| Show A SPECK OF WAR WAB THE reported action of the british government yesterday in recalling minister from froin constantinople has a warlike sound it being the commonly accepted doctrine although an unwritten and therefore net act necessarily imperative one that a complete disruption of the entente cordiale between two powers being in and of itself a declaration of enmity is the precursor of a declaration of hostilities by one or the other the cause of this rupture as stated by the wires is of course the long gendina anglo egyptian convention england Eil gland bad hada a complete understand understanding g 1 with the porte as to what terms should govern the contract which they were jointly to execute and it was drawn in accordance therewith england ratified it on her part with what to some might seem to be suspicious haste and then commenced urging the ottoman government to let no moments least of all days pass before concluding the full execution of the instrument but it was postponed and when the date to which the postponement was taken came around the signature was ewas still wanting there was a cause for this failure and the british government knew very well and in advance just what the cause was and this knowledge will be accepted by bya a large majority of those who study the subject as the cause of english haste and urgency turkey is and for a long time has been between the upper and nether millstones represented respectively by russia and france both these powers take as deep an interest in the conduct of affairs of the ottoman foreign office as the sublime porte himself does and neither of them under any circumstances will permit great britain to become greater than it is by securing even a square acre of land or a stagnant pool ol of water within that tract of coveted territory lying between the western part of the far east and the eastern and so uthera parts of europe recognized as the highway to india the terms of the treaty called for the almost unlimited occupancy of eg egypt by the ayt forces ot of england in a addition to which certain executive privileges were to be granted thus securing a firm frontier footing and a vantage ground the prestige of which alone would nave have put her Maje government a long way ahead of all contestants in in the struggle for control over the territory forming the threshold of that wealthy nation whose empress sae ane is without its consent to this scheme of course france and russia put in an instant and impressive demurrer accompanying it with entreaties postulations expostulations ex inducements and threats the former went so far as to pledge assistance to any needed extent it if turkey would resist the en croach ments of england a tender which the ottoman ministry for effect it is to be presumed indignantly declined and even snubbed their would be champion but it was not so with the sultan himself and without h his is signature nothing could coula be done lie has been pretty badly harrasser harr assed and is doubtless in that frame of mind in which one does not know what he ought to do on the one hand is the oral agreement usually binding in honor with the protection of the most powerful of the european nations behind the formal ratification on the other are two nations nearly as powerful closer by and determined to make war it if the porte assents the question then arises what assistance could england possibly b ly be to turkey with such a monstrous struggle on her hands more particularly when both were determined to prevent the de delivery of the valuables even if the deed cleed to them had been properly executed and whose first movement would be to effectually erase turkey from the map of the future it if tae contemplation of such a dilemma as this is perplexing plex ing what must the realization of it be to decide either way was evidently to provoke if not bring on early hostilities from which the bone of contention could not reasonably hope for exemption perhaps it if the dispatches inform us correctly the sultan has done the best beat that could oe de done under the circumstances since while powerless to give satisfaction all all around he has taken such action as will not be likely to produce an immediate outbreak and one that adds as little f uel fuel to the flames as any other course would have dose done |
