Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/54

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38
GREECE: TEXTS.

sinking fund of such instalments of the loan as may have been raised under the guarantee of the three Courts, the first revenues of the State, in such manner that the actual receipts of the Greek Treasury shall be devoted, first of all, to the payment of the said interest and sinking fund, and shall not be employed for any other purpose, until those payments on account of the instalments of the loan raised under the guarantee of the three Courts, shall have been completely secured for the current year[1].

The Diplomatic Representatives of the three Courts in Greece shall be specially charged to watch over the fulfilment of the last-mentioned stipulation.

Compensation to the PortArt. XIII. In case a pecuniary compensation in favour of the Ottoman Porte should result from the negotiations which the three Courts have already opened at Constantinople for the definite settlement of the limits of Greece, it is understood that the amount of such compensation shall he defrayed out of the proceeds of the loan which forms the subject of the preceding Article[2].
  1. Such sums as were necessary for the due payment of the interest and sinking fund of the whole loan of 60,000,000 fr. were duly provided by the Powers, in a series of annual payments ending in 1871. The total amount thus paid by Great Britain being £1,351,071 8s. 0d. The repayments by Greece are still greatly in arrear. In 1847 she paid something over £23,000, and in 1848 something over £7000. In 1857 a commission of representatives of the Powers investigated the state of the finances of the country, and reported on 24th May, 1859 (Parl. Papers, i860), recommending that Greece should be required to make an annual payment to the three Powers of 900,000 fr. (£36,000). The representatives of those Powers at Athens accordingly announced to the Greek Government in the following year that 'the three protecting Powers have in concert, with all due regard to the wants of the State, fixed the minimum of the sum to be paid at first by Greece towards meeting the charges on the loan, at 900,000 fr.; that sum to be afterwards increased in proportion to the improved state of the Greek finances, at periods to be afterwards determined when the question respecting the sinking fund shall be arranged.' This temporary arrangement, in lieu of the provisions of the Treaty, was accepted by the Greek Government in a note dated 21st June, 1860. Since that date Greece has paid to Great Britain nearly £8000 annually. By the end of 1883 her total repayments amounted to £193,329 0s. 6d. (see the account of moneys paid and received on account of the Greek loan, presented to Parliament in February, 1884); in addition to which she is also credited with £76,000 being the amount relinquished in her favour by Great Britain, at the rate of £4000 per annum, under the provisions of Art. 6 of the Treaty of 29th March, 1864 (Texts, No. IX), out of the £12,000 per annum payable to that Power under the arrangement of 1860.
  2. Such a compensation, to the extent of 40,000,000 Turkish piastres, was