THE NEW SULTAN

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13946, 29 April 1909, Page 2

THE NEW SULTAN

LONDON, April 28. The Times says that despite his virtual imprisonment for thirty-three years Mahomed is quite scholarly, but has no great strength of character or intellect. Rumours that ho is a debauched, semi-idiotic voluptuary are universally discredited. He is reputed to cherish a warm sympathy for Great Britain.

['•Iteshad Effendi (writes Current Literature last September) possesses thai charm ot manner and all the angelic affability which render personal intercourse with princes of the Ottoman dynasty so delightful. He is destitute of the profound astuteness of his brother, the Sultan, nor is* he v> handsome or magnetic, but he lacks, too, tho extreme nervousness of the pre•«ent commander of the faithful. Resnad Effendi has tho piety of his family, and- is said to know long passages of the Koran by heart, besides conforming even in trivial details, to the rules of the life proscribed in the sacred tome Of Ktiropean culture and learning, Keshad Effendi has always lived in the densest ignorance. Being only tho third son of the Sultan Ahu-ul-Medjid, his education was neglected, and he received little in the shape of hoinnge even in the glorious days of his uncle, the late Sultan Ahn-ul-Aziz. Having spent the past thirty years in practical imprisonment within the walls of one pnlnee after another, Reshad Effondi retains of the outside world only such ideas as mny he afforded by intercourse with his gaolers, his slaves, land his wives. He is forbidden to re- ! oeivo visits from anyone at all except- , ing only tho physician, the tailor, and the tradesmen selected for him by his J reigning brother. On the comparai tively few opportunities afforded tho heir to the Turkish throne of escaping the city's heats by a sojourn in the country, he is thrust into a closed carriage and escorted by mounted troops armed to the teeth. It is dangerous even to loiter outside the residence of this prince. Some students at a military academy in Constantinople were gaoled for saluting Reshad when they met his carriage in the streets. The three sisters of this close prisoner have seen him but once in fifteen years. No one in Constantinople seems to know what to make of rumours that the old man is suffering from diabetes. Hre character is described as mild and his disposition is reported to be quite unsoured by the restraints of his peculiar existence. Such is the sum of all the information available regarding the personality of the man ' who may be called upon to-morrow to fill the Ottoman throne."]