From the time of the massacre of 1895, Gladstone demanded that the English government, albeit alone, take military intervention in order to stop these horrible crimes. He addressed the government with these words: "When this great nation has justice on its side, it does not need to fear anything else." 266
The majority of the members of the Labour party, following the lead of Gladstone, criticised their party leader, Lord Salisbury, for not having attacked the conservative government with a stronger tone in this matter, finally forcing him to give up his political career. 267
Despite the indifference and at times even aggressive position of the other major powers, who had no qualms about acting in accordance with a government perpetrating human rights crimes, Gladstone demanded that the British government act as he himself had in 1880, when England, by threatening to land forces in Izmir and confiscate its harbour customs, forced the Ottoman government to respect its duties concerning the borders of Montenegro. 268
In his famous speech in Liverpool on September 21, 1896, 269 Gladstone described the position which the English government should take: "Break relations with the sultan and make a decision about a direct intervention. Proclaim to the entire world that England is firmly determined to not have any profits in this intervention and is only keen on stopping the inhumane actions towards the Armenians and getting the reforms implemented." In reply to those who claimed that this action could bring risk of a war against an alliance of other European major powers, he insisted that England should take the first step in this matter until the threat of war was clear, and then, should she be forced to back down, in other words, if the threat was ever realised, like France had done in 1840 in the matter of Syria, she should surrender. This would be capitulating with honour intact and without slander to the country's reputation or increment to its power, and with the conscience that they had done everything in their power regarding this issue, that justice, wisdom and logic had been on their side. 270
Lord Salisbury refused to go that far without European cooperation; his cautiousness, however, was understandable. The English historian, G. Hollandrose, wrote: "It is to judge harshly if we proclaim that England is the only European power which should be held responsible for having ignored the terrifying massacres of 1895-1896 and the horrible situation in Macedonia. All the powers which signed the Berlin Treaty are responsible for these catastrophes, but in regard to the events in Armenia one should at least say that the government which signed the Cyprus Treaty is doubly responsible." 271
England, between 1894 and 1896, was the only European major power to intervene to the advantage of the Armenians, and it was mostly due to the attitude of the other major powers that the English could not bring the massacres to an end and implement the reforms. 272
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