Note 3 — Chapter XXIV · STATISTICAL AND POLITICAL

The statistics of population were supplied by the Patriarch Nerses to Mr. Goschen. They may be found in Blue-book, Turkey, No. 23, 1880, p. 274. Mr. Goschen, writing to Lord Granville on 15th July 1880, says: “My strong feeling is that the Powers cannot commit themselves to any plan until they know the real facts about the population. It would not do to build on a mistaken basis, and I feel convinced that no one has sure ground. The Patriarch’s figures are as exaggerated as those of the Porte on the other side. Again, how to deal with the nomad Kurds? All must depend on the physical force of the two different races and religions. If the Armenians should be in a minority it will be dangerous to give them the same institutions which we should give if they were in a majority, dangerous to themselves” (Blue-book, Turkey, No. 6, 1881, p. 16). And, again, in another despatch of 23rd July: “With regard to the actual project of reforms, the letter of the Patriarch is conceived in such vague phrases that but little advantage is to be derived from it in elucidating the problem to be solved” (ibid. p. 20). ↑