Page:The promises of Turkey.djvu/19

15 "the majority in the Chamber will be composed of Mussulmans; (2.) That decisions can only be made by a majority of votes; and (3.) That all decisions will be submitted to the Upper House, the members of which will be nominated by the Government, and selected exclusively from among the high Mussulman functionaries. Thus, we see, the divine order will be faithfully assured and executed.'"

Such candour leads us by irresistible impulse to side with the Conference in the opinion that the promises of Turkey cannot be accepted without guarantees "to ensure the loyal and complete application" (I am quoting the words of the too hastily rejected Berlin Memorandum) "of the measures agreed upon between the Powers and the Porte." Had the British Ministers been as wise in May as they were in December; had they seen in May as they did in December, the need for guarantees, how much better would it have been for the peace of Europe and the interests of this country—those special objects of their regard! They and those who sympathised with them have been beguiled by the promises of Turkey. Was there ever a more grotesque piece of fooling than that played by Midhat Pasha upon the Special Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, who on February 2nd flashed to London intelligence that Midhat, "personally conversed" with, had stated that "twenty-one shorthand writers were being collected to report the speeches" in the new Turkish Parliament! There is a disposition to credulity which blinds the judgment of men, but that is not the condition of the people of this country. They know that, by their acceptance of pledges at the close of the war which they waged to preserve Turkey from Russian conquest, they are not free from definite and real obligation with reference to those most unhappy people, some of whom were victims of the Bulgarian horrors, and they are profoundly conscious that, whatsoever may be their duty in regard to those people, they would be guilty of hypocrisy if, when liberty, and life, and honour, are at stake, they bade all men be content with the promises of Turkey.