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[Proposed Conference. Pacific Assurances of Russia.]

No. 474.-RUSSIAN DESPATCH accepting proposals for a Conference and repeating Pacific Assurances of the Emperor. St. Petersburgh, 19th November, 1876.

TABLE.

Proposed Measures of Military and Naval Occupation.

Proposed Armistice.

Proposed Conference.

Condition of Christians.

Guarantee of Reforms.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.)

M. le Comte,

Prince Gortchakow to Count Schouvaloff.

St. Petersburgh, 7th November, 1876. LORD A. LOFTUS has read to us and given us a copy of the despatch addressed to him by Lord Derby, under date of the 30th October (No. 467).

Its object is to recapitulate the efforts made by the Cabinet of London with a view to the re-establishment of peace in the East.

We remark with satisfaction that it at the same time recognizes the eagerness shown by the Imperial Cabinet to act in harmony with England.

We have never ceased to work for a general understanding of the Great Powers as the only guarantee for a pacific solution of the Eastern difficulties, and our first care has been to open ourselves to the London Cabinet.

In the month of August last year, foreseeing the dangers of the coming insurrection, and fearing to see it transformed into the Eastern question, I instructed you at Vevey to draw the attention of the English Government to it on your return to London. But at this period the Government of Her Britannic Majesty did not appear to attach to it the necessary importance. Austria, more directly interested, listened to our offers of Communicated to the Earl of Derby by Count Schouvaloff, 27th November, 1876.

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joint action for the prevention of these dangers, and came to an understanding with us to submit to the acceptance of the Great Powers measures of pacification.

The proposals contained in Count Andrassy's despatch of the 30th December (No. 456) obtained the support of the Cabinet of London, although they were considered not sufficiently efficacious, and thus was established the basis of the general concert which we desired.

But when experience had shown that the plan of reforms drawn up at Vienna was not practicable for want of the means of carrying it out, and when the Three Imperial Courts proposed to the Great Powers to develop this programme by adding thereto the sanction of the guarantees formulated in the Berlin Memorandum (No. 461), the London Cabinet considered it its duty to reject those proposals without examining them, without discussing them, and without substituting for them any other proposition (No. 462).

Thus was interrupted the work of appeasement and conciliation to which we had lent our efforts, and the consequences thercof have been terrible.

Since that time the Imperial Cabinet has neglected nothing which lay in its power to re-establish the general understanding, and it has adhered to the greater part of the propositions made by England. If certain differences have manifested themselves between the two Cabinets in the different stages of the negotiation, they are due to circumstances, and not to their intentions.

We delight to find the proof of it even in the steps upon which they have not been able to agree, namely, the military and naval measures of occupation and the six months' armistice.

Proposed Measures of Military and Naval Occupation.

As regards the first, in proposing to combine measures of military occupation with the entry of the fleets into the Bosphorus, and even to limit these measures to the maritime occupation of the Straits, if that was considered sufficient, the Imperial Cabinet has shown its entire disinterestedness and its special deference to England, naturally called upon to play a preponderant part in all maritime action.

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Proposed Armistice.

With reference to the second, the Imperial Cabinet did not consider that it had any right to impose on Servia and Montenegro a condition which tended to prolong their painful and onerous situation, without offering them any guarantee of an 'equitable and substantial peace.

If the London Cabinet had exchanged ideas with us before expressing its adhesion to this proposition, we would have frankly stated our views, and perhaps thus we might have avoided an ostensible difference of opinion, which has necessarily had the effect of diminishing the respect of the Porte for the European concert.

But these slight differences disappear before the mutual desire for an understanding which exists between the two Cabinets, as confirmed by Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State.

Proposed Conference.

For us that is the essential thing; thus we have seen with a sincere satisfaction that the London Cabinet has deviated from the strict reserve which it appeared to have imposed upon itself at the date of Lord Derby's despatch, by assuming since then the initiative in bringing forward a proposition for the convocation of a Conference and in fixing its bases and mode of procedure. We have agreed to this most willingly, and the London Cabinet may depend on our co-operation in the endeavour to arrive by agreement at a pacific solution of the present crisis.

It is because we are animated by this sincere desire for a good understanding that we think it right to indicate frankly, and without any reserve, the points on which our views differ from those of Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State with regard to the actual position of affairs.

The two Cabinets are agreed upon the necessity of restoring peace in the East, and preserving that of Europe by putting an end to the deplorable state of Turkey.

Condition of Christians.

Lord Derby recognizes, as we do, that in order to arrive at a real and lasting pacification it is necessary to improve in an

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Pacific Assurances of Russia.]

efficacious manner the condition of the Christian subjects of the Sultan by real and practical reforms.

Guarantee of Reforms.

He recognizes equally with us the insufficiency of reforms on paper, and the indispensable necessity of guarantees for their execution.

We differ only in opinion as to the means of realising this object, which is one common to all Europe.

The London Cabinet would reconcile it with the letter of stipulations concluded in former times, in another situation and with other views, without taking into account the twenty years which have elapsed, and the painful experience which they have brought.

This experience has shown on the clearest evidence that European action in Turkey has been reduced to impotency by the stipulations of 1856 (No. 264), and that the Porte takes advantage of this state of things to perpetuate the system so ruinous for her and for her Christian subjects, so disastrous to the general peace, so revolting to the sentiments of humanity and to the conscience of Christian Europe, which she has pursued for twenty years with the certainty of complete impunity.

At different conjunctures the Great Powers have had to depart from these absolute principles by intervening directly in the affairs of Turkey, notably in Syria, in the united Principalities, in Servia and Candia, and their action has obtained partial and momentary results.

But the primary causes of the evil exists permanently, and, becoming general, were bound to end sooner or later in the consequences which the Imperial Cabinet has not ceased for twenty years to point out to the foresight of Europe.

To-day the evidence of facts is incontrovertible. Never has diplomacy been more agitated about Eastern questions than during the past year. Never has Europe been more troubled, never have its peace, its interests, its security been more seriously menaced. Never have the violent deeds by which the Turks have responded to its efforts at conciliation and pacification been more odious and perpetrated in vaster proportions. Never have they more strikingly laid bare the extent and the incurable character of the evil which consumes Turkey and endangers the security of Europe.

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If the Great Powers wish to accomplish a real work, and not expose themselves to the periodical and always aggravated return of this dangerous crisis, it is impossible that they should persevere in a system which permits the germs of it to exist and develop with the inflexible logic of facts.

It is necessary to escape from this vicious circle and to recognize that the independence and integrity of Turkey must be subordinated to the guarantees demanded by humanity, the sentiments of Christian Europe, and the general peace.

The Porte has been the first to infringe the engagement which she contracted by the Treaty of 1856 with regard to her Christian subjects (No. 264). It is the right and duty of Europe to dictate to her the conditions on which alone it can on its part consent to the maintenance of the political status quo created by that Treaty, and since the Porte is incapable of fulfilling them, it is the right and duty of Europe to substitute itself for her to the extent necessary to ensure their execution.

Russia, can less than any other Power consent to renew the experiences of palliatives, of half measures, of illusory programmes, which have led to the results which are present to all, and which react on her tranquillity and internal prosperity. But if she is more directly, more sensibly interested in putting an end to it by real and adequately guaranteed improvements, she none the less considers this question one of general interest, calling for the concert of the wishes of all the Powers with a view to its pacific solution.

With reference to the personal views which she brings into the pursuit of this object, they are free from all exclusive arrière pensée. The most positive assurances in this respect have repeatedly been given by the Imperial Cabinet; your Excellency has been formally charged by my letter of the 22nd October (3rd November, No. 471) to renew them to Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State in the most categorical

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His Majesty the Emperor has confirmed them at Livadia to Lord A. Loftus, with the authority of his sovereign word (No. 471).

The Cabinet of London cannot entertain any doubt in this respect, and we hope that it will not delay to place the English nation in a position to form the same conviction by publishing the report of its Representative.

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