The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1916. TURKEY AND GERMANY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 24, 3 May 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1916. TURKEY AND GERMANY.

It is not at all surprising to learn that there is intense hatred of Germans and Germany in Turkey, and the reported recent discovery of plots to throw out the German element indicates the state of turmoil the country must be in. One Cairo journal notlong ago positively asserted that T urkey was so tired of the war that at least two missions were sent to Switzerland to discuss the possibility of a separate peace for Turkey. The British evacuation of Mesopotamia, the restoration of the khedlviate in Egypt and autonomy for Armenia under Russian protection were said to be the terms suggested. Germany, how-

ever, appears to have been strong enough to shut clown on any such overtures if they were really made. The Lyttelton Time quotes the correspondent of an Italian journal who gives an account from an Armenian lawyer and a Greek professor "'ho were recently in Constantinople as to the conditions in the Turkish capital. They say that the railway station at Constantinople leaves the impression of a veritable chaos. The lines are encumbered with trains which move like snails. It. took six days to reach the Greek town of Kavalla. The railway management is said to he entirely in German hands. People go about the streets of Constantinople mute, frightened :\nd afraid of being suspected and generally tired of everything. The court-martial is in session every day, distributing death sentences wholesale. Fifteen or twenty persons are sent to the gallons daily. The executions usually take place in the square of Bajazet, which is come to he known as Massacre Square. The inhabitants avoid crossing it, and the only'persons who approach it are curiosity-seekers. The Armenian lawyer said that two days before ho left the city he crossed the

square as three men were being executed. Two were Greeks and one an Aimenian. They were handed in the presence of the public, Things could hardly go otherwise in a city like Constantinople, swarming with willing snies. The German hold on Constantinople is insured by the presence of 90,000 Gorman troops, and a similar number is garrisoned in the Dardanelles and Asia Minor, Apart from this,

the military garrison, the Germans are assisted by an army 01 spies, i'ro visions continue to be e ■ .■-... and prices are very hi-j.il. Th*; Germans are sending only ammunition and guns, telling the Tnrk.s to depend' on themselves for bread and other food. How much longer the Turk:, will continue to wage their useless war for German ends it is difficult to say, but a rude awakening tor the Hun may- conie violently at Constantinople at any time.