THE SULTAN OF TURKEY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1066, 7 November 1911, Page 4

THE SULTAN OF TURKEY

Mr W. T. Stead’s interview with the Sultan of Turkey, as described in the Review of Reviews for October, is interesting. Not that the interview gives as much of what the Sultan said, or of what his ideas are on matters of national import. It is Mr Stead who does most of the talking iu this printed interview. The Sultan is the pupil, the journalist the teacher. The interview appears to have been devoted mainly to advice given by Mr Stead as to how the Sultan, if he were to be a success, should reign. The personal picture of the Sultan is interesting. A man who has kept virtually a prisoner for thirty years and was over sixty when he was called to the Throne is something of a curiosity in regal circles. Mr Stead gives this pen picture of that interesting monarch; “The Sultan is a man somewhat below middle-height, slightly stout iu body, and somewhat slow in his movements and in his speech. He was older than any Sovereign I had previously met, and with a less mobile countenance. He wore the inevitable red fez—an institution with which not even the Parliament dares to intermeddle—and beneath his grey eyebrows, his eyes blinked with a somewhat vacuous expression. He wore a moustache aud the beard was trimmed short. He did not strike me as being a nervous man, neither did he give me the impression either of an alert mind or of resolute will. A somewhat dull, colourless face with a curious suggestion iu it of the Old Laud Leaguer, Matt Harris, of Balliuasloe. It seemed to be that he had the somewhat shy reserve of a prisoner not yet fully accustomed to libeily ; a man, I should say, naturally of a kindly disposition but of somewhat confused mind, who has not yet got his bearings or felt his footing firm, enough to show his own leanings. But Idid not leel quite sure that there was not iu him something more than appears on the surface and that if his life be spared, his Ministers may find that he has a will of his own. There is a good deal of dogged obstinacy behind that apparent timidity. It is not the timidity of temperament. It is only the timidity of the landsman who has not got his sea legs.” In the course of the interview, Mr Stead discussed with the Sultan the functions of Constitutional Sovereigns iu the modern State, the advantages of their position as compared with that of autocrats, the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, and the danger ot confounding the person ol the Monarch with the policy of his advisers. Mr Stead also discussed with him the best measures of treating disaffection, various international relationships, aud other matters of general interest, and he subse-

quentlv learned from the lips ot the Sultan’s Chamberlain, who had acted as interpreter, that the Sultan ‘had never had such a conversation before with any one in his life.’ Whether the Sultan profited by the interview is uncertain. He gave Mr Stead to clearly understand that he disproved of the atrocities that had from time to time disfigured Turkish history. Whether he was strong enough, with many reactionary forces at work, to prevent such atrocities in the future is a moot point. The interview, however, leaves the impression that it is not want of desire on the part of the Sultan, but uncertainty of carrying with him the people immediately surrounding him, and in whose hands he is more or less in control, that prevents the country making sound progress towards good government.