HOW THE YOUNG TURKS DID IT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 27 October 1908, Page 4

HOW THE YOUNG TURKS DID IT.

The bloodless revolution in Turkey wus one of the mo<t astonishing on and a poop behind the scenes 1 , afforded by tlie writings of eixperienoed observers on the spot, reveals a. rainarkabla organisation built, up patiently, astutely. The curtain rose suddenly upon a nto-vctment fulJy organised, imperious, determined And ■widespread. There had baenvajjua rumors of irapetndiug complications) but Turkey is a land of rumors, and few people took the first faint whispers of a rising very seriously. Even Viemna, which is more closely in toiioh with Turkish affairs than any other great European capital, had, says a writer in tbiei Times, na suspicion of the truth. The foreign Embassies at Constantinople, which might have been expected to, discern tha signs of tha times, wiere equally in the dark. Their lack of information is not to be, wondered at, however; for even the great army of spies by which Yildiz | Kiosk had surrounded itself failed to pierce the strict secrecy maintained by the leaders of tho constitutional movement. A Salonika correspondent explains thajt the Young Turkish orgaaMsatioTji had Jong- existed? Ivt its members were chiefly exiles and it* centiroi was Paris. Upon' hdarirg . of the formation of the Committee of Liberty, ait Salonika, tha Young Turks in Park proposed common action and

thia was egteed to. The new organisation coassisted chiefly of^uervunts «f tho Go-veimmont, civil and naiiitaiy,. with a goodly proportion of youflg' oflßceirA Tho naturri of tie "force: which; pi'ojclticad^ xh is naw . «v,«ldeirt. The old discontent with t<ha mi^ovoinmant and 'oppreasiaa of the coinv try nevar resulteia I in= any effeetiva intei'a-il i;iov«mainifc for reform Ih© ' Europeiaa rrfarm.-^ribcints- have laid tlie train and kindled flio spark, and the Powara, with, quitft another, intent, liava indirectly caused tluVAtiiazinsr and bcoetfioent revedutriem: Toi thd Turks tho advent .odh^thef European officers and thetf of reform from without havu hoemi iiiaßpeiaikti/t)le' moi"tificatiansi,. and haya x eajcrooiolevAKi tho bittareist hatnsd of tha'coji-upi reginoci at Yildiz Kiosk, which, by :ta impotenpey ita tyramiy, o«<l itft provooative attitude) towfirds thtf rayah ! oxpoaed the) Empire to cantißiual humiUations. » The Salonila'CdnrmV tee .s?ot. vigorously . to work. It saw clearly that tiha -jinly way to wrinjr » Constitution from iho Srultan. wasby foa'ce, antl conceive*! th»j flan of. a general strike of the troopa on somecritical occasion. 'Jhe Third Army Corpsj efationed. in Macedonia, wua mada'the special object of its at^eniiooS, and the new propasrvnda ' fjir fected the- officers with evtracrdinary spetefdl Local oommitteieg wei'e fonnedeiverwhere, no;undt of tihe army being neglected. Tha soldiers ware rip* fevr change and eagerly seized the opportunity. With the; «army won bror vctry little ranaiioad to ba d>ne. Quietly but delibera-tcly the position, was unveiled to <lta Sultan and in a trica the Canstituticai was proclaimed and tihe people werei <*v«rywhere: falling on their kneaa tisaing the feet of thoir ruler for his goodnesi&i!