The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1909. DISTURBED TURKEY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 487, 21 April 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1909. DISTURBED TURKEY.

The latest cablo newa • from Turkey ' shows that the succcss of the sudden coup which overturned tho authority of the Young Turkey Party is not yet' made absolute, ( anc( that the wily Sultan, who,was suspected to be at tho back of the revolution, has less reason 1 to be pleased with his position than lie appeared to have a few days ago. Although the rule of the Young Turkey Party did not last'a year, and important portions of their policyreligious toleration and the submergence, of the, smaller nationalities in l a. Bingle and united Ottoman Empire—must have been distasteful to largo sections of opinion, it is evident that-the experience of freedom and just government has made its impression on the Turks, and that a very large proportion of the army and the population are not prepared to submit, without a struggle, : to a revolution which may spoil return to tho old conditions of tyranny and repression. ' It" is stated that the Committee of the Young Turkey Party are pursuing V firm; and moderate plans, being, anxious to avoid civil" war and to prevent foreign intervention. The Party are securing large support in their endeavour to regain .authority and safeguard , the Constitution j a formidable army overawes Stamboul, and the Liberal > Union, the opponents of : the centralisation policy, who were suspected of complicity in the recent revolution, and whose leader isVthb Acting-President of the new Council, are stated to have, separated from the reactionaries -'in-', 'revulsion from, their brutalities. Tho political upheaval at the centre of the Empire has been followed by those disturbances and : massacres in its'outlying portions, which, unfortunately, a,re fairly familiar events in Turkey. Moslems, who were, embracing thok Christian ueigbhauMia a'aovr^CaXv

vour 'of charity and toleratibn 'a few weeks ago, are cutting their "throats now witbi-equal zest. Excesses of this kind, in a period of disorder, are only to be expected amongst a people: whom several centuries of European contact have failed to make wholly civilised. "The -Turks never change," was'the, reason given by ..a Kussian statesman for refusing to support a certain proposal of Turkish reform, but in spite of minor exhibitions of the old spirit, it would, seem that they may be changing now in no small degree/ Having enjoyed, for /a brief period, the security and liberty afforded by a constitutional, Government,- ..they are : - determined, to. > great J'extent, ..not to. allow their Empire- to-fall back into the old despotism:; and darkness.- For the sake of . Europe, throughout which a 1 small blaze might find inflammable material and spread at any time, it is to be hoped that the Young Turkey Party will be able to re-settle their distressed country without the. risk of foreign intervention, and that risk will be .reduced if the settlement can be effected speedily.