PRECARIOUS POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1915, Page 7

PRECARIOUS POSITION.

HARD-PRESSED TURKS. AUTOCRATIC TRIUMVIRATE IN CONTROL. A despatch to San Francisco papers, dated Athens on September 12, stated: An American citizen of standing in Athens has received advices from Constantinople, which, he says, are trustworthy, that the situation of the Turkish Array and Government is unfavorable. According to this information, the position of the Turkish forces defending the Dardanelles is precarious. It is said that the Turkish front, thinned by the heavy losses which the fighting has entailed on both sides, is finding it increasingly difficult to hold the lines against the French and British. Turkey's position at sea is described as disadvantageous. The former German cruisers Goeben and Ereslau are said to have been incapacitated, while the Russian fleet preys upon Turkish shipping. TRIUMVIRATE IN CONTROL.

According to this information, Turkish affairs are under the control of a trium- ■ virate with autocratic powers, consisting of Enver Pasha, Minister for War; Talaat Bey, Minister of the Interior; and Bedri Bey, Chief of Police of Constantinople. Dissatisfaction among the Moslems is reported, and it is said Sheikh-ul-Islam was dismissed because he did not approve of the measures taken against the Armenians. The Committee of Union and Progress is reported to have been virtually superseded by a secret committee which is responsible to the wishes of the triuni'virate. The American's informant states that Armenians are being shipped to concentration camps at various points, being driven afoot or forwarded in boxcars. He adds that the earlier massacres of Christians in Asia Minor are being duplicated in the present instance, and that in some cases only a comparatively small part of the expelled Armenians reach the concentration camps alive. ARMENIAN GIRL VICTIMS. Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador at Constantinople, has exerted every effort to protect the Armenians, but apparently his endeavors have been unavailing. It is stated that American j women who attempted to go with the refugees to look out for Armenian children ' were turned back, and that a number of young Armenian girls, who were students at the American College at Constantinople, fell into the hands of the Turks., Owing to the interruption of sea transportation, it is almost impossible to purchase coal in Constantinople, and wood is being used for locomotives. The crops are good, but it has been almost impossible to harvest them. Petroleum costs one dollar a gallon, and the price of sugar has increased sevenfold.