The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1896. TURKEY AND ARMENIA.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 69, 18 September 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1896. TURKEY AND ARMENIA.

Affairs in Europe at the present time are not re assuring. The Ar menian horrors have raised a storm of indignation among the nations, which Hiust before it is quelled, end in the deposition of the bultan and the probable partition of Turkey. The Great Powers have ere this arrived at the knowledge that arguments, or entreaties are wasted on the " unspeakable Turk," whose peculiar religious faith, combined with a fanaticism unequalled in any other known race in the world, renders him perfectly callous to any sufferings he may inflict on others of a diifrirent creed. No treaties can bind him, because liis religion leaves it optional whether he shall keep faith, or the reverse, with "an unbeliever." Tbe jealousies of the nations are truly said to be the causes which have so far prevented England interfering on behalf of the Armenians No doubt her statesmen have been wise in keeping Great Britain out of a struggle in which she has nothing to gain, but in which she would be compelled, above any other of the Great Powers, to expend a vast amount of blood and treasure. A useless waste bringing neither honor nor profit, inflicting un told mif-pry on tens of thousands of her own industrious and law-abiding people. It was truly designated a crime the partition of Poland, but it has as truly been admitted to have been a political necessity made compulsory by the turbulence of the people of that unhappy country. So in the. ease of Turkey, its dismemberment would be a wrong to tbe nation ; but, as in the Crise of Poland, ii may be described as equally a necessity in order to preserve the peace of the world. Russia would g adly assist in the sub-division, for Constantinople would then become the property of that nation — an object aimed at ever since the days of Peter the Great. Many sensible men and statesmen will agree with Lord Brassey, who has expressed the opinion that it was a matter of no concern to Great Britain what Power was master at Constantinople. But, as the Sultan is tbe head of the Mahometan faith, and millions of Her Majesty's subjects in India look upon him as their spiritual ruler, England must exercise the greatest caution so as to avoid a religious outbreak ia that portion of the Empire, which is a probable contingency past experience jas taught her to expect when occasion offers for such a catastrophe. Besides, England is bound by the Treaty of Berlin to protect Turkey against Russia, and however indifferent the 'iurks may he to the observa iion of the conditions of treaties, they will not allow that indifference in \ others. From the covert opposition Russia is tuabiugto any schemes which have as their object the suppression of I disorder, it is only just to infer I

that Power is not unwilling to see a continuation of tbe troubles which must in the end be to its advantage. We can only hope that wisdom will guide the footsteps of the great statesmen of Europe who have in their hands the lives and destinies of so many hundreds of mil lions of people, and that prudence will suggest a means whereby law and order may be restored and maintained in Turkey and Armenia, without endangering the peace of the world.