CROSS AND CRESCENT

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 510, 18 May 1909, Page 5

CROSS AND CRESCENT

TURKISH ARMY. ONE-FOURTH TO BE CHRISTIANS. . RECRUITS WANTED. _ '■■■ IDT TELtGIUrR-ntXSS' ASSOCIATION—COrTBiaUT.J (Reo. May 17, 9.85 p.m.) Constantinople, May 17. Mahmud Shovkot Pasha, Commander of the Third Army Corps, has informed the Ecumenical Patriarch of tho Greek Church (Constantino V) that one-fourth of the Ottoman army will honcefprth be composed of Christians, ' . . ' ■ ' ■ ■■ , Shevkot states that tho best policy will bo to accept the services of those who volunteer, without .awaiting the Turkish Parliament's adoption of the law of enlistment for nonMoslems. . ■.''..'■ .; , Ho added that Christian recruits will nlso be. accepted for tho police and the gendarmerie. 1 ■ •.•■■ A CHECK ON ANTI-CHRISTIAN ' '. VIOLENCE, ; ■ . ' ■ London, May 17. The Constantinople correspondent of "Tho Times" reports that these reforms, besides quieting the Armenian aiid Bulgarian communities, will minimiso the dancer of attacks upon Christians. '• - ' ' : MOHAMMEDANS' DEFENCE BURDEN. Mohammedans form.the vast majority of the population in Asiatio Turkey (where the outrages, ocpnr), but less than of the population in European Turkey. Hitherto military service has been theoretically compulsory on all Moslems, but Christians have 'riot been allowed to serve; they have paid'instead a tax'of about 6s. Bd. per annum. As the ChrisHans in European Turkey exceed in nunibor'the Mohammedans (by 3,500,000 to 2,500,000), and there, are also' nearly 3i millions of Christians in. Turkey in Asia,'this religious distinction cramps the Ottoman Empire in the development of.its military strength. Further, compulsory service oannot be enforced in' Arabia and hardly in Tripoli, while the Kurdish and Arab: tribes in Asia Minor are'exempt; so also is the,district of Constantinople and that >f Skodra,' ;'ih" Albania. ' The burden of defohoe, therefore, falls on about eleven million ' Moslems, -out of a total population of about 25 milions of all creeds_ and race.v . Exemptions of the'usual de: soription. , : are also ; rather numerous, and ' any person can purchase release from the active army, after'three months' service, by payment of .£so.Turkish.. , Another 'payment: of the edme amount "will; f roo, him also from' service: in the eecondiline. The'result of tho new proposals is that' the Mohammedan military burden .will be lightened, and the dangerous racial prdblom adrnncos ah'important stage. ■'.-.'■ : , There are nine; leading non-Mohammedan oreeds in Turkey. These . religious ..denominations are invested with the privilege of possessing thoir own ecclesiastical rule. For instonco, the Greeks' have' their Patriavc.hi the ArmeV nians have, their: Patriarch, the '.'Bulgarians' their Exaroh, arid the Jews their'ChachamBasohi, or high-rabbi rail of who possess considerable influence in Constantinople and Turkey. ~ ..' "■.■■' "- ■ ;.'■.- '.'":.. ', , ■■ ■ .-" ;■; :