But the
Authority, who was a man of nice distinctions and genuinely
anxious to instruct us, was evidently afraid that he had
overstated things a little.
"Mind you," he said, "there'll be _something_
left--certainly the Zollverein and either the Ausgleich
or something very like it."
All of the men gave a sort of sigh of relief. It was
certainly something to have at least a sort of resemblance
or appearance of the Ausgleich among us. We felt that we
were getting on. One could see that a number of the men
were on the brink of asking questions.
"What about Rumania," asked Nelles--he is a banker and
interested in government bonds--"is this the end of it?"
"No," said the Authority, "it's not the end of Rumania,
but it _is_ the end of Rumanian Irridentismus."
That settled Nelles.
"What about the Turks?" asked Rapley.
"The Turks, or rather, I suppose it would be more proper
to say, the Osmanli, as that is no doubt what you mean?"
Rapley nodded. "Well, speaking personally, I should say
that there's no difficulty in a permanent settlement in
that quarter. If I were drawing up the terms of a treaty
of peace meant to be really lasting I should lay down
three absolute bases; the rest needn't matter"--the
Authority paused a moment and then proceeded to count
off the three conditions of peace on his fingers--"These
would be, first, the evacuation of the Sandjak; second,
an international guarantee for the Capitulations; and
third, for internal matters, an arrangement along the
lines of the original firman of Midhat Pasha.
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