TNE REAL SULTAN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XXIV, 12 June 1897, Page 772

TNE REAL SULTAN.

THE MOST ABJECT COWARD IN EUROPE. Victor Berord, in writing on Turkey and the Sultan for a Parisian review, has told some very interesting facts. For several years he was a college professor in Constantinople, and knows his subject thoroughly. He blames the Sultan and Russia for the Armenian massacres, and holds the Sultan up to scorn as perhaps the most abject coward bolding a high position in Europe. So fearful is the Sultan of dynamite that he will not allow electricity to be used in Constantinople, as it is generated by dynamos. He says that for months no Turkish Minister in other countries has drawn pay, the army is unpaid, and the money that should be so used is spent • to pay a swarm of spies and the Immense Imperial Guard, to send presents to European sovereigns, diamond decorations to Continental Ministers and their wives, and to bribe German, French, and American papers ’ Here is the pen picture he draws of the Sultan : — * Abdul Hamid is a gentle, shy, civil man, rather cold at a first interview, but whose manner becomes winning on better acquaintance. His temper is even, his address affable, his native intelligence above the average, bnt his culture is nil. The gross farces of the Turkish stage and “penny horrible” French literature are his great delight. He has ordered the whole of “ Xavier de Montepin ”to be translated for him. His piety, perhaps simulated, is narrow and superstitious, and his private life serious and indeed austere. The most severe Young Turks admit that for centuries the Ottoman throne has not b;en occupied by a man so little sensual. Ambassadors have all been charmed by Abdul Hamid, and many have not got over this pleasant impression. It is due to the extreme politeness of this autocrat, to his attention to their remarks, his apparent assent to every one of their conclusions. The proofs he gives of hard work, good-will and scrupulousness appeal to even the most liberal Young Turks, like Murad Bey. A great effort or long habit is necessary to mistrust or disbelieve a man who seems so upright, and who certainly is unhappy. Everything in his attitude, words and even silence, his sudden pinching of the lips, starts of the body, wandering looks, and the pallor of the cheeks, disguised by powder—everything shows unreasoning, incurable fear in the successor of the unfortunate Aziz and Murad. It is the key to his character. Fear has subdued in him pride, passion and vices, but it has also killed generosity, straightforwardness, honour and all sentiment further than that of self-preservation.’