The Stratford Waning Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 1911. THE TURKISH CAPITULATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 28, 19 September 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Waning Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 1911. THE TURKISH CAPITULATIONS.

The cable message referring to Turkey’s reason for repealing tne Capitulations, in order to justify her naval and military activity, is merely another indication of the skppery methods which always accompany Turkish movement in any political direction, but in this instance there is at least a plausible excuse. The Capitulations were, in the first place, special privileges granted by Mohammedans to foreigners dwelling in their midst. As one writer points out, the Koran forbids the Moslem to deal with the unbeliever as an equal, or oven to make a treaty with him; and the Sultans of Turkey got over this difficulty by making special concessions to resident aliens to secure the friendship of the States they represented. The most important of these privileges was the right of foreigners to be tried for offences, not 'by Mohammedan judges, but by their own consuls; and this right has | been maintained in Turkey and Egypt. I almost unimpaired to the present day. But though from many viewpoints an i excellent arrangement, abuse was made possible, and though this h no new thing to Turkey or Turkish Adi ministration, abuse of privilege gives the necessary excuse which serves the Porto on this occasion. In his I l.ook on “Modern Egypt,” Lord j Cromer refers at length to those Con- ' solar Courts, and he admits that they 1 have often been used in Turkey and Egypt to cover serious abuses. “At first sight it appears monstrous that the smuggler should carry on his illicit trade under the eyes of the Cus-tom-house authorities, because treaty engagements forbid any prompt and effective action being taken against him. Those engagements have also been turned to such base uses that they have protected the keeper of the gambling hell, the vendor of adulterated drinks, the receiver of stolen goods, and the careless apothecary who supplies Ids customer with poison in the place of some healing drug.” The original idea was excellent and Lord Cromer, of course, does not deny this, hut so far as Egypt was concerned ho found the Capitulations somewhat troublesome. Really what Turkey decides one way or the other docs not much matter at this juncture, for having probably quite assured herself that Germany is further from her arrogant

dream of dominance than ever, she !ms proclaimed her final decision to remain neutral. Such a declaration, houever, means nothing—from J.urk e v,