FREE TURKEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 14, 10 February 1909, Page 2

FREE TURKEY.

''Mr. Charles Koden Hiixlon has n very f, inlcrcst|ili;r and iivfnrniinj; article oil if " Free Turkey." in tin- London Daily Clironicle, in wliicli lie sketches tin- new [f spirit: which animates tlie people of I'onH- under tlieir regime of freedoiii. "To those wliii knew C'onManti- | iin]ile helore the revolution, the lirst inil arrival now is one of an | astonishing change," he says. "It is S|,|,Jl the lirst glaace. Xewspapers, cartoons, broadsheets of eve;'\- vtescripi tion, are liawkeil aliout the 'streets—a tiling inconceivable last year. The censorship is abolished, \ nv bookshops abound. The streets arc full of proeessions -processions of voters on the wav i to tlie polling station, professions in I I honour of newly-elected deputies, uianifestutioTis m honour of England, or of France, all picturesque, with tlieir tall waving banners of red or green, beiiring white crescents, and to the' sound of the National Ant7iem, all orderly in the- extreme, even solemn, except for »<•- ' easiona] outbursts of concerted eJap- , ping—and all a totally 'new experience' for those who take part in them. Four months ago a gathering of two or three was sedition and conspiracy. Tlie very idea, of meeting for any j>olitical purpose. even in the most secret place, was unknown. Now these sights und sounds greet you on your -way from the rail- | way station. And more, there is happily ness instead of gloom in thousands of "faces, confidence instead of suspicion, the simple delight in ireedom of speech | and action which we have lost in [.lie orderly We-d. because we have forgotten what if- is to be without these tiling. Hut, helicalh the surface, what is it that. has produced tlie change? Talk to the men who -ha** helped to bring about the revolution. They may lie i members of the Committee of Tnion and Pn'gres-,—who are showing much hospitality to us, tire members'of the Balkan Committee—or they may be ordinary citizens, or soldiers wiio have helped in secret to spread tlie sacred flame, who have longed in secret to breathe the free air, who have suffered, probably, from intolerable restraint, from imprisonment or exile, from the loss n/ friends and relations. The 'committee ' is. indeed, ninefeen-hventieths <>f tbe Turkish people. No oue knows exactly where tiie line is drawn between membership and non-membership. 'Nor is there any formal organisation, aav nominal leaders. Tal-rc to any of these men and you will begin to get glimpse*, . vivid glimpses, into recent history. The extent of tlie horrors suffered liv countless thousands of 'Moslems, as well as Christians, under the old regime, will begin to dawn upon von gradually, incredibly at Jirst, driven at last into 1 your mind by fact; after fact, one de- : finite, minute, personal illustration fo!- 1 lowing another. Tin* extraordinary 1 growth of the revolutionary niovenieut within tire last, three years will open up ( before yon. twit conspirator known* 1 only to four ot.Vr», no that no one in- •" 1 dividual eould betray more than four of 1 hia comrades: the deliberate spreading - of discontent among the sohlW'-'v; the V smuggling of letters by the help oi I ! trusted women: the innumerable devices -i< of a subterranean propagaudism--I he 0 strange spontaneous co-operation of a 11 multitude of unconnected human beings, u gnid"d by one instinct, one spirit, and A urged on by one system of universal o]>- " pression. crushing high and low with I 1 impartial cruelty and cunning, which it made sedition, with all its dangers, pre- •* ferable to passive acceptance.'* li