THE BERLIN SETTLEMENT.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4290, 30 April 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE BERLIN SETTLEMENT.

-lie withdrawal of the British fleet to Besika Bay indicates emphatically the changed, aspect of the Eastern question. The Russian evacuation meanwhile proceeds apace. Six battalions of Turkish troops have entered Adrianople this week, and the Russians have withdrawn, with the exception of three battalions, which remain with the consent of the Turkish Government. The distress is still great throngbont the whole region, as also in Bosnia, where hundreds appear to be slowly dying of starvation. Under Austrian administration order is at least re-established, but there is as yet no sufficient provision for the districts lapsing again under the rule of the Porte. In Macedonia 'there is a revival of insurrection—said to be " premature." In Eastern Boumelia there is still talk of resisting the return of the Turkish militia. The Bulgarian Assembly is proceeding slowly in its work at Tirnova. The two parties into which it it divided have already been named the Irreconcilable and the Opportunists, but both names imply the same political end, and the differences between them are questions of expediency rather than of principle. The agitation for the union of Eistern Boumelia with Bulgaria is still maintained. But the attitude of the great powers, especially of England, is not favorable to any such project. Lord Beaoonsfield will not now recede from tbe position he so energetically adopted and defended at Berlin. There have been many rumours during the month as to a conference of ambassadors which it was proposed to hold for the settlement of questions still in dispute, but it is now asserted that they have had no foundation beyond the uncertainty of the situation. Early in the year the Bussian Government called attention to the difficulties encountered by the International Commissioners in dealing with matters of detail. Lord Salisbury, if the despatch published in Vienna is to be trusted, replied sharply, and insisted strongly on the difficulties Bussia had herself created by postponing the separation between the two provinces of Boumelia and Bulgaria, and especially by fusing their militia into one mass.

The crisis in Egypt has been for the present surmounted by the formation of a new Ministry. Prince Tewfik is President of the Council, Mr Rivers Wilson remains Minister of Finance, and M. de Blignieres Minister of Pnblio Works. The Khedive, not content with tbe position to whioh he had been relegated, is to " participate in the direction of affairs." It was intimated to him. that the British and French Governments did not absolutely insist upon the, inclusion of Nnbar Pasha in the Cabinet, but that if he were excluded the Khedive would be held responsible for the maintenance of tranquility—a responsibility which he but too gladly accepted.