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CORRESPONDENCE respecting the Affairs of Crete (Outrages; Proceedings of Cretan Outlaws; Proposed Reforms; fc.).-1890, 1891.†

[Continued from Vol. LXXXII, pages 1170–1288.]

No. 1.-Sir E. Monson to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received January 7, 1891.)

MY LORD,

Athens, December 29, 1890. FOR a week or ten days past it has been known to well-informed persons in Athens that a few of the refugees were contemplating an armed expedition to Crete; and as your Lordship will have learned by Mr. Biliotti's telegram a few adventurers have succeeded in landing in the island with the object of creating a disturbance, or of carrying out marauding and murderous projects on their own

account.

On the evening of the 27th the small Greek squadron, which has the sobriquet of "black," and which is composed of four gunboats and three torpedo-boats, and is generally cruising in Greek waters in summer time, received orders to put to sea, and Athens was next day alert with rumours as to its destination-the most accepted story being that a massacre of Christians had taken place, or was imminent, at Smyrna, and that the Greek Government had sent their ships to that port for the protection of the Hellenic community.

Have not ratified.

This Correspondence is extracted from Parliamentary Paper, "Turkey No. 5 (1891)."

I went to M. Delyauni's this morning and asked him to tell me what was the real state of the case.

His Excellency said that having learned that some armed refugees had crossed over with a supply of ammunition into Crete, he had requested the Minister of Marine to send cruisers at once in order to stop any further filibustering expeditions, projects for which he had been informed had been set on foot here. The Government are determined to put down every attempt of the kind as injurious to the real welfare of the island.

M. Delyanni added that he had upon several occasions advised the Cretan chiefs to return to their island peaceably, as there is really no longer any reason against their doing so; but whilst encouraging them to return peaceably, he had no intention of sug gesting that they should do so with arms in their hands, and he was greatly disquieted at the threatened expedition.

He begged me very earnestly to do all in my power to dispel the apprehensions which seemed still to exist as to his policy towards Turkey, assuring me that I should be only doing him strict justice if I laid stress upon his pacific disposition, and his anxiety to ameliorate the relations between the two countries.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

I have, &c.,

EDMUND MONSON.

No. 2.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received January 12, 1891.)

MY LORD,

Canea, Crete, December 29, 1890. I HAVE the honour to confirm a telegram which I have just forwarded to your Lordship, announcing that I was informed last evening of the landing in the district of Rethymo of Liapis and his band, which, according to one report, cousists of ten men, and, according to another, of only five, whose names are, Yoannis Liapis, I. Koundouraki, Efstalthis Mamalios, Emmanuel Peidakis. and Giorgius Pastrityis. It is said that the ten individuals are each in possession of 500 cartridges, but my informant, who puts the number of the band at five, reckons the amount of ammunition in their possession at 10 cases of 900 cartridges each, which other rumours increase to the number of 40. In any case, adinitting even 5,000 as being the lowest number of cartridges in Liapis' possession, it is certain that he cannot have procured this ammunition by his own means. All the Cretan leaders with whom I have had occasion to speak are of this opinion, and also think that Liapis has been sent here to promote trouble for political purposes. Most of them believe that his arrival here is to be attributed to

the Opposition in Greece, while a few think he was dispatched by the Cretan Committee lately re-formed by M. Delyanni. Should there be any truth in the latter supposition, the action of the Greek Government may possibly have some connection with the ecclesiastical question, about which I understand instructions have been sent by the Patriarch, iu consequence of which all the Bishops in the island are congregating at Caudia, the residence of the Archbishop. In both cases, Cretan leaders speak according as they happen to be partisans of the Greek Premier or of M. Tricoupi; but the fact is admitted by all, that Liapis could not have undertaken the venture with the means of which he could personally dispose. Whatever may be the source from which Liapis derives the sinews of his expedition, a very bad service is thereby rendered to Crete. As such scanty means are obviously insufficient to promote a serious movement in the island, Liapis' exploit will be limited to murders of Mussulmans and also of Christians, against whom he has private motives for revenge.

It is not in the power of the foreign gendarmerie to apprehend him, and Christian geudarmes will never do so. If the foreign gendarmerie do anything, they will probably act as in previous expeditions of outlaws, and simply imprison all Christians who may be suspected of giving food or shelter to Liapis or his friends. The number of Christians who, from fear, will not refuse him food or shelter, nor denounce him to the police, may be great, and it is to be expected that, in consequence of the rigorous measures adopted against Mussulmans in the recent murder of the German traveller, Christians will be treated with more rigour than ever in order to prevent recriminations on the part of the Turkish population; but the hardships which they may have to suffer will lead to no political result whatever, if such be the intention of the promoters of Liapis'

venture.

Under these circumstances only one course is open to Christians, and it is likely it will again be resorted to, as it was adopted the last time he was here, that is, to induce him and his companious to embark and return to Greece. It would be an act of humanity on the part of the persons in that country who may have some influence on him to use it for the attainment of this result.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

I have, &c.,

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

P.S.-I should have stated before who Liapis is; his name, although it appears more than once in previous official correspondence, may have escaped special notice. This individual, having murdered a few years ago one of his co-religionists in retaliation for the assassination of his brother, took refuge in Greece, whence

he returned last year for a fresh revenge. As reported at the end of my despatch of the 9th November, 1889, not finding his intended victim, he murdered in cold blood his sister, her husband, and their child, a girl of 12 years of age, and later on another member of the same family. Meanwhile, he employed his spare time in murdering Turkish soldiers and gendarmes in ambush, and he succeeded, to my knowledge, in killing eight and wounding four, but public report increased their number to three times as many. He has been considered ever since as a hero, and on his return to Greece about six months ago received a popular ovation and a pension from the Government (which, however, I now hear has been curtailed), so that from a common murderer of women and children Liapis became a political personality.

A. B.

No. 3.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.—( Received January 12, 1891.)

MY LORD,

Canea, Crete, December 30, 1890. I HAVE the honour to report that Djevad Pasha has received orders from the Porte concerning indemnities. Clerks are to be appointed in each of the offices of the Indirect Contributions, to keep separate accounts of the sums accruing from the extra tax which is to be applied to pay indemnities. The £ T. 2,000 already remitted to Constantinople are to be refunded here by the permanent office of the Indirect Contributions. A Commission has already been appointed to carry out the valuation of the houses, as well as of the olive trees destroyed or burnt. As these trees requite a number of years (about fifteen) to grow and yield any produce, it has been thought but fair (and no objection has been raised to this arrangement) that those who have been deprived of their income under this head should receive a compensation of some sort. The Commission, which is to begin work on the 5th January next, will consist of two members of the Administrative Council in each province, who will be joined by two members of the Local Council in each district, in both cases the one to be a Christian and the other a Mussulman, the Kaïmakam, and a clerk. The Demarch in each commune and the Elders of each village are to assist at the valuation. This arrangement seems to answer all requirements except economy, as the fees to be paid to the members of this Commission are, so far as I have been able to understand, to be fixed at so much per day, and not per house. The Porte has also instructed Djevad Pasha to try and make a loan of £T. 50,000 for the purpose of

* Vol. LXXXII, page 1204.

paying the indemnity at once. His Excellency has applied to the Representatives of the Imperial Ottoman and other banks here, but as the interest offered is only 4 per cent., it is hardly to be expected that a loan will be negotiated at so low a rate by the Cretan Government, which has always found it difficult to obtain money at any price, and which paid 9 per cent. on the last loan which it got from the Banque de Constantinople just before the I have, &c.,

last disturbances.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

No. 4.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received

MY LORD,

January 12, 1891.)

Canea, Crete, December 30, 1890. THE instructions issued on the 28th ultimo (10th instant) by Djevad Pasha through the Procureur-Impérial to the President of the Court of Appeal with regard to the execution of the sentences connected with indemnities are to the following effect:—

Indemnities having to be paid out of the income derived from an extra tax imposed for the purpose, no sentences are henceforth to be pronounced in the matter, and those already issued by the ad hoc Mixed Commission, as well as by the Civil Courts, are not to be executed. This rule does not apply to claims or sentences concerning movable property which may have been handed over for keeping during the last disturbances, nor to the indemnities awarded by the court-martial for the savage destruction of the village of St. George, in the district of Rethymo, and to one or two other somewhat similar sentences, on the particular merits of which the Government will issue instructions when they are presented for execution; these are not to be paid out of the proceeds of the extra tax in question. It is further explained in these instructions, that any amicable agreement or undertaking to which the parties may have come in consequence of the decisions taken by the Mixed Commissions or the local Civil Courts are not to be executed, and that the sentences issued by the court-martial cannot be revised either in their penal or their civil finding by the local Tribunals.

In connection with the case of the village of St. George, a certain Colives, one of the eleven persons condemned by the courtmartial, has more than once submitted to me that he was not even at that village when it was plundered and burnt, and that he had been falsely accused by the former Demarch, who was of the opposite political faction, in order that he might be deprived of his civil rights, and his post occupied again by his political opponent, a

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