File No. 871/28–29.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
The undersigned, minister for foreign affairs, had the honor to
receive with its inclosure the note which his excellency the
ambassador of ------ kindly
[Page 340]
sent him on July 13, 1909, to inform him of certain decisions
made by his Government in agreement with the cabinets of London,
Paris, Rome, and St. Petersburg on the subject of Crete.
The Sublime Porte sincerely thanks the four powers for the assurances
which they are kind enough to give, not only confirming once more
the rights of His Majesty the Sultan on the island but also
guaranteeing the protection of the goods and lives of the
Mohammendan population, and it hastens to accept the same. It feels
sure that this protection will be extended also to their civic
rights.
The Sublime Porte nevertheless considers it its duty to make certain
reservations concerning the expression “supreme rights” used in this
note, which it considers equivalent to that of “sovereign
rights.”
Furthermore, the Imperial Government feels compelled to observe that
the proposal previously made by it for opening negotiations with the
cabinets of the four powers to regulate henceforth the form and
conditions of autonomy which it would be best to grant to the island
remains the sole and natural solution of the present
difficulties.
In fact, the actual condition of affairs on the island is not only a
grave infringement on the sovereign rights of His Imperial Majesty
the Sultan, rights which the four powers in all their declarations,
and especially in the collective note of October 4, 1898, formally
promised to cause to be respected, but it constitutes at the same
time an attack on the elementary principles of public law. A third
State, which has no claim and no right to authority over Crete, has
been brought into the administration of the island in a way
distinctly threatening to the rights of the Sublime Porte, creating
thus a situation the continuation of which the Imperial Government
can by no means allow.
Consequently it hopes that the four powers, from their feelings of
high equity and their ancient friendship for the Ottoman State, will
not fail to recognize the reasonableness of these considerations and
will endeavor with firmness to cause to disappear all trace of the
interference of the third State in question from the affairs of the
island, which will enable the Sublime Porte to consider the fixing
of an early date for pourparlers with a view to the establishment of
an autonomous administration in the island on the basis of Ottoman
sovereignty.
The undersigned would thank his excellency to kindly inform his
Government of the preceding, and seizes this occasion, etc.,
