The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5255, 26 January 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1878.

A telegram which was received a few days back, announcing that Russia had demanded as one of the conditions of peace that the warships of the Czar alone should have the free right of navigation of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, was received with some degree of incredulity. However, from the English files received by the mail, it appears that there may have been some foundation for the statement. The following from the Daily News will show that the demand was at least hinted at a couple of months a<r o ;—“lt has. been known almost from the beginning of the war that the Russian Government desired to propose some modification of existing treaties on this subject; but hitherto its character has not been defined. The ‘free passage of the Straits’ has been discussed ainbngst us hitherto as implying that ships of war of all nations at peace with Turkey may pass freely to and fro between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, and this is the natural sense of the expression. But a Russian writer of no special authority, whether - official- or political, Prince Wassiltchikoff, has just propounded ai new interpretation of the phrase. According to, him the Black Sea belongs exclusively to Russia and Turkey, and therefore' they alone should have the right of entrance for ships of war. ‘The navies of Powers which have no possessions in the Black Sea can have no reason to pass through the Straits except, for the purposes of attack and: invasion.’ This is the latest illustration of the certainty with which , an exaggerated national sentiment betrays its subject to folly. Of course no one will hold the Russian Government re-

sponsible '{for nonsense of this'kind.” If the cablegrams are correct, andvßeuter generally is reliable) however nonsensical the demands may bp Rpssiahas pufc-£herh forward. That; they will, .be listened,'to for a moment by the other naval Powers., of Europe no for a'rnornent believe. As' our contemporary puts .it, if Russia proposes any changes in existingtreaties which would give'her-'the'right to send warships from the,. .Black, Sea,into, the Mediterranean, she must bo prepared to admit the right of other Powers, to send their ships into the Black Sea. It is generally regarded that one of the results of the present struggle will be that Russia -will have free passage for her warships through the Straits of Constantinople and the Hellespont, but that the same right will not be denied any other Power. Now that Adriariople has fallen, and' that it is urged on all sides that the time has come 1 when' Russia can dictate her own terms of peace as far as Turkey is concerned, people are naturally exercised as to what will be the probable conditions of peace. The Daily News, perhaps the best-informed journal in England on the subject, states that the Russian Government will ask for no accession of territory in Europe, but that Turkish Armenia will be retained by Russia as a compensation for the enormous expenditure of life and money involved 1 by the war. The following from the paper we have alluded to will show the utter disregard of the lives of Christians which characterises the Turkish Government ;—“ Little was known about the country or the character of the Government, but the last seven months have greatly enlarged our knowledge of both. The Turkish Government which, for no compensating military advantage, has deliberately sacrificed the lives and property of the most industrious and peaceable of its subjects, the Christians of Armenia, by letting loose upon them hordes of Kurds and Circassians,, who have massacred them by thousands, has made it simply impossible for the friends of the Porte to urge that the voice of this country should be raised for the restoration of Ottoman authority in those piarts of |Asia where it has been overthrown. Were England able and willing to make- such a demand, we should he; responsible as a community for every massacre of the Christians which would certainly , follow -such a step.” There is a truly wonderful diversity of opinion in the London Press as to how far; British interests will bo affected by the; cession of Armenia to Russia. .The Telegraph,'vr\iidK is strongly anti-Russian, says';—“ Armenia, , which is practically Batoum and Kars,; touches , ourselves directly. Cession here nieaus for Russia the; reputation of complete victory over all ksia, while it would mean for us the loss of'a safe overland railway route to India ; the final gravitation of Persia to Russia; diminished influence in the Gulf, in the Arab and. frontier States ; and growing perils for Britain-in India and China.” The Saturday Review, which is also far from friendly •to Russia, however entertains widely different views from the -foregoing. It says that the strategic advantage of an occupation of the upper valley of the Euphrates for operations against India is unintelligible to ordinary minds. An invasion of India would bo undertaken, if at all,, by a much more practicable route, and Alexandropol would be as advantageous as a starting place for movements on the Persian. Gulf as Kars. The Spectator, one of the most intellectual and thoughtful journals in the world, ridicules the idea of British interests being affected by the retention of Armenia by Russia. ' It says : —“ The possession of Armenia by the Russians brings them no nearer the Persian Gulf than they are now - , and extension southward would bring them to the precise place where we could light them with least injury to India. It is through Egypt, not Armenia, that wo must, as a maritime Power, defend : lndia ; and it is in the fate of Egypt, and Egypt only, that our permanent and best ‘ interests,’ that is, our .right to remain a first-class Asiatic Power, governing without too much pressure on the population, are directly concerned. A war for Egypt is a war we could comprehend, but to replace one of the most hopeful of Christian races inhabiting a province on the Black Sea under the most oppressive of all existing despotisms, at a cost of some hundreds of millions sterling and half the British army, seems to ns the most villainous as well as the most childishly sentimental piece of quixotry ever seriously suggested.” Where there is such a conflict of opinion regarding British interests amongst such recognised authorities, it is no wonder that the English people have rather mixed ideas upon the subject, and that the Government hesitates to take any decided action. We will conclude by the following serious words from a London contemporary : “ No continental Power can be reckoned upon to resist the throwing open of the Dardanelles. To Germany, the strongest of them all, it is a matter of almost complete indifference; Austria is controlled by Germany; Italy is the ally of Germany ; France has already been crushed by Germany. .Thus we cannot avoid seeing that our real or supposed interests are more gravely imperilled than those of any other Power by the probable conditions of peace, and that in all human probability we shall have to defend these interests by and for ourselves. This is a view of the Eastern Question which grows more pressing every day ; and it is one which no Englishman who , cares for the welfare of our Empire can contemplate without deep uneasiness.”