The character of the electoral campaign of the Committee of
Union and Progress is foreshadowed by the Constantinople correspondent of the Times in Tuesday's paper. The Com- mittee will not unnaturally "run" their own candidates, but they will not abstain from supporting others who have the necessary qualifications when there is no candidate of their own in the field. Their own candidates will be chiefly Turkish Moslems, but suitability for Parliamentary life will be allowed to rank before even religion and race. Thus the Committee's nominees at Salonika and Smyrna are both Jews. The elections will be held in November. The same correspondent criticises in the Times of Wednes- day the undue interference of the Committee with the Government. "They must realise," he says, "that there is a mean between abandoning the entire direction of the State to Ministers and taking up their time with the constant dis- cussion of details; between making no examples among the corrupt Executive and weakening it by the dismissal of an excessive number of officials." There was certainly a danger that in the full tide of their righteous indignation with the "old guard" the Young Turks would make the Administra. tion too weak to have a real existence. Even bad officials who know the routine of their offices may do better under supervision for the time being than men who are equipped only with noble principles and eloquent words. But we are glad to learn later from the same correspondent that the campaign of expulsion has ceased provisionally.
