LORD PERCY ON MACEDONIA. - V HY doei Lord Percy's speech
on Monday leave such an unsatisfactory impression on' those' who read it ? It contains nothing with which the friends of Mace- donia can quarrel, because even" his defence of the Turkish GovernMent is true in fact, thOugh it will probably be Understood at Constantinople as meaning very much more than Lord Percy intended. We do 'not doubt that the Sultan sometimes finds himself " in a, very'difficult position. A Sovereign cannot order massacres one dlEty and-punish*tliem another without offending the " tibilities " of those of his subjects who. happen to like the Work assigned them. Nor is it at all unlikely that the Cha,n- celleries of Europe are responsible for a part of the delay which promises to make the dual scherhe of reform no better than so much waste-paper. But when the blame has been redistributed in this fashion, we do not see that the case is much altered. 'If Turkey were ' well governed, there would be no massacres to be prevented and no reforms for the Powers to be dilatory over. If Macedonia were as Bulgaria or -as Bosnia:she would not be, as she is now, a constant' menace to the peace of Europe ; and that she is not as Bulgaria or as Bosnia is the fault of the Turkish Government. Properly speaking; therefore, it is Turkey., not Macedonia, that constitutes the menace. Had there been no oppression, there would have been no insurrection; bad there been no insurrections, there would have been no massacres. Very possibly the Austro-Russian reforms, could they have been.carried out promptly, would have put things right. The proof of this may perhaps be seen in the'unwillingness of the - Sultan to give effect to them. He is conscious, it may be, that with a gendarmerie properly officered by Europeans, and charged with the duty of maintaining order, to the exclusion of the Regular troops, the worst evils of Turkish rule would die a natural death. As he has no wish to see these evils disappear, he throws all the obstacles he can devise in the way -of the creation of such a force. What we look in vain for in Lord Percy's speech is any clear indication of a term being set to the Sultan's delays.
It is true that he nowhere says that the patienceV of Great Britain is inexhaustible. But he is equally silent as to any 'date by which it will be exhausted. If the Austro- Russian- scheme should prove a failure, his Majesty's Government have " reserved to themselves the full right to put forward alternative proposals of their own." But what is to constitute' failure ? The two Powers have not modified their scheme in a way "inconsistent with its funds,- mental principles"; the demands contained in it have not been refused by the Porte; consequently it cannot be said to have failed. But every day that the organisation of the gendarmerie is put off the second of these alternative forms of failure comes nearer. It will not be the first 'time that the Sultan has discovered that delay may serve his turn as well as failure. This is what he is doubtless hoping in the present instance. He detests the idea of a gen- darmerie officered by Europeans; because if 'once such a force is created 'on a scale adequate to maintain order in Macedonia, he will have to withdraw his Regular troops, and with them his effective authority liver the territory.' Weare quite of 'Lord Percy's Opinion that this will not please his Mussulman subject*, but we differ from him as to the result of saying this in the House of Commons. The one impression that it is -necessary to convey to the Turks, from the highest to the lowest, is that they have no choice in the matter. They will submit when, and only when, they see an external force compelling them to do what they dislike. , In that they• recognise the Will of God, against which it is useless to struggle. But when Lord Percy talks in his Western and Parlia- mentary way of making allowances, of putting ourselves in the Sultan's place and trying to look at things with his eves, they do- not recognise the inevitable. They think that Britain is wavering, that Lord Lansdowne feels that be has gone rather too far, and has instructed his Under- Secretary to say so in a diplomatic'way. We have little doubt that'when this passage in Lord Percy's speech was telegraphed to Constantinople the Sultan's spirits rose, and that on his next visit Sir Nicholas O'Conor will find that a part at least of his work. has to be done over again. 'Lord Percy, it is 'true, went-on. to speak of the duty of losing no opportunity of impressing upon the Turkish Government that the only result of " delaying or imperilling the success of the present reform scheme" will be to force upon the consideration of the Powers the alternative proposals, which will be much, more distasteful: But Lord Percy has not acted up to his on conception of duty. He has himself lost a very important opportunity of reading this lesson to the Porte. Hiawholespeeehwafrfull of reasons for exonerating Turkey from, the charge of "xielay, ins or imperilling the success of the present reform scheme.7 He deplores, indeed, the delay which has taken place in putting the scheme into effective operation. He quite agrees that every day that delay continues the less chance there will be of the success of the scheme. But then he at once weakens what he has said by supplying the Turkish Government with excuses which they are quite able to discover or invent for themselves. It is premature, he thinks, to " describe as a failure a scheme which has not yet been put into active operation." But it is this very fact that constitutes the failure. A' specific piece of work had to be done during the winter of 1903-4. Now the spring 'of 1904 is uponus, andlhe work is still undone. What is this but failure, and failure of the most disastrous kind ? Not at all, says Lord Percy. Failure world mean either that the Powers had withdrawn their demands, or that the Sultan had refused them. Neither of these things has happened. The Powers have gone on asking for reforms as persistently—and, we may add, as fruitlessly —as ever. It is true that the Turkish Government have not given the Powers what they ask for. But then, says Lord Percy, with the satisfaction natural in a man who has proved his point up to the hilt, " they have certainly not net them with a categorical refusal:" We should have been very much surprised if they had so met them. Why should any Government, least of all why should an Oriental Government, do a thing in an unpleasant -way when the purpose can equally be answered by doing it in.a pleasant way ? A categorical refusal would. only do the Sultan harm ; a mere delay in -signifying assent maybe equally fatal to the reforms, provided that it can be ex- tended until the timewhen, as the Sultan no doubt hopes, the insurrection will again break out, and the Powers will leave him free to deal with it. Still, Lord Percy regrets the delay, though he will not admit that it is the fault of the Turkish Government ; at-all events, not more their fault than that of the two Powers. But the oddest thing in the speech is the reason he gives for regretting it. It is not the subject population of 'Macedonia that he is thinking of, but the Turkish Government. The Macedonians are all 'right in any case, for the Powers "are deeply pledged that their interests shall not suffer whatever becomes.. of thin or any other reform.'.'.. But the Turkish Glovernxnent will suffer very seriously if the Austro-Russian scheme breaks down. " The.European Powers may at . any: moment . be driven to demand the execution of the .pledges of the Berlin Treaty. in their literal and._ origin.al. form." -.1We should have thought, that this prospect, was the:every reverse of the catastrophe which Lord Percy appears to think it. It almost tempts us to desire the failure of the Austro-Russian plan. We have never been enthusiasticabout that plan. We have only accepted. it as the best. thing that could be had at the moment. If it turns out that it is not to be had, larger proposals will come to the front, and" that in itself will' be a, gain, not a loss. That the Turkish Government will in the end be the sufferer by the change does not trouble us in the very least. They will have brought their punishment upon themselves, and the only thing to be sorry about will be that the infliction of it has been, so long in coming. The Austro-Russian scheme is far too light a penalty, butit seemed in the first instance to admit of prompt application, ,and this merit was justly held to outweigh those of. more drastic. schemes. If the eon. sequence of Turkish procrastination is to :necessitate 0, resort to stronger measures, it will be a subject of Coap gratulation, not of regret. .
That there is a general disinclination on the part of the people of Macedonia to risk another revolt we can easily believe. Here again Lord Percy is unfortunate in -Ilia choice of phrases..: He speaks of their disinclination !' to expose themselves once more needlessly to the perils and sufferings of a perfectly useless struggle." But if the in- surrection again. breaks out, it will be because the Powers have broken their pledges. They undertook to provide Macedonia with the rudiments •of decent government. If they had shown sufficient resolution, they might have done this twelve months ago, and thus spared 'Macedonia the sufferings of last year's rebellion. We are now on tha eve of another outbreak, and the Austro-Russianl scheme is still a long way from being accepted, and still further froni being put into execution. If it is not put into execution, a fresh outbreak is inevitable. But it is not the .Powers who have done nothing to prevent outbreaks that hate-the right to deprecate their recurrence. The only satisfactory part of Lord Percy's speech was the underlying admission that if Rinasiikan.dAustria, put up with the defeat of their proposals, it will be the duty of the other Powers to try their hands at a better solution. But the value of this admission depends onthe length of the interval which is to ba allowed for the discovery that these proposals have been defeated. At present the two Powers and the Sultan seem agreed in treating this interval as having no necessary limit. We hope that Britain and France, at all events, will be less tolerant of these interminable delays. •
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