, that | the acquisition by Nicholas II. of the 1 power to occupy Constantinople, when,- ever he sees fit, will be viewed with ! unmixed pleasure at Vienna, and there
 was time when the divulgation of a | treaty substantially identical with that l of Unkiar Skeiessi would have inpelled l Austria to join Great Britain in in- | flexible opposition. But that time has ! passed. The Hapsburg kaiser is now
 bound hand and foot by the triple al- liance, and he may be trusted to do
 anything that the senior partner of the
 firm prescribes. Nor Is it difficult to predict the course of Emperor William
 IT. It was the cooperation of Germany as well as of France with Russia that l forced Japan to evacuate and retrocede | the Liau Tung peninsula. It has been the combination of the same three pow
 CTS that during the last four months has rendered the British ambassador
 laughing stock at Constantinople.