Sir Adam Block, the alternative President of the Council of
the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt, strongly supports the commercial independence of Turkey in an able, letter in Monday's Times. The exceptional fiscal privileges—. i.e., in regard to the Stamp Act, Property-tax, and Law of Succession—enjoyed by foreigners in Turkey, "are allowed in no Western State, and, while favouring the foreigner to the prejudice of the native, prevent the Government from establishing an equilibrium in its Budget, to say nothing of finding the means to reorganise and reform its administration." Finance will undoubtedly be a crucial matter for the new Parliament, and Sir Adam Block does good service in raising the question. At the same time, we must remember that the chief point to consider is whether we can depend upon the present enlightened and reasonable regime lasting. If the maintenance of the new regime cannot be depended on, it will be necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. To abolish the Capitulations and the Treaties as to taxation, and then to find Turkey submerged beneath the flood of reaction, might involve many British subjects and traders in absolute ruin.
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