MEHEMET ALL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 224, 24 September 1877, Page 4

MEHEMET ALL

The London Times gives the following particulars of this celebrated Turkish commander's career from his childhood to the data of his attaining his present position: — Mehemet Aii Pasha, tbe new Serdar Ekrem, or Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman forces in Bulgaria is not a Turk by birth, but a Prussian. His father, Detroy, was staff-trumpeter in the Nicholas regiment of cuirassiers of Brandenburg. The boy was named Julius, and when old enough was placed in a house of business at Magdeburg. But be was a lad of an imaginative disposition, aod the methodical routine of business life did not please him. He had a craving for adventure, his tnind wbb running upon sea stories and tales of travel, and the splendid fortunes to be made in foreign lands. At length be ran away, and got to Rostock, where he found a Mecklenburg brig getting 'ready for sea. The captain took him on board as a ship boy. They sailed for the Levant, and after a long and tedious voyage, anchored in the Bosphorus. By this time young Detroy was thoroughly disenchanted with a seafaring life. The hard work on board the brig, the menial service which every one exacted from the young ship boy, the rough treatment and ill-usage be received from all extinguished his illusions, so far as the sea was concerned. On the other hand he was in the East, the very country of wonderful fortunes. His resolution was soon taken. One day there was passing by one of those beautiful caiques rowed by five or six gaily-dressed oarsmen, in which distinguished Turks are usually conveyed from their yali, on the Bosphorus to the Porte in Stamboul. Young Detroy at once sprang from the brig ioto the sea and swam towards the caique. He was seen, and the occupant ordered the boat to be stopped, and had tbe lad taken in. The Turk was no less a personage than All Pasha, afterwards so famous, and Grand Vizier for so many years. Detroy had picked up a scanty smattering of French at school and at Magdebiirg, and Aii was perfect master of the language. Detroy explained the mo- • lives of his rash act, and besought the Pasha to take him under his protection, declaring that he even desired to become a Mussulman. AU promised him his protection, but advised him to reflect seriously before he changed his religion. During the next few weeks the lad remained at the Pasha's Palace, enjoying absolute freedom, making rapid progress in Turkish, and fre queutly admitted to see his patron, who was delighted with the frank disposition of bis protege. But as Detroy continued to urge his desire to go over to Islam, Aii took an opportunity of mentioning the affair to the Prussian at the Porte, jequesting that one of -trie icTergy men attached to the Embassy would visit and remonstrate With the young would-be renegade. This was done; but the chaplain had to report that his efforts were fruitless. Detroy was now definitively taken into tbe household of the Pasha, and regularly instructed. A year later he was formally admitted into his new religion, taking the second name, AH, out of affection for his benefactor. Two years later his patron sent him to the military school, where he distinguished himself by diligence and intelligence, earning great praise on account of several translations of military articles, &c, irom the French and German. t--_ He received his commission in 1853, and made the campaign of the Danube against the Russians. He was first under fire at the siege of Silistria, and it was said that he did not seem very courageous. It has been even alleged by his enemies that at tbe beginning of tha bombardment besought shelter in a cellar. But he soon gave proofs of intrepidity and even of daring, winning universal commendation. He once spent a whole night alone in a captured earthwork. Omer Pasha noticed the conduct of the young offioer, and placed bim on his staff, and in this capacity he went through the Russian war, and later the campaigns in Montenegro, Arabia, and Bosnia. He became a colonel in 1863, and in 1865 was made a Pashß, or General. He was employed with distinction during the insurrection in Crete, ancl Bg.in on the Montenegrin frontier. In 1873 lis was given the forces in Thessaly, in ord^r to put an end to the excesses oi the banditti, which had become intolerable. Mehemet Aii acquitted himself of this difficult task with great ability. Partly by artifice and partly by persuasion, by employing remorseless severity where "examples " were required, by daring attacks, and by skilful operations in combination with the Greek detachments assigned for frontier duty, he was able, in a short time to re establish order in Thessaly. Towards the closa of 1875 he was entrusted with the cLief command at Novi-Baasar, a post of great strategic importance, as will be seen at a glance at the map. He has since been engaged in various military duties in connection with the oporatious against the insurgents in Hervia. But the sun of Court fuvor has not shone very brightly upon him; hence, while hi* reputation for capacity is universal, he bad not been assigned any prominent position till juet vow, when he finds himself placed in the first iniiitary command iv the empire. In estimating his probable achievements, it will bewell to bear iv mind ihut he has nor, hud die advantage of European training like Omer Pasha and so nnuy ot his own subordinates. His oapacity alone is

foreign; he will have against him, together with everything else, all the drawbacks of his exclusively Turkish education.