REFORM IN TURKEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2842, 2 September 1908, Page 30

REFORM IN TURKEY.

• CONSTANTINOPLE, August 25.

The Turkish Government has arrested the Governor of Bejoz, and threatens to arrest the Shereef of Mecca i£ he continues to oppose the railway to Mecca.

Astounding revelations are being made regarding bribery by foreign diplomatists to secure concessions for their countrymen*.

The Young Turks' organisation covered the country three years ago with a secret society like the Freemasons, and aimed to destroy the Camarilla and get rid of European control, especially in Macedonia. •

A revolution was to have been started wheiL, the army had been converted if the Sultan had refused to grant, the Constitution. The Third Army Corps was Teady to march on Constantinople. August 26.

The resignation of Mukhtai Pasha, the Turkish High Comjadssksier in, Egypt, has not yet been accepted, - but it is understood that -he will ribt return to Cairo, where the Ottoman High Commisr sionership is to be suppressed.

August 28.

The Sultan, h'ae been reconciled to his brother and the heir-presumptive (Richard Effendi), who' has been imprisoned for 30 years.

The Armenian patriarch Ismirlian, who was exiled is 1896 for protesting against the massacre, has returned to Constantinople. Fifty thousand people came forth to welcome him, including many thou-

When Sir G. Lowther (the British Ambassador) appears in' the streets the crowds raise cheers for England and Turkey.

August 311

The Turkish Government has ordered the rearrest of -all bandits, robbers, and common law offenders who were recently liberated in a wholesome manner.

Three thousand Christian and. Moslem: Bulgarians received an ovation at Constantinople.

LONDON, August 26.

Zis Bey, the Sultan's late Chief of Secret Police, on being interviewed in London, paid a tribute to the honesty and patriotdsm of the. Young Turkey party. He added that Izzet Pasha was reputed to have saved in perquisites £1,500,000, and to have invested it abroad. The Sultan had £3,000,000, similarly invested, that sum having been derived from heavy, percentages on the bribes levied from contractors on the Continent.

Zia Bey talked freely to the press. He said that he fled, Hke Izzet Pasha, under a false name on "receipt of the Sultan's private advice. He admits that the police denounced many people on false reports, and that all orders from the palace were implicitly obeyed. One hundred and seventy Turks, some of them members of the best families, were removed at the bidding of his (Zia's) superiors. He personally controlled 400 spies at Constantinople.

August 28.

The Daily ' Telegraph says -that such recognition of hie successor on the part of the reigning Sultan is unparalleled in Turkish history, and is one of the strongest symptoms of the modernisation of the empire.

BERLIN, August 25.

Dr Arminiue Vamber considers that the destruction of German influence in Turkey is complete. One of the most important results of the revolution is that the ex-Minister of Marine refunds £94,000.

August 28.

The National Zeitung declares that the Young Turkey movement has increased King Edward's anxieties, and that , the English are beginning to realise /ihat efforts to hem Germany in have failed. French support, it says, is insufficient to reduce Germany to impotence, and it warns Russia against becoming England's catspaw.

This outburst on the part of a leading official organ occasions surprise, coming as it does after the fine speech from a German representative in honour of Mr. LloN-d-George's visit.