The Times on Tuesday published an important article on the
Cretan question, contributed by, its correspondent at Athens, who appears to have a special knowledge of the con- dition of the island, and, indeed, to have played a considerable part in the principal political events that have taken place in the island of late years. In it the writer suggests what he believes would prove a solution of the present difficulties. Though he looks forward to an ultimate union with Greece, he thinks that for the present the essential point is to find a Governor capable of understanding the Cretan character, which, according to his account, differs little from that of the Irish, and then to give him a life-tenure. At present, the office is held for five years, an arrangement which results in endless intrigues in regard to the reriewal of the appointment, both at Constantinople and in Crete. For instance, one Governor is said to have led up to his reappointment by an ingenious application of the maxim, Divide et impera, which consisted in encouraging the rival chiefs to cut each other's throats. The system was, it is said, the cause of the present war of parties and produced no less than six hundred murders. The Governor, then, argues the writer in the Times, should be appointed for life, as in Samos, should be recognised by the Powers, and should not be removed except with their sanction. In fact, the proposal is one for limited autonomy of the kind set up in Eastern Ronmelia. We see no reason why it should not succeed. It certainly could not injure the Porte, which in reality derives no advantage whatever from Crete.
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