The Sultan and His Subjects.

Bush Advocate, Volume XI, Issue 869, 9 December 1893, Page 5

The Sultan and His Subjects.

The Ottoman Committee of " Yrning Turkey" hava issued a pamphlet in which they complain bitterly of the treatment meted out by the Sultau to his subject?. Th» writers state thai they do not ucsire to minimise the actual state of terror which prevails in Armenia to-dny, but tboy wish to point out that " the tyranny which ia reigning today in the pro. vincesis not limited to the Christian population but affects e\-ery sort of unfortunate subject of the Sultan." Respecting the late persecution, the pamphlet says : — Had Professor Thaumaiano and J>lr Kayayan, who were both condemned to death j by that mock Turkish tribunal, been Turks, { matead of being Armenians, they would surely have been despatched to some other planet in order to join the unfortunate Hidhat ; but being Armenians, the Sultan bestowed on them his Imperial clemency, of which he is so fond of boasting, but the intelligent observer knows well that the so-called clemency only appeared after her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Constantinople had distinctly informed the Porte that the Cabinet of St. James's would not recognise the judgment ■which was passed on the unfortunate prisoners, as being contrary to the laws which exist to-day ia Europe. The Sultan had, therefore, no other alternative than to hang the two Armenian prisoners and menace England, or to proclaim his Imperial and gracious clemency. He preferred, of course, the latter, as being lees dangerous for his Throne. But Armenia, we are told, is not the only Turkish province where the strong are allowed to crash the weak, and where the rich oppress the poor :— Ibis state of things is raging- to-day all over Turkey. It is true that one province ( may be worse than another; but the whole , state of Turkey ia in a most painful condition, i and the fear, the want of security for lite and 1 property which is reigning in Armenia is ' quite as bad as it is in Stamboul itself, for j even in the capital indescribable horrrors are to be seen, as bad as those which exist in ( Angora, for the 2000 students recently j banished to an unknown land were i taken from Stamboul under the eyea j of Abdul Hamid. Midhat and all the j Midhatista were also arrested in the Turkish ( capital and banished to the interior of the country by the Court of Yildiz-Kiosk, which was quite as corrupt as that of Angora. And again— The army is entirely disorganised, the . troops are commanded to-day toy men who were promoted by the Sultan merely that c I they might protect him. The troops c !in the Turkish capital only are paid \ and fed, whilst those in the provinces ' are half naked and starved, and their arrears- . of pay amount to more than two years. The g ' fleet is all rotten ; since the unfortunate ac- { cession to the throne s! Abdul Hamid all the s ships are laid up iv the arsenal, and have t never been to sea. The Sultan dreads to see c . them opposite his prison palace, iv fear that ; thay may send a bomb into Yildiz, and thus t bring to an end the solution of this burning \ question, which the people of Turkey have 8 ecu so long waiting for. The Sultan is, of course, said by the writers c to be the sole cause of all this, and they con- < dude as follows : — t Let there be a better understanding } between the Armenian Committee and the Turkish Committee of Young Turkey in c Stamboul and in Europe, for the mutual \ benefit of all the subjects of the Forte, in order to upset the actual regime and system fl of Yildiz-Kiosk, instead of accelerating the j downfall of Turkey and causing it to become g the prey of a common enemy. . Our learned a Armenian countrymen must ba a wars that a 8 movement is going on to-day in Stamboul for *' qhis object, and we are confident that the time is not far when the Liberal Turks will j, obtain their object, and will be able to introduce into their country the reforms which will bring ou the people all the blessings and the haapinesa which Europe is possessed of to-day. — "Westminster Gazette." (■