[War with Russia.]

Who, after having communicated to each other their Full Powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon and signed the following Articles:

Measures for the re-establishment of Peace.

ART. I. The High Contracting Parties engage to do all that shall depend upon them for the purpose of bringing about the re-establishment of Peace between Russia and the Sublime Porte on solid and durable bases, and of preserving Europe from the recurrence of the lamentable complications which have now so unhappily disturbed the general Peace.

Naval and Military Assistance to Turkey.

ART. II. The Integrity of the Ottoman Empire being violated by the Occupation of the Provinces of Moldavia and of Wallachia, and by other movements of the Russian troops, their Majesties the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and the Emperor of the French have concerted, and will concert together, as to the most proper means for liberating the Territory of the Sultan from Foreign Invasion, and for accomplishing the object specified in Article I. For this purpose they engage to maintain, according to the requirements of the War, to be judged of by common agreement, sufficient Naval and Military Forces to meet those requirements, the description, number, and destination whereof shall, if occasion should arise, be determined by subsequent Arrangements.

Contracting Parties not to enter into Arrangements with Russia without previous deliberation.

ART. III. Whatever events may arise from the execution of the Present Convention, the High Contracting Parties engage not to entertain any Overture or any Proposition having for its object the Cessation of Hostilities, nor to enter into any Arrangement with the Imperial Court of Russia, without having first deliberated thereupon in common.

Contracting Parties renounce the Acquisition of any Advantages.

ART. IV. The High Contracting Parties being animated with a desire to maintain the Balance of Power in Europe, and having no interested ends in view, renounce beforehand the Acquisition

[Austrian Occupation of Servia.]

No. 243.-PROTEST addressed by the Servian Government to the Sublime Porte, against the Occupation of that Principality by Austrian Troops. Belgrade, 5th April,

1854.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.*)

SINCE the commencement of the War which has broken out between the Sublime Porte and the Court of Russia (No. 234), Austria has assumed towards Servia an attitude which, while it left an expectant character to the policy of this Power, tended to give it the means of disposing at its will of the action of Servia. According as Austria believed the Servian Government to Le more or less well disposed towards Russia or towards Turkey, she held to it a language conformable to these supposed sentiments, and constantly promised it her support for the defence of the frontiers of the Principality against all hostile aggression. By means of this policy, put in operation chiefly by the Representative of Austria at Belgrade, and so constantly followed Representatives of the

believed that she was

up that it has even been remarked by ace of the Servian

other Powers in this Principality, Austria

already in possession of the unlimited confid to her policy and

Government, and either to give more weight

put herself in hatever they

the better to assure the success of her views, or to a position to give more force to her assurances, w Rowers, the might be, to any one or other of the great European F siderable Cabinet of Vienna ordered, some time ago, a very con concentration of Troops on the Frontiers of Servia.

these act on

ons

The Government of the Principality, justly disturbed by Military Demonstrations, which were not provoked by any that the part of Servia, and which neither the state of affairs in country, more pacific and reassuring than ever, nor the relatth of Servia with the Sublime Porte and the Powers in alliance w of it justified, sought for information directly from the Cabinet Vienna, and indirectly from the Sublime Porte, as to the objec and meaning of these military movements of Austria. These measures have not succeeded in enlightening

* For French version, see "State Papers," vol. xlv, p. 1174.

us as to

[Austrian Occupation of Servia.]

Whilst the

the situation in which they wished to place us. organs, more or less direct, of the Cabinet of Vienna made us sensible that Austria was doing nothing, and did not intend to do anything, with regard to Servia without the previous consent of the Suzerain Court, the Sublime Porte replied to the Kapou Kehaja of Servia, that Austria left them in ignorance of the object of the Military Preparations in question, and that no agreement nor understanding were established on this subject between the two Powers. Neither did the Representatives of France and Great Britain at Constantinople give us more satisfactory assurances on this subject. In the interviews with which they honoured the Kapou Kehaja of Servia, they at one time did not appear to believe in the reality of such serious demonstrations, and of the tendency which we have always attributed to them; at another time they shared our own uncertainty and the anxieties which resulted from it. The Pasha of Belgrade remained without instructions, or, to speak more correctly, he remained provided with the old instructions which had formerly been given to him, and in virtue of which he was to consider any Military Intervention of Austria in Servia as a hostile attempt directed against the Ottoman Empire itself, and as such to repel it with all his power.

The conduct of Austria with regard to the general question of the existing War having perhaps taken a turn more favourable to the intentions of the Western Powers, the Cabinets of Paris and London gave the Servian Government, through the medium of their Agents at Belgrade, satisfactory assurances on the subject of the disposition of Austria. About the same time, the Cabinet of Vienna made known to the Servian Government that the Military Measures in question had nothing in them hostile to Servia; that in directing them, the object of Austria was only to put herself in a position to protect her own Frontiers, and that she would not interpose in Servia unless the Russian troops entered it, or revolts against legitimate authority broke out there; that consequently even in that case she would interpose as a friend, and in order to lend assistance to the Government and to legitimate authority.

This step of Austria, while it determined the cases in which this Power intended to interpose in Servia, was not of a nature to dispel all our anxieties. In the first place, we did not find in it any guarantee against an arbitrary intervention undertaken without motive and without real necessity, and abounding in dangers

[Austrian Occupation of Servia.]

and fatal consequences to Servia. In the second place, we saw in it an isolated action of Austria, who, under the pretext of acting in co-operation with the general policy of Europe and in support of the Ottoman Empire, created for herself the means of invading Servia, and of causing in that Principality by her unjust and aggressive behaviour that very disorder, that very confusion, and that very desolation, which it is particularly the interest of the Ottoman Empire, as it is that of the Powers allied to it, to prevent, and the dangers of which the Government and nation of Servia would devote themselves with all their efforts to keep off from their country.

In anticipation of such serious eventualities, and while continuing to receive from Constantinople news quite in contradiction to the avowed object of Austria; seeing, moreover, that the Military Preparations of Austria assumed day by day a more threatening aspect and were pushed to a point beyond which nothing remained but their immediate execution, the Servian Government, in concert with His Excellency Izzet Pasha, resolved to take active steps at Vienna and Constantinople, to ascertain accurately on what we were to rely in this respect, and to resist, where we could rightly do so, every combination which should make Austria the arbiter of the present destinies of Servia. This was the object of Azzir Pasha's mission to Vienna. This person is now at Constantinople, and will have given a detailed report of what he did at Vienna to the Government of His Majesty the Sultan.

While waiting for the diplomatic solution of this question, the Government of the Principality, admirably seconded by His Excellency Izzet Pasha, has ordered all the measures necessary for the defence of the country from a hostile aggression.

At the point which we have now reached in this matter, the object is to ascertain if Austria can succeed in obtaining the consent of the Sublime Porte to a measure unjust and prejudicial to so many interests which are common to, and equally dear to the Principality and to the Empire of which that country forms part. As to an Intervention undertaken without the consent of the Porte, there is little chance that, under existing circumstances, Austria should dream of it unless she wishes to declare openly for Russia against the Sublime Porte and its Allies.

Austria puts forward two reasons which might authorise her Military Intervention in Servia. 1. The entrance of the Russians ; 2. The breaking out of an internal Insurrection in Servia.