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Εισαγωγικό Σημειώμα
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Λονδίνο, 1/13 Οκτωβρίου 1825
Επίσημη επιστολή του Βρετανού Υπουργού Εξωτερικών George Canning προς τον Θεόδωρο Κολοκοτρώνη και τον Ανδρέα Μιαούλη με την οποία απαντά στο αίτημα προστασίας που είχαν υποβάλει οι Έλληνες τον Ιούλιο του 1825. Στο αρχείο σώζεται η μετάφρασή της από το χέρι του Νικόλαου Δραγούμη η οποία έχει δημοσιευτεί στα Υπομνήματα (βλ. σχετικό). Ο Υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Μεγάλης Βρετανίας αναφέρεται στην επιστολή που έλαβε μέσω του Ανδρέα Μιαούλη, δηλαδή στο αίτημα προστασίας προς τη βρετανική κυβέρνηση. Απαντά «θετικῶς» στο αίτημα, αλλά τονίζει πως η βρετανική κυβέρνηση από την αρχή των εχθροπραξιών τήρησε αυστηρή ουδετερότητα. Δηλώνει ρητά πως δεν επιθυμεί η Βρετανία πόλεμο με την Υψηλή Πύλη, αφού δεν έχει δοθεί παραβιαστεί καμία συνθήκη, και επισημαίνει πως υπεράσπιση της Ελλάδας σημαίνει και «οἰκονομικήν, πολιτικήν καί στρατιωτικήν βοήθειαν». Τέλος, δηλώνει πως θα η Βρετανία θα εξακολουθήσει να τηρεί αυστηρή ουδετερότητα και θα επιχειρεί να επιτύχει την ειρήνευση με μία επωφελή συνθήκη. Για την υποδοχή της επιστολής από τους Έλληνες βλ. Χαρ. Βλαχόπουλος, Επιτροπή Ζακύνθου, σ. 381 κ.εξ.
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Κείμενο
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Foreign Office
October 13th, 1825
Gentlemen,
I have received through the hands of Captain Miaulis, the letter which you did me the honour to address to me dated the 28th of July, accompanying a manifesto which you request me to lay before the King my Master. |
As a duplicate of this manifesto (accompanied with a letter from M. Colocotroni) reached me some time ago, through the Government of the Ionian Islands; the matter of it had already been fully considered by His Majesty’s Government, before Captain Miaulis’s arrival.
I am therefore prepared at once to return to you a definitive answer upon it. |
The British Government, from the beginning of the present hostilities between the Ottoman Porte and the Greeks, has proclaimed and observed a strict and impartial neutrality. Great Britain has long been connected with the Porte by treaties. She has not to complain of any violation by the Porte of those treaties; under the faith of which, the persons, | the property, and the commercial interests of large bodies of His Majesty’s subjects are protected, within the Ottoman dominions.
Under such circumstances, it does not appear to the British Government to be consistent with good faith, on their part, or with the principles of that law by which the proceedings of nations towards each other | are regulated, and the peace of the world is maintained, to make war upon the Porte which has given to the British Government no just cause of quarrel.
That to accept the offer conveyed in the manifesto which you have done me the honour to transmit to me, would be in effect, to make war upon the Porte, | no rational man can doubt for a moment.
It would be the height of baseness as well as of folly in any Power to assume to itself the offered Protectorate of Greece, and not to afford to Greece, at the same time, financial, political, and military aid to the utmost extent to which it could afford them.
The proposal, therefore, | made to this country is not only to declare war against the Porte but to take upon itself the whole burden of that war, and to bind itself not to lay down its arms until Greece shall be established in independence.
It is reasonable to hope that a proposal wholly unsought, and involving such momentous consequences, may be declined (however flattering the motives | in which it may have originated), not only without offence to those who tender it, but without any impeachment of the sincerity of those assurances which I have, on a former occasion, conveyed to the Greek Provisional Government.
Determined as the British Government is to preserve unaltered the neutrality which it has so repeatedly declared, it would gladly avail itself of any opportunity, which the events of | war, or the relenting hostility of either belligerent may open, of contributing by its good offices to the termination of a struggle which has already cost so much blood, by an arrangement in which the interests and honour of both parties might be saved.
I have the honour to be Gentlemen,
your most obedient humble servant
George Canning
[Ἐπιγραφὴ διεύθυνσης, στὴν πρώτη σελίδα:]
Messrs. Colocotroni and Miaulis
[Ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου:]
Τοῦ Κάνιγκος
10/25
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