THE LARIUM MINES DISPUTE.

Evening Star, Issue 3091, 15 January 1873, Page 3

THE LARIUM MINES DISPUTE.

We have at last stumbled over some intelligible particulars regarding this affair, which I y the telegrams appears likely to cause a rupture between Italy and France and Greece. According to the French and Italian version, it is a case of sheer illiberal jealousy on the part of Greece. The latter says that the French and Italians have accumulated capital of from L 20,0 0,()()>) to L 40.000.000 out of a mining establishment in which they originally invested sums not exceeding I 432, only purchased mines which were by no means uusu-pected or unknown. They had, however, been forsaken as exhausted and unproductive for centuries, and the native would in all probability have trodden for ever over the scoria and d/diris, without even dreaming that he had what might amount to his King’s and his Kingdom’s ransom under his feet. The foreign spjculators, MM. Roux and Serpieri. who bought the old mines as mere waste ground, had to satisfy, first, the demands of the local authorities ; then, the claims of the Central Government ; and, lastly, had again and again to compound wi hj the brigand chiefs who constitute % State within the State. But, when they were allowed to work in peace, they used their advantage to such good purpose that in Ic s than the nine years corresponding with King George’s reign, they bad given employment to thousands of native and foreign workmen, attracted an extensive trade to what was once an uninhabited spot, constructed roads, tramways, and even a railway, and, in short brought that solitary and barren district to a degree of prosperity with which the other provinces of the kingdom were hardly familiar. The people and Government of Greece could not, however, resign themselves to the fact that where they had thought that “nothing eou'd he made out of nothing,” strangers should have been able to accumulate a capital large enough, as they thought, to cover the whole public debt of the more than ha'f bankrupt kingdom. The thing was not to be borne, though it was not easy to see how it could 1)3 mended. No Haw could be found in the strangers’ contract, nor could it be denied that what enriched them had turned out equally to the benefit of a large number of the naive population and of the Government itself. As the lamb could easily disprove the charge which the wolf brought against himself, he was easily convicted of the offence imputed to his father before he was born. As the strangers were amenable to no existing law. a new law was voted, to which a retroactive force was given. By this enactment all the scoria and drhris of old mines were claimed as State property, and, on that pretext, the Laurinm Mines Company were taxed to the amount of LBO.OOO as arrears due for the eight years since they began work—that is, eight years before the law was made, Ihe company, unable to resist tho extortion, offered to sell their property to the Government for 100,000 Ihe offer was accepted, but when the. contract had to be brought before the Chamber for approval, it was found that the Greek Representatives would never buy, even at so low a price, what they valued so very highly, but what they apparent/ fancied they could seize without payment;andthematterwas thus left in abeyance, the company protesting against the I 80,000 tax, and the Government equally refusing either to release the company or to redeem the property on the terms agreed upon. The matter is one which any Court of Law or Equity ought to be able easily to settle. But the two States which stand up for the interests of the Company France and Italy—are unwilling to allow the matter to be brought before the Greek tribunals, urging, very reasonably, that, after the wild agffatiqn tP wh ch the ejifference has given rise in tlie country—repeatedly even leading to Ministerial crises—the affair must be considered to have assumed a political character On the other hand, the Government of King Goarge, for their part, will not consent to International arbitration in a case so de cidedly, in their opinion, lying within the exclusive competence of their own Courts of Law.