The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-02-12
The Situation in Crete.

The latest insurrection in Crete appears
also likely to be its last against Turkish
domination, and the Sultan, ABDUL HAND
H., will be able to cast reproaches at lone
but himself when the emblem Of his SOW
ereignty is lowered in what under ordinary,
decent administration might have been one
OF the most prosperous and at the same time
strongest outworks Of the Ottoman empire
in Europe.
The present troubles arc but the culmi-
nation OF the disorder created in the affairs
OF the island in 1889. The modified oonsti-
tutionalism enjoyed by the Cretans up to
that year, from the date OF the compact of
Halepa, had tended to the political unifca-
ton Of the Christian and Mussulman inhab-
itants, already one in blood and language.
The Assembly, as is usual in representative
legislatures, was divided into two parties,
known locally as " Haversacks" and " Bare
foots, or HAYES and Havenots. Each party
contained its proportion OF Mussulmans, the
"Haves," or Conservatives, comprising the
weather. Christians and M~ussulmans and
the "Havenots," or Liberals, the poorer.
Up to 1889 the former had carried the
elections and dominated In the Assembly,
eh'ia' N'chythihk III tuCiI w iuttTcSI.
In that year the Havenots thought their
turn had come, and by compact organiza-
ton carried n large majority Of the electoral
districts into which the island was divided.
On the well-known principle that to the
victors belong che spoils, they proceeded
to appropriate everything in sight.
Tho Sultan became alarmed at this result
OF representative institutions and sent a
High Commissioner from Constantinople TO
look into matters, in the person OF NAH
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Pasha, one OF his
chief counsellors. The spirit OF the instruc-
tions brought to Crete by this latter were
soon made clear by the practical abolition of
constitutional rights and an attempt to re-
turn to old methods, in violation OF the COM
pact OF Hnlepa. The traditional gatherings
Of armed Cretans at Boutsinaria, at the foot
OF the mountains behind Canea, and at other
strategic points, took place, and at one time
a serious rising was threatened. But the
years OF parliamentary peace had lulled the
warlike islanders into q feeling of security,
and the gunpowder that was required for
cartridges had all been expended in the eel
ebration OF religious and social festivals.
The Greek people were ready enough to
supply the deficiency, but the British Gov
exercised such pressure on the
Cabinet at Athens that all shipments
OF cartridges and other war material
for Crete were prohibited and seized,
and tho funds in the National Bank at
Athens belonging to the Cretan Revolu-
tionary Committee were sequestrated by
order OF the Greek Government. A kind
OF compromise was effected, meantime;
but the islanders, having once tasted
the advantages OF self-government, even
in n very moderate degree, have never
submitted willingly to the relmposed
Turkish yoke. The Sultan, II was
true, in conformity with the letter OF his
promise to give the Cretans a Christian
Governor with n Mussulman Mouavin or
Counsellor, gave them one, but, as II In ironi-
cal contempt, sent BERovITCH Pasha, a Ro-
man Catholic Albanian, instead OF an Ortho-
dox Greek. as in the years before 1889. The
Cretans. with their keen instinct, under
stood the meaning OF the Sultan's action,
and instead of wasting their energies in
futile sporadic tumults seriously prepared
for the future by quietly laying in stores of
ammunition and more modern weapons, and
bided their time.
The events OF the past year have opened
the way for them. The Ottoman Empire
is crumbling to pieces, and the English OBJ
position to the freedom of the Cretans can
not resist the logic of events. The spirit
of the Greek people. TOO long humili-