XV - THE IONIAN ISLANDS

Summary

TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY NEWS.”

Sir,—The revolution by which Greece recovers her freedom will render more odious and probably more difficult than ever our retention of the Ionian Islands. So evident is this, that the journals which, when the question was first mooted in your columns, warned “all Ionians,” in Oriental style, that “England would not part with her transmarine possessions,” now give the honours of large type to correspondents who advocate the annexation of the Islands to Greece. That measure would be in accordance with the will of the Ionian people, often expressed through constitutional organs, the authority of which we have ourselves allowed.

At the time when the Islands were placed under our protectorate, Greece was still a part of the Turkish empire. Having no nation with which to unite, and being incapable of standing by themselves, these small communities were entrusted by the Council of the Great Powers to our keeping. Our trust has been honourably and faithfully discharged, as the Ionians themselves, when launched into the stormy sea of Greek independence, will perhaps have reason wistfully to confess. But its object has been at an end since, with our sympathy and by our assistance, Greece has become a nation; and those who have counselled England forcibly or surreptitiously to turn a trust into a “possession,” have counselled their country to her dishonour.