SWORN ON THE KORAN

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 263, 30 July 1908, Page 7

SWORN ON THE KORAN

SUtTAN AND CONSTITUTION. • YOUNC turkey still watchful, UNDESIRABLE FOREIGNERS. ' (nr TELEGIIAPH—ntESS ASSOCIATION—COPi'IHOnT.) (Rec. July 29, 10.35 p.m.) • ' Constantinople, July 29. ' The Sultau Abdul Hamid 11, in tho pre- • sence of tho Slieik-ul-Islani (tho head of tho Church), and swearing on tho Koran, took ' tho oath of allegiance to ,tho constitution. Tho young Turks have resolved to maintain the bulk of their strength in Macedonia, because thpy are not without misgivings as to tho Sultan's intentions concerning some of their domands. • Their committeo at Salonika has invited tho Austro-Hungai'ian and . tho Russian civil agents to quit.Macedonia; and tho presence of tho foreign gendarmerio officers is also considered unnecessary. AN ALL-RACES MOVEMENT, PAN-ISLAMISM. . BANDS SAID TO BE DISPERSING, London, July 29. The Constantinople correspondent of "Tho Times " - deelaros that Hamidian despotism can never bo revived. The Constitutional movement is not 'Moslem but Ottoman —a movement in which all races and creeds are co-operating. Tho Sultan's Pan-Islamism is rejected so far as its intolerant aspects aro concerned. Many Bulgarian and Greek bands have voluntarily dispersed. BRITISH PRESTIGE. ' IT GAINS BY THE NEW REGIME. Constantinople, July 28. There is a remarkable outburst of proBritish fooling in Stamboul (Constantinople, particularly the .Turkish quarter), the populaco attributing tho cliango in the regime to British policy. PAN-ISLAMISM AND 'THE PRITISH ; EMPIRE, . Tho constitutional transformation scene in Turkey, which' is apparently genuine, would bo sufficiently interesting to British reader's, even if it only concerned a foreign Power; but soeing that tho Sultan is the spiritual head of. the vast hordes of Mohammedans within the British Empire, events in Turkey assume a paramount importance. The Egyptian Nationalists have been quick to note that ' a constitutional Turkey would bo a . great moral argumont for ! constitutional rulo in Egypt,' no doubt Mohammedans in India, aro equally watchful. In this connection tho statement of "Tho Tiinos's" Constantinople correspondent that the Turkish movement rojects tho Sultan's pa'n-Islamism in its intolerant phases is full of importance to tho British Empire. How far is the Nationalism of Egypt and India tinged with pan-Tslamism?' Lord Cromer, in his last report, stated-that panJslamism is a factor in the Egyptian situation of which account has to a certain extent to bo taken: "Pan-Islamism is generally hold to mean a combination of all. the Moslems throughout, the world to defy and resist the Christian Powers. . If I am sceplical of pan-Islamism producing any mora, serious resuits than sporadic outbursts of fanaticism, it is. in tho first place, becanso I greatly doubt tlio possibility of Moslom co-operation and cohesion..when once it becomes a question of passing from words to deeds; and, in tho second place, because I am quito confident of tho power : of Etiropn, tho necessity'arise, to deal effectively with tho material, though not the spiritual, aspects of tho movement:" Lord Cromnr goes nil to ,say that pan-Tslamism"' means, in Egypt: (1) more or less complete subsoryieney to. the Sultan; (2) it almost necessarily connotes a recrudescence of racial' and religious animosity; (3) it almost necessarily connotes an attempt to regenerate Islam oi\ Islamic lines. "AH who aro interested in tho work of Egyptian reform are constrained to condemn pan-Tslamism."