THE IONIAN ISLANDS, 1863 1 Vote of the Ionian Assembly for Union with Greece. January 27, 1859 1 The Assembly of the Seven Islands proclaims that the sole and unanimous will (féλnois) of the Ionian people has been, and is, the union of the Seven Islands with Greece. A committee of eleven members shall be appointed to submit to the chamber its opinion on the ulterior measures suitable to the proclamation of union this day adopted in the Assembly. Petition of the Ionian Assembly to the Queen, January 30, 1857 To Her Majesty Victoria I., the most gracious Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Protectress of the United States of the Ionian Islands, &c. May it Please Your Majesty, The people of the seven islands having always kept in vigour the idea of its nationality, and desiring its union with free Greece, approaches with reverence your most mighty throne, that it may lay upon the steps thereof the authentic manifestation of this ever-glowing sentiment. In the midst of the tribulations which have afflicted the Hellenic race, the Ionian people has both preserved, throughout, its civilisation, and has maintained all along both its nationality and its independence. The treaty contracted at Paris, on the 5th November, 1815, without the intervention of the Ionian people, by which that people was placed under the British Protectorate, had no other view than the preservation of a small country, which is both recognized and declared in this treaty as a single, free, and independent state. To this purpose tend the duties assumed by the Protecting Power under the treaty, and the political relations arising out of them between Great Britain and the protected people. But after the establishment of the kingdom of Greece, the reason failing which suggested these relations, there sprung up spontaneously an ardent desire on the part of the Ionians for their political union with the liberated portion of the nation to which they are indissolubly 1 From the Mission of Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone to Ionian Islands, 1858," British Parliamentary Papers [2891], 1861, vol. 67, p. 61. bound by descent, religion, language, recollections, and unbounded sacrifices in a holy cause. From this irrepressible sentiment flowed the obstructed manifestations of the ninth Parliament, and the unanimous desire expressed by the eleventh Parliament on the 20th June, 1857. Of this same ardent feeling and desire of the entire Ionian people, his Excellency too, the High Commissioner Extraordinary whom your Majesty has been pleased to dispatch to the Seven Islands, has received authentic proofs. Setting out from considerations such as these, the representatives of the Ionian people, in their parliamentary sitting of 15/27 January, 1859, proclaimed with one voice, that "the single and unanimous disposition (éλnois) of the Ionian people has been, and is, for the union of the whole of the Seven Islands with the kingdom of Greece." The Ionian Assembly, submitting these representations, prays your Majesty to be pleased to communicate this declaration to the other Great Powers of Europe, and to cooperate with them to give effect to the sacred and just desire of the Ionians. The representatives of the Ionian people have a cheerful hope that the Divine Grace which once armed the right hand of Britain on behalf of the Hellenic nation, may again inspire your Majesty, so that by your mighty aid this people may attain to its national reestablishment, and that ties, springing out of profound gratitude and unalterable sympathy, may bind the hearts of the Hellenic nation to the throne of your Majesty. (Signed) D. FLAMBURIARI, President. N. LUSI. Secretaries. Corfu, January 18/30, 1859. Address of the Lord High Commissioner on Delivering the Reply of the Queen to the Petition of the Assembly. February, 1859 1 MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN, I have received, under date of 2d February, the answer of the Protecting Sovereign to the petition of the Legislative Assembly of the Ionian State for the union with Greece; as well as Her Majesty's commands to make it known without loss of time, and in the most solemn manner, to the Legislative 1 "Ionian Islands," British Parliamentary Papers, 1861, vol. 67 [2891], p. 66. At the same session a scheme for reforms in administration and legislative procedure was presented by the Lord High Commissioner. Assembly and to the Ionian people, in order that both the one and the other may fully and clearly comprehend their actual position. The answer is as follows: VICTORIA REGINA. Her Majesty has taken into Her gracious consideration the prayer of the petition presented by the Legislative Assembly of the Ionian Islands, with reference to the interests of the islands themselves, of the states in their neighbourhood, and of the general peace. Having regard to these objects, Her Majesty, invested as She is by the Treaty of Paris with the exclusive Protectorate of the Ionian State, and constituted the sole organ of that State in the councils of Europe, can neither consent to abandon the obligations She has undertaken, nor can convey, nor permit, any application to any other Power in furtherance of any similar design. Her Majesty does not desire to impose new fetters on opinion; but She will enforce, wherever it is placed in Her charge, the sacred duty of obedience to the laws. Her Majesty has adopted, on Her part, the measures which she deems most conducive to the good of the Ionian people; and She awaits the enlightened cooperation of their Parliament. V. R. Dispatch from Sir H. Storks, K. C. B., to the Right Hon. Sir E. B. Lytton, (No. 31.) SIR, Bart.1 Corfu, February 21, 1859. 1. Mr. Gladstone, in his Despatch No. 26 of the 17th instant, communicated to you the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly up to that day. 2. On Friday, the 18th the committee appointed to draw up and lay before the Chamber the answer to the several communications of the Lord High Commissioner made their report. 3. A copy of the report was communicated to me privately, and went to show that the committee considers that the Queen's reply does not close the question of union with Greece: (a.) Because it excludes the mode of attaining the object, i. e. a reference to Foreign Powers, which the Assembly had contemplated. 1 " Ionian Islands," British Parliamentary Papers, 1861, vol. 67 [2891], p. 76. (b.) Because it does not conform to the declaration of the 15/27th January. (c.) Because of the conduct of the Protecting Power during the present session. 4. I do not trouble you with a copy of the proposed answer, because it is simply a proposal, and is still under discussion.1 I have, &c. (Signed) H. K. STORKS. The Right Hon. Sir. E. B. Lytton, Bart., &c. &c. &c. Resolutions Presented to the Ionian Assembly, March, 1861 2 Proposal of Demetrio Baccomi Mr. Gladstone, two years back, having persuaded us to submit to Her Majesty the Queen of England the question of union, left, perhaps, with the idea that he had succeeded in giving a final and negative solution to the struggle between the Seven Islands and the Protection imposed upon them. Mr. Gladstone, without doubt, permitted this negative solution of the question to become known under the cloud of artificial and studied phrases, in order to conceal the object of his mission amongst us, and to show unclouded the political horizon of his Government in respect to the question of union. The English Government, unceasingly pursuing its own interests, pretends to consider these as superior to the nationality and independence of others. And in contradiction to the principles of liberty and love, which it preaches to other nations, binding itself in an anachronism with the period in which right throws off material forms, and the dead letter of treaties, in order that it may become a fact, that is to say, a principle of sovereignty exercised by the people,- have given to our imprescriptible national rights the form most suitable to its interests, and considered the Islands as a series of rocks and military stations, exclusively serving English interests. In virtue of the new law of Europe, which solemnly proclaimed and recognised, that is, inscribed on the summit of the pyramids of civilisation, the will and sovereignty of the people; and the result of the union of these two 1 The answer was adopted and presented to the Lord High Commissioner by a deputation from the Assembly on Feb. 28. For a French translation of the address of the deputation see François Lenormant, La Question Ionienne devant l'Europe, pp. 144-145, Paris, 1859. 2 "Ionian Islands,” British Parliamentary Papers, 1861, vol. 67 [2891], pp. 7, 8. principles is such that it has obtained the respect of Europe, whose arms do not unite to destroy, in the hands of the people, the principles proclaimed, not interfering with the acts of the people, so that by the rights of nationality and the acquirement of their lost independence they may all live in one State, the emanation of independence, of the same species, and the same form as the national character, from which proceeds the true union of political existence and cohabitation. For the above reasons, I am therefore of opinion that an appeal should be made by the Chamber, to the people of the Seven Islands, who shall proclaim by "universal suffrage," and the new means accepted, viz., the national will and sovereignty of the people, its “independence" and its non-dependence on English protection, which it must vote against, annulling and repudiating, by means of universal demonstration (one of the chief rights), the right of the Protection to be the author of its liberty, autonomous and independent, by annulling the treaty imposed in 1815, from which is derived the unjust continuation of foreign protection. (Signed) DEMETRIO BACCOMI. The Representatives of the Seven Islands, To the Representatives of the Peoples, to the Governments, and to the Philanthropists of Christian Europe. The Greek Assembly of the Ionian Islands, and itself the organ of the wishes, the rights, and of the demands of the eternally and continuously indivisible Greek people assembled in the present critical circumstances of the East, feels imposed upon it the exalted duty of national action by words, although it thinks that unjustly, and by the material power of the stronger, the Seven Islands are excluded, against their will (féλnois) and solemn declaration, from the Greek kingdom to the detriment of the Greek race and of European interests, it hastens, notwithstanding, to continue its labours, and in the position of affairs, turns to the Christian world in favour of rights and interests, both of itself and of the nation, to which are attached those of the peace of Europe. The Seven Islands, having maintained in the midst of grave circumstances, in the exercise of their rights relative to their emancipation, a legitimate conduct and incomparable order, in the same way that the most civilised people boast of in their politics, have the right to make their voice heard, and are not discouraged if from their weakness their words are despised. Let England restore to the kingdom of Greece the trust, which before the formation of that kingdom was confided to her on account of circumstances |