GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



337 



that the whole question in its various branches, 

 including the tenure of the island, would have 

 to be considered by the Government. On the 

 llth of June Lord Carnarvon called attention 

 to the distressed condition of the Armenians, 

 and recommended the appointment of a Chris- 

 tian Governor-General, who should have the 

 control, for the use of his district, of all or near- 

 ly all the revenue raised in that district. Lord 

 Granville admitted that very little had been 

 done to ameliorate the condition of the Arme- 

 nians, though several commissions had been 

 intrusted with the duty of examining into their 

 grievances and suggesting remedies. The car- 

 rying out of the stipulations of the Treaty of 

 Berlin in respect of those people was one of the 

 objects for which he was endeavoring to secure 

 the concerted action of the powers of Europe. 

 Lord Salisbury had little hope of the success 

 of a concert of the powers in bringing pressure 

 to bear upon the Porte. His remedy, which 

 he admitted to be a slow one, would be the 

 action of consular agents in the Turkish prov- 

 inces in letting in the light of public opinion 

 on the atrocities perpetrated in those districts, 

 and on the misgovernment of the pashas. The 

 only alternative he saw to this was the ter- 

 rible one of the extermination of the various 

 races of which the populations of those prov- 

 inces were composed, brought about by the 

 miseries to which they were subjected. The 

 Duke of Argyll called attention to the fact 

 that one of the authors of the Treaty of Berlin 

 had virtually said that no remedy existed for 

 the state of things in Asia Minor, and pointed 

 out that the Porte had undertaken in the treaty 

 to carry out without delay the reforms demand- 

 ed by the condition of the Armenians. He 

 charged the Marquis with having prevented 

 the insertion of an article in the treaty binding 

 the powers to act together in seeing it carried 

 out, and said that u a part of the political mess 

 to which the present Government had succeed- 

 ed was the task of reuniting the powers for 

 the fulfillment of the treaty of which the late 

 Government was so proud." The Armenian 

 question was the subject of a debate in the 

 House of Commons, July 25th, when Mr. Glad- 

 stone remarked that the concert of Europe was 

 a thing of which the Government took a nega- 

 tive rather than a positive view ; the Ministers 

 had spoken rather of the evil that had resulted 

 from disregarding it than of the probability 

 of its continuing in existence. This view was 

 brought out most clearly by the Anglo-Turk- 

 ish Convention, which, while it had been bar- 

 ren so far as reforms were concerned, had in 

 causing jealousy and ill-feeling been most pro- 

 ductive. To a question asked in the House of 

 Lords, July 8th, whether the Government had 

 come to any determination as to the steps it 

 would take in the event of the Porte declining 

 or neglecting to be governed by the decision 

 of the recent Conference at Berlin, Lord Gran- 

 ville replied that it was not the duty of the 

 Government in answer to hypothetical ques- 

 VOL. xx. 22 A 



tions to describe what its policy would be in 

 possible contingencies, and that it would not 

 be respectful to Turkey to make the assump- 

 tion implied in the question. On the 30th 

 Lord Granville stated that her Majesty had 

 addressed a note to the Sultan, expressing the 

 hope that he would, even at some sacrifice, 

 accede to the unanimous wish of Europe re- 

 specting the fulfillment of the Treaty of Berlin. 

 On the 3d of September, Sir W. Lawson spoke 

 in the House of Commons in favor of absolute 

 non-intervention. He deprecated the naval 

 demonstration against Turkey and the course 

 of the Government in acting without consult- 

 ing Parliament, and urged it to explain, before 

 Parliament adjourned, its position with refer- 

 ence to the Eastern question, and especially to 

 the naval demonstration. Lord Hartington re- 

 plied that the object of the naval demonstra- 

 tion was to show the Porte that the powers did 

 not mean that the Treaty of Berlin should be 

 set at naught. On the 5th Mr. Gladstone spoke 

 in defense of the policy of the Government 

 with reference to Turkey, and described it as 

 being based upon the conviction that the for- 

 mer policy of allowing Turkey to think that 

 its integrity would be maintained at any cost 

 had led to frightful oppression of its Christian 

 subjects. Sir W. Lawson having expressed an 

 apprehension that the Government would un- 

 duly interfere in foreign affairs, he appealed to 

 the antecedents of the ministers as affording 

 the strongest possible guarantees against their 

 engaging upon adventurous courses. 



Lord Hartington stated in the House of Com- 

 mons, June 7th, that the instructions which 

 had been sent to Lord Ripon respecting the 

 war in Afghanistan related in great part to con- 

 templated negotiations of a very difficult and 

 delicate character. The objects of the Gov- 

 ernment were to bring the military operations 

 in Afghanistan to a close, to keep the commu- 

 nications secure as long as the troops remained 

 in the country, to restrict military operations, 

 and to avoid further collisions with the tribes 

 beyond the limits of the positions occupied, 

 and also to leave behind, when the troops 

 should have retired, something like the pros- 

 pect of a stable government. All arrangements 

 that had been entered into must be respected, 

 but an arrangement which would make neces- 

 sary the permanent occupation of Candahar by 

 a large force would not be viewed with favor. 

 Lord Ripon would act upon military advice, 

 and would consider the question of retention 

 or abandonment on its merits, political and 

 military, without being influenced by the fact 

 of the positions having been acquired under 

 the Treaty of Gundamuk, a treaty which must 

 be considered as having ceased to exist. Lord 

 Hartington further stated, July 27th, that con- 

 siderable difficulty as well as delay had oc- 

 curred in the negotiations; indeed, Lord Ripon 

 had continued them against the advice of some 

 of his counselors, who had at one time recom- 

 mended their abandonment. No formal agree- 



