GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY. THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 56, 30 January 1877, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY. THE EASTERN QUESTION.

. The result of the Eastern Conference was that the Porte declared his willingness to r make concessions and offer ample securities to the Powers, but unwaveringly refused to sanction the occupation of the Provinces by any troops whatever. They refused to consent to the occupation by English troops, upon which point the Turkish Ministry were confidentially approached, but by what power cannot be ascertained. Belgium refused to allow her troops to occupy, and a corps of a thousand troops of each nation represented on the Commission, as body-guards was suggested, but the Turkish Minister, at an interview with Lord Salisbury, refused to recognise an international commission. The Kussian Ambassador at the Conference read a telegram from Prince Gortschakoif positively instructing him not to discuss the Turkish counter proposal. The Marquis of Salisbury had an interview with Midhat Pasha, the Grand Vizier . After the rejection of the Conference's proposals. The Marquis addressed the Conference, warmly condemning the obstinacy of the Porte. y General Ignatieff asked, and obtained permission, for a Russian man-of-war to •enter the Bosphorus to convey him home. Lord Salisbury telegraphed for a steamer to convey him to Athens. AUSTRIA'S ATTITUDE. A despatch from Vienna to the Daily News states that the principal result of the .great Cabinet meeting there was the decision that special armament was not to be undertaken by Austria or Hungary, even in the event of a localised war between Russia and Turkey. London, January 4. The Queen has granted medals to the -officers and seamen of the Artie Expedition. It is stated that Captain Allen Young, who commanded the Pandora, will next spring attempt a north voyage ~*" in the same vessel. The Times despatch says the warlike feeling in Russia is decidedly decreasing. The enthusiasm was partly checked by the discovery of great deficiencies in the military stores, and the impression that Turkish preparations are so great that the force already mobilised in Russia is insufficient. Measures were taken for a levy of the reserves in Southern Russia. In the middle of December there were several gales throughout the United Kingdom. 120 vessels and 250 men were lost. On the Aberdeen coast 60 lives were lost. The shores of the Tyne are strewn for four miles with wrecks. There were great quantities of wrecks at Pentland. The fifth Dover pier was partially destroyed, .and nearly every town between Dover and Portsmouth was partially inundated. Furniture was washed out of the houses . On the steamer Prussian of the Allan line, a coal gas explosion blew out the lower deck, ten workmen being terribly mutilated.