CRETAN "SELF-GOVERNMENT."
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTITOR.1
L11, —I have had some very close and practical experience of Crete, when I was there, years ago, as the Special Correspondent -of the Daily News, during the insurrection of 1867. My hopes of a real reform and of a really better government for the Cretans were dashed to the ground when I heard, on the best authority, that the new constitution was a sham. It never had in it half an hour of life, and our Secretary for Foreign Affairs is either fooled or joking when he talks of Crete as a model on which any system of "local self-government" could be built. The faults of the old Turkish rule are carefully retained in Crete, and the mockery of a free constitution is used to " humbug" any Western politicians who may still have faith in Turkish promises. Whatever may come in Bosnia and Bulgaria, Heaven save us from Lord Derby's Cretan Constitution !—I am, Sir, &c., HILARY SKINNER.
Previous page
