A NEW BRITISH DEPENDENCY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5439, 2 September 1878, Page 3

A NEW BRITISH DEPENDENCY.

(From the Home News, 18th July.)

The responsibilities of English Empire have been increased by tho annexation of an island in the Levant, and there is a fair chance of Asia Minor and Syria becoming something very like provinces of Great Britain. It is true that our administration of Cyprus and our concessions in Asia Minor are conditional. If Russia chooses to restore Kars and Ardahan to the Turks, and to forego all interest in Batoum, then England will withdraw from Cyprus, and having nothing more to do with the Asiatic frontier of the Ottoman Empire. Sir Garnet Wolseley has gone as first Governor to tho Island off whoso shores Aphrodite rose from the foam, where the mythical birthday of Aphrodite is still observed by the celebration on it of the great annual fair of the island, and England has agreed to protect the Turks in Asia Minor from any further Russian aggres eion on definite conditions. First, Cyprus is to be restored to the Porte if Russia restores to the Porte any of the Ottoman strongholds in the Eastern portion of the Turkish Empire which it now holds. Secondly, the assurance which England has given Turkey that she will guarantee her against farther Russian aggression is only to be valid in the event of Turkey executing reforms in the government of her Asiatic subjects, whence it would follow that, should Turkey fail again, as she has so often done, to redeem her solemn promises of improvement, Russia would be free to overrun Asia Minor at discretion. All these contingencies are so remotely improbable that for practical purposes they may be considered impossible. The commercial and political reasons which make it desirable in Russian eyes for Batoum to form part of the dominions of the Czar will be as practically operative a century hence as they are to-day. And there is another way of looking at it. Russia would ptobably say that England makes it incumbent on her to hold Batoum in perpetuity by seizing on Cyprus. Certainly, it is not to be supposed that, after wo have organised a Government for Cyprus, we should find it convenient to retire at a. moment’s, or a year’s, or ten years’ notice. We shall continue to hold Cyprus as wo hold Gibraltar. Similarly, as regards Asia Minor, England has guaranteed tho Turks against any further attacks in this fertile region, not through motives of disinterested friendship for the Mussulman, but because she believes it necessary to establish and demonstrate her power in Asia Minor as a check to Russia, and for tho sake of the moral as well as strategical influence which this step may have upon her Indian subjects. Now, these considerations cannot bo affected by the treatment »f the peoples of Asia Minor .by the Turkish Pashas. Therefore, tho inevitable conclusion is that we shall iu our own interests be compelled to substitute for a mere protectorate of Asia Minor something very like an English administration of Asia Minor.

It is said that for tho privileges which wo shall henceforward enjoy in Cyprus, we are to pay the Porte £IOO,OOO a year. Probably, if such a payment is to be made, it is to liberate England from the imputation of assisting in the spoliation of tho Empire of the Side Man. But such a device will not do away with tho fact that what has been accomplished by tho European Plenipotentaries at Berlin is nothing moro nor less than the partition of the Turkish Empire, Austria has Bosnia and Herzegovina ; Eussia has Bulgaria, north of tho Balkans, to eay nothing of Sophia and Varna

on the south. Russia also has Batonm, Ardaban, and Kars. England has Cyprus, and will practically have, or may at any moment have, Syria and Asia Minor. Ail tins may be for the good of the Ottoman Power, but the fact remain, that the policy which has been enforced is the policy which Lord Beaoonsfiold declared.he would never permit—a policy .if partition. ■ The question is- whether the measure mav or may not be destined to produce other consequences than those which are .anticipated. In Italy and in Prance it is quite clear that the greatest dissatisfaction exi-ts with what England has done. As regards • Germany, Austria, and Russia, the sentiment is one of acquiescence or approval—as it might naturally be expected to he, seeing that the policy of which England has made herself the instrument is the very policy on which tho three Emperors have from the first been credited with being bent. England posed before Europe as tho champion of the sanctity of international law and tho asaerter of the principle that when a treaty which had.been sealed by the. collective decision of Europe was concerned, no nation or nations could by secret agreement among themselves abrogate a single clause of it. But tlie English occupation of Cyprus is the culminating triumph of that secret agreement policy which a few months ago her Majesty’s Ministers so emphatically repudiated. The Anglo-Turkisb Convention is the natural sequel of the Anglo-Rnasian Convention, and probably of an Anglo-Austrian Convention as well. At the same time, whon Prance and Italy bring this reproach against England, and taunt her with violating the integrity of the Turkish Empire in contradiction .of the terms of the Treaties of 1831, it must be remembered that the mouths of both these Powers are practically closed, and that up to the present moment neither Prance nor Italy has shown any sign of an intention practically to support the integrity of tho Empire of the Osmanlis. It is move interesting to turn from the possible effects which tho addition of Cyprus to our possessions will have on the councils of Europe, and from any forecast of the seeds of jealousy and distrust which it may sow throughout the Continent, to the opportunities which it plainly presents to England. It appears that the occupying force will amount in round numbers to 10,000 men, and will consist of tbs Indian troops now at Malta and three British battalions This will be highly acceptable news to the gentleman of the army. It also appears that though, technically speaking, there is no harbor, there are very fair anchorages where troops mav be landed with ease. About the first thing which it will be deemed desirable to do will be to furnish Cyprus with convenient artificial harborage, and for this purpose we shall speedily hear of companies being formed. Cyprus, in fact, is destined to become, not only the opening for many careers, military and civil, bnt the fertile field of much commercial speculation. And then there is the wider field of Asia Minor. What an opportunity there for English ability and English money ! The number of the unemployed youths in our upper classes increases daily. Imagine the popularity of an English Civil Service of Asia Minor, on the Indian model, to say nothing of a. series of Ada Minor Staff Corps. These things are not chimeras ; we may speedily find them actualities. New outlets were wanted for British brains, pluck, and cash. It seems as if they had been found. But the process of finding them, splendid as it has been, involves an entire revolution in the foreign policy of England. Cyprus has been won by the menace of the sword. Sir Garnet Wolseiey goes there as the representative of a military nation -and a military nation with all the burdens and taxes of a military nation, is apparently what we must henceforth be.