THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER IS, ISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9976, 13 November 1895, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER IS, ISM.

The rapid and alarming fall in the Bourses of Europe is the most significant intimation that we have of the Eastern trouble having assumed a dangerous form, Incidents have been accumulating, making the position from week to week more complicated —the pressure of the Powers on the Porte, accompanied by the continuance and the increase of the disturbances and massacres in Armenia, and the insurrectionary movements in Constantinople itself—all indicating an aggravation of the critical situation. Bub a panic on the Bourse is the danger-signal of Europe, and it has been displayed in suoh a manner as to leave little doubt that those who are watching, and know most of what is proceeding, are in full sight of trouble. In London, Paris, and Vienna, the alarm as thus indicated exhibits varying inten* sity, while in Constantinople the suspension of the Ottoman Bank shows that there the feeling has reached a climax. It is unnecessary to say that the general alarm is not connected with the mere fact that Turkey is in a disturbed state, but is concerned rather with the ulterior consequences that are looming up. Everything seems to indicate that the Turkish power is approaching dissolution. Its existence has been an artificial one for a century past, and no one has ever doubted that when the props by which it was maintained for interests other than its own, were knocked away, the power of the Moslem would topple over. Unhappily it has also been recognised as a fact that when ever that incident should occur, trouble was sure to arise in the settlement, of the partition of Moslem territory, and that the fall of Turkey would be the signal for a general

scramble. Events now are running rapidly m . that direction, and the utterly demoralised and almost chaotic condition of 'the Turkish empire itself at the present hour, does nob even afford an excuse for staving off the catastrophe.

It will have been noticed recently that the members of the Triple Alliance Germany, Austria, and Italywhich had been standing aloof while England, Russia, and France were exercising joint pressure on the- Porte, have shown their appreciation of the importance of the approaching situation by putting in a claim to be recognised in the settlement of the affairs ot Turkey. But possibly more Significant than this is one of the more recent intimations that France had indicated her intention of seizing Alexandria, a port on the Syrian coast, as guarantee for the performance by Turkey of an improbable thing, namely, the sending to France the head of the Governor of Diarbekar in Kurdistan. As France has always had pretensions iu relation to Syria, this little incident, presumably arising from deep indignation against the author of the massacre, seems intended as the securing of a footing in the country, and the French squadron established at Alexandretta seems a set-oil to the occupancy by England of the island of Cyprus, which is in the oiling over against the port which is to be seized by the French. Incidents now occurring there are to be viewed rather in the light of what is coming after thebreak-up of the Moslem power, than a3 part of the demonstration now being made against Turkey ; ' and this occupation of Alexandretta by France seems to promise to become an important factor in the coming trouble. On the other hand the entrance of Russia into Armenian territory seems to be a necessity arising out of the present complications, in the inability of Turkey to suppress the outbreak there, and the internecine slaughter taking place between the Armenian insurgents and their oppressors. The request from the Sultan to England to assist him in suppressing the Young Turkish Party, and the troubles generally in the capital, seem to point to England occupying that point of vantage; and with France in Syria, Russia in Asia Minor, and England in Stamboul, we have probably the outlines of the situation as it will first present itself on the dissolution of the Moslem Power.

That any such disposition of j affairs as this may imply would solve the Eastern trouble is not to be expected. And apart from the pretensions or interests of the members of the Triple Alliance, the probabilities seem to be that not one of the three Powers would assent to permanent occupation by another in anyone of these cases. The questions of Egypt, of Tripoli, of Tunis even, each of them owning suzerainty to the Porte, are full of debate in the light of a general distribution ; and from the sympathies or interests at present showing, it is not unlikely that England will find herself in association with the Triple Alliance, as against the claims of .Russia and France. All this may be travelling too fast, but events are shaping themselves with singular rapidity; and the indications seem to point to a position in Turkish affairs no longer endurable, which may be taken as justification for rapid movements 011 the part of some of the Powers, in order to forestall events that are clearly inevitable at no distant date,