THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 613, 20 April 1878, Page 2

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

The Broad Arrow of the 16th February writes :—" Russia enters the Conference fully armed, with her guns loaded and her swords ground, and, above all, with the material guarantee of the actual possession of Turkey ; and yet there are Englishmen imbecile enough to talk of the bad taste of England also arming herself for the Conference. All Europe, Except England, is armed—armed to the teeth—and it is time that all of us, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, should awaken to the suicidal folly of allowing the interests of talk and party to rule England in the hour of danger. The best inen of all politics are now agreed-on this point; Earl Fortescue. a Whig, says, ' First I am an Englishman, next a Liberal.' Mr. Joseph Co wen, a Radical, says, 'What hope can English Radicals have for freedom at the hands of Russian despotism ?' Even Lord Hartington, the Liberal loader, refuses to record his vote against the credit of six millions : and Mr. Gladstone, whose religious 7.enl for the Eastern Christian Church has bewildered his otherwiscEnglishsympathies, and overstrained his expectant opposition to Government policy, now says, ' I will provoke my enemy no more.' We have now, therefore, little else to do th,i7i to arm—arm by sea and arm by land—no( as a make-weight, not by way of demonstration, not to overawe, for that idea is preposterous but to strike strike quickly and hard, and continuously, remembering that, as Lord Beaconsliold said, England is capable of hearing the strain of move than 0110 campaign. If Russia enters Constantinople so much the better ; the reaction will be. quicker and moi'O effective than if it were possible f.n her to moderate in the seeming, and only seeming, hour of her success and triumph."