The Dominion. MONDAY. NOVEMBER 4, 1912. THE FATE OF THE TURK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1588, 4 November 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY. NOVEMBER 4, 1912. THE FATE OF THE TURK.

' _ One of to-day's messages/ arriving in a highly skeletonised .form, suggests that London is "horrified" hy the latest news from the seat of war. Whether it is that the shocking :de- . tails of the fighting have disturbed the English people, or the prospect of a ruined Turkey, one cannot judge. It has long been clearly the policy of Britain to uphold ■ the Turks, a,nd nowadays the British people -aro (and, generally, it is fortunate that they arc) as a whole loyal to the Foreign Oflice, So, if rt suits British policy to preserve Turkey from' ruin, British opinion ■will be against the Balkan allies. Yet it is difficult to believe that the deep mark left upon English opinion ; by tho famous atrocities of 36 years ago has been erased by time. The year 1576 was the year which saw the issue of Mr. Gladstone's remarkable pamphlet, Bulgarian \Horrars, and the Question, of the East—one oi the most eloquent and effective things that ever issued from a British printing press. Towards the end of 18.75 (twenty years after the Crimean war), the Sultan's treatment of his Christian subjects forced itself into the front of the European stago, and a Note circulated by "Aus-tria-Hungarv was accepted by the Porte and the Powers. It .wits proposed that Turkey should establish complete religious liberty in the provinces, abolish tax farming, and join in,a Commission to see that promised reforms Were carried out. The Porto accepted the Note, but-con-tinued its old policy of oppression, so that at last in June, 1876, Servia and Montenegro declared war, but without any success: Turkey crushed them in three months.

Meanwhile England was learning the full details of the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, thanks tb Mr. (now Sir) Edwin Pears, and by September England was -horrified, to such purpose that the Government had to . consider armed interference to prevent further horrors. Mr. Gladstone then issued his pamphlet, and it is a. striking commentary upon the sameness of Turkey that most people will think to-day in the spirit of this passage:

An old servant of the Crown and State, I ontreat my countrymen, upon whom far moro than perhaps any othor people of Europe it depends, to require and to insist that our. Government, which has been working in one direction, shall work in the other, and shall apply all its vigour to concur with the other States of Europein obtaihing the extinction of tho Turkish executive power in Bulgaria, Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in tho only possible mftnfler. namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their Mudirs, their Bimbashis and their Yuzbashis, their Kaiinakams nnd their Pashas, one and all, bag and baggage, shall. -1 hope, clear put from tli6 province tfiey have desolated and profaned.

Mr. Gladstone followed up his pamphlet on the platform, and Mr. Walter Baring's report, ordered by the Government, fully confirmed all the newspaper accounts of tho terrible happenings in Bulgaria. European opinion, as well as English opinion, turned against the . Porte, but unhappily Eussia was then "the enemy" in the minds of most British people. Had it not bees so. the

Near East problem would have been settled long ago. The British Government, or rather the Prime Min. ister, was still so favourable to Turkey as to take up an attitude that threatened a war with Russia. Then a very remarkable declaration of British opinion took place in the shape of a public anti-Turkish meetiiig in London, presided over by the Duke of Westminster and Loud Shaftesbury. Mn. Gladstone was the principal spoakor. Carlyle and Froube wrote their sympathy. Amongst the conveners wore William Morris, Eusicin, and Browning. Speeches were delivered by the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Mackaenebs), Sir _ Henry Havklock (the Indian soldier), Canon Liddon, Freeman, the historian, and Professor Favsett, _ International negotiations, leading to a false declaration by Turkey that a free Turkish Constitution would be established, led into a Russo-Turkish war.

And ; _ to-dfty the griovanccs •of the Christians in the Balkan peninsula aro what they wore thirty-Six years ago. Stton after Russia had declared war, Gladstone delivered a memorable speech in the House, in which, Utter bewailing the fact that Russia had been left to defend Binglc-handod the outrages on Christendom, he predicted the fall of the Ottoman Empire. "You talk to me," he said, of_ the established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. I appeal to an established _ tradition older, nobler far—-a tradition ; not which disregards British interests, but which teachers you to seek the promotion of these interests in obeying the dictates of honour and Justice." And he concluded by saying: ''I believe that the knell of Turkish tyranny in these provinces his sounded. So far as human eyes can judge, it is about to be destroyed* The destruction may not come in the way. or by the meatus wo would choose; but come from what hands .it may, I am persuaded that it will be accepted as a boon by dom and by the world. England is a; more sophisticated England now than it was then:/the eventß of the past month, which would forty years ago have produced crisis after crisis in British polities, have left England silentj puzzled, and expectant. The latest cables make >it clear enough that' Turkey's power is broken past all repair; and oiie thing is certain, that whatever .follows—and a European war is one Of .the Balkan States will he henceforth independent of Turkish misrule.