THE GREAT ASSASSIN AND THE GREATER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 9

THE GREAT ASSASSIN AND THE GREATER

THE KAISER AND THE SULTAN AS { ARTISTS IN SLAUGHTER

JS£ A PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER

[Written, for The Dominion.]

these shall loathing eyes behold The Neros.of our time."

Abdul Hamid, the late Sultan of Turkey, on account of the wholesale, murders he caused, was spoken of as the Great Assassin, and ho won for himself ' tlje designation of Abdul the Damned. iThe Sultan was a despot,, and in the exercise of his power he committed these . crimes, and the guilt of the awful record of bloodsheriding rests on liini. ( The German Kaiser, William 11, possesses., as supremo Lead of his army, the despotic power of an Oriental tyrant, and he has used that power in originat- * ing or sanctioning a policy of massacre .which already forms one of the o!ackesfc pages in, human history. An English ■ jury has found him \guilty of ■"jvholesale murder,"' and it is quite evident that Germany has produced a greater assassin that the Great Assassin of Turkey. The Kaiser made the personal acquaintance of Abdul Hamid in 1889, and long before that year the .whole civilised world knew that the guilt of the slaughter of tens of thousands of his unoifensivo and innocent 'Christian subjects-ill Armenia stained tho soui of the Sultan, -and yet the . Kaiser, a reputedly Christian King, had no difficulty in officially visiting 'his infamous ruler in, Constantinople,, and in accepting his hospitality. From that time Kaiser William coilld speak about ' "my friend the Sultan," and he did his best to make himself a pleasing person to the Turkish people. The "Young Turkey" party drove the execrated Ab3uJ from the throne, but they have made the late Sultan's friend their friend, and to-day they have ranged themselves on his side in a war which .ha brought about for the purpose of gratifying his insane lust for Empire expansion. "Whom . the gods . destroy they first make mad," and perhaps the day has come when the Turks that have (• cursed for more than five hundred years some of the fairest and most fertile, parts of Europe, will receive as a' governing Power the complete and utter destruction which for ages they have deserved. This friendship of Sultan and Kaiser, this alliance of Turk and Teuton, presents a strange ' and surprising spectacle. What is there in common between a professedly Christian King and an Oriental ruler like 'Abdul Hamid? What is there in.common between "cultured" Germany and ■barbaric Turkey? On the surface there is nothing in-common, but under ' the surface there is. much in common. The ■ Christianity and culture of the Kaiser and his war lords is a thin veneer that covers a policy of government common to Sultan and Kaiser, Turk and Teuton. The Turk in history has sought to found his Empire and extend his Empire and maintain his Empire by a policy of brute force, and the use of the "mailed fist," and this is the policy of a degenerate Kaiser and a degenerate Germany of today. The Sultan was a despot, and bis method of • government by "blood and iron." The Kaiser is a despot and his policy is to extend his Empire end maintain his Empire • by "blood and iron." The Kaiser's Christianity and culture, when viewed in the light of his butcheries in' innocent and inoffensive Belgium, his wholesale assassinations on the sea, his use of dum-dum bullets and poisoned gas in war, is seen to be a ghastly hypocrisy. The policy of government by "blood and iron" blinded the moral views of Abdul Hamid, and made him the Great Assassin, and this_ same policy has blinded the moral vision of the Kaiser, and made him the Greater 'Assassin, and the most widely execrated being on ,the whole earth. . THE SULTAN'B WICY OF BLOOD AND IRON. The fruits of the Sultan's policy of , blood and iron in governing his people makes one of tie most sickening stones in human history. It is' said that his mother was a Christian, and yet his whole career was marked by_ the most ferocious hatred of the Christians in his ■Empire. He made a loud profession of religion, and called himself the Shadow of God on Earth; the'successor of the 'Apostle of the Lord of the Universe"; 'and yet he turned some of the fairest places on earth into scenes of unspeakable horror. The lowest hell in Dante'B 'Inferno was a heaven compared to Armenia during the massacres instigated by the Sultan in 1894. Lord Hosebery said when the story of the Sultan's murders reached him in 1895, "I am haunted by the horrors of Asia Minor." Mr. E. J. Dillon wrote in the same year regarding the Sultan's crimes a 6 follows:— • ' "In Armenia, a wretched, heart-, broken mother, wrung to frenzy by teller soul-scaring anguish, accounted to her neighbours for the horrors that were spread over her people and her country by the startling ' theory that God Himself bad gone mad, and that maniacs and demons incarnate were stalking about the world." The superior thrift and industry by Christian subjects of. the Sultan enabled them to become wealthier than tho Moslems, ana a traditional feeling that it was a right thing to plunder Christians made robbery an incitement among the Saltan's co-religionists to massacre Christians, and this, coupled with religious fanaticism,' led to perpetrations of nearly evory crime under the sun. The Sultan used also the massacres to tnake his throne more secure by reduc- ■ ing the Christian population, and the murders were carefully organised by the' Sultan's agents, who in the large - mosques of the condemned regions harangued the Moslems as to their duty to the Sujtan, and urged' tbem to slaughter and pillage. From a British Blue Book of 1896 the following sample of the work of these fiends may_ be taken. Tho story is told by . tho British iVicerConsul of Constantinople, and the place was Durfa (the ancient Edessa), in Armenia: — "In October, 1890, the Armenians -Who lived in a quarter of the town by themselves were carefully disarmed. The water supply was cut off, and no food ■was allowed to outer the quarter after the end of October. The sending out oi letters or telegrams was prohibited. The Armenians thus besieged, opened ■wells, caught, rain water, and managed' ■to secure a scanty supply of food. On December 28 tho massar.ro began, and soldiers and mob entered the quarter and began a Tnassaere of males of a pertain age. The houses were plundered and women cut down who sought to protect their relations. A sheik ordered as many stalwart Armenian-i as his followerci could find to he hrnnzht to him. He laid them on their back to the number of 100, and, reciting verses ' or the Koran, he cut their throats after tlio Mecca rite of p.Krificing sheap. The Cathedral was tilled with refugees to the number of 3000. On Sunday morning the mob fired through the windows, smashed tlie doors, and rushed in ?nd killed all on tho gronnd floor. The Church treasures were stolen and Christ ■was called upon to prove Himself prontor fkan Mahomet.' A fae was kindled tq.

destroy the women and children in the gallery. Thirty tins of kerosene were poured on the floor. Woman and children perished. In March, 1896, the stench of the charred human remains made the church unbearable."

The foregoing is only a mild.sample of .the infernal haadywork of the Kaiser's "friend." The character of the Great Assassin may be given in the words of Sir William Ramsay:—

"Abdul Hamid has a fair claim to rank among the foulest destroyers of the human race that ever stained the pages of history. Responsible for half a million deaths, a still larger number who have suffered permanently from destitution, torture, mutilation, loss of pioperty, of honour, etc. He can vie with Mongols liko Tamarlane.- . . . Not one spark of any grand or great quality illumined his life or ennobled' his fall."

And Kaiser William accepted the hos-' pitality and welcomed the friendship of this man! Joseph Parker, of Citv Temple fame, viewed this man with other eyes 'tnan those of the Kaiser. •- Viewing Abdul Hamid as a malignant •- murderer on a throne, i he prayed ''God 6 damn the Sultan I" This strange friendc ship was inspired by selfishness and j self-interest on bot'j sides, and was destitute of every quality that .'makes real 0 friendship possible. £ THE KAISER'S POLICY OF "BLOOD ; >, ■ AND IRON." : , ' The Kaiser, as a young man' looking ' forward to ascending the throne of an '' Empire, - had two wayß of governing a ~ nation before him, and he had to make 0 a choice. He had the way of Christian ~ Liberalism, which was championed by v his father, Frederick the Good, • had the way of "blood and iron " which Bismarck had bound to Prussia as by. 1 fetters of steel. He spumed the good 1 and chose the evil. His father's way of a government was that described by leng nyson:—- | 9 Occasion by the hand, and mak® : Tie bounds of freedom wider yet \ Bv shaping 6ome august decree 1 ■ Which kept his throne unshaken stilt, 3 Broad-based upon his peoples will. 1 This enlightened . Christian policy the Kaiser spurned, and chose the policy of } basing his government on the sword. ; Bismarck began his public career by dec daring that "the German question 5 could not be settled by speeches and Parliamentary decrees, but only by blood and it on." The Kaiser endorsed ths policy, and when he ascended the throne his first address was. not to the nation but to the army, and in it he gave utterance to these words so full of omen: "The soldiers and the army and not Parliamentary majorities have welded together the German Empire. . My confidence is placed m the army." In these fateful words we have the explanation of the Kaiser's career. The foundation. of his throne is the sword. These ■ words also explain his religion. His god is Thor, i the war god of the Norse heathen. Goethe somewhere says that we resemble the gods we comprehend. The Kaiser in his face and speech has for. years sought to be an image of a war god. Some years ago the writer, when in Germany, visited Kiel, where the Kaiser was holding a naval review, and he sailed round the Hohenzollern. The Kaiser was visible on the deck, and distance prevented his features from being scanned, but his photographs everywhere in Germany made bis countenance fierce and commanding, and he seemed to say: "My confidence'is placed in my army." The aggressive atheistic writings of Haeckcl have done something to orutali?© the life of Germany, but the Kaiser's' policy of "blood and iron" has done more. The Kaiser no-doubt as a young man saw that Bismarck's policy of "blood and iron" had been marvellously successful. By the brute force of a powerful army Bismarck annexed Schleswig-Holstem, and he sot Kiel harbour in the Baltic.' In doing this he tore up solemn covenants as scraps of paper. Bismarck next engaged in a fratricidal war with Austria, and by "blood and iron" smashed Austria, and proved that Prussia was the, dominant Power among the German States. Bismarck next schemed ror a war with France. For 2 years before 1870 Bismarck Roon and Moltke had a powerful army ready to smash up France and annex territory; 1870 came round, and the war cam© off, to the great glee of those three men. It was in Bismarck's scheme that France should declare war, and when it seemed that peace might continue, the of these three men seemed shrouded in gloom. Bismarck, in his "Reminiscences," tells with glee the blackguardly and deceitful part he then played in the business. He mutilated by omissions the telegram from Ems. He sent to the Press of Europe the false representation that the French Ambassador had been snubbed by King William; The mutilation gave satisfac- , tion to Roon and Moltke, and they agreed with Bismarck that the publication of this "edited" telegram would act as s, "red rag" to the "Gaelic bull and force France to declare war, and then the three, blind to their own immorality, said, "Our old God will not disgrace us now!" War came off, and the mighty Prussian army, aided by help from other German States, easily smashed up the unready legions of France, some of which existed only on paper. Such was Germany's modern record when the young Kaiser came to the throne. The "blood and iron" policy had made the German Empire, and this policy seemed to the Kaiser to have the special. benediction of heaven, and the "mailed fist" became to him the hand of God. -The FrancoPrussian war gratified the ambition of Bismarck. He wished a concentrated Germany, and not an extended Germany. But the young Kaiser had a larger ambition, and "he dropped the old pilot" and practically became his own Chancellor. The ambition of the Kaiser was a "world-wide Empire." His Pan-German dream meant a Germany in Europe extending from the North Sea to the Adriatic. It meant expansion through "Tiis. friend the Sultan ' into the Near East. It meant German colonies wherever territory could be found. His hope was in the army, in 1 his spies, and in his subsidised newspapers, and in his friolid the Sultan. 1 Hie 'Turkish debacle «,t the hands of the Balkan States meant a blow to his ' ambition in the East, and from the hour Turkey was defeated by the Balkan ' Slav 6 Germany has been pftnting for ; war. Italy was. trapped by Germany into renewing the Triple Alliance two ' years before it expired, in view of war. 1 The snare of ■ the fowler h&B, 1 however, as regards Italy, been set 1 in vain. The Kaiser's longed--1 for "day" has come. His hope is ' in his army. He has made the earth to ' welter in the blood of his fellow-men. He has made the sea a shambles. Can 5 it be that the "day" he schemed for ' will be any other than the day of doom ? for the Kaiser and his war lords? Can it be that an assassin greater than the [ great will reap other than he sowed * and more than lie sowed? The mills . of God's justice grind slowly, but they j grind exceeding small. l ' This policy o? "blood and iron" has ] eatou out of the Kaiser and his war lords a sense of honour and humanity r The German. Emperor is the son of an 1 English mother, and tho grandson of [ Victoria the G'ood, and yet he gives ' the "Iron Cross" to the moral maniac ; who wrote the "Hymn of Hate." The I brutal inhumanity of tho war lords has ' descended to the men. "The Official ! Rook of the Gorman Atrocities" in ! Belgium, Franco, and Russia might iwlf be put alongside Mr. _ Stead's ' "Haunting Horrors in Asia Minor." It 1 is a record of incredible brutality on tho part of the Germans, and it would i not be surprising if some Belgians, torn , by soul-searing anguish, might think ! that God "had gone mad and that '. maniacs and demons were stalking about .the .redd." Tako % example quo q|_,.

the countless atrocities that -have oovHQ ioua certified as true:

"An old man of the Tillage of Neerhespen had his arm sliced in three longitudinal cuts; he was thon hanged head downwards and burned alive. Young girls have been raped and little children outraged at Orsmael, where several inhabitants suffered mutilations too horrible to describe. A Belgian soldier belonging to a battalion of cyclist carabiniers who had been wounded and made prisoner was hanged, whilst another who was tending his comrade was bound to a, telegraph pole on St. Troud Road and shot."

The barbarous Kurds who carried out the Sultan's policy of murder in Armenia could not have put up a worse record than the foregoing, War as carried on bv the Kaiser niea-iis very specially "hell," for it means the breaking of solemn oovenants, the invasion and would-be annihilation or little Belgium; it means lust, pillage, and vandalism; it means the use « poison .on the .land aiid wholesale asBassinaiion oil the sea. Why Heaven peimits. 'all this is hard to understand. One thing, we may clearly learn for cur warning, and it is that "culture" m the sense o? intelligence without honour and humanity will make > Kaiser iinenn and her servants an army of demons. Further, the stern discipline of war Kill purge and purify the nations warring for honour and freedom. 1 alii is often the price paid for freedom. devil rent him sore and come out cf him " The devil of Kaiserism. with its policy - of blood and iron is being cast out. but it can inflict great pam .or a time. But it will be cast out. '1 dreamed, of freedom slowly pined By martyr meekness, patience fiul» And lo! an athlete grimly stained With corded muscles battle strained Shouting it from the fields of Death. "I turn tne, awe struck, from tho siRUt, Among the clamouring thoufands muto, [ only know that God is right. And that the children of the liglit Shall tread the darkness under foot.