Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/43

This page has been validated.
THE CONVENTION OF 1881.
27

to an immediate change of ministry, and was treated by the Powers as an acceptance, in a collective note, addressed on the 19th April to the Porte, and on the 20th to Greece[1].

Another month was spent in discussions on questions of detail, such as the proportion of the Ottoman debt which ought to be undertaken by Greece in respect of Thessaly, Vakouf, and estates belonging to government in the ceded territory, and guarantees for the Mussulman population there. Turkey, as usual, asked for much more than she was likely to get, but she got something, The Convention of 24th May, 1881.and a Convention carrying out the cession was signed at Constantinople on 24th May and ratified on 14th June by the representatives of the Porte and the Great Powers[2]. A subsidiary Turko-Greek Convention was signed, as was provided in the principal Convention, at the same place on 2nd July[3].

Delimitation.On 6th July the Greek troops crossed the old frontier line, and, section by section, under the careful supervision of military officers delegated by the Powers, in accordance with the Act annexed to the Convention, the territory was peaceably handed over to its new masters. The Delimitation Commission, mentioned in Article 1 of the Convention, had been at work in the meantime, and its final Protocol was signed at Constantinople on 28th November, 1881; the Turks signing under reserve as to four points which they objected to surrender to Greece, viz. Karalik-Dervend, Nezeros, or Analypsis, Kritzovali, and Gounitza[4]. In August, 1882, some fighting occurred between the Ottoman and Greek troops in the neighbourhood of Karalik-Dervend, but an armistice was concluded between them on 6th September, and the difficulty was settled by a Protocol, signed on 9th November, by the Commissioners of both parties, accepting the frontier as it had been laid down by the international Commission.

  1. Parl. Papers, 1881, Greece, No. 6.
  2. Parl. Papers, 1881, Greece, No. 7; N. R. G., 2me Série, vi, 753; q. v. infra, Texts, No. XII.
  3. Parl. Papers, 1882, Greece, No. 2; N. R. G., 2me Série, viii, 6.
  4. Parl. Papers, 1882, Greece, No. 1; N. R. G. u. s. p. 44.