TURKEY'S ARABIAN WAR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1078, 17 March 1911, Page 5

TURKEY'S ARABIAN WAR.

AEROPLANES TO BE USED. By Telegraph-Press Association-Oopyrieht Constantinople March 15. Turkey has ordered flying machines lor reconnoitring purposes in the Yemen province, where a campaign against the tribesmen' has boon .in: progress for a considerable' tinie, '" L " ••■■*■■'■■-, THE TERROR OF YEMEN. CAN THE YOUNG TURKS LAST? The dispatch of another largo body of troops to' Yemen, wrote Sir William-Ram-say in the "Manchester Guardian" of January 30,- is the worst augurv for the stability of the present Turkish Administration. The war has dragged on tor many years. The Arabs hate the lurks, and wo subject only under compulsion. The. task of holding Arabia becomes for the Turks more and more difficult m proportion to the distance'from their own country. Yemen has been Ion" a namo of horror to the villagers of Antolia, who supply the strength of the Turkish armies. Service in Yemen has been accepted as a death warrant. When 12 men went from a Turkish village to Yemen sometimes one returned, sometimes none. The patience and loyaltv with winch those poor ■ peasants obeyed the call unmurmuringly was marvellous; but it must fand a limit even among the Anatolian Turks, the most patient and obedient of races. The men died, and they had not even tho fH; 1 fl„i°, 10 ?ni° f f el T in & ftcir Sovereign in left the Turkish soldiers to the hand of Allah and the ravages of disease. A trifling skirnush occasionally, in which the Arabs rarelv stood their ground, was the only show of war and fichtine. Veryfew Turks were killed or even wounckef, by the enemy. They died from the effects ot a climate to which thev were unaccustomed. No attempt was made to teach them how to suit themselves to the heat and the surroundings of South Arabian hfe Nothing was provided to alleviate their lot They lived and died like flies, ignorant and uncared for. A Ceaseless Drain. wTi 1 ! 5 s / e m J - v ', coaM 'css drain of the lifeblood of Turkey was fatal, and as ,4lemen, and there was nothing to eain from it if they could have held it Thev introduced no improvements; thev did not civilise the people, or cultivate the SS;, M ,« anything but extort a scanty and .poverty-stricken population where they exerciwd their power. It wa" I however, a, point of honour to hold Arabia; and one can understand that the Ma i a was obliged to hold at least the northern province Hodjaz, for there Jay the holy cities Mecca and Medina. He based his authoritynrst among Ottoman Sultans to do soon his rights and duties as Khalif; and only the owner of Mecca can be recognised as Khalif. : There was nothing for him to rest upon if ho lost Mecca and the Khalifate. Hence his pet project of the Hedjaz railwaj-, which should "enable him to maintain his hold on Arabia without depending on tho Suez Canal. The Young Turks cannot well abandon the holy cities. If thf.v did so their prestige would be lost. They know that they must.hold them; and they shrink from abandoning even Yemen to the south lest;-. Mahometan feeling should regard thenvi'as unable to maintain what Abd-ul-Hamid maintained. In trying to hold both,.they are likely to lose all. .There can be no doubt that an effective maintenance of a smaller territory and better administration of a narrower empire was their wis? course. They have chosen otherwise. They have squandered and are sdu'andering money and men and all their little strength in these ruinous and distant .'wars, especially in Arabia and Albania."' The process cannot last much longer. ■•'■■■ • '■-'.'■■ ■