Widnes Examiner. — 1896-02-01 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ROSEBERY. In regard to the Armenian question, for instance, Lord SALTS BURY'S diplomacy has ended in utter failure. The Armenians whom he endeavoured to protect have besn murdered and outraged in increasing numbers, and the Sultan has more and more openly displayed his intention to exterminate the luckless Christians. The need for intervention of an effectual kind between the Turk and his victims has certainly not. been lessened by later information. The original newspaper reports of the worst kind of atrocities have been amply verified by the official blue-book which has been issued this week, after:needless delay. Some of the details of the Sasun massacres which are given by Vice-Consul HALLWARD are simply appalling, yet they are only typical of what has been done in connection with many other massacres. The official testimony establishes once for all the guilt of the Turkish authorities. Mr. HALLWARD says, for example, that 'after some Kurdish attacks had been repelled, Turkish troops began to appear in the villages. They alleged that they had come to protect the villagers, but during the night they arose and slaughtered all the inhabitants—men, women, and children. It is said,adds the Vice-Consul, that at first the Turkish troops hung back from the butchery, not relishing their task, but the officers read an Imperial Firman to the soldiers and urged them "not to fail in their duty." After this the work of destruction was carried through without mercy or distinction of age or sex. At one place a number of young men were bound hand and foot, laid out in a row, had brushwood piled on them,and were burnt alive. In another place bayonets were placed upright in the grouad and a hapless priest tkr3wn up in the air so that he fell upon them. In one instance a considerable number of Armenians, men, women, and children, were bayoneted, with the exception of sixty young women and girls. These were driven into a church and the soldiers were told that they could do what they liked with them and then kill them. This order was carried out to the letter. Petroleum has been used for the purpose of burning houses and their inhabitants, and a pathetic incident is narrated of a little boy running from the flames with his clothes on tire and being pushed back at the end of a soldier's bayonet. These are some of the horrors—and not the worst—to which the Armenians have been subjected week after week and month aft 3r month, while British ironclads lay at the mouth of the Dardanelles. It is, of course, alleged that forcible intervention by the British Government would have led to greater evils than even the depopulation of Anatolia, but that, after all, is a matter of opinion. There is reason for believing that on at least one occasion Lord SALISBURY, had he been capable of prompt and decisive action, might have effectually intervened without any danger of bringing about an European war. That opportunity was missed and now it would appear that, so far as this country is concerned, the Armenians are abandoned to their fate. This country is specially pledged.to protect them under an agreement entered into by a former Tory Gav ernmeat yet the Tory Government aow in office has utterly failed to honour that pledge. The Sultan has not been coerced into decent behaviour by Lord SALISTATRY'S, forcible-feeble policy ;he has only been driven into the arms of Russia, and British reputation was never at a lower point in the East. In some other respects the Government will be placed upon its defence in regard to its foreign policy. The large concessions which have been made to France,without apparently in any way conciliating that country, must, we should think, be especially distasteful to a large number of Tories who were never tired of denouncing the " weakness of the Liberals. And, then, with regard to Venezuela, Lord SALISBURY'S methods have certainly not resulted in any conspicuous success. There is now a general feeling that that question might have been better handled in another way. The PREMIER'S exhaustive discussion of the Monroe doctrine and its validity as a piece of international law was just a little beside the mark. It is, after all, no interest of this country to depreciate the Monroe doctrine,which is with Americans a matter of faith. If Lord SALISBURY had said less about the Monroe doctrine in a general way, and more about its inapplicabilty to the present boundary dispute, probably there would at the present time be less friction between this county and the United States. As it is there is an open dispute between the two countries which should