ROUGH CENSUS OF TURKS

Evening Star, Issue 18175, 16 January 1923, Page 6

ROUGH CENSUS OF TURKS

CONSUL ON SOCIAL LIFE. No regular census has yet been taken in #lO Turkish Empire (says Mr A. C. Wratislaw, writing in ’ Blackwood ’ of his experiences in the diplomatic service). It is considered that the mixed population and the vast and thinly inhabited areas would make the expense too great. Houses may bo countea, and an average of five or six persons allowed to each Tlie non-Mussulman communities have a fairly accurate idea of their own numbers, which they are wont to halve for the purpose of estimating taxes, and to double when it is a question of urging national claims.

It is ia peculiarity of society in Turkey that the ruling race remains entirely aloof. Foreigners and Christians in 'general are restricted to more or less formal relations with their Turkish acquaintances, and it is of (flic rarest 1 occurrence to he entertained in their houses. Christian ladies exchange calls with Turkish ladies, and Christian men with Turks; but it would imply the gravest breach of decorum for a man even to hint at the existence of the adult members of tho harem when conversing with a Turk.

WOiem Mr Wratislaw went to Salonika in 1885 the Consul-General was Mr John Blunt, who was bom in, Turkey, and had passed most of siis life in countries with Turkish associations. His father had -been Consul iu Salonika at an earlier period. He had remarkable influence over tho Turks. Mrs Blunt was a daughter and sister of Consuls. She would maintain an animated conversation in five languages with guests of different nationalities. Though her hudband was a pronounced Turcophile, Mrs Blunt sympathised with the Christian subject races, particularly the Greeks and Bulgarians. “In their sometimes rather heated discussions,” says Mr Wratislaw', “each supported his or her thesis rather by pointing out the demerits of the Other’s proteges than by extolling the virtues of their own . . and to my position as audience to these arguments, which were obviously inspired by intimate knowledge of the subject, 1 attribute a subsequent indisposition to regaaxl either Turks or Christians with any considerable degree of respect. ” _ One drawback in the Salonika of the time was that there was no real dentidt. Sometimes tho piano-tuner would officiate. Another amateur practitioner was a French Sister of Charity. She possessed a fearsome instrument called a “key,” and once it got a good grip and the screw was turned something had to give. It might bo either the tooth or the jawbone.