NOTICE TO QUIT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18013, 4 March 1924, Page 7

NOTICE TO QUIT.

CALIPH OF TURKEY. BILL OF BANISHMENT BEFORE ASSEMBLY. (BY- CABLE—PHESS ASSOCIATION COPTBIOHT.) (AUSTRALIAN AXD K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) CONSTANTINOPLE, March 2. An important session of the People's Party is being held tb-dav, to discuss three Bills for: (1) The suppression of the Caliphate. (2) The suppression of the Ministry of Pious Foundations. (3) The abolition of theological schools. The Bill concerning the Caliphate provides for the deposition of the Caliph, the abolition of the Caliphate, the perpetual expulsion of all members of the Caliphal family from Turkey within 10 days, the forfeiture of their Turkish citizenship, the payment of a lump sum, said not to exceed 300,000 liras, and the confiscation of all palaces. The deportees will be allowed a year to liquidate their private property, through representatives. It is expected the party will accept the Bill, which will be rushed through tho Assembly in an afternoon.

[On November Ist, 1922, the Turkish Grand National Assembly passed a resolution declaring that" the office of Sultan had ceased to exist, and providing that the office of Caliph, which had hitherto been vested in the person of the Sultan, should be filled by election from among the Princes of the Houso of Osman. Within the next few days the Grand National Assembly took over the administration of affairs; and on November 17th the Sultan took refuge on board a British warship and left Constantinople. The Assembly immediately elected to the Caliphate tho ex-Sultan's only cousin, Prince Abdul-Medjid, tho eldest Prince, in male descent, of the House of Osman. Abdul-Medjid was born in 1868, and is the sole surviving son of Sultan AbdulAziz. Ho has two children, Prince Omer, aged 26, and Prince Durri, aged 10.]

SUNK IN MELANCHOLY.

CALIPH IN HIS HAREM. (AUSTBALIAS AND N.S. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Eeceived March* 3rd, 7.25 p.m.) CONSTANTINOPLE, March 2. The Bill to abolish the Caliphate includes a demand for the expulsion of Abdul-Medjid after 10 days, also deprivation of Turkish citizenship for all male and female members of the Dynasty and the sequestration of their estates, though Princes and Princesses will be allowed a lump sum on departure.

The Caliph is sunk in melancholy, and spends most of his time in the harem. It is expected he will go to Egypt or some other Moslem country. His seven attendants are deeply distressed, and the Chief Eunuch refuses to eat.

PARTY ACCEPTS BILL. (Received March 4th, 12.5 a.m.) CONSTANTINOPLE, March 3. The People's Party unanimously accepted the Bill deposing the Caliph and abolishing the Caliphate.

FAR-REACHING EFFECTS.

(Received March 4th, 1.30 a.m.)

LONDON, March 3,

Mr Ward Price, commenting on the abolishment of the Caliphate, says that the disestablishment o'f the Moslem regime is part of Kemal's programme of modernising Turkey and Westernising her institutions. It is carried out in the face of hostility from the Hodjahs, religious teachers forming one of the most conservative and most powerful bodies of public opinion in Turkey, as well aa from vhe peasants, who regarded the Caliphate above the office of the Sultan from which they were separated in 1922.

The event will have profound worldwide consequence, the Amir of Afgnan■istan and King Hussein are known to covet the dignity of Caliph.