TURKISH RE-UNION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 325, 12 June 1911, Page 5

TURKISH RE-UNION.

THE TWO SULTANS MEET. % Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Constantinople, June 9. The Sultan, before landing at Salonica, sent to enquire after Abdul Hamid's health, adding that he came not to add to the bitterness of his captivity but for reasons of State. Abdul made an appreciative reply. This is the first exchange of messages between the new Sultan and the old since Abdul's fall. It is with the object of uniting the Mohammedans that the great review is to be held at Cossovo, and in selecting I this locality for the assemblage the Sultan has not acted without reason. Cossovo is a name cherished by the Mohammedans, for it was on the field of Cossovo in 1389 that the first decisive battle of importance in Ottoman history was fought. There the Turkish forces, which had spread over Europe and Asia, defeated with enormous slaughter a con fedcracy of the Slavonian tribes of the Upper Danube, who were assisted by numerous warriors from Hungary and Italv. It was at Oossova. too. that the Turks conquered the Christians in 1449, from which period for nearly a century the arms of the Ottomans bv sea and bv land wer" the terror of Eurooe and of Asia. The Venetians had been continerod. the Boles and the Genoese paid liomngc. Hie Itiimrai'ians were subdued, the Greeks were paying tribute, Constantinople had been captured: Egvpt, Syria, and Palestine were all under the victorious Ottomans; Mecca, submitted, Arabia trembled; Turkish admirals swept the 1 Mediterranean, conouered Northern Africa, and laid waste Minorca, Sicily, Apulia, and Corfu: Germany was fearful of the standard of Mohammed being planted in the West, and the Turks were only checked before the walls of Vienna in 1529; and in vain Pope Pius 11. called upon the nations of Christendom to take up arms against the bold invaders. And so for a period or two and a half centuries ten Sultans, all of them brave and warlike, and most of .them continually victorious, raised the power of the Crescent, which, however, commenced to decline in 15(10. For while all Europe was making rapid progress in the arts of peace and war, the Ottoman nation and government remained inactive and stationary. Blindly attached to their doctrines of absolute faith, and elated by their former military glory, the Turks looked upon foreigners with contempt as infideis. and failed to develop the internal strength of their State. Without any settled plan, but incited by a savage hatred and a thirst for conquest, the Turks carried on wars with surrounding nations, internal troubles arose, due to jealousies of rival governors, and, bit by bit, Turkey was snorn of territories winch wiser and braver Sultans had annexed. Austria grew in power, Russia rose in greatness, the Greeks stirred themselves to activity to shake off the Turkish yoke, and modern history developed, with which most of our readers are fairly familiar. During the last five years there has been a great stirring of the dry bones of Mohammedanism, and the Sultan is to-day organising a great reunion of the ''faithful." Will history repeat itself?