FUTURE OF TURKEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 283, 24 November 1908, Page 2

FUTURE OF TURKEY.

"The outlook is serious and threatening, and a great European war may be approaching." This is Die conclusion which Mr. J. Ellis Barker arrives at ,<i lus article on "The Future of Turkc" in the Fortnighllv Review. ( uriousiv enough, too. the 'article was ohviou-dv written before Bulgaria's declaration of independence and the annexation of Bosnia ami Herzegovina bv Austria. Hie author thinks that the Yomi" Turks will not be able to paeifv Macedonia, and declares that Turkey's future depends largely on the solution of her alien problem, lie quotes Field-Marshal Kadetzky as authority for the view thai while the free iuv of the IJosphorus is necessary for the commerce of Russia, the free use of the Dardanelles is equally necessary to the commerce of Austria. Field-Marshal Kadetzky wrote: "Hence it follows that the conflicting interests of Austria and Russia must lead to war unless both nations arrive at an agreement with regard to Turkey.'' "Apparently at the present time, in consequence of the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria ami Russia are very far from being in agreement with regard to Turkey. Professor Margo.iouth. of Oxford, who. happened to be in Constantinople at the time of announcement of the Constitution, writes somewhat pessimistically on the same subject in tin' Fortnightly Review. He doubts whether the heterogeneous elements of the new Ottoman community can be' fused. "Can the aspiration's of the Greek and Armenian nationalists be merged in the new ideal 1" "And will Christians and Jews bo aide to light side by side in an Ottoman armyr The Prophet would have none to light on . is side who had not embraced Islam, and the fundamental theory of his system is that the .Moslems shall constitute the fighting caste. Can this principle be annulled in a State in which the predominant partner is Mohammedan!" Professor Margoliouth's linal query gives us a glimpse into a deep abyss. "How long," he writes, "will it take the notions of representative government and limited monarchy to acclimatise in those areas of the' Turkish Empire which arc nnalleclcd by Europe, and where Hie whole world is believed to be Moslem V"