CONSTANTINOPLE SOLD.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 284, 1 December 1915, Page 6

CONSTANTINOPLE SOLD.

A NEW TURKISH EMPIRE

A remarkable story of German intrigue is told in tho Matin (one of the most important newspapers of Paris)* by General Cherif Pasha, a Turkish officer, who has lived in Paris since the triumph of the Young Turks party (the Committee of Union, and Progress) in his own -country. "The double game of the Czar of Bulgaria has .••taken by surprise the s&itesmen of the Quadruple Entente,'7 states the General. "Brought up as they are in 'the traditions of honor and loyalty, they have found it hard to credit siieh Machiavellianism, and just as they had been treating in the fullest of confidence the Young Turks, who for long were intriguing against France and England, so dkl they trust in the loyalty of the Bulgarians. However, between the Bulgarian Government .•■and the /little camarilla which tyrannises over Turkey, an understanding was bound to t>e : easy of accomplishment. I wish to-day to tell readers of the Matin what I know of this understanding, and I beg those who read not to cry ' Impos•sibile!'

"The Committee of Union and Progress detest all true Ottomans, arid wish to bring on their heads the storm that is about to strike the worm-eaten oak. The Committee of Union and Progress, traitors to the constitution and to the country, hiave conspired with Ferdinand of Coburg, under the auspices of Germany, to provide for themselves a channel of escape. Powerless to save Constantinople from falling to the Allies, the Committee have sold it to the Bulgarians. "General Enver Pasha, who was in command at Lule Burgas, said to me: 'My soldiers fought marvellously throughout the day in the presence of the enemy, but when night came they fled because they wei-e so demoralised by infamous exhortations.' Nazim knew alii about it, and disclosed" to me the _ fact that the members of the Committee, fearfid that the hated Government would win the day, preached treason to the soldiers, saying to them: 'Why are you fighting for a corner of Europe? The true Turkey is in Asia. It is in Asia Minor that you will defend your country!' ,

"Does not everyone know that in the reign of Abdul Hit mid. Baron yon der Go'ltz, the future accomplice of the Committee, had conceived the plan of offering to Turkey a vast empire in Asia- in exchange for the abandonment of Constantinople? Abdul Hamid refused the offer, but the tenacious Germans several times returned to the charge. Do yen not recall the sensational interviews of Djavid Pasha after the first Balkan "War? What h» said to all who ohose to listen was this: ' Macedonia and Albania—they are not Turkey. We have got rid of them, and I consider that to be to our advantage, for our future is in Asia.' To-day, in order to induce the Young 'JHirks to sacrifice Constantinople, very strong arguments have been employed, atpart altogether from the personal advantages which may well have been promised to Talaat, the head of tho conspirators, and to his acolytes. It was whispered to them :' If the Al'ies conquer in the Balkans, you will lose Constantinople all the same, which will go to the Russians. If we prevail, We will reconstitute your Islam empire right up to its old religious frontiers. You shall have Russian possessions in Asia, you shall have Egypt, and you shall have the whole of Worth Africa. Surely the recon-

stitutioij of tlii.s aiivgitifioimt omjiiro, which will reunite undi'v your domination tlio vast 'Majority cA the JN-Lussul-nians of t!i- v.-oi'ld, stu-cly the realis;)* lion of i\ <Ircii.ni like this is well worth a few kilometres in Thrare and tiio Hbandonniont of Const;M!tinoplo. But if wo are to conquer it is absolutely essential that wo .should have the assistance of Bulgaria. Do yon think now that Buk>;;:ri:-i will. . be satisfied with th« promise of Macedonia, where Vustria is obtaining for .herself the* ronto to .Salonika? Is it not absolutely to danglo Ijofore the ambitious mind of Ferdinand the picture of his solemn State entry into St. Sophia, which in 1913 he had to renounce with a heart full of rage?' "The Young Turks gave in. On the one side they .saw ruin, on the other the satisfaction of their lust and megalomania. They therefore surrendered. That is the whole secret of this inconceivable armed uprising of Bulgaria against its benefactors. France and ~ England, against its liberator, Russia. Constantinople will go to the Bulgarians if the Germans are triumphant.—(Signed) General Clierif Pasha/

The bitter enmity which: General Cherif Pasha harbors towards the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress and their policy has led him into extravagances on previous occasions, and his story of the reluctant willingness of the Young Turks to give up Constantinople to lung Ferdinand of Bulgaria, in. exchange for German assistance in establishing a vast Turkish Empire in Asia and: "Africa, whicli will include- Egypt, the whole of North Africa and Russian possessions in Asia, is not generally believed. Nevertheless, the French Government has attached sufficient importance to his story as published in the Matin to arrange for its publication in Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Roumania, and' other countries. The French, official comment on tho story is as follows :—' "These-revelations aptly illustrate the text of the conversation exchanged at the station of Berlin between the councillor of tho legation and the Bulgarian students summoned to Sofia, whereof the texfc appears in the Berliner Tageblatt. It is declared that the objective of Germany through Bulgaria will be Egypt.----"It follows that from this-informa-tion Germany., acting on Bulgaria's contempt for Turkey, lias opened to Bulgaria the succession not only of the Turkish Empire of to-day, but also to the Mahometan Empire of yesterday; thus leaving the same prey to "all the Allies, and selling several times over the same territory which she is, moreover, incapable of seizing and organising in the realms of diplomacy, a credit operation analogous to those in which the German financial "institutions have shown themselves such experts."