The Turco-Greek question has not advanced visibly one step. The
Turks still refuse to accept arbitration, unless secured the possession of Janina,—which is nonsense, as Janina is the question at issue ; and the Sultan issues daily orders for the increase of the Army, and has created Hobart Pasha a Mushir or Marshal, with control of the whole marine organisation, 'civil as well as naval. On the other hand, M. Coumoundouros rejects arbitration, unless Janina is promised, alleging that, fail- lag this, there will be revolution in Greece. If the two principals can be trusted, war is inevitable, but the diplomatists have not renounced all hope. They know that the Sultan dreads, not Greece, but insurrection; that the Albanians have decided to strike for independence ; and that the Turkish army in Epirus Is in desperate straits for mat6riel and money. They know -also that the Greeks are seriously moved by the threat of expel- ling their countrymen from Turkey. They therefore hope that a compromise may he possible on the basis of the cession of Janina and the retention of Larissa, which is much less purely Greek. The Turkish counsels vacillate with every mood of the Sultan, but all circumstances considered, and especially his own dream of extending the Caliphate, whose authority he is stretch- ing in a noticeable way in Tunis, we should doubt if he will yield to anything short of visible force majeure. It will be injurious to 'Greece now to succeed without a battle, and especially to suc- ceed imperfectly. If she gains all, she may think there was nothing to fight for ; but if she yields on the Thessalian boundary, she will have compromised, rather than fight.
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