THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 293
sympathiser with the Christians of Turkey, and regarded the Government of that country as inimical to civilisation," l he was not prepared to undertake a crusade on their behalf in the face of Europe. At the Guildhall banquet (November 9th), however, he denounced the Sultan in very strong terms, and used threatening language, which drew an angry protest from Abdul Hamid. Lord Salisbury never made threats which he did not intend to carry out, but on the present occasion no action followed, and it is understood that another Power had promised to co-operate with Great Britain, but afterwards withdrew. It was certainly not his fault that the tedious negotiations of the next eighteen months resulted only in a scheme of paper reform which was never put into force.
In the settlement of the Cretan question he achieved more success, and the result of his unwearied patience and skilful leading of the Concert of Europe was that an autonomous regime, with Prince George of Greece as Governor, was set up in Crete at the end of 1898, and the island entered on a period of unwonted peace and prosperity. It was Lord Salisbury who reorganised the Concert as a great engine of peace
' the embryo of the only possible structure of Europe which can save civilisation from the effects of a disastrous war." At the same time he recognised its cumbrous methods, and quoted, with approbation, the remark that " the Cretans
1 The late Canon MacColl in The Spectator, August 2gth, 1903.
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