No. 478]                               TURKEY.                       [25 Jan., 1877.

[Close of the Constantinople Conference.]

N0.4:18.—DESPATCH from Safvet Pasha to Musurus
Pasha, complaining the Causes which led to the Close of the
Conference at Constantinople without result.^ 25th
January, 1877.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.)

M. TAmbassadeur,

I HAVE, by my telegran? of the 20 th Janu.ary, informed you
briefly in what manner the Conference closed.

It is now necessary for me to submit to you a faithful
account of the negotiations which have just terminated in so re¬
grettable a manner, and of the sincere and loyal efforts which
the Imperial Government has not ceased to make to satisfy the
wishes of Europe rj'lthout wounding the feelings of the nation,
and betraying oar duties towards the Sovereign and the
country.

When, after the second Armistice granted to Servia and to
Montenegro, England took the initiative in proposing the meet¬
ing of a Conference at Constantinople (No. 472), you are
aware, M. I'Ambassadeur, that the Sublime Porte, in giving its
adherence to this proposal, was careful to require that the labours
of the Conference should be on the basis of the English pro¬
gramme, as communicated to us by Sir Henry Elliot.

The Imperial Government, moreover, anxious to put beyond
all possibility of attack the independence of its internal ad¬
ministration, recorded in the Treaty of Paris (No. 264),
formally called attention again to this principle, tiusting more¬
over on this point to the explicit assurances of Article I of the
English programme itself, and to the loyalty of the Guarantee¬
ing Powers.

It Vv^as under such circumstances that the Conference met at
Constantinople with the consent of the Sublime Porte (No. 477).
But important as it was from the very beginning so to shape the
deliberations of the Conference that they might agree with the
bases which had been agreed upon by common consent, and to
retain for the English programme the sense in which it liael been
proposed and accepted, the more is it to bo regretted that the
Delegates of the Powers should have thought fit to hold amongst

^ Communicated to the Earl of Derby by Musurus Pashq-. 8th February,
1877.

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