THE PORTE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7449, 1 October 1895, Page 3

THE PORTE.

London, Sept. 29. Seventeen British warships are now assembled at Lemnos, in the /Egean Sea. The Porte is alarmed at this action on the part of the Imperial Government. An explanation of the Sultan's see-sawing about Armenia is given in the Quarterly Review. The explanation amounts to this, that to aak the Sultan to place a Christian in oharge of Armenia would be like asking the Pope to confer a cardinal's hat upon a Unitarian. He simply cannot do. it. It cannot be said that tbe comparison strikes us with any force. There was a Pope who conferred a cardinal's hat upon the Abbe* Dnbois, time of the French Regency, and the Abbe* Dnbois was a good deal worse than a Unitarian. However, the important thing is that the Quarterly Review, which is thought to express more nearly than any other English periodical the ideas of Lord Salisbury, is convinced that the Sultan won't give way and can't give way ; also that he must be made to give way. The trouble is that the three Powers whose business it will be to make him— England, France, Russia— are very capable of quarrelling amongst themselves in the process. If only they would •take advice J An idea , is that the three Powers should hold a kind of auction knockout. Russia might have Constantinople ; France should get Egypt and the Mediterranean littoral, south side, all the way to the Straits of Gibraltar. In return for these handsome concessions we should ask a free band in Central Africa, the transfer of the shadowy French protectorate over Madagascar, the cession of Tonkin, Hew Caledonia, and Tahiti. Our list is the longest but intrinsically the least valuable. On this scheme civilisation would be a good deal safer than now and the human race a good deal happier. It is not really difficult to settle these matters once you get outside the vicious circle of the diplomatists and the Statesmen.