A curious incident at Smyrna this week shows the prestige
which attaches to British protection in the Near East. Kiamil Pasha, once Grand Vizier to the Sultan, and a good example of the respectable older Turkish school, fell out of favour some time ago, and was ordered to Aleppo. Aleppo has an ill name for Turkish exiles, so he succeeded in getting himself sent to Aidin, the province in which Smyrna is situated, and of this province he remained Vali till the other day. He is now eighty years old, and has been called upon to surrender his post, Rhodes being assigned to him as his place of residence. Rhodes, however, bears as ill a name as Aleppo, and, remembering the fate of Midhat, and following the example of Said Pasha, Kiamil has sought sanctuary in the British Embassy at Smyrna, and refuses to move till the Sultan has given the British Charge d'Affaires assurances of his safety. The fact that his son, to whose misdeeds he is said to have owed the loss of his Valiship, has been received into high favour at Constantinople has naturally made the old man suspicious, more especially as he has powerful enemies at Court, and has always represented avolicy the opposite of Altd-ul-Hamid's. The assurances he seeks will no dbubt be given, and, being assurances to Britain, the Sultan dare not go back on his word ; but the whole incident shows that the British flag is still regarded in the Turkish Empire as the protection of those wbo stand in fear of injustice.
