AN ENLIGHTENED VALI

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8288, 17 September 1903, Page 4

AN ENLIGHTENED VALI

(By iFrank Scudamore, in the London Daily

Express.) A few weeks "ago I had a long conversation with (Hassan tFehmi Pasha, the Governor of the vilayet of Salonika. His Excellency is one of the most enlightened functionaries at present in the Sultan's service. Originally a barrister of wide repute practising in the Tidjaret Court in Stamboul, where he naturally had to rub brains against those of the brightest European lawyers inTurkey, he became first a judge of the High Court, and afterwards .Minister of Justice.

A man thoroughly versed in European j litc-rature and languages and deeply imbued with European methods of thought, he is at the same time very much a Turk of the best and most modern school. He has held hig post "of Governor-General of Salonika for almost two yeans, and during that time lias won golden opinions from all classes of the community, irrespective of race or creed. It was due to his energy and devoted courage that the attempt of the Macedonian Committee to bring about a wholesale massacre in the streets of Salonika on 'April 23rd last proved so far abortive that the death roll, which might well have numbered thousands, amounted in all to less than a hundred, and that complete tranquility reigned in town on the very morrow of the outrage. He was the first official to reach the blazing bank buildings on that distressful night, and it is regarded as little short of marvellous that he escaped death at the hands of the maddened soldiers, who were firing volleys up and down the street, plunged into sudden darkness by the destruction of the gas system of lighting the town. It chanced that during the night preceding my visit to his. Excellency the town had been thrown into a fresh'state of panic by the noise of a heavy gun firing. People leaped from their beds and hurried to the house roofs in fear, and had it not been that martial law and military patrol kept all citizens within doors a disaster would have happened. With the dawn came the information that the firing was by vessels of t'fief Austrian fleet engaged in experimental target practice on a moonless night. The matter was a theme of general talkand universal condemnation next day, „andit was not unnatural that I should ask my host's opinion. "Well,'! said the Yali, with a gentle shrug of the shoulders, "I will only say that had we Turks committed such an imprudence:':all Europe would have cried shame on us, and vowed that we were striving to bring about a massacre." On the subject of the doings and the aims of the commitadjis the Pasha spoke quite frankly and" dispassionately. He admitted that the peasantry of the Macedonian provinces had grievances, but he asserted that these were very grossly exaggerated. Their greatest grievance, indeed, lie said, was the constant drain on their resources caused by the presence among them of agitators from across the frontier.

The Macedonian people, if left to themselves, would never rise in revolt. Within the borders of the three provinces concerned there are no fewer than nine different sections, each one of which hated the other eight with a deeper Hatred than any of them had for the Turk. The difference between these various sections could never be made up; they were sometimes racial, but they were far oftener religious. ' Even as regards the broad divisions of the population into Turks and Christians, the numerical superiority of the latter was not, in his estimation, sufficient to justify the substitution of Christian for Moslem rule. In his own province, Salonika, which was by far the largest of the three, the Christians numbered, roughly, 650,000 souls and the Moslems 520,000, but to the Moslem figures should be added 100,000 Jews, who had no complaint against Ottoman rule. In Monastir, it was true, the Christians outnumbered the Moslems by 80,000 souls, but in Koi'sevo, on the other hand, the Moslems had a numerical superiority of between 90,C00 and 100,000; indeed, in all the three provinces that make Macedonia, the Christians numbered only 100,000 more than the Mohammedans; and the Christians, itshould be remembered, were greatly at variance among themselves. In giving these figures, said his Excellency, he had not taken int-o account the Turkish soldiers employed in garrisoning the country. Xo doubt at the present time these were in excessive numbers, but that was not by the wish of his Majesty's Government-, but on account of the extensive agitation engineered" from across the frontiers, and of possible eventualities against which Turkey liad perforce to be prepared. At any time, however, and even under the most favorable conditions, it would always be necessity to maintain in a- very considerable armed force in the Macedonian provinces.

The mistake of Europe was that Europeans regarded Eastern ■ matters from their own standpoint. They said ahvaj-s : Hsre are so many Turks and so many iChristians, and, of course, the Christians are persecuted. In the European view the Turk was'a wolf because he was a Moslem, and the Christian a lamb because there was a cross on his place of worship. But persons who lived in Macedonia, knew that the Christian lamb had claws and teeth, and was very ready to use them. But- Europe, said his Excellency, laughing, cherished all sorts of quaint illusions as to Oriental matters. There was, for instance, one word —in reality a very simple one —rwliich when printed in an English newspapers caused tlirills of horror among its readers. This was the word BashiBazouk; whenever in the European Press it. was deemed expedient to castigate the Turks for supposed deeds of unparalleled atrocity, the editor trotted out the BashiBazouk, and mads him head and front of the offence, with tlie result tliat that liap!ess. unsuspecting peasant has become a sort of "werwolf' in the estimate of Europeans.

As a matter of fact, said his Excellency, every Turk who has ceased to be liable for military service was a Bashi-Bazouk; but in Europe no one appeared to understand this. Ever since the days of the Crimea a stigma had rested on the Turkish peasant, which he himself was wholly unable to tuiderstand.

On the subject of the large military forces which during all the time I spent in Macedonia were being poured daily into the country, liis Excellency was very reticent. "It is not my department," he said, "and I am unable, therefore, to supply you with information. We are "approaching a grave crisis, and liave to be prepared for it. I think I may say that we are prepared ; and for the rest—you know the country, and can form your own estimate."