CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—COPYRIGHT.] FORCING THE SULTAN'S HAND.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 1170, 9 December 1896, Page 5

CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. — COPYRIGHT.] FORCING THE SULTAN'S HAND.

• ♦ BRITAIN AND RUSSIA IN ACCORD. THE PORTE CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR EARNESTNESS. [press association.] London, 7th December. The Turkish Ambassador at St. Petersburg has reported to his Government that a complete agreement exists between England and Russia for the execution of Turkish reforms. The Porte is strongly impressed by the unwelcome, information. Athens, 7th December. A great sensation has been caused in Greece by the mobilisation of the reserves. Turkey's difficulties from within, quite apart from the Armenians' riots, are not less serious than those arisiug from the indignation of the Powers without. The financial question is one of the most perplexing. Replying lately to the remonstrance of the Ambassadors against the special tax which it was proposed to levy on Mahommedans for military purposes,, the Palace replied that, finding it difficult to pay the troops, it appeals to Mussulmans for "a free subscription," but that Christians " may" also join in it if they please. That suggested a forced loan rather than a tax, and meant, of course, that Christians who do not pay will find the consequences unpleasant. The answer, says an Egyptian paper, is a most defiant one, but there is no doubt that the Government is in desperate straits for money. No revenue is coming in, or can come in, from the interior, and most of the Customs revenue is pledged for the payment of the national debts. The troops in Anatolia are unpaid, ana if money is not forthcoming for the garrison of Constantinople, a military mutiny will not be far off. The emptiness of the Treasury may be, in fact, as provocative as it proved in France in 1789. Bankruptcy ends all shams.