The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1915. TURKEYS EVIL GENIUS. ;

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 224, 20 September 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1915. TURKEYS EVIL GENIUS. ;

Fur the cause that iact.i assistanoe, ' For thr trrong that ti-rds resistance, I For thr future in thr distance, t A lid the good that uc r\in do.

We do not suppose that any intelligent person will t;ike seriously the : [ boastful asserticiiis of Knvpr I'nalia a* j ' to tin- si length of thi" Turkish armies I' and the piwuibility of defending 'onstan tinopli' against the Allied. For Envcr lias shown himself to t>c thoroughly unmTiipiilous ninl unreliable, and whatever 1 I reputation lie may have won as a soldier among his own people in the revolution that overthrew Abdul Humid he has lon.' Mine mierifiml by his arrogance mid incompetence, ami his willingness to I Milionlinate his country's interests to { German policy lor his own profit. When I' the Young Turks brought oil' thpir amaz- | ' in;; ■'coup" seven years ago. seizing the capital and dethroning the Sultan almost at a blow, the Western nations ' were so dazzled by these brilliant exploints that tliev believed, in defiance of all past experience, that at last the impossible was to happen and tl".e Mob- 1 lem world was to be reformed nnd renovated from within. But these enthusiastic anticipations were doomed to speed.v disappointment. The Committee of ' Union and Progress which had engi- '■ neered the revolution with such surpris- ' ing success soon proved itself devoid of ' political ability, and its crude and irrational projects for reducing all the races subject to Turkey to one uniform level of helpless subordination to the central authority produced nothing but discontent, .sedition, and anarchy. It is no exaggeration to bay that the tyranny of Abdul Hainid was less oppressive than the rule of the Committee of Union and i Progress. But Abdul Hamid, with all his faults, was at least the titular Commander of the Faithful, the lineal heir to the political and spiritual ascendancy lof the Caliphate, and what the Turkush i people could endure from their Sultan they were not disposed to tolerate bo OS*

easily when their country was in the hands of a cosmopolitan cabal alien to themselves for the most part in religion and in race. There is now no doubt Ihut the enthusiasm which in Kngland greeted the downfall of Abdul Hamid six yei.re ago was sadly misplaced, 6 o far as it represented any confidence in the revolutionary organisation which deposed him. The Committee of I'nlon and Progress professed to he actuated by .1 patriotic and disinterested desire to promote the welfare of the country and of all it* inhabitants, irrespective of nationality and creed; and British observers, listen ing to these sonorous professions of faith, ~eem generally to have overlooked or condoned .the obvious defects of the fa ill oiio Committee, more especially its lack of cohesion ami the mediocre ability of Hμ leaders. As soon as ever the first outburst of triumph died away, it be-.-.une clear that the Committee of fiiion mid Pi-ogre* was uttcilv incapable of reorfianis'.nji the Empire, or fe urinß the eontidence and support of the Turkiali nation. Perhaps itc most serious weak ness in the e.\cn of this simple-minded an.l conservative people wa.s its curiously | mixed nationality. Enver Paoha was half a Pole; Djtiviil Hey nib a half- j Wreck, half.lew. from Salunik.i; CatM*»o «at> a (Ireek or Italian .lc» ; Aehmet Kiza, one of the .ibhvt and mo-1 trust-j worthy of the motley hand, wae pirtly 1 Magyar, partly (ircusc-iun: and Tilaat Hey was a Bulgarian gi|»-y. Clcjrly there was little in the con-t liitinn of the i oiiim:t;.v Lh it could a..,c.il to the l lovalt.v and rdipous reverence which: the Turke have generally j ;.-lded with j out ipiegtion to the I'alipiiate. The pfTect I produced by the nsceniniicy of the I oni ! n.itlec on the Turkish ni.nd, it has been '.veil sa.d. HaJ much wiuit u,,n1l have: '..•en ppHlu.-rd on llw (ii-rm.ui lut.on. -if the i.cnn.ui am.*, battling for the liiin-c 01 Teutonic culture, had been' d.reeled Iμ men with naire- lik.- ! U-vim ~ and i r.nl I .'Toole mil Mackintosh." I'ndcr aiich ii. umtniic •>, ,yen if the Committee hii.l en lv.ted il-' iclf with the most c\eui|il.i;> re.'ard for the rijrhte and prrjudVi* ■ ! >1I the Su! | Lan n RiibjpctS. ita noiu! have been d flicilt. But so far nr the j romi-ed ii-Ki-n-ration of Tuilc.v ,v u - n.iice-ned., the Committee, fiy its incompetence, by] its corriip". dealings, an I b> its viol, lit an.l Kangiiinary crime*. t-0,.n ri-nlcred t'.c achievement of that i.le.il even nnrf' re:i:(,te th.vi it ha.l been .n the worst day* of Abdul Hamid. To ri-gcnerate Turkey. what was needed was a stronn nn,l lione<t central (iovcrnment to relieve the peasuntiv of the ruinous taxation which cniehes them, to cleanne the Augean =ta:>le of tne public oflicce an.i departments, and to restore the rule of I-l.u,i to its old dignity and prcti.-c. Hut the Young Turks, we are told, "wore anti Islam, and therefore antination.il. an.l llicv were fully as corrupt, as unscrupulous, and abrutai He their predecessors." Cosmopolitan n B they were in origin and faith, they neglivted even the profession of orthodoxy—a heinous sin in the eyes of the devout Turk; they insulted the Sheikhul Islam, the High PontilT of the Moslem world; n'l.l when any formid able antagonist criticised tlKir actions in rcjard to politics or rehju.'n they got over the difficulty by the primitive proce.«« of a.-!-a**u!i;tion. The nominal head of the Committee, Enver Hey. was ap ' pnrently much overrated both by hiw c;olK',i2ue» and his foreign admirers. His nrfUiaul success in organising the revo-, lutionnry army, whieli seize,l ti.e capital I and eiibßcquently dethrone,! the Sultan, j made him the hero of the hour. li.it ninny keen observers. 1 Mich as Mr. McCitllajrh, the; well ■ known war correspondent.' note,l that the haniK-ome .voting soldier though he talked glibly alj.uit the rights of the people, seemed to be merely repeating a mechanical formula, and Kave no sign of any original inspiration. Since then Knver has impressed himself upon! his countrymen at* a military adventurer of a iinwt dangerous ty;,e —"a tim.el Napoleon, who dreamed of himself as the master of the .Mohammedan world." lie pot rid of two of hie ablest opponents. Nazirn Pa«ha ami Mahomed Shevket. by assassination: and as thei-e two men were probably the :>est generals that the country po-tscsscd. their removal caused grave dissatit-faction, even among | a people t-o little disposed to criticise! their masters as the Turk-*. The Com I mittee in general, and Euvcr in particu-lar,-had promised- the Turks to lead thetni to victory over the foes of Ulanl. But the collapse of Turkey in the Italian and Balkan wars opened the eyes of the people to the incapacity of t'-.eir rtllere. \i for this final adventure into which the Committee has dragged Turkey, it. was largely Knver's work. The Sultan, the Grand Vizier, and the Minister of Finance all opposed the war; and the Turkish people have always looked to England as their traditional friend and protector, while they hate and fear the and the Clcrmnns. Moreover. by the time that Enver had involved Turkey in the war on the side of the Central Powers, the Moslems of India and Western Asia and Africa had de clared themselves almost untoimously on the side of the Triple Entente. The Turks were, therefore, forced to see that, the project of a Holy '.Var against the infidel, which vvafi the chief argument used to inveigle them into the conflict, was foredoomed to failure. Their heart has never been in the war, and the Committee of Union and Progress is wholly responsible for their share in it. And co it comes about that the organisation of revolutionaries who aroused the enthusiasm of the Western World by overthrowing the tyranny of Abdul Ifamid seven yiire ago have now, by their own selfishness and incompetence and unscrupulous dishonesty, lured their country to its doom.

THE RUSSIAN SITUATION. There seems to he no d-ouht that the Germans have now occupied Vilna, and the poseesniou of this Important railway! centre certainly supplies them with j considerable strategical and .tactical advantages for further operations ill thin district. But it must be remembered that tlie northern winter sets in early, and even if the invaders ac wrong enough to push their offensive, further eastward, they will hardly have time to do anything effective before "Russia - .* strongest ally.' , the winter snort - , N upon them. The Hermans probably realise thin quite as clearly as the Russian*. I'"or General yon Buelow, in his boastful announcement of his intention to march against Petrograd in the spring, admits that he intends to winter at Ktgn. However, he is not at Riga yet. ,-n.l much will ecr lainly hapten before the r-.pring cuinea round ogam. As to Vilna, its cupuirc makes practically no difference to the Russian armies. which are. an.l mitet remain, the re.il objective of the enemy's onslaught. And the advance of the (iermnna in this quarter must lie considered in Ho-e connection with t'ne severe reverses that ■their Austrian allies have just sustained in the couth. It certainly looks as "if the Kii-i-ians. rcjnrding the .lunger of an ntt.ick upon the KielT railway and a 'uermaii advance toward* the Black Sea 1 lib more urgent than the menace of invar.on in the U.iltie provinces, had ilelihci.tlcly coticelltr.lted their greatest strength" in (Jalici.i mid Southern Poland. • K-ivii'ia the northern area relatively \«- i; • ii,-.! for the time. As to the success thai lvii attended the recent KllssiHll upcr.it.i,us in Ki.-nrii (iiilicia, it is now [clear tint the Aiii.lri.uin have n.-am Miaj lamed heavy 10--cs. and that the} lire 1 retreating nest ward in some disorder. I Kven in the northern I lie* tre the Kns--iaiis tliiin su.vc.-rteh, and if the latest : ealilio referring t,< the precarious position of h large body of Uitiubii truupi in th.it region arc to'be accepted ss acciiIrate, the enemy may yet have to pay i de.ir fur lln- o ciip.itiiin of \ llii.i. In IIUV ia.-c. il ciiiiHil hi- tun "in n ri pelted that the =..dc nul.l.iry i,.,,e. ! of the iliva--inn (.( Poland » .!■»' the iWtnn m>ll of i the l;;i...ii.| aiinii'-. nil 1 as tJ---,- .ire cu:i not mill iinbi-o .. ~. but «! !■■ to a--.ime t!ie offensive with sueI Ilia l> nit has f.ulcl a- cillipletely as il has faiU-,1 in lYau.v alul lti-lgiuoi.