In these last days of the Parliamentary Session the two most interesting events, after the struggle over the Irish Land Bill, have been the appointment of the Committee of Enquiry into the proceedings of the Chartered Company and the Jameson Raid, and a statement by Mr. Curzon, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on the subject of Britain's attitude on the Cretan question. The chief squabble over the appointment of the South African Committee arose out of the fact that no member of the Parnellite party had been nominated. But a party which only numbers twelve members can scarcely expect to have a representative as a matter of course in a Committee of fifteen members, and the malcontents received very little support until they proposed the substitution of Mr. John Redmond for Mr, Labouchere. Then the Parnellites received the support of a little band of Conservatives who consider that Mr. Labouchere's violent pronouncementson the subject of the Chartered Company have disqualified him from sitting in a quasi-indic mittee before whom the Company will appear as defendants. But even then they could muster only forty-eight votes. Itis ofcourseimpossibleto form a Committee all the members of which are entirely unprejudiced: and the next Dest thing is to get a Committee in which, afar as possible, every shade of opinion is represented. Besides, no doubt _most of the members felt that the proceedings of the Committee would be far livelier and more interesting if Mr. Labouchere had a seat on it. crete.
With regard to the Cretan question, Mr. Curzon's statement has given only qualified satisfaction to the Opposition. In view of the uncompromising way in which the Standard has of late championed the cause of the Cretan insurgents and practically declared for a total abandonment of England's traditional policy of upholding the integrity of Turkey, it was hoped that Mr. Curzon's statement of the policy of Lord Salisbury's Government would be much more strongly anti-Turkish than it proved to be. Curzon declared that the Government remained neutral. They would not join in a blockade of Crete on behalf of the Porte in order to put down the insurrection, but on the other hand they would do nothing to countenance the insurrection. On the whole however, in spite of the expressed discontent of the Liberal leaders, this is as far as they have right to expect the Government to go. Lord Salisbury is evidently in favour of a grant of autonomy to Crete, though not of its annexation to Greece; but he recognised the danger of isolated action, and unfortunately the report that Russia had agreed to act with England in bringing pressure to bear on Turkey on behalf of the oppressed Cretans and Armenians proves to be unfounded. There is, however, undoubtedly a large party both in this country and in Russia which would rejoice to see a cordial understanding arrived at between the two countries, and such an achievement ought not to be beyond the reach of our diplomatists.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.