CORRESPONDENCE.
THE PASSING OF THE TURK.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SDEOTATOR."] SIR,—Abd-ul-Hamid the autocrat has fallen. Young Turkey is victorious and jubilant. We wish her well. Sincerely do we hope that she may overcome the lions in her path. But she holds in her hands a Pandora's box of troubles, and there are some who have been peering into it and can see no trace of Hope amongst the medley.
Often has a people wrested liberty from its rulers, and nine months ago the Turks won theirs from Abd-ul-Hamid. But since then Young Turkey has lived in terror lest she should lose her new-won freedom, and we have bad the strange spectacle, surely new in the world's history, of a small, if educated, minority busy in forcing a Parliament and a Con- stitution upon the great mass of a people who are indifferent, or, maybe, hostile, to the change. Yet so it is. For the moment we have but exchanged one absolute rule for another. That of the Sultan has passed, that of the Army takes its place. The new power is orderly. It is animated by good intentions. It wishes to consolidate Constitutional government and Parliamentary institutions. But none the less it is absolute, and tolerates no opposition to its will.
The ideals of the now power have all our sympathy. Its leaders dream of a new Turkey, a grand Ottoman Empire, restored to its ancient glories and vivified by liberty. Can they achieve the task P The direction of the revolution has, it is true, been in Turkish hands; but the real forces that have, I will not say produced it, but those that have sustained it, are not of Turkish origin. The revolution has destroyed not only an autocratic ruler, but at the same time an ancient Govern- ment. Little as the leaders think it, I believe that they have shattered the foundations of Turkish Empire. Hitherto the Turk of Asia has ruled in Europe. Henceforth the Young Turk in Europe, full of Western ideas, seeks to govern the Oriental Turk in Asia. Some Young Turk leaders who know that the Turk in Asia is not fit for free government are under the illusion that they can rule him as the English rule in India. I believe that any such experiment is doomed to failure. Vain is it for the Young Turks to dream of a rejuvenated Turkish Empire. The foundations of Otto- man rule in Europe have been sapped, and in a few years' time the Turk must leave to other hands the shaping of the future destinies of European Turkey.
What that future will be it needs a bold prophet to foretell I fear that the road to it will be a bloody one. The Turk can never really fuse with. Greek or Bulger; and bow can Macedonia hope for peace with Bulgaria and Greece and Servia all aspiring to territorial expansion at the expense of Turkey P It is too late now to think of creating a big Bulgaria with a port upon the Mediterranean; but give the people of Macedonia real autonomy, and it might well be that they would in time compose their political dissensions, and that Macedonia, as the youngest of the Balkan States, might work out its salvation on 'peaceful lines. And if the jealousies of Europe withhold Constantinople as its capital, the city of Constantine might become a great free city protected by the Powers.
Such a forecast of the future may appear fantastic. I know there exists a strong opinion that Young Turkey, having thrown off the incubus of an evil ruler, will show a capacity for modern civilisation that will astonish the world. I would that such might be the case, but I do not believe it. The Turk was a soldier and a conqueror. He was a brave man, and had vigorous rulers. But he conquered more through the weakness and dissensions of his enemies than by his own talents. Since his arrival in Europe he has ruled as a conqueror; but the brains wherewith he ruled were the brains of his conquered Christian subjects, of alien servants, or at best of Arabs and Albanians, who, although they were Moslems, never became Turks. Albania has always claimed a semi-independence. Many parts of Arabia have never yet been conquered. And even in Syria there is no love lost between Turk and Arab. The Turk has assimilated little good from the civilisation of Western Europe ; he has shown no aptitude for commerce. It was not the Turkish people who clamoured for a Constitution, but a handful of enlightened Turks who believed that only with a Constitution was there hope that the Ottoman Empire might be preserved.
Abd-ul-Humid by his insane system of espionage, by his restraint on personal liberty, and by his failure to pay his troops, more even than by his general misgovernment, paved the way for the reformers. But Abd-ul-Hamid had the instinct that Europe must at all costs be kept at arm's- length, and from the point of view of the Turk I believe that he was right. The Constitution was acclaimed with shouts of enthusiasm, but who will pretend that the Turkish populace knew or knows what lies in its lap P It gave them a personal liberty that they had long been strangers to,—for that they were thankful. It gave them the right, as many chose to believe, of refusing to pay their taxes. But when they find that their taxes will be greater than before, and that the Runs, their Christian fellow-subjects, are to have all the rights and liberties of the Moslem, can it be expected that the Turk will love the Constitution P The Turk is not fanatical. He is very tolerant. But of one thing be is quite convinced, —the Raya is an inferior being, and it admits of no discussion that he must keep his place.
The Constitutionalists are pledged to the doctrine of full political equality for all Ottoman subjects, and already this new doctrine has given rise to trouble. I call it new advisedly although in theory and law all Ottoman subjects have long been equal. But hitherto in defiance of law and theory no Christians have been enrolled as soldiers. The Christian has paid a heavy capitation-tax in lieu of service. Maybe he had no wish to serve, but certainly he had no choice. Now, how- ever, be has the obligation or the right to serve, call it as you will. The Armenians have claimed the right. Pretence has been made that this year it is impossible to make proper arrangements for the change. The Armenians have declared that they insist upon their right, that they are willing to serve, and will pay no capitation-tax. There can be no doubt that this provision for arming the Christians is most unpopular with the Moslem world, and I have little doubt that it is one of the main causes that have led to the deplorable massacres in Cilicia.
While we in Constantinople rejoice over the downfall of a tyrant, and the triumph of a Constitution which guarantees equal rights to every Turkish subject, Adana lies in smoking ruins, and the Moslems of Asia Minor are engaged in the more congenial task of murdering their fellow-subjects, not, indeed, because they are of an alien faith, but because, being Christians, they aspire to the same liberties as their Moslem
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