It is stated this week that the Sultan has issued,
or, more correctly, renewed, a decree forbidding Jews to remain in Palestine for more than three months. By this means he evidently intends to strike not only at pilgrims and traders, but at the various colonies connected with the Zionist movement, for the decree expressly forbids the acquisition by Jews of landed property. In view of the notorious interchange of amenities between the Kaiser and the Sultan two years ago, the true motive of this action is to be soughtnot in Yildiz Kiosk, but in St. Petersburg. As the bulk of the colonists speak German their presence is jealously regarded by the Russians as a. means of promoting German expansion in Asia Minor. The Novae Vremya, quoted by the Viennese correspondent of the Times in Tuesday's issue, frankly admits as much, declaring that it is "particularly dis- agreeable and trying for ns Russians" to see how the Germans continue to consolidate their position in the Near East. " We can live at peace with Turkey," continues the writer, "and help her to dispose of or to prevent conflicts between her klahommedan and Christian population, but that is impossible if in political matters Turkey has counsellors whose interest it is to fish in troubled waters." Surmise is converted into something like certainty by the fact that Russia has recently put on the war-indeninit y screw, her habitual plan to compel the Sultan to comply with some new demand. The voice is the voice of Abd-ul-Hamid, but the hands are those of the Russian Foreign Minister.
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