SULTAN'S ABJECT APPEAL TO THE CZAR.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11660, 13 August 1903, Page 5

SULTAN'S ABJECT APPEAL TO THE CZAR.

IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY MR BALFOUR. THE SCHEME OF REFORMS. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. CONSTANTINOPLE. Aupust 11. The Porte, almost panic-stricken, expressed iia deep regret at the murder of a Russian Consul. Tlie Sultan begged the Czar to be indulgent, promising to punish the guilty man with the utmost severity. Owing to the murder of M. Rostovosky, the Vali of Mona-stir and the chiefs of the gendarmerie and police in Salonika have been dismissed. LONDON, August 11. At the report stage of the Diplomatic and Consular Services vote, Mr A. J. Balfour, the Premier, declared that the insurrectionary bands formed one of the chief obstacles to the success of the modest Austro-Russian plan of reform, which it was the duty of i_urope to support, as long as they were convinced that those Powers were directed by no ambitious spirit. The balance of criminality lay rather with tho revolutionary bands than the Turkish troops, and Britain would do her utmost to urge the Porte to keep the troops in hand. The Porte was keenly alive to the political necessity of repressing military excesses. Tlie task was difficult, as the revolutionary bands deliberately avowed that their object, at whatever cost to the general peace, was to make the condition of Macedonia so intolerable that there must be some intervention on the part of Austria or Russia or both. That was not the policy Great Britain desired to foster. What they desired to do was to aid Austria and Russia in introducing the elementary principles of sound government as the best plan of dealing in the immediate future with the deep-seated evils in the Balkans.