Her Majesty's Government have learnt with deep regret that the efforts which have been made by them, in conjunction with the other Great Powers, to obtain explicit assurances of an immediate reduction of the armaments of Greece have not as yet been successful.

It is not necessary that I should dwell upon the sympathy for Greece and the interest in her welfare which have constantly been felt in this country, and which have found their expression in the policy pursued by successive Administrations. The British. Government were the first to propose that Greece should be represented at the Congress of Berlin in 1878; they gave a willing assent to the Resolution brought forward in the Congress by the French and Italian Plenipotentiaries in favour of a rectification of the Greek frontier, and they were active in urging and supporting the claims of Greece in the arduous negotiations which terminated in the acquisition, in 1881, by the Hellenic Kingdom, on the mediation of the Powers, of the rich Province of Thessaly.

The British Government frankly avowed at the time that the settlement which was arrived at in those negotiations was not quite so favourable to Greece as they could have wished. But it gave her a large and valuable accession of territory, with a 36

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population, on the whole, well affected to her rule. It was the best solution that could be obtained without a struggle which was certain to be exhausting to both the contending parties, and of which the issue could not be otherwise than hazardous to Greece. Great Britain joined, therefore, with the other Powers in pressing its acceptance upon the Hellenic Government. That Government, in reply, stated that Greece desired peace, and was grateful to Europe for its efforts in favour of a pacific solution of the question. They recommended to the justice and consideration of the Great Powers the populations of Hellenic race left outside the new frontiers, and they intimated their acceptance of the territories assigned to them without further demur or condition.

Great Britain and the other mediating Powers thereupon urged the Porte to adhere definitively, and without delay, to the proposed arrangement. It was embodied in the Convention between the great Powers and Turkey of the 24th May, 1881, as the result of the mediation contemplated by Article XXIV of the Treaty of Berlin, and as intended to give a definite solution to the question. It was further recorded in a Convention between Turkey and Greece.

In these negotiations the British Government took a prominent and responsible part.

Her Majesty's Government have been unable to perceive any justification in subsequent events for reopening the question, or for casting doubt on the validity of these solemn and recent engagements.

When, in September last, the population of Eastern Roumelia declared itself with singular unanimity in favour of union with the Principality of Bulgaria, the efforts of the Great Powers were directed to the maintenance of European peace, and to the preservation, in its spirit and essence, of the settlement arrived at under the negotiations contemplated by the Treaty of Berlin.

They were, indeed, unable to prevent the outbreak of a contest between Servia and Bulgaria, in spite of their earnest remonstrances; a contest in which the attacking party proved unsuccessful, and did not receive, as, indeed, it could not expect, any sympathy from other countries.

That war has happily been brought to a close without spreading further, and an arrangement has been come to for the future government of Eastern Roumelia, after careful discussion between the Great Powers and the Porte, which, while maintaining with strictness the stipulations of the Treaty of Berlin, promises to be acceptable to the inhabitants, and to secure their future tranquillity and well-being.

It is unnecessary here to examine whether the close relations between that province and the Principality of Bulgaria can be deemed indirectly antagonistic to designs of Greek aggrandisement in the distant future; but Her Majesty's Government entirely deny that the new arrangement can be held to involve any danger to the security of Greece herself, or to the prosperity of the other populations of Hellenic race.

But if such a danger existed, the policy which Greece has pursued is certainly not of a nature to avert it. Her natural condition demands a long period of peace devoted to the development of her resources and the consolidation of her institutions. By displaying in the East the spectacle of a wellordered State pursuing the path of material and constitutional progress, with light taxation and diminishing debt, she would have attracted the active sympathy of the Powers, ever ready to welcome any promise of stability and order in that region.

But her course on this occasion has encouraged her enemies and disheartened her friends. In a paroxysm of irritation at the possible enlargement of a neighbouring and friendly Christian State, she has rushed to arms and made herself not the calming and exemplary, but the menacing, element in the condition of the East. At a ruinous sacrifice she has raised an army wholly disproportionate to her population on the one hand, and on the other wholly inadequate to cope with the largely superior forces of an Empire whose soldiers have a traditional reputation, an Empire with which she is at peace, and which has offered her no imaginable cause of offence. This she has done in the face of repeated remonstrances from all the Powers who have taken a friendly interest in her cause, and who have warned her of the risks which she is incurring, and of the absence of all justification for such a policy. Her attitude is imposing upon

the Porte immense sacrifices in the maintenance of armies designed to meet and overcome a possible Greek attack. The agriculture of Turkey is in many places almost at a standstill from the drain on the population caused by the maintenance of this defensive army. The financial position of the Ottoman Empire cannot but be exceedingly grave. The state of things produced by the Greek Government is no less exhausting to that Empire than to Greece.

It cannot be expected that the Turkish Government should consent to remain for an indefinite period in this condition of armed expectation. They have on several occasions addressed the Governments of the Great Powers on the subject, and had it not been for the strenuous appeals of those Powers to the Porte to maintain a pacific and conciliatory attitude, matters would long before this have been brought to a crisis by the presentation of a direct demand on the part of Turkey for Greek disarmament. It has been to save the Hellenic Government from this contingency, to maintain the faith of European engagements, and to avert the risk of a war, the consequences of which, however incalculable in other directions, could not fail to be calamitous to Greece, that the friendly pressure of Her Majesty's Government and the other Powers has been exercised.

The course they have pursued has not been hasty, and has abounded in consideration for the susceptibilities of the Hellenic Government.

On the 9th October last a verbal communication was made in identical terms by the Representatives of the Great Powers at Athens, urging upon the Hellenic Cabinet the necessity of prudence and moderation, and pointing out the dangers to which Greece was exposing herself by her military preparations.

On the 22nd of the same month the same Representatives addressed to M. Delyanni a collective note, inclosing a copy of the Declaration agreed upon by the Representatives of the Powers at Constantinople, and urging the Greek Government to refrain from any steps calculated to compromise the general peace.

To these communications M. Delyanni replied by statements

that the movement at Philippopoli had disturbed the settlement effected by the Treaty of Berlin, and had rendered necessary fresh arrangements for the protection of the Greek nationality.

On the 11th January the Representatives presented a collective note inviting the Greek Government to disarm simultaneously with Servia and Bulgaria, and informing them that the Porte would in that case also demobilise its forces.

To this M. Delyanni replied by a refusal.

On the 25th January, after a friendly warning from Her Majesty's Government, which was again unsuccessful, the Representatives delivered a collective note stating that, in the absence of any just ground for war on the part of Greece against Turkey, and in view of the injury which would be caused by it to the commerce of other nations, a naval attack by Greece on Turkey would not be permitted.

M. Delyanni replied by a protest against any interference with the liberty of action of the Greek naval forces.

No modification took place in the attitude of the Greek Government, nor was there any relaxation in the progress of their military preparations.

A Decree was issued on the 26th March, calling out two more classes of the reserves.

On the 13th April the Representatives communicated to M. Delyanni the conclusion of the arrangement with regard to Eastern Roumelia, with the expression of a hope that Greece would comply with the unanimous wish of Europe for the maintenance of peace.

M. Delyanni answered on the 17th that Greece had hitherto done nothing to disturb the general peace, but that the Hellenic Government could not give up the desire to obtain the frontier indicated by the Conference of Berlin.

At the same time the negotiations were reported to be in progress for the raising of a fresh loan of 90,000,000 fr.; it was stated that the troops quartered at Athens were about to be dispatched to the Thessalian frontier, and intelligence was received of a skirmish, fortunately of no importance, having occurred between the Turkish and Greek forces.

Under these circumstances, Her Majesty's Government, who