The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31
An Outbreak That Seemed to
Undermine the Government
of the Turks.
WHAT WILL GREECE NOW Dog
It Is a Question Whether the Usual
Concerted Pressure Will Keep
Her Hands OFF.
[COpyright, 1896. by the New York TImes.l

LONDON. Enc, May So.-Although
there has been something like civil war
in Crete for months back and the garrison
of some thousand Turkish regular troops
has actually been besieged inside the fort
ress of Vamos by 5000 or 5000 armed Gre
tans since March, Europe has allowed it
self to be thrown quite off its balance by
mere street riot in Canea, the capital of
the island. 1t is true, of course, that dis
order in Canea menaces the lives of foreign
Consuls and merchants, who were not af-
fected by the previous inland troubles, but
that scarcely accounts for the sensational.
swiftness with which the powers raced
their available ironclads into Cretan waters
at Thursdays news.
1t is apparent that every Foreign Office
jumped to the conclusion that the blood
shed in Canea had peculiar significance OF
its own, quite apart from the chronic tur-
bulence of the island.
The suspicion that the ground has been
mined everywhere under the fabric of the
Turkish empire and that an explosion
which will bring it crashing into ruins is
close at hand has grown so universal that
this Cretan outbreak seemed to every one
to be the signal for the long-expected con-
vulsion.
Calmer views prevail at this moment
but it is very likely that within week or
two Crete will again be the object of gen.
eral disquiet. The Turkish Government
is acting with promptness SO unusual as
to excite queer suspicious. 1t has heavy
re- endorsements already under way, and
apparently intends 10 crush out resistance
at any price. This can only have the eff
feet of heating Greek fury to the fever
point.
Even as it is, the King of Greece is hur-
rying back to Athens from his vacation at
Corfu, and though backed by the unani-
nous representations of foreign ministers
there he finds himself barely able to re-
sist the popular clamor for action. This
task viii be perhaps too great for his
strength when the Turks begin the work
of srestoring ORDER in their characteristic
way.
Heretofore IN these constantly recurring
Cretan emergencies Europe has been able
to use concerted pressure to make the
Greeks keep their hands off. The excite
ment of the present situation consists in
the universal doubt whether that Euro
pean concert still exists 1t was to every
body's interest seven years ago to prevent
the Cretans and the Greeks from tearing
the bandages off 1.-THE sick man."
This may not be true to-day. Oddly
enough there are widely different notions
or perhaps pretenses as to who enjoys the
upper hand Just now in Greek counsels.
The German. French and Russian papers
all say that it was England who incited
the Cretans to mischief and who is ar
ranging with Greece for an interested in
tervention.
On the other hand, as the English un-
derstood the situation. it is Russia and
France who have Greece in tow and who
can count implicitly on her following their
lead. The truth appears to be that Greece
has been in grievous financial straits so
long and has been forced to fawn on all
sides for merciful treatment at the hands
of her creditors, that every power is more
or less entitled to feel that it has claims on
Greek gratitude and loyalty. If ultimately
it becomes a question of the longest purse,
England will easily outbid France, but it
may turn out to be rather question OF
force majeure, and there the issue is not
so clear.
The assertion in the Nineteenth Century
by a former secretary of Lord Loch's that
Jameson's raid had for its Immediate pur-
pose the seizure at Pretoria of documents
known to exist proving underhand deal
ings between Germany and the Transvaal
brings to the front a new phase of the
many-sided South African tangle. 1t has
been whispered about for four weeks that
Chamberlain has lot of these proofs UP
his sleeve. ready to be produced at the
proper moment.
Hitherto these stories seem to have been
born of the despairing hope that presently
Cham berlain would begin scoring some
successes in his duel with Kruger, but ]
am told now that there really is evidence
of an anti-British arrangement between
Berlin and Pretoria which when it comes
out will place the Boer Government in g
very awkward position. If this be so one
can understand England's meeting Krue.
gers demand for Rhodes punishment by
the point that first Kruger must make
an example of Ur. Leyds, who was in
Germany negotiating the Transvaal':
treason to her suzerainty before Rhode:
ever thought of making a move. Although
there is temporary lull in the South
African business the en;anglement is get
ting worse rather than better.
The decision of the MeIine Cabinet tc
adopt as its own almost the identical In
come-tax measure on which NJ. Bourgeoi,
was driven out of office illustrates the
paralyzing confusion which has overtakeu
the French politicians. 1t can hardly be
compared with the familiar British device
of stealing the Liberals clothes while they
are in bathing, since in the French Cham
Der these hard and fast party lines do not
exist, and MeIine's bid is for the parlia.
mentary support of the forty or fifty
former followers of Bourgeois rather than
for popular suffrages. The proposed tax
on rentes is clearly unconstitutional, since
investors have been over and over again
assured by law that they must always be
exempt from taxation. but the republic
L.. =. ..r,.o. for forn,rarr tho Tho rn hnr 70