THE SITUATION IN TURKEY. -OR several months there have been
rumours of clashing lI influences at work in Constantinople which were likely to change the character of the Committee of Union and Progress. It was even said that a coup d'gtat was by no means impossible. Strong personal rivalries were spoken of as doing service for rational political principles ; and this at a time when dissensions in the Government were more hazardous than usual, because one of the first conditions of success in putting down such risings as those in Albania and Yemen is always unity of purpose in the Administration. The situation has been so obscure that newspaper readers may well have despaired of under- standing what has been going on. They could not even say if the issue was whether a particular school of political ideas should triumph within the powerful Com- mittee of Union and Progress, or whether the whole Young Turk movement, and the Constitution with it, were threatened with extinction. At last something like a definite result has emerged from the darkness. The situa- tion is by no means clear even now, and, though there is much that is encouraging in the new circumstances, it is to be remembered that the soundest pledges in the world may have no fulfilment. The first point to set on the credit side in balancing the account is that there is no question of overturning the Constitution. That is still reasonably safe. The struggle has been between the Radical and Conservative elements in the Committee, and the latter have got the mastery, and are likely, so far as we can look ahead, to control the policy of Turkey. But an incident of the struggle which has thus come to an issue is the retirement from the Ministry of Djavid Bey, the Minister of Finance, and there can be no doubt that the Young Turks will have to search long before they fine another Finance Minister so adroit and energetic. One is tempted, indeed, to think that it may be beyond the power of any other Turkish statesman successfully to grapple with so many difficulties.
Symptoms of the conflict within the Committee ap- peared plainly three weeks ago, when a meeting of the Committee Parliamentary Party was held and the com- batants threshed out their future policy. The dissatisfied group carried the day, and a policy which, as the Times correspondent said, might be regarded as the " new pro- gramme " of the party was drawn up. Ten articles were signed. It was agreed, among other things, that Deputies of the Committee Parliamentary Party should not seek concessions or official appointments, and that even when accepting Cabinet posts they should be backed by two- thirds of their party ; that the party should work for the reunion of races in the Empire ; that it should respect national and religious usages while aiming at Western civilisation; and that secret societies should be discouraged. These important and wise principles are the result of the long and obscure dissensions within the Committee and within that large Parliamentary group which draws its inspiration from the Committee. The new programme was adopted provisionally by the whole Committee, and the next step was that it was taken over bodily by the bloc in the Chamber. From that moment it was certain that Djavid Bey and Ismail Hakki Bey would be forced from the Government. The new programme was really aimed at Djavid Bey more than against anyone. It was said that he exercised his patronage unfairly, and it is certainly notorious that he found appointments for the editors of his own paper, the Tanin. Again, as the Times says, the Hodjas were alarmed at the tendency of the Government towards Western methods which were incompatible with the pure faith of Islam. Freeman used to say that so long as Turkey clung to the Koran a Constitutional Government was impossible. Fortu- nately, events have not yet proved the truth of that dictum, but we can perceive in the present situation the difficulties of grafting modern and progressive ideas on to an inelastic creed. Political freemasonry played a romantic and decisive part in the preparations for the Revolution in 1908, and it has been fashionable in Constantinople over since. But now that the immediate need for it, as a subterranean means of communication, has passed away, it is found to be alien to Conservative and orthodox minds. General Mahmud Shevket Pasha is believed to have employed his great influence in the direction of a Con- servative and anti-masonic policy, which must not be con- fused with a reactionary policy ; and if rumour speaks truly Djavid Bey had no more determined personal enemy than he. The Times sums up the outcome very simply and very fairly, we think, in saying that the Committee of Union and Progress remains supreme, but that the power has passed from the Left to the Right or to the Centre of that body. Another complaint against Djavid Bey is that, for all his financial skill, he made a mistake—it is hinted, a deliberate and perverse mistake—in abandoning the negotiations with France for a loan. It will be remem- bered that the sequel was that a loan was raised in Germany and that Germany sold two out-of-date ships to Turkey at a high price. Now the permeating influence of Germany in Turkey is alarming many moderate Young Turks, and it is very easy to look back on the growth of that influence and associate it with Djavid Bey. The campaign of Zionism, moreover, which the Jews are prosecuting in the Turkish Empire with more energy than ever before, is frequently connected with Germany. The Zionists (may say, and do say, that they have no notion of founding a State within the Turkish Empire which would be a rival to the Imperial power. They only want a " home " in Palestine, and there they would respect Turkish laws and Turkish supremacy. The answer of the Young Turks, who associate Zionism with Germany, would, no doubt, be that a territorial home might one day be powerful enough to become a State, and that this might the more easily happen with financial support forthcoming from Germany. The Zionists indignantly repudiate any connection with Germany whatsoever, and we do not doubt the sincerity of their statements. But the Jewish Colonizing Organization of Berlin, which is active in the Turkish Empire, is confused with Zionistic organiza- tions, and the one bears the responsibility for the action of the other. In Palestine the Zionists have been extremely hard at work, and though their penetration of the country is only economic, many Young Turks not unnaturally fail to draw the necessary distinction between economic and national aspirations. The undercurrents of Turkish political life are extremely complicated, but we trust that what has happened, in spite of the sacrifice of Djavid's financial skill, will help to establish the Constitution more firmly. It is curious to reflect that the elements which have just been subjugated in the Committee are in form those which did the chief service in bringing about the overthrow of the old regime. But this is not necessarily a sign of ingratitude or retrogression. The influences which are desirable in certain crises must pass away when they have served their turn. Salonika for some time was the real capital of Turkey, for there the Radical personages of the Com- mittee issued their decrees. That phase appears to be over. Gratuitous secrecy is for the moment at a discount. But we must not forget that the Committee still reigns ; that it is itself a secret body, and that so long as it is in active existence Constitutionalism is a simulacrum and not a reality. Before we leave the subject of Turkey we should like to call the attention of our readers to a reconstituted weekly paper, entitled The Near East (price 6d. Throgmorton House, Copthall Avenue, E.C.). It aims at supplying English readers with first-hand information in regard to Turkey, the Levant, and the whole of that section of the Moslem world which is in immediate touch with Europe. We wish The Near East all success. Nothing could be more useful just now than authentic news in regard to all things Turkish.
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