THE YOUNG TURKISH PARTY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11367, 7 September 1897, Page 4

THE YOUNG TURKISH PARTY.

Abdul Hamid is once more showing how utterly barbaric are his conceptions o£ government, by arresting hundreds of the most intelligent and progressive of his subjects oil the mere suspicion of their being associated with a party that agitates for constitutional and administrative reforms. Probably a number of his victims were induced to return, to Constantinople by the promulgation of the annesty alluded to in another part of this issue. It was hoped a few weeks ago that the recall of the Sultan’s brother from Egypt was the precursor of an attitude of conciliation towards the Young Turkish Party, and ,that the Porte would justify its inclusion in the comity of European nations by promulgating a new Constitution on the lines that the party of progress has long advocated. The news published this morning dispels that hope. As a matter of fact, the Ottoman Turks, the ruling and military caste, recognise that reform is synonymous with the downfall of the Empire. In the words of a correspondent of the London Standard , “ for them to reform is to commit suicide, and they know it.” The correspondent holds that reform is opposed "to every institution in Turkey, and would result in the predominance of the Christian population. “ The Turkish race, splendid race though it is, disappears from the sea coast; it disappears from the lines of railway; it cannot live as a governing race in contact with civilisation. "Where there is relative security, as on the coast or a line of railway, the Christians flow in and dispossess the Turks.” These facts explain better than anything else can why there are periodical massacres of Christians in the Turkish Empire, and why the Sultan and his advisers refuse to entertain proposals for granting a measure of constitutional liberty to the pure Turks. A race that seems incapable of improvement _ in itself can only maintain its position as a dominant Power over superior races by a denial of freedom and by an assertion of privilege on behalf of the ruling caste. It is significant to observe that on this point of internal reforms the Powers and Turkey may yet come into conflict. The English representatives in the European Concert are strongly insisting upon such measures as will give justice and security to all the Sultan’s subjects, and Russia’s influence is being exerted in the same direction. A Russian statesman, conversing recently with a correspondent of the Paris Soldi on the Turkish question, said Russia demanded that internal reforms should be complete and definitive. “ Resistance on the part of Turkey would lead to a military intervention in which we should play the leading part. But Turkey does not as yet wish to commit suicide, and she well knows that this question is one of life and death between us. In any case a decision must be taken —Constantinople for the Sultan or for the Czar. That is the dilemma, and Europe must make her choice.” If the Powers are really in firm accord on the subject of these reforms, the Sultan’s present action is one of defiance and an intimation that he means to govern his Empire in his own way, that is by wholesale massacre and undiluted tyranny. If, inflated by their successes against Greece, the Turks invite conflict with Europe, the result will be the inauguration, amid bloodshed and revolution, of those reforms which the civilised Powers and the Young Turkish Party wish to see established by peaceful means.

Obstinate opposition and merciless suppression bare stood the Turks in good stead for several centuries as against the humane sentiment of Europe ; but the time has, it may be hoped, arrived when the Sublime Porte must yield, or fight united Christendom.