THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 17

THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES.

RUSSIA WARNS THE PORTE THEY CANNOT BE REPEATED,

News came to hand by cable yesterday that Abdullah Pasha, the Governor of Crete, has relieved the town of Yamos, which was lately besieged by the insurgent islanders. Russia has cautioned the Porte that the massacres in Armenia must not be repeated.

Tho abandonment of the Armenians to their fate is a case where the exigencies of polities were superior to the claims of Christian humanity. The danger which threatened a great disturbance of the peace of the world has passed for the present. But this is only the cowardly postponement of what must come—the utter breaking up of the Turkish power in Europe. Lord Salisbury did not consider it expedient to begin the general scramble for the possessions of the sick man, by ordering the British fleet to rendezvous off the Golden Horn, where it would certainly have been met by tho Russian Black Sea fleet, entering the Bosphorus from tho other end. After a period of considerable perturbation, accentuated by massacres in tho capital, in Trebizond, and various centres of population in Asia Minor, an agreement was arrived at by

which the Sultan was to accept, on paper, the proposals of tho Powers. Russia, Franco and England wero to declare their willingness to receivo this paper submission as a. settlement of their demands, and everything is to go on just the same as before. That, in plain English, seems to bo tho sum and substance of the outcome of the diplomatic intervention on behalf of tho Armenians. Mr Gladstoneexpressed very freoly in a letter to Madame Novikoff his disgust at tho spectacle with which this elaborate comedy inspired him. He wrote:—

" I see in mind that wretched Sulian, whom God has given as a curse to mankind, waving his flag in triumph, and the adversaries at his feet are Russia, France and England. As to the division of the shame among them I care little. Enough that I hope my own country will (for its good) be made conscious and exhibited to the world for its own full share, whatever that may bo. May God in His mercy send a speedy end to the (governing) Turk and all ins doings ; as I said when I could say, and even sometimes do, so I say in my political decrepitude or doath."

This is a good comprehensive damn from tho G.0.M., but, unfortunately, like all tho other anathemas that have been hurled Eastward, it produced no effect. 'The situation in the East remains to-day as yesterday, tho same. Tho Imperial decree by which tho reforms demanded by the Powers are formally paraded is not worth while referring to. It is merely one piece of waste paper tho more added to the haystack of abortive "reforms" with which tho Sultan has time and again fobbed off tho demands of Europe for an improvement in his internal administration. No real reform in Turkey is possible under tho present state of affairs there, and hence, if Russia insists on her " caution," tho days of tho " Sick Man " in Europe are probably numbered.