The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-01-30
REPORTED THAT RUSSIA AND
TURKEY HAVE EVOLVED AN
OBNOXIOUS TREATY.
POWERS ONCE REFUSED RECOGNITION
OF Treaty Identically the Same-Tur-
key Agrees to Close the Dardanelles
in the Event of Russia Engaging
in War.

London, Jan. 23.-A dispatch to the
Pail Mall Gazette from Constantinople,
dated yesterday, says that an offensive
| and defensive alliance has been conclud-
ed between Russia and Turkey. The
Pail Mall Gazette correspondent adds
| that the treaty was signed at Constan-
| tinople and that the rati6cations were
exchanged at st. Petersburg between
Aarej Pasha and the car.
The basis of the treaty is declared to
| be on the lines of the Unkirskella agree
ment of 1888 by which Turkey agreed,
| in the event of Russia going to war, to
close the Dardanelles to war ships of all
nations. This treaty was soon aban-
doned owing to the refusal of the powers
to recognize it. The Pail Mall Gazette
correspondent also says that the French
ambassador. NJ. Cambon. conferred with
the sultan yesterday, and that it is prob
! able France will be included in the new
alliance.
| Officials of the Russian embassy here
deny having any knowledge of the exist
ence of RussO-Turkish treaty on the
basis indicated by the Pail Mall Gazette.
| ACCeullOn is Cdlleu 10 TIE ldCI Ill wen III
| formed circles that while the present time
is inauspicious for Russia to provide
| agreements in favor of Great Britain
| joining the dreibund, it must be remem-
bered that in 1873 Great Britain COM
pleted a similar treaty with Turkey when
she secured the island of Cyprus from
Turkey. Such treaty between Russia
and Turkey, it is added, might open the
way to a solution of the Armenian ques-
ton, as under it Russia could occupy
| Anatolia. ''
DISCUSSED AT WASHINGTON.
Washington, Jan. 23.-The Associated
Press dispatch giving the details of the
| treaty reported to have been perfected
between Russia and Turkey was circu-
lated on the floor of the senate today
and was read with expressions of general
interest by the members of the committee
on foreign relations
Senator Davis expressed the senti-
ments of a majority of the committee
when he said:
IF true, this is the most important
diplomatic event which has occurred in
the past so years. 1t means that Rus
| STA can move her armies across the
Turkish border. Such treaty would re-
suit in the immediate settlement of the
Armenian question, and if France has
also entered into the alliance, as appears
probable, the result would be that the
fleets of those two countries would vir-.
| tually control the Mediterranean and
| that means that England would have
something to do besides bullying Uncle
Sam"
Senators Morgan, Lodge and Cullom
read the report with interest and all re-
marked upon the vast Importance of the
news if it should prove to be true.
Mr.. Lodge said that u coalition be-
tween Russia and Turkey. such as that
indicated, would mean that England
would have her hands full of business on
her own continent without interfering
in American affairs.
Senator Villas, who, while not mem
| Der of the committee ON foreign rela-
| tons, takes great interest in foreign
questions, remarked that it looked as if
| Russia had at last succeeded in getting
a fOothold on the Mediterranean and
was on the eve of virtually annexing
Turkey to her dominions. He confess
ed that his sympathy had always been
| with Russia in this struggle.
The French ambassador was seen, but
| said he had no news on the subject and
apparently was disinclined to credit the
Pail Mall Gazettes statement.
Other diplomats said they were also
without news.
The dispatch was read with great sur
prise by members of the house committee
on foreign affairs.
Mr.. Hit was inclined to doubt the
news. He said, however, that if Rus
STA had signed such treaty that she
must have done so with full knowledge
of all the consequences that must fol-
low The treaty of Berlin, which re-
scinded the Russo-Turkish treaty of San
Stephano, was designed particularly to
prevent such an alliance as the Pail
Mall Gazette outlines, to preserve the
balance of power of Europe. For Russia
to trample on that treaty must provoke
the imaginative consequences. The COM
mittee had been considering the relation
of Great Britain and Turkey but short
time before the dispatch to the Associat-
ed Press arrived, and had adopted the
Armenian resolution, which refers to
the conditions under which Great Brit
ain acquired the Island of Cyprus.
Mr.. Draper of Massachusetts said that
in his recent trip abroad the prevailing
feeling against Great Britain because of
what the other powers regarded as her
grabbing policy, was everywhere so
strongly manifested that no coalition
which left her out could be regarded as
surprise.
Mr.. Quigg doubted whether Turkey
would take part in an alliance against
England, for he believed that England
had practically connived at the oppres-
sion of the Armenians.
GENERALLY DISCREDITED.
London, Jan. 25-Special dispatches
from all points of the continent agree
that nothing is known there of the al
legged offensive and defensive treaty be-
tween Russia and Turkey, which was
reported in a Constantinople dispatch to
the Pail Mall Gazette. The report is
generally discredited.