Before this utterance Disraeli had stated that the Convention’s object was not only to confirm “tranquillity and order,” but to safeguard India. “We have a substantial interest in the East; it is a commanding interest, and its behest must be obeyed.”--“In taking Cyprus,” he continued, “the movement is not Mediterranean, it is Indian;” and, speaking of Russia’s temptation to profit by a state of things which tended to resolve the societies of Asia Minor and the countries beyond into the anarchy of original elements, he used the familiar words: “... _There is no reason for these constant wars, or fears of wars between Russia and England._ Before the circumstances which led to the recent disastrous war, when none of those events which we have seen agitating the world had occurred, and when we were speaking in another place of the conduct of Russia in Central Asia, _I vindicated that conduct, which I thought was unjustly attacked, and I said then, what I repeat now, there is room enough for Russia and England in Asia_.” On the other hand, in another speech alluding to Austria’s trusteeship of Bosnia, he said it permitted us to check, “... I should hope for ever, that Pan-Slavist confederacy and conspiracy which has already proved so disadvantageous to the happiness of the world.” Nobody acquainted with Austria’s desire for Salonica, Italy’s dread of that possibility, and the fear of one at any rate of these powers lest Greece should absorb Albania, can fail to grasp the relevance of this hope.