TERMINATION OF THE BERLIN CONFERENCE.

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

TERMINATION OF THE BERLIN CONFERENCE.

. (From she Home News, July 18.) The Congress is over, the Treafcv is signed, England has occupied Cyprus, and assumed a protectorate of Asia Minor, Lord Beaoousfield has returned in triumph to Loudon, hailed by an admiring country as peacemaker of Europe. Indeed, the whole of the Prime Minister’s journey from Berlin seems to have been metaphorically strewn, with flowers. He left the German' capital amid the cheers of the populace. When he arrived at Calais he was met with the jnbilant notes of “ See the Conquering Hero Comes,” played by the band of Mr. Sanger, the circus proprietor, who happened to bo fulfilling an engagement iu the town. On reaching Dover he was presented with congratulatory addresses by Conservative, associations, and with thunders of applause by enthusiastic crowds, The culminating point in the series of brilliant ovations was reached at Charing-cross/ The station was decked out with flowers and flags. A select contingent of the English , aristocracy was waiting on the platform. Tens of thousands of spectators of both sexes were collected in earnest expectation outside. The train drew up punctually to the moment, 4,45, and the Prime Minister, having shaken hands with as many of the brilliant company as was practicable, entered the carriage that was waiting, together with Lord Salisbury and Lady Salisbury, and drove to Whitehall. The street was lined on either side with a well-dressed and most demonstrative multitude. As the Prime Minister passe the Golden Cross Hotel he was literally overwhelmed with the boquets thrown into the carriage. The weather was glorious and the scene was brilliant and memorable. No monarch could have received a more impressively unanimous welcome “ We bring you peace; I hope it is a permanent one ; at least we have brought it you with honor.” Such were the words which Lord Beaconsfield addressed to the dense mass of humanity, which declined to desist from cheering when Lord Beaconsfied became invisible from the window of his house. Tonight, July 18, both Lord Beaconsfield and his fellow Plenipotentiary, Lord Salisbury, will make statements in the House of Lords, which it may be confidently expected will throw a furthei light both upon the Treaty of Berlin and the English Convention with Turkey. Meanwhile the full text alike of the Treaty and the Convention is published. The former was signed with much pomp and ceremony on Saturday, July 13, exactly a month after the Congress commenced its labors. A banquet and speeches commemorated the event. Lord Beaconsfield and Prince Gortsehakoff were neither of them present. Prince Bismarck immediately after the signature, expressed a firm hope that the European understanding will, ‘‘with the aid of God, prove durable," and tbo Crown Prince at the banquet said “ The understanding which has just been established will prove a fresh guarantee for the peace and welfare of the world." The Treaty itself contains little which newspaper despatches from Berlin have not anticipated. Iloumania, and Servia, formerly tributary States, and Montenegro, which never acknowledged any fealty to the Sultan, are declared independent, Iloumania receiving territorial equivalents for the retrocession of Bessarabia, Servia receiving a considerable territorial increase, and Montenegro getting the port of Antivari on the Adriatic. It is further stipulated that religions disabilities shall not exist in any of these three States. Herzegovina and Bosnia are unconditionally surrendered to Austria. Bulgaria is to extend from the Danube to the Balkans, is to bo an autonomous and tributary Principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan, is to have a Christian Governor—elected by the people, with the approval of the Porte and the European Powers —a national militia, representative Government, perfect religious equality, is to pay a fixed tribute to the Porte, and like Sef da and Montenegro, but unlike Roumania. Bosnia, and Herzegovina, is to pay part of the Turkish debt. Ail the Ottoman troops are to be withdrawn, all the fortresses razed, and for nine months Bulgaria will bo in the hands a Russian Commission for the purpose of making the necessary measures preparatory to the establishment of the new Government. South of the Balkans, Roumelja will be assimilated to the condition of Servia before the with-, drawal of the Turkish troops from Belgrade eleven years ago. She. will be a State tributary to the Porto, ruled by . a Christian Governor-General appoiuted by the Sultan and the Great Powers, who will hold office for five years. Order will be kept by a native gendarmerie and a local militia, but the Sultan will have the right to raise fortifications and keep troops on the frontier, as well.as to send in Turkish troops on the application of the governor. As regards Greece, the Treaty only recommends generosity to the Porte in dealing with the Hellenic Kingdom, and exacts from the Porte a promise that it will apply to Crete the administration framed in 1868. In Asia Minor the Czar obtains Kars, Ardahan, and Butoum, which last he pledges himself only to hold as a commercial station, giving back the Alashgoed_ Valley and Bayazid to Turkey. The Armenians receive certain administrative safeguards, and the rules for the navigation of the Straits remain unaltered.