AFFAIRS IN TUAKEY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9160, 6 August 1908, Page 5

AFFAIRS IN TUAKEY.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright,

THE NEW CONSTITUTION. Received August 5. 9.40 p.m. CONSTANTINOPLE, August 5. Two divisions of the Constantinople Army Corps have sworn faithfully to serve the Sultan and scrupulously defend constitution, resisting any attempt to modify its provisions. The proclamation of the constitution has been greeted with jubilation almost everywhere throughout the Asiatic provinces. The demand for representative institutions in Turkey has become so persistent and has been voiced so vigorously by the Young Turkey party that the precipitate acquiescence of the Sultan was hardly to be wondered at. His army in the European villages was openly mutinous, and whole regiments had gone over to the Young Turkey party, which demands representation for the people in the government of the countiy. Driven into a corner by disaffection in the army and threatened by a palace conspiracy within the Yidiz Kiosk as well, Abdul Hamid made a virtue of necessity, effected a clean sweep of the higher officials standing near his person, and summoned a Chamber of Deputies. Stormy times may be anticipated before a Constitution,, so obviously due to sudden panic, can have any real stability or usefulness. During the first year of his reign, Abdul Hamid, under the influence of a similar panic, propounded a Coi stitution, summoned a Chamber of Deputies, and appointed Midhat Pasha as his first Prime Minister. But the Chamber was speedily dissolved and the unfortunate Midhat lost his life as a direct consequence of his zeal for tl.e political enfranchisement of his country. With that precedent before it, the new Chamber of Deputies is likely to proceed with caution. A panic-stricken Sultan, a hastily granted Constitution, a mutinous army, and all Macedonia in insurre3 tion, provide a situation that will need the most careful handling if the long-expected explosion is to be avoided.