CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11580, 16 May 1898, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

The fragments published in pur cablegrams this morning from the speeches delivered by Lord Salisbury

jhancth ABED BBITAIN.

and Mr Chamberlain on Friday evening will give additional interest to an article published in the “Nineteenth Century ” last month from the pen of 31. Pressense. the editor of the Paris “ Temps,” who is an acknowledged authority on the French Colonial policy in West Africa. M. Pressense, after making a general review of the present situation, points out some of the changes that have taken place during the past decade. Sc long as France and Britain were satisfied with single factories on the coast, which were need as marts and warehouses for the exchange of the produce of the back country and of the goods from outside, they were in little danger of quarrelling about the rich territories that lay at the back of these isolated stations. But the day came when these Powers realised what broad prospects of commerce and empire the conquest of the inner land would open to them, and since that time there have ;hecn constant bickerings over the possession of the country. M. Pressense thinks that these might be ended once and ■lor all, if the two Powers would meet in friendly conference with a determination toavoid the scandal and the calamity of War. Why, he asks, should there not he a give and lake ? “France would probably have to yield Boussa, other points too; England would have to look it the Chartered Company and Gambia, not to speak of Sierra Leone, could not offer some means of exchange. Why should wo not try ? AH the more that events seem to force us to such a consummation. Things everywhere are entangling, embroiling themselves. Questions are growing one from the other. The Western African problem is only one among many. After the Eastern question, we have now to deal with the Far Eastern question.” The editor of the “ Temps ” maintains that such an arrangement would be readily accepted by the French Government and people. “Far from us,” he writes, “the guilty, the criminal idea of provoking, or even suffering, an irreparable conflict to happen between two Powers equally necessary to civilisation, and of which the good understanding is the greatest boon, the disagreement the greatest calamity, for the progress of the world.” The London newspapers do not appear to have received M. Pressense’s suggestion with much favour. Some of them were offended by its disparaging allusions to Mr Chamberlain—who is very much out of favour just now with our foreign critics—and others were displeased by its assumption that France has a better right than Great Britain “to several of the. tracts of country in dispute j hut we are sure the British public will protest as strongly as the distinguished French journalist has done against the acceptance of the shameful conclusion that in order to make a new map of the world we must paint its border lines in blood.

In the year 1453 Mo hammed 11. made himself master of Constantinople, and, amongst other portions

the itßerraEBCTION OB' GREECE,

of the Eastern Empire, of Greece proper. .The islands of the ißgean Sea and of the Eastern Mediterranean passed into Turkish hands one after another, Crete falling into their power in 1669. About 1700, the Venetians succeeded in wresting back the Peloponnese, but lost it again in 1715. From that day to this the history of Greece has been a history of never-ending revolt, of constant struggle against Turkish oppression and Turkish treachery. There is no nobler theme in all history than the “ Resurrection of Greece ” from that black night of barbarism into the glorious light of liberty, of the consciousness of itself as a nation. The paper that Mrs Grossmaun read before the Canterbury College Dialectic Society on Saturday night would have failed utterly in its object, if it had not recognised the heroic nature of this revival; and it would have been weak indeed if it had not drawn a noble inspiration from such a theme. The darkest hour is ever that before the dawn, and there is no blacker record of cruelty and treachery than the history of Turkish rule in Greece during the latter portion of the eighteenth century. The mountainous nature of the country has always prevented the various tribes from uniting, and practically the only bond the tribes have had has. been that of a common religion. But’ the rule of the Turks allowed many of the Greek citizens to become wealthy, because it has always been the function of races subject to the Sultan to provide the means of sustenance to the masters, and with comparative wealth came comparative leisure. Thus it was that certain of the Greeks had time to reflect on the ancient glory of the race, and with the beginning of the century there came a revival of learning and of culture at Athena. With the common people there remained a memory of massacre after massacre, and rich and poor were thns united in one common cause, with the common hope of liberty for Greece ; the rich inspired by the deeds of the mighty dead, the poor by a bitter hatred of their oppressors.

A NEW NATION.

In 1821 the standard of the Cross was raised in Greece, and the peasants

flocked to the sacred Within a few weeks Morea was in revolt, and a great army of artisans and goat - herds, of Klephts, of brigands and of pirates was ready to do battle for Hellas. A war of ten years left the country a scone of desolation. There is no need to enter into a description of this war, one of the most bloody of modern history, but there is one aspect that cannot bo passed over lightly. It is to the everlasting discredit of European nations that, while most of them maintained a masterly inaction, two at least did not hesitate to help the Turks in their barbarous massacres. The army of Turkey was well trained and accustomed to fighting; it was to tho miserable peasant force of Greece as fifty to one in numbers, yet the Greeks were bound to conquer. In Europe the “Holy Alliance " of Eussia, Prussia and Austria set its face against revolution or rebellion, and poor Greece had the active force of three nations of Europe and tho moral force of the others against her in her hour of trouble. Yet in each country there was a small band of men who could not standby to see the country of Socrates, of Leonidas, of Sappho, of Euripides, of Pindar —in a word, of tho noblest band of singers and philosophers that ever boast—trodden under foot

by a race of barbarians. It is to Canning, and to Canning alone, that England owes her omission from the “ black list ” of nations. The part played by Byron was noble, in spite of the touch of melodrama, and his example was of greater nse than his sword, but the credit of the European interference at this time was undoubtedly due to Canning. By 1850 then Greece was once more conscious of herself as a nation, and she is even now preparing to stand alone as among the Great Powers of Europe. The wisdom of her own rulers since 1830 has afforded a striking contrast to the blundering policy of the Powers. The constitution set up by the natives was a model one ; it consisted of a limited monarchy ; it recognised freedom of citizenship and trial by jury; and it contained liberal provision for municipal government. The Powers, on the other hand, set np/ as the first king a child of seventeen, to rule a country that needed the firmest of firm hands. The second attempt was not much better, and the most that can bo said for either of the Georges is that they were “amiable.” Moreover, the Powers, in “ arranging ” Greek finances, have kept Greece in a state of virtual bankruptcy. The rest of Greek history is too recent to need recital, but enough has been written to show that Greece has, in truth, suffered death and resurrection, and there remains now but to express the hope that her new life will bo as glorious as that of “ Grsecia antiqua.”