This is what, in imploring the magnanimous interposition of your Majesty, we venture to ask of the powerful monarchs of the three Great Powers.
We sign ourselves, etc.
The Deputies of the Section of Canéa, Heraclim,
Rethymne, etc.
Canea, May 15, 1866.
[Translation.]
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTION TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE ISLAND OF CRETE, DATED 2 REBI-UL-EVEL, 1283 (JULY 15, 1866).
Your Excellency's despatches, with their enclosures, forwarded through Kadri Bey on his return from an official mission to Crete, have arrived, and his report on the state of affairs, as witnessed by him in that island, has been thoroughly understood.
It was hoped and expected that the non-Mussulman inhabitants, who had assembled together in several districts of the province, would have listened to the benignant and paternal exhortations of the Imperial Government; that they would have broken up these assemblies, and, showing obedience and submission to authority, have returned to their own homes. And the reluctance of the Porte up to the present moment to inflict the punishment due to their offences has been based upon this expectation. But it appears, on the contrary, that although these persons have made a show of breaking up their meetings, yet they have not abandoned their religious proceedings; and it is evident that at the present time they are still continuing in the course of excitement and commotion. Now, according to the sense of the petitions which have reached the Porte on the part of these persons, both at the commencement of the affair and subsequently, the object of these assemblies was to obtain the abolition of certain duties on such articles as tobacco, snuff, salt, and stamps; the facilitating of the means of communication in the island; reform in the election of the Medjliss or Demogerondia; the prevention of the evil practice of wearing arms; the formation of schools, hospitals, and such like institutions.