At daybreak on Wednesday the warships of the four protecting
Powers landed a party at Canea to remove the flagstaff on which the Greek flag had been flown for many days. The flagstaff was cut down before sumise, and therefore, we suppose, before the flag had been hauled up. Thus the landing-party avoided inflicting the humiliation of hruling down the flag itself. Lady Hester Stanhope truly said that sailors are the best diplomatists in the world! It is conceivable that the Cretan Executive Com- mittee refused to haul down the flag simply because they dared not flout Cretan opinion, but that they are not at all sorry to have the matter settled for them in this judicious, if drastic, manner. The flag at Candia has been similarly removed. Meanwhile the Greek Government has sent an answer to the last Note from Constantinople, after accepting some suggestions as to the wording of it from the British, French, Russian, and Italian Ministers. We may hope that similar moderating advice will have its effect at Constantinople, and that the disappearance of the Greek flag in Crete will complete the process of appeasement which has already begun in the Turkish mind.
