TURKEY. 



743 



The military operations were suspended pending 

 negotiations witb the powers and an effort to con- 



ciliate the Cretans. A proclamation was i.--ued on 

 .June 14, offering a free pardon to the rebels it' they 

 made their submission, and summoning the Assem- 

 bly to Canea to examine all questions relating to 

 the interests of the island and submit them to the 

 Imperial Government. This proclamation having 

 no effect, the Porte acceded conditionally to the pro- 

 posals of Austria. France, and Russia, supported by 

 the other powers, which were the immediate Mis- 

 pension of hostilities, the convocation of the Assem- 

 bly, a general amnesty, and the restoration of the 

 Ilalepa Constitution, including the appointment of a 

 Christian Governor General. Abdullah Pasha sum- 

 moned the National Assembly. A general amnesty 

 was proclaimed on June 2S. The Sultan appointed 

 the Prince of Samos. Georgi Pasha Berovitch Gov- 

 ernor General, and made Abdullah Pasha com- 

 mander of the troops in Crete. The Athens com- 

 mittee, which had sent several cargoes of arms to 

 the insurgents, issued a circular calling upon the 

 people to form a revolutionary provisional govern- 

 ment and declare for union with Greece. The 

 Porte equivocated in its answer about the restora- 

 tion of the Halepa charter, hence the ambassadors 

 culled for an explicit promise to reinstate it with 

 such amendments as the Cretan Assembly should 

 propose. Meanwhile the insurgents continued to 

 devastate the Mohammedan villages and the Mo- 

 hammedans to pillage the Christian villages within 

 Abdullah Pasha's military cordon, their inhabitants 

 having fled to the mountains. These fugitives, 

 numbering 12.000, a great many of them women 

 and children, suffered severe privations. The in- 

 surgents defeated the Turkish force, killed 200 men, 

 and captured 4 cannon on July 2. when the Turks 

 tried to occupy certain strategic points between 

 Selinon and Kisamo with the object of turning the 

 positions of the insurgents and relieving Kandano, 

 where 1.600 imperial troops were besieged. The 

 garden district of Selinon was laid waste by the 

 Christians. The Reform Committee issued an an- 

 nouncement that the public security in the va- 

 rious districts would remain in the care of the mili- 

 tary chiefs. The Assembly did not meet, none but 

 a few of the Mohammedan Deputies being willing. 

 The Christian Deputies began to join the insurgents 

 in the mountains. Kisamo and other provinces 

 elected delegates to the projected revolutionary as- 

 sembly. Georgi Pasha, an Albanian Christian long 

 and favorably known in Crete, arrived on June 30. 

 On July 3 he issued a proclamation restoring the 

 Constitution of Halepa. The immediate cessation 

 of hostilities was ordered, provided the insurgents 

 did not force the Turkish troops to take the offen- 

 sive. The foreign consuls were instructed to warn 

 the insurgents that, since the Porte had accepted 

 the recommendations of the ambassadors uncondi- 

 tionally, they would forfeit the sympathy of the 

 powers if they rejected this settlement. The con- 

 cert of the powers and the concessions of the Sultan 

 did not shake the determination of the Cretan 

 leaders, who had now a formidable armed force, 

 had set Greece aflame, and compelled the Govern- 

 ment of that kingdom, which at first frowned on 

 the movement, to increase its armaments and pre- 

 pare for active intervention, and received influen- 

 tial support and pecuniary assistance from Euro- 

 pean sympathizers. The Assembly consisted of 40 

 Christians and 2.~> Mohammedans. Of the Christian 

 Deputies some had gone to Athens and resigned 

 their seats: others were taking an active part in 

 the rebellion in Crete. The Mohammedan Deputies 

 took a stand against making any concessions, and 

 addressed a petition to the Sultan asking that pro- 

 vision be mjule for allowing the whole Mohamme- 



dan population to emigrate before the privileges 

 of the Christians were enlarged. The agreement of 

 the Sultan to allow the Assembly to elaborate a 

 Constitution on the ba-is of the pact of Halepa 

 cau-ed the Christian Deputies to pause and the ma- 

 jority of the Reform CommiMei- and the Cretan 

 committee in Athens even to pay the 



mediation of the great powers and offer to give 

 their solutian a trial, though the extremists pro- 

 p"-ed to continue the struggle with the object of 

 obtaining union with Greece. There was an as- 

 sembly at Phree. in Apokorona, on July 5. at which 

 it was resolved to intrust to the Christian Deputies 

 the task of proposing a programme of reforms, to 

 be drawn up by a convention composed of 3 dele- 



?ates from each district, whereupon the Reform 

 ommittee would be dissolved. The Greek Govern- 

 ment, instancing the result of this assembly as a 

 proof of the conciliatory disposition of the Cretans, 

 replied to the powers that the responsibility for 

 recent events' in Crete rested with the Porte', and 

 that the pacification of the island depended upon 

 the action of Turkey. The A'ali consented to let 

 Mr. Biliotti. the British consul, and the senior of- 

 ficer of the English naval force take charge of the 

 distribution of relief to the suffering fugitives in 

 the mountains, but the representatives of other 

 powers at Constantinople objected to such a mis- 

 sion being intrusted to the English consul. 



The rebel chiefs, with some Deputies and the 

 revolutionary delegates, met in Kampos, a village 

 of Apokorona. on July 5, and organized a revolu- 

 tionary provisional government, taking oath not to 

 cease the struggle until they had obtained either 

 complete political autonomy or annexation to Greece. 

 The importation of munitions of war and of armed 

 bands from Greece went on. The representatives 

 of the six powers on July 6 warned the Greek Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs that, the Porte having ac- 

 cepted the salient points of the joint demand of 

 the powers, the pacification of Crete must be has- 

 tened and the revolutionary movement arrested, 

 and therefore the serious a'ttention of the Greek 

 Government should be directed to the task of using 

 all its weight and influence with the Cretans to in- 

 duce them to desist from a further policy of defi- 

 ance and to accept the concessions made by the 

 Porte. The Greek Government was exhorted to 

 prevent by every means in its power the sending 

 of arms and supplies to the revolutionary center. 

 The Assembly met at Canea on July 13. The 31 

 Christian members present raised an outcry against 

 the reading of the Vali's address in Turkish, and 

 consequently it was read again in the Greek lan- 

 guage, as provided in the pact of Ilalepa. The 

 Christian Deputies and their Mohammedan col- 

 leagues did not seek to arrive at a basis of common 

 action, but engaged in violent discussions, their 

 passions inflamed with stories of massacre, rapine, 

 and incendiarism with which each side truthfully 

 charged the other. The Christians declined to dis- 

 cuss practical matters and staved off all delibera- 

 tion on the constitutional question, arguing that 

 the opposition of the Mohammedans would be used 

 by the Porte as a pretext for refusing concessions. 

 The Mohammedans called for the restoration of the 

 charter of Ilalepa as it was. The modifications 

 that the Christians proposed, instead of being of- 

 fered in the Assembly for discussion, were em bodied 

 in a petition to the Porte and the powers. The fol- 

 lowing were the principal demands: Appointment 

 of a Christian Governor General with the assent of 

 Greece and under the special guarantee of the 

 powers for a term of five years, giving him supreme 

 command of the army and the right of veto, but re- 

 serving to the Sultan the power of negativing any 

 proposed changes in the Constitution of Halepa ; 



