THE CRETAN QUESTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2598, 4 September 1909, Page 5

THE CRETAN QUESTION.

SATISFACTORY ASSURANCES BY CRETANS. United Press Association —Copyright (Received September 4, 1 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 3. Cretan assurances respecting the Greek flag promise the immediate settlement of the difficulty, and the withdrawal of the international forces has recommenced. Some have already gone abroad. In discussing the Cretan question, the “Temps,” of Paris, maintains that the substitution of naval surveillance (exemplified by the placing of station--aries in Cretan waters by the Powers) for land garrisons, does not amount to any substantial change in the situation. If it was imprudent to withdraw the garrisons it would have been equally so to irritate the Cretans by breaking a pledge given only a year ago. The writer acquits Great Britain of playing a double game. She has “only sought to compromise contrary tendencies. She has no interest in estranging the Turks, and has only tried to give the Cretans something, and not to make them rise against Turkey.” After stating that M. Pidhon (the French Minister for Foreign Affairs) has never differed from Sir Edward Grey in his opinion of the situation, the “Temps” reminds the Cretans that they have obtained essential autonomy, and that the Turks are not going to lose Crete. They would, therefore, do well to practice moderation and “not demand the revision of a regime which they have acknowledged for the last ten years, and which they accepted on the morrow of a successful war.”