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near the scenes of murder is easy, and as assassinations are of daily occurrence, the local disarmament, if strictly and impartially enforced, will amount in a not very remote period of time to a general disarmament, unless murders are entirely checked by the

measure.

While at Rethymo, Djevad Pasha caused to be imprisoned the two Mussulmans who had taken part in the elopement of a Christian girl at Maroula, near Rethymno, and who had been released by the Procureur Impérial.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

I have, &c.,

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

No. 63.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received

MY LORD,

June 16.)

Canea, Crete, June 8, 1891. ON Thursday last the Administrative Council was called on to elect new members to the Court of Appeal, the time of those hitherto in office having expired. The Vali told the Administrative Council that they were to reject the candidature of all Cretans coming under the following exceptions:-

1. Those who had resigned their post since the year 1891;

2. Those who had refused to accept offices offered to them by the Local Government within the same period;

3. Those who had taken refuge in Greece after the late disturbances;

4. Practising lawyers; and

5. Foreign subjects.

His Excellency is said to have proposed several candidates, three of whom (two Christians and one Mussulman) were elected by the Administrative Council, and three of the former members were maintained in their functions. The choice, although not bad, might have been better; but the complaints of Christians (most of whom are now willing to accept office) are in proportion to the number of disappointed candidates, and they think that the new Court will only be a tool in the hands of the present Vali.

This Court is now called upon to elect the Judges of the Courts of First Instance, and the members of these Tribunals may be as acceptable as those of the Court of Appeal. However, all these arrangements can only be, and are only, considered as simply temporary, and as being far from answering the requirements of the island. A radical reform is indispensable.

I have heard a rumour to the effect that the Administrative Councillors having resigned last year, and having been reappointed

by an order of the Porte, and not by an Iradé, they hold their offices illegally; and hence it follows that the elections they have just made of Judges to the Court of Appeal, and those which the latter are going to make of Judges of the Lower Courts, are as illegal. Should this assertion be true, there would be such an amount of litigation in the future that the question should be cleared up and arranged before the evil is allowed to make further progress. I have, &c.,

The Marquess of Salisbury.

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

No. 64.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.—(Received

MY LORD,

June 23.)

Canea, Crete, June 15, 1891. I HAVE the honour to report that Giorgi Kladapoulo, the brother of the Christian young girl Eleni Kladapoulo, who had gone after her to Constantinople, having just returned here, has informed me that on her arrival at the capital his sister was taken and handed to the Greek Patriarch at once by the Albanian officer of gen darmerie in whose charge she had been given by the Vali, and that a few days after, having been called to the Porte, where, in the presence of the Dragoman of the Hellenic Legation, she declared that she was a Christian, she was handed to her brother and conveyed by him to Greece, where he left her.

When in the dress of a Turkish woman, unattended by any of her relatives, and in charge of a Mussulman officer, Eleni Kladapoulo was embarked on board one of the Mahsoussé steamers, the officers and crews of which are all Mussulmans, the Christians were convinced that she would be shut up in some Turkish harem at Constantinople, and never be heard of again.

The straightforward course followed by Djevad Pasha in this case has produced a most satisfactory impression among the Christian community, and great credit is due to him for having given strict instructions to the officer who accompanied her as to insure her safe arrival to her destination.

His Excellency was fortunate to hit upon an officer who carried out these instructions to the letter, which is not always the case here.

Giorgi Kladapoulo added that the Greek Patriarch had received no information whatever concerning the case of his sister, and that the Albanian officer had to find the Patriarchate by inquiring along I have, &c.,

the road.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

No. 65.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.-(Received June 30.)

(Extract.)

Cane a, Crete, June 19, 1891.

I HAVE the honour to report that the last twelve outlaws of the fifty-one who had arrived from Greece, and who were still on the island (vide my despatch of the 26th ultimo), have returned last week to that country, together with three individuals who had committed murders recently. A few weeks ago a Christian was killed by some of his co-religionists at Tsitsifes, Apokorona, and another at Platania, Cydonia, in a quarrel.

The authors of the murder of four Mussulmans at Rethymo, which I reported in my despatch of the 5th instant, have not been discovered; but it would appear that a few weeks back six or seven outlaws from Greece landed at Mylopotamo, and that they committed the crime. Since that date a Mussulman going from Candia to Rethymo has been found murdered on the road, and two Christian shepherds (the details of which case I shall report in a separate despatch) have been shot dead in the same province by a fying column of soldiers, and a native Mussulman gendarme who accompanied them. The widows of the victims have handed addresses to Djevad Pasha and to the Vice-Consuls at Rethymo. The Mussulman outlaw Mazlounaki has been sent to Egypt by his co-religionists in the town of Rethymo.

According to a Petition from the Notabilities of the districts of Monofatsi (Candia) and Rigo (Sassithi), the inhabitants of the village of Harakas, on the confines of the two districts, have had much suffering under the following circumstances :

A kuown Mussulman criminal named Bitsazali, from Dioniso, together with a companion, having gone to Harakas, proffered insulting words against the Christians sitting in the café, and having tried to make use of his revolver, was shot at by one of the bystanders, but was so slightly wounded on the forehead that his wound did not prevent his leaving the village.

This incident having given rise to the rumour that Bitsazali had been murdered, the Mussulmans of the surrounding villages came in numbers to Harakas threatening the destruction of the Christian property, which had a beginning of execution in the cutting down of a few trees, the wrecking of a few beehives, &c., and which was prevented from extending further by the timely arrival of the Mussulman Governor of the district, who, however, is accused of having said that Christians had only what they deserved.

The day following the Mutessarif of Candia arrived with 200 soldiers, and ordered the disarmament of the inhabitants, which

was carried out by the soldiers breaking open doors, proffering insulting words, and striking the Christians, and resulted in the confiscation of about twenty rifles. The petitioners add that while no Mussulman but many Christians have been murdered in their district last year, and especially within the last few days, no arms have ever been confiscated from Mussulman villages, and that the unequal treatment of Christians and Mussulmans daily increases the despair in which the former have been during the last two years.

A few days after this address had been handed to the authorities, two Christians having been found murdered and their heads cut off near the River Epano Sifi, Monofatsi, many Christians of the surrounding villages went to Candia and complained of this state of things. In consequence of these circumstances, the Christian community have addressed last week a telegram to the Sultan and another to the Vali, each bearing 108 signatures. They submit that their situation is getting worse from day to day; that individuals working in their fields are pitilessly slaughtered; that eighteen such murders have been committed in the Province of Candia within the last month; that the bands of assassins who are overrunning the country threaten to prevent all communications; that many Christians are beaten and abused; that the gendarmerie show partiality towards Mussulmans, and do not execute their duties; that this state of things may end in disturbances similar to those which have taken place two years back; and that they make an appeal to the benevolent dispositions of His Majesty. In the Vali's telegram they add that Mussulmans are going about armed with impunity, and that the appeal they now make is the last they address to his Excellency.

In consequence of two Christians having been murdered, and two wounded, at Selinos within the last three or four weeks, while no outrage has been committed against Mussulmans during the same period, the Christian Demarchs of that district have come to Canea, and complained to Djevad Pasha that while they caused the outlaws in their district, whether natives or from Greece, to embark for that country, the Christians at Selinos can find no security. They expressed the opinion that the presence of the troops, which is no longer necessary to protect Mussulman villages against outlaws, and who do not so strictly prevent their co-religionists as they do Christians from carrying arms, encourages native Mussulmans to commit outrages against them. Djevad Pasha answered that he intended to visit their district, but that as he could only do so after having called in the eastern districts (to which he is about to proceed), he had in the meanwhile sent to Selinos Emin Bey, an able Colonel of gendarmerie, in order to take such measures

as were called for by circumstances; and in a further conversation which I had with him, his Excellency informed me that he had sent a second officer of gendarmerie to assist the Colonel at Selinos, and to cause the departure from the island of the three Mussulman outlaws who were in that district.

The Christians at Candia, Rethymo, and Selinos appear to be greatly excited, especially in the former province, where they think, not without reason I believe, that the present Mutessarif is unfit for the post he holds, and, in fact, it would be most difficult to find for that place another so able a Governor as Abdul Kerim Pasha, who is now most deeply regretted by Christians in Candia, as well as by Mussulmans.

At the present moment it is rather the Mussulmans who are the disturbing element of the public peace, for even the recent murder of the four innocent Turks in the district of Amari is nothing but retaliation for previous murders of Christians in that district. It is much easier for a Mussulman Vali to bring to account his co-religionists than Christians, even when there is among the former some underlying intrigue against him, as I suspect is the case at present in Candia. The Marquess of Salisbury.

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

No. 66.-Consul Biliotti to the Marquess of Salisbury.—(Received

June 30.)

MY LORD, Canea, Crete, June 23, 1891. DJEVAD PASHA left in the night of Saturday last for his intended tour in the districts of the islaud, and told me that he expected to be absent about one and a-half months.

I avail myself of the opportunity of the Mushavir, Georgi Pasha Berovich, being left in charge here during that lengthy period, to report that that functionary has, since his arrival here, shown great administrative qualities and uncommon energy, which have gained for him the regard of his co-religionists, who expected to find in him a blind tool in the hands of the Mussulman Acting Vali, and that while I have heard of no complaints against him on the part of the Mussulman population, Djevad Pasha told me that he, himself, placed great confidence in the character and ability of the Christian Mushavir, Georgi Pasha.

The Marquess of Salisbury.

I have, &c.,

ALFRED BILIOTTI.

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