The Turkish Government has triumphantly survived a Ministerial crisis in
a manner which suggests that it has observed recently in France how strong a position a powerful Cabinet holds when it makes every important act of policy a question of confidence. The crisis arose owing to the announcement of the Government that without consulting the Chamber it had sanctioned the fusion of the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company (the Lynch Company) with the Hamidieh Company. Last Saturday the Chamber tried to assert its rights, and Khalil Bey argued, in contra- diction of what Hilmi Pasha, the Grand Vizier, had said, that the fusion was in fact a monopoly. A large majority of the Chamber voted with Khalil Bey, and thus it seemed that the Government was defeated on the question of confidence. But the regulations of the Turkish Chamber allow a debate to be resumed even after what is apparently a final division has been taken. There was accordingly an interval, during which negotiations took pies*, and when the debate was resumed the Grand Vizier once more challenged the Deputies to turn out the Cabinet if they thought they could find a better one.
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