The news is bad from Constantinople. It is difficult to
doubt that the savage repression which followed the ill- advised demonstration of the Armenians on September 30th was ordered by great men in the Palace, if not by the Sultan himself. The police, in fact, were directed not to protect Armenians, and the Softas and the roughs, as well as some policemen disguised as Softas, were let loose on the unhappy nation. For twenty-four hours any Armenian in the streets was clubbed to death at sight, any Armenian arrested was stabbed or tortured, and an effort was made to starve those who fled to the Patriarchate or the churches. Even a cavass of the Patriarch, in full official costume, was beaten to death, as were more than twenty Armenian gas-stokers, and, though this seems incredible, the Armenian cooks in the Sultan's household. It is believed that more than four hundred Armenians were put to death—the correspondent of the Daily News says eight hundred—and the Sultan has thanked and re- warded the Softas for their loyalty. The Ambassadors have demanded trials for the Armenians, decent treatment for the prisoners, and a European visitation of the prisons ; but the Sultan replies that the Armenians alone are guilty. From town after town it is reported that the Mussulmans are attacking the Armenians, who are everywhere in an extremity of fear ; while in Trebizond a hundred Armenians have been put to death, the troops in that instance siding with the rioters. There is, of course, no redress, and will be none till the Sultan believes that the Powers are in earnest, and that Yildiz Kiosk may be shelled.
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