THE SULTAN'S HEIR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 5

THE SULTAN'S HEIR.

ANOTHER SURPRISE, fIBDUL RECONCILED TO RESHAD, THIRTY YEARS IN PRISON. (BY TELEGRAPH-TI'RESS ASSOCIATION— COPTKIGI?T t ) (Reo, August 28, II p.m.) Constantinople, August 28, The Sultan Abdul list mid hag ljgon recoaii piled to his brother and lioli'-presiimptive, Meliqriiniec|-Re§!iad w|iq hjjg bee\i jpiprisoned fpy thirty years,. fepntion, August 28. The. "Dgjly Telegraph" saya that such a recognition of his suqcesgqr pn the part of' :i reigning Sultan is nnpfU'flilelsd in Turkish history, It is one of t!>Q strongest toms of th? Modernisation Q? the Turkish Empjrp,

TURKISH SUCCESSION. THE CONSTITtt'HONALISTS-GERMi.N "" INFLUENCE. Mehcmmcd-Reshad Effendi, Abdul Hamid's brother, is the rightful heir to the throne of Turkoy in accordance with the tradition,, dating pack as far as 1617, that the eldest member of the Imperial family shall always occupy the throne, That is to say, the Syltiin is sue* peeded by ltia eldest pqq'qpl; in pag? there is Ho uncle jtor cousin of greater age. Reshad Iffpfldi wag born in 1844, and the Sultan's eldest sen (Meheroroed-Selim Effendi) was born in 1570.. Beside Reshad Ijffendi,' the Sultan has two other both older than his eldest son, Tlig question of the Turkish succession has been a very important one in European diplomacy, and the - Sultan's reconciliation with hi§ brother and heir Reshad Effendi has a big meaning. Taking the consensus of opinion of various Constantinople porrespom dents, it means a further triumph for the Constitutionalists and in all probability a blow for German influence, This would, of oourse, be consistent with the whole tenor of recent cablegrams, and with Professor Yambery's statement fi few days ago that German influence at Constantinople is destroyed by the new regime. The correspondent of a London paper stated soine time ago that Germany was favourable tp the substitution of the Sultan's fourth son, Burhan-Eddin Effendi, for Eeshad Effendi as heir to the throne. ifrom other sources it fippears that Burhan was eduoated in Gey-, is a favourite of tho Kaiser, and is ''imbued with German ideas." German interest m the succession of such a Prince is'obvious, (A view, of her concession "It ig a wslldcnown faot," says thq Pwis correspondent of "The Tinges," "that tlie population of Turs key itself is hostile to German expansion in the Near and that tlw Baghdad railway WP\lld uever have been in (Jjerman hands were it not fon tho autocratic intervention pf the Sultan Abdul Hamid." He notes, however, that Germany, beginning to doubt of thq sueoess of tho project of putting forward Burhp as heir, Was also "trying to ingratiate herself With the party that will ha most powerful whenoyer Abdul Hamid disappears." With a foresight now shown to be prophetic, ho adds: "The Arab and • Kurd clique, now so influential at Yildiz Iyiosk, will be superseded by an entirely different element, many members of wbich now live in exilo in .different parts of the Continent. It ■ remains to be jieen whether this element, of which a numerous section has hitherto been keenly hostile to Germany, will allow itself to be converted.'' What the later phases of German policy with regard to' the Turkish succession may have beon is j\ot cleaT; but England and France are understood to have consistently advocated the claims of Eeshad. The Turkish reformers have written of Peshjid as one who would be a constitutional sovereign, and the armed Revolt whioh they lately planned would probably have placed him on the throne. All this has been anticipated hi the Sultan's end' dpi) submission tp the popular. will,