The split in the Committee of the Parliamentary Party at
Constantinople had a most interesting and important result last Saturday, when the insurgents carried all before them at a private meeting. The Times correspondent says that ten articles were drawn up and signed, and that these may be re- garded as the new programme of the Party. It is provided, among other things, that Deputies shall not seek concessions or official posts, and that they shall accept Cabinet posts only when they have received the authority of two-thirds of the Party ; that the Party shall work for the union of races in the Empire ; that it shall aim at the development of Western civilisation while respecting national and religions usages ; and that the Party shall discourage secret societies. It is evident that the Turkish people are growing weary of secret influences, and the new programme is very welcome. Meanwhile the news from Albania is almost consistently unfavourable to the Turks. A telegram from Vienna says that two battalions of Turks have been annihilated. The Malissori, Roman Catholic Albanians, seem to have inflicted several reverses on the Turks, and are consequently marked down for vengeance Torgut Shevket Pasha has announced that if they do not immediately surrender he will burn all their houses. The inevitable response comes from the newspapers of Austria— the natural protector of the Christian races in the Balkans— and intervention in Albania must not be dismissed as wholly improbable.
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