TURKEY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 299, 11 September 1908, Page 7

TURKEY.

AN AMNESTY WITH LIMITATIONS. PLOTTER ARRESTED. BOMB-THROWING AT THE MOSQUE. (at TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—CorntiaUT.) ■ Constantinople, September 9. One Silvio Rioter, who is believed to have been concerned with another in an attempt to kill the Sultan as he was leaving his mosque, was arrested at Stamboul, whither ho had returned, believing tho recent amnesty included him. SULTAN'S PERSONAL FEAR. Tho "attempt to kill tho Sultan as he was leaving his mosque" evidently refers_ to the throwing of a bomb on July 21, 1905, which killed 24 persons and wounded 57. The Sultan was standing at the time on the steps ot the mosque, which he has had constructed within the enclosure of the Yildiz Kiosk grounds, so that he may go on Fridays to the weekly prayer, or Selamlik, with greater safety than in the days when he crossed tho Golden Horn to the mosque at the Old Seraglio. Notwithstanding precautions, the bombthrowers of 1905 got within the grounds of Yildiz Kiosk and to the steps of the little mosque, called "Hamidyeh Mosque' after the Sultan. The bomb fell short of Abdul Hamid, but destroyed enough of human i life to make Constantinople a somewhat risky place of abode for ft. conspirator, even under a constitutional regime. Early in August it was reported that a minor official had attomptod to stab the Sultan in Yildiz Kiosk, but that Abdul Hamid's coat of mail deflected the blow. . According to the "Daily Mail, personal fear played a large part in the Sultan's recent submission to constitutionalism. poured in of the spread of the rebellion, and of the intended advance of the mutinous troops upon tho capital. At tho same time telegrams and petitions from all parts of tho Empire demanding reforms .were continually arriving at the palace. Thoroughly alarmed, his Majesty called a Counoil of Ministers. All night they deliberated, the Sultan obstinate, the Ministers nreing him .to save his throne and his life bv yielding. So Rreat was the strain that his Majesty fainted before the Council. Recovering, ho consented to proclaim the Constitution of 1876 and to abolish the censorship of the pross and the secret police system. A transformation scene followed."