SIR W. M. RAMSAY AND TURKEY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1194, 1 August 1911, Page 6

SIR W. M. RAMSAY AND TURKEY.

THE UNSEEN COMMITTEE. "ALMOST ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY." Sir W. J[. Kanisay, the. great authority on Asia Minor, has again been in Constantinople, and writes to the "Manchester Guardian" on his impression of tho way in which things nrq going in Turkey under the new regime. "Tho serious disagreements which have for several months been in existence in tho governing circles of Turkey carry with them no tendency towards reaction," ho says. "Both sides aro of the Ycuug Turk poreuashoiv. Tho protagonists on each side are the most convinced and enthusiastic reformers. They do uot ogree regarding method. -The Opposition party think that tho Government has not used its opportunities to tho best advantage, and has even misused its chances by doing tho wrong things. The Old System Dead, "But there has never been even a remote, possibility of recurrence to the old system. That is dead, absolutely and finally. Adbul Hamid is far moro powerless and remote from affairs than if ho were in his grave. The policy of leaving him quietly on the shelf and refraining from any vindictive exaction of justice from him has fully justified itself. His memory might perhaps have had some influence if he had been put to depth. Living he is a nonentity. No one thinks or knows or cares about him.

"Is tho compromise and ostensible agreement which always as yet has como to pass duo to the committee's recognition of the fact that they must either close up their ranks and preserve a united front or fall? So I used to think; and it may Iμ right, or it may have been right formerly, and yet no longer be so. What is as certain, however, as ever is that the committee is'a small minority even among the Osmanli Turks, and is almost confined to Europe. The vast mass of tho Turks of Asia are indifferent to the committee, and so far as they think at all they regard the committee ' with secret dislike and distrust. That is always a. governing fact in the situation. The committee in its three parts—at Constantinople, at Salonica, and at.Monastir —rules the Parliament and rules tho Cabinet.

Ministers and the Committee, "Ministers are important only in so far as they speak tor the committee. There is not an autocracy—that danger has disappeared; but there is an almost absolute authority exercised by an unseen, almost unknown, and wholly "incalculable body. This has been thn case all along since the revolution of July, 1908; Kiamil Pasha, the Grand Vizier and Prime Minister, fell in the spring of 1900 because ho would not obey the unseen committee. Now it still remains as the real power behind the Sultan (who is an amiablo nonentity) and the Ministry. "Martial law still obtains in Constantinople, I understand, though it is exercised so gently that the mere foreigner would never observe it, and it certainly is not an evil, h> far as public appearance shows. But this governing Committeo is not in harmony with Moslem sentiment either in. Turkey or beyond Turkey, though, it has learned in the reactionary movement ol April, 1909, that it must respect sentiment and keep it placated. The Committee, in this dangerous position, cannot afford to indulge too far in internal quarrels, and yet the dissensions within arc acute. "A military autocracy, which I used often, two years ago and later, to predict privately to friends as the ultimate, and only issue of the troubles, seems now definitely to Iμ'sot aside as impossible. An autocracy implies an autocrator, and them is no sign of one. Shefket Pasha, as all agree, cherishes no such dreams.

The Arabian Muddle. "Tho Arabian muddle, seems to have been stopped, practically by tho abandonment of all that the' Government was aiming at. The cost has been very great, but the abandonment, though tardy, has produced great improvement. It 'means that the, policy, of ; quick Otlomauisation of the non-Ottoman races of Turkey has been stopped, or at. least slowed down. The Albanian mess is also less serious than it wr,s, and the imiu'ovonient has been brought about in ihe same way, viz., by abandoning tho 'quick-change' process. Feeling is believed to be quiofing down in those outlying parts of tho Kmiiirc, leaving more leisure- and means to develop organisation ~°.t the centre. I coniess that things seem to mo distinctly more hopeful than they seemed in January; nnd yet everyone feels that at. any hour an explosion might occur. There is extreme tension; and DjavM Bey, the Minister for Finance, and Djalvid, editor of tho 'Tanin , nnd an influential member of the Chamber, are elements moro difficult to reconcile with these compromises, and more dangerous as possible sources of., conflagration than any others. They aro extremists on Hi" most go-ahead side, able, and not easily induced to acrcpt anythini less than the whole of what they want."