THE REVOLUTION IN TURKEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 257, 23 October 1908, Page 4

THE REVOLUTION IN TURKEY.

. A TURK'S VIEW. The astounding overturn of thc'Sulitau's autocracy and his concession of a Constitution naturally claim prominent attention in the month's magazines The Nineteenth Century lias the distinction of giving a Turkish view of t'lie Turkish Revolution. Tile writer is A. Riistem lley do Bilinski, who was formerly Turkish CiWrge d'Ail'airs in Washington. He gives the chief credit of the change to Prince Sabah-eu-unie, own nephew of Abd-ul-llainid, now thirty years old, who reorganised the Young Turkish Party. WHAT FRECIPiITATED THE REVOLT. That party had expected some throe or more years would be necessary to bring the Army to the point of general revolt. But, the writer says:

What hastened the event is that the •' indescribably wretched condition which J litis been the kit of the Turkish soldier 1 under the autocracy of Yildiz, and • which none hut men of his admirably ' patient and disciplined race would have : endured so long, became at last intolerable to iiim when he was brought into contact with his iellow sunjects, I most of them his co-religionists, of the I Macedonian (leiidarinerie, whose treatment, under European supervision, foruued such a contrast to his own. So, it appears, it was European intervention which indirectly set the ball of revolution rolling. The movement spread from Alacedoma, where four-fifths of the military establishment of Turkey was represented, to the other, as "a reaction against unbearable sufferings common to all the soldiers of the Sultan,"' except the pampered guard round Yildiz. The Young Turkey Party had nut anticipated this sudden revolt, but promptly, through the many officers affiliated to it, adjusted the movement to its own purposes . and transformed it into a political rising. THE SULTAN'S SUDDEN LEAP I FROAI WORST TO BEST. The equally sudden acceptance "of the revolution by the. Sultan was equally unexpected. ' "lie adapted himself to the new situation, and. shedding the despot, entered into the skin of a constitutional sovereign with a facility and good grace which came as a revelation even to those most intimately acquainted with him." It supplies "only reason for admiring this prodigious man. in whom will-power is evidently the supreme quality." The writer does not hesitate to believe that "the genius i Abd-ul-Hamid will act as an invaluable aid to Turkey If he live long enough Abd-ul-Hamid is destined to become the best Sovereign Turkey has ever had, after certainly having been the worst.'' The writer remarks on the extraordinary absence of excesses of violence. TURK AND ARMENIAN PARTNERSHIP.

He considers that the Revolution has come to stay. The moral reparation paid by the Turks to the tombs of the massacred Armenians leads liim to express the belief that the Armenians are destined to work in durable unison with the Turks. "'Their financial, commercial, and administrative aptitudes, which are of the highest order, will constitute a felicitous complement to the political and martial virtues which predominate in the Turks." THE TURBULENT RACE*.

The Albanians ami the Kurds will lose substantial privileges, but under the firm band of a well-paid and wellorganised Turkish police will settle down to peaceful pursuits. The Greeks, Bulgarians, and Servians inside the Empire have welcomed tie revolution with "hosannas,-' but will, the writer thinks, soon return to their subversive National designs; and "Turkey will have a great deal more to do than to govern well in order to retain Macedonia."

THE AUAJi-EtiYl'l'lAN PROBLEM. He fears that a reaction will also follow in Arabia, in the direction of a desire to unify Arabia under a National dynasty. Syria will probably lie oiro of the most loyal portions of the Ottoman Empire. Hut Egypt? The writer says; Egypt, whicili already enjoys considerable autonomy, and whose prosperity and political potentialities are rapidly increasing, will strive to throw oil' Turkish inlluence if it exceeds the form of nominal suzerainty. The solution of the Arab-Egyptian problem, the most serious wihich confronts Turkish statesmen seems to lie in the creation in tiie fulness of time, of a dual monarchy on Ihe Auslro-llimgarinn model, one-half of which, with Constantinople as centre, would be composed of the 'Turkish, Armenian, Albanian. (Ireek, Bulgarian, Servian and Kurdish elements occupying that part of the Em plrc which spreads to the north and west of a straight line drawn from Aleppo to the Persian frontier passing through Moussoul; aim the other half of which, Eamascus as a centre, would comprise the Arabic-speaking peoples of the Empire, which, by reason of the very distinct geographical groupings of these peoples, could be organised on the federal system, so as to spare the su-enptibilities of Egypt, who, besides autonomy, possess a line of hereditary sovereigns of her own—the dynasty of (Ismail, still invested with the Kiialifale. to remain the supreme and bind ing head of both portions. No insuperable difficulties lie ailiead of Turkey ra this direction either.

WHAT ABOUT I!I'!>STA ASD CKRThe (Ireal Powers will have !o rcconsiik'r their attitude. Tim change has keen "a violent shock tu Russia, me only I'ower entertaining resolute and deep laid plans for the furliliev appropriation ui' Turkish territory." The Tsar is even going to learn from Tur key and grant larger powers to his Duma! Hermany is ''not pleased." "(iime are the hopes of luscious Asiatic possessions to lie added to her inipc--ial domain! Cone the prospect of liirtlrer railway concessions on the kilometric system!'" J!ut though no longer aide to exploit Turkey as of old. siw may get an honest share in the profits of a regenerate,! Turkey, Aiistria-iliui ' gary is. in; thinks, undouktedlv favourable. She has coveted &loniea. and '•regenerated Turke\ will eventually claim liaek iSosnia-Jiereogovnia;" lint her chief danger of a dominant Slavdom in the Balkan, and a permanent incitement, to j l( . r Av pniviTicea revolting will have been removed. Italy may shed a tear over Tripoli, hut wiil |irolll enormously hy the commercial Icvclopmeat of Turkuy. ''France may fe trusted to applaud unreservedly." WHAT Alidl.T (iJIKAT JiIiITAIX?

And Ureal liritainr Kustcm Bey answers canniiy:— Jlavim; to admit, as all Kiuelishnicn mu*l. dial blic fiiiu-d Kingdom'cannot, by iva-oa »f what it .owe. to itself, oppose, in any wis... the ell'orl s of Turkey to establish order, security and justice in her midst, Knglishincn will also have to look sipiari'ly in the face the couso.picaccs of this attitude, namely, the transformation of Ihe Ottoman Km.piif at 510 remote period into a Power so formidable as to make it impossible for their country to refuse to evacuate Kaypt if that Power insists upon il. So U...1 ' |

k<;yi>t will ii.wi-: to ao. bot-aiis.- incvitiihlv Turkey will demand it. Will this he a loss?' Will it 1,... a humiiiationV Neither, (.real 'lSritain enteral Egypt fur tin- purpose she declared: the restoration of order in the country. Having attained lli'm object she loyally op'ciied up negotiations with Turkey for her withdrawal. At the last moment, the Suit tin, indoclrined by France and Kusia, refused lo si'mi iito : Convention which was (o regulate this operation. Creat Jirilaii stayed on.. ! and., filling in love with the good work " -she was doing i„ the country, deeid.'d not to retire! until sin; could ],-.. sure , J hat the edifice of reform she had ' raised was suflicieiitly advanced ninl , consolidated not to ic,|iiirc lier furtliT • supervision. In Mi,, iulerval sh» had ' realise,! the advantage of being in pos- ' ( session of the Sue/ (niial. and this mi- • douliledlv nddnl to her reluctance to < ■leave. Dul the guardianship of ' the i Canal is iiu|iorlau| lo her unlv on ae- : count of Itndia. \ow. Ihc evacuation ( of Kgypt would form iiutiuiinticillv ; Till-: lIASIK (If AN Al.l.lAN('r. ]

between (treat Britain ami the Ottoman <j KliKpire. which would |ilace the Canal j in .safe hiiiuls. Uie hands of her new ! ally, and contribute a fiirliu-.- clement f •lo (he security of Jlritish (eninv ill | semi-Mussulman (ndia liv crealiii' • J strong hk bet wen the Klnilif. mown'on- I ornroiisly hj, prc.ligi: and anihorilv in 1 the world of Mum a, Ihe head of a <j reformed am! powerful Tnrkev. end the « King-Kmpcror. A, lor the welfare of J the Kgypliaiw ami ihe protection due ito European intciv.l.. in th,. valley uf | I-.IIIIIK A[,U.,,,!I|US ,;.,, !,,.i, „,,„, ',, nv o, |3 * anted l.v the sub.-lihitioi! of Turkish « for liritUl, tutelage, in a i„,-„, which $ faction to ho'.h parties. ' ami' which I $ (iiigfhl. for ins|:inee. ami probably w-mld j | include the iiiiiiiil.iiuance of a number ' ? of llritish cx|fr!s in the Salvia's name 9 (.'real' Tlriliin. liming re.pcalcdlv de- ft dared that she is only in tcnipovarv j» occupation, could retire without incur- § rill'g the slightest bus of )Vrestige. |v THE (TITKF VICTIM, j 2 '•Viahor" contributes to the Fort- x nightly Ueview for September a vigor-I § ous and brilliant description of 'trie 4>x- I Sj trnordiaavv overturn which has taken I % (place in Turkey. He says tKat an ou-

ormous tyranny has been swept away. The Sultan's despotism disappeared in a nijjltt. Yet only seven lives are b«beved to have been sacrificed to vindictive passion. The most conspicuous victim was Fehim Pasha, of wtiom he

Tlie wildest episodes of disrepulabl; romance that toe annals of despotic courts in East or West have ever luvuished were matched by the amazing rise and fall of the jiedr Khans, who practised private imprisonment and assassination, or the lanlaatic iniquity of the career of Fehim Pasha. That mem, oroide tyrant was the one conspicuous victim of the insurrection, but he hud been the rnont hated and dreaded of all the tools of Yildiz. As chief of t ! iie .secret police, ho held every man's lit' and liberty in his hands. He gave free rein to ruffian passions, levying blackmail as he pleased, capable of ordering any man who offended him -to be beaten, any woman who pleased him to in .seized. His caprice in an hour could for ever ruin the happiness of w'holo families. He denouhoeo loyal persons as traitors in order that he might acquire their estates or obtain (heir wives and daughters. Even when banished to Brusa lie lived in insolence, and when the revolution was accomplished ilie provoked the mob that tore him to ipieces. "Viator"' thinks that Abdul J-lainid did not forsee the full result of his action or realise that an irrevocable thing had happened, but iie warns us that the Young Turks are entirely patriotic and that European interference will certainly not be easnr in the future than it has been in the past.

THE BRITISH OI'PORTUXITY. Angus Hamilton, iu the same review, writes on "The Old Regime and the New iu Turkey." H 0 .-.vya: We may congratulate ourselves that a return to constitutionalism in Turkey liias put an end to the viciousness wlvich so long has described the Porte. In this (ierniany will suffer more than any other Power, for the reformers have swept away the satellites which worked her will. If many rogues have gone and many German decorations thereby wasted, it is to be hoped that we, in our turn _ will not commit the mistake ot withholding assistance. Naturally at such a moment, jealousy and distrust of the foreigner will he widely felt, hut disinterested oilers of financial help may ihridge many of the uiniculties against which llriti'sh interests have had to contend. Tile suggestion is necessary, «is the good offices of the, .Deutselie Hank have already been placed at tlie disposal of the Constitutional leaders. British interests, however, can ill afford to lose so profitable an opportunity, even if the situation is impressed with political more than commercial significance, and .we await with confidence, therefore, the adoption of those measures wtliich will re-establish British prestige in the Levant on a firmer basis than has over previously been known.