FIERCE FIGHTING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3173, 26 April 1909, Page 5

FIERCE FIGHTING.

REVOLT IN TURKEY, BARRACKS BOMBARDED*, BULLET SWEPT STREETS, Received April 25, 4.30 p,m. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 24. For four days the Salonica troops have been drawing closer, and on Friday evening they occupied Mabrakoi. At daylight on Saturday they advanced upon the Yildiz garrison at Pera. At 5 o'clock there was heavy artillery and musketry fire on the height above Yildiz. The attack developed against the Matchka and Tashkisla barracks.. Quietude reigned west of the city. The Macedonian troops patrolled the streets. Enver Bey has sent detachments of military cadets, commanded by Salonica officers, to protect the Embassies, banks, and hotels. : Other measures have been taken to prevent disturbance. Ti.e Salonicans vainly invited the Matchka and Tashkisla garrisons to surrender. The tignting lasted about two hours, and the Tashkisla troops were nearly demolished. All the troops surrendered before 10' o'clock.

Several isolated in guard houses fought gamely.' TheTaxim barracks, in the centre of Pera, resisted for three hours, the defenders'' bullets sweeping the main streets,. Finally they were beaten by the Hotchkiss guns, and surrendered. • Another detachment of troops from the Tophaness barracks barricaded themselves in a'mosque. They were overpowered after a stubborn! resistance. Another detachment occupied the grounds of the Belgian Legation, causing the.walls of the Legation to be riddled with bullets. The inmates were uninjured.. An American correspondent was wounaed in the shoulder while snapshotting. Few lives were lost outside the actual fighters while the barracks were being suppressed. The police at Stamboul, and in other districts, urged, the people to open their shops. Shevket Pasha sent contingents to Ismid-Eskisher to prevent the Anatolin troops, who are favourable to the Sultan, approaching Constantinople. Unrest prevails in Scutari (on the eastern shores of the Bosphorus, opposite Constantinople, having a population of about 100,000), Mitrovitza, Avlona (the best seaport in Albania, standing on an eminence near an inlet of the Adriatic), and T Jskub (130 miles N.W. of .Salonica, with a population of 40,000), due to the Albanian League.

PROTESTANT PASTORS KILLED. FURTHER MASSACRES. AUTHORITY RESTRICTED. Received April 25, 4 p.m. CONSTANTINOPLE. April 24. During the massacres in the vilayet of Adana, nineteen Protestant pastors were killed. Massacres continue at Antioch, and in many of the Armenian villages in the vicinity of Alexandretta. LONDON, April 24. The United States Government has inquired from Sir Edward Grey how far Turkey, in accordance with the Berlin Treaty, is taking steps to stop this wholesale slaughter. / " The Times' " correspondent at Constantinople learns on the authority of a deputy attending the new National Assembly, sitting at San Stefana, that the latter has decided in favour of the Sultan's dethronement. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 25. The Sultan paid his usual Friday's visit to the mosque, crowds giving him an enthusiastic ovation. There are indications that Shevket Pasha's caution regarding the Sultan's future has been strengthened by a warning which was personally conveyed to him at San Stefana yesterday, stating that a portion of the garrison, and also the populace, was strongly loyal to the Sultan, and bloodshed was extremely probable even at any precipitate step. Prominence is given in Constantinople to Shevket Pasha's telegram to the Government, denying that the Army had arrived in order to de throne the Sultan.

LONDON, April 25. Advice from Vienna states that Shevket Pasha's advance on Pera and the coast has begun. It is suspected in some quarters that Shevket Pasha's assurances are greatly tactical. The civil population and garrison at Jerusalem have telegraphed to Constantinople, threatening to proclaim Palestine an independent State unless the constitution is restored. Mohammedans and Christians in Jerusalem are eagerly offering to join the second and third army corps daily. The "Telegraph" states that the agreement reached at San Stefaflo restricts the Sultan's authority to the narrowest limits of a constitutional sovereign. ( Other messages foreshadow that after the mutineers have been overawed, and discipline," has been reestablished, the strongest pressure

will be brought to bear to force the Sultan to abdicate. A TREACHEROUS ACT. Reieived April 26, 12.30 a.m. April 25. Artiller)* ts at ax ' m treacherously hoisted a wMt» flag and enticed the Salonica ini«>lfy open groUnd to receive their aw*™? 8 '- Th . e y then opened fire, emrpelh>? g the in " fantry to retreat, TfcereWpWi Salomcans shelled the barracks 1 wbifiu the assailants rushed. Desperate foanu - to-hand fighting- followed 1 in the j courtyard and cemeretry at the rear. !

SULTAN DISAVOWS COMPLICITY. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 23. The Sultan declares that he is innocent of all complicity in the recent outbreak, and discuss his abdication, save as J|the result of an enquiry regarding his guilt or innocence, conducted in accordance with the Sheriac. A battalion of regular troops at Erzeroum revolted, seized the Konak (the royal residence), and* proclaimed the Sheriat or sacred law.™