New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5033, 11 May 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1877.

The news received by telegram from London last evening (which was issued in the form of an “Extra” from the office of this paper immediately upon its receipt) places us definitely in possession of the exact views of the British Government in the present crisis. They are precisely those which, from a consideration of the situation and a careful study of Home opinion as expressed] in the newspapers, have been conjectured in the colony. Whilst holding to the opinion expressed in Lord Derby's despatch to Prince Goktchakoff, that the present war is a violation by Russia of the Treaty of 1856, England will not interfere unless the keys of the Bosphorus are endangered by an attack upon Constantinople. In view of complications which may arise outside Turkey, England will protect the Suez Canal and English interests in Egypt, and will, in the case of Turkey herself, step in at the critical moment to prevent the Bosphorus and Dardanelles being subjected to the will of Russia. In this last step, and indeed in the others, England will act quite as much in European interests as in her own. As a good deal of stress has of late been laid on the treaty obligations of 1856 and their subsequent revision, it may be of interest to our readers to point out exactly how the matter stands. We find then that by the seventh article of the General Treaty, signed at Paris on the 30th of March, 1855, the Queen of England, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of the French, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Sardinia, “engage, each on his part, to respect the independence and the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, guarantee in common the strict observance of that engagement, and will in consequence consider any act' tending to its violation as a question of general interest.” By this clause each of the contracting Powers is bound for itself to respect the independence and the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, and ip common with the other Powers to take care that this independence and territorial integrity be not attacked from without; and to consider any act which threatens this independence, or the territoral integrity, as “a question of general interest.” By a second treaty, signed at Paris on the 15th of April, 1876,, England undertook, in concert with Austria and France, to guarantee “ jointly and severally” the independence and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, to consider any infractions of the Treaty of the 30th March as casus belli, and in the event of any such infraction to come to an understanding with the. Porte as to the measures that will have become necessary; and without delay to determine, in concert with France and Austria, the employment of her and their military and naval forces. Of course, under the circumstances which have brought about the present conflict, the blame which justly attaches to Turkey for the disgraceful manner in which she has misgoverned her subjects and the cruelties she has perpetrated, England and other Powers may feel, and do feel, a reluctance to come to her assistance at present; but this does not take away from the fact that Russia is attacking her, in violation of a treaty, for purely selfish motives. It is apparent then that whilst England may decline to, act at present, she is nevertheless at perfect liberty to do so at any moment, and that with justice and the general interests of Europe on her side.