Turkey.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 349, 7 February 1917, Page 5

Turkey.

DISMAL TIMES. FAMINE, DIRT, AND DISCONTENT. [AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASS’NI London, Feb. 6. The “Daily Chronicle’s” Amsterdam correspondent _ says that a well-known commercial and financial magnate at Constantinople has’ arrived and gives a gloomy picture > of the condition of flie people. Constantinople is a starving city. Doz-i ens perish daily of typhus, cholera, and the plague at present. A terrifying spectre of famine threatens European Turkey. The city’s condition is repulsive for its dirtiness. A well-to-do man passing the streets is assailed by an insistent mob of beggars, many of whom are maimed soldiers who whine their various miseries. Many suicides occur daily. Enver Pasha (Turkish War Minister), swept into the military net all able bodied men, and forced many thousands of women and children to work in the factories. Good judges estimate that Turkey has already lost 1,250,000 men. Germans are filling all the higher commands. The Turkish soldiery are only kept in order by vicious and constant corporal punishment. Even during actual fighting Turkish soldiers are hauled from the ranks and severely chastised. The Germans make unceasing demands for Turkish reinforcements to fill the gaps in the Balkan armies. The demands always create resentment and anger in Turkish military circles, which strongly hold that Turkey is primarily concerned in Asia.

The work is unceasing in the government munition factories under foremen from Krupps. Many new factories have been erected. The financial position is anarchic.

The better class of Turks feel that Turkey will lose whatever hapfiens. She should have kept friendy with Britain, but they point out that Enver, Talaat, and Djemal receive enormous sums of German money and there is no possibility of rebellion. The German police keep order with iron despotism. CABINET~CHANGES. [AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ARS’n] London, Feb. 6. German reports state that the Grand Vizier nas resigned for health reasons, and that Talaat Bey is forming a Cabinet, with Enver Pasha as Minister of War, Djemal as Minister of Marine, and Nessim Bey as Foreign Minister.