_EUROPEAN ASSISTANCE_
During the four months’ interregnum between the granting of the
Constitution and the opening of Parliament, the Committee of Union
and Progress was the undisputed ruler of Turkey. It dictated to the
monarch what his decrees should be, it moved armies, it removed and
appointed ministers, governors of provinces, and other high officials.
These untried young men who formed the Committee, while introducing a
new order of things and protecting their country against the numerous
dangers that threatened to destroy the newly gained liberty, displayed
a wisdom, tact, moderation, shrewdness, and foresight that were
astonishing to foreign observers. They maintained order with firmness,
greatly assisted in this by the dignified self-control and patriotism
of the people themselves. Though they and thousands of others had
suffered much from the cruelty and rapacity of the Despotism and its
parasites, they displayed no vindictiveness; they punished only the
most guilty of these; removed only those who showed by their actions
that they were a source of danger to the Constitution; and they frankly
forgave the others. The relations of Turkey with foreign Powers were
directed by them with a tactful and resourceful statesmanship. Their
mistakes were remarkably few.
From the beginning they showed their fitness to rule. The avowed
object of the Young Turks had been to depose the Sultan, and when
they offered him the alternative of acceptance of the Constitution or
abdication, they had little expectation that he would submit to their
conditions. But when the astute Sultan did submit in a very graceful
manner, protesting that he was a believer in a constitutional form of
government, and posing as if he and not the revolutionary party had
brought the boon of liberty to his subjects, the Young Turks showed
their statesmanship by as graciously accepting the situation, and
became once more the loyal subjects of a constitutional monarch, whose
cleverness and diplomatic experience, if he would now use them rightly,
might be of great service to his country and his people. The Sultan is
the Commander of the Faithful to millions of Mussulmans, and had the
Committee attempted to depose him at that critical time a long civil
war might have resulted. So Abdul Hamid was left on the throne of
Othman, nominally ruling, to outward seeming popular with the people,
who cheered him enthusiastically whenever he appeared in public. But
the Young Turks had not forgotten how Abdul Hamid, in 1878, destroyed
the Constitution which he had sworn to uphold, so that power behind the
throne, the Committee of Union and Progress, remained ever watchful,
as the strong guardian of the people’s liberties.
I will now briefly sum up the results of the Committee’s energetic
action during the few weeks immediately following the proclamation
of the Constitution. In the first place it had to make itself as
strong as possible so as to combat the reactionary intrigues that
were working for the restoration of the Despotism. It therefore set
itself to establish its hold on the army, to obtain the sanction of
the Moslem religion, and to complete the pacification of Macedonia.
It took the precaution of removing from the Second and Third Army
Corps all officers suspected of reactionary views, and concentrated
the bulk of the troops loyal to the Constitution at Adrianople, within
striking distance of the capital, where, at any rate, a considerable
portion of the First Army Corps and the Sultan’s Prætorian Guard
only needed the word from the Palace to become the instrument of the
reactionaries. Later on the Committee was able to obtain the removal of
most of the battalions of the Imperial Guard from Constantinople and to
replace them with troops from Salonica, thus securing the Committee’s
domination in the capital.
[Illustration: CHATEAU OF ASIA]
As regards the religious question, the work of the Young Turks was
made easy by the Sheikh-ul-Islam, who—so soon as he had administered
to the Sultan the oath by which the latter swore to respect the
Constitution—proclaimed to the faithful that constitutional government
was not contrary to, but was in accordance with, the teaching of the
Koran; he rebuked the fanatics who were preaching against the
reforms as being anti-religious, and saw to it that the mosques were
not used as centres of reactionary agitation and intrigue. For the
reactionaries were not idle, and, in European as well as in Asiatic
Turkey, their agents—often ex-Palace spies disguised as doctors of the
sacred law and _hodjas_—were appealing to Moslem bigotry and denouncing
the Constitution as the invention of the Evil One himself. To
counteract this mischievous propaganda the Committee sent out its own
missionaries all over the country, and doctors learned in the sacred
law and others enlightened the people, supporting their arguments with
quotations from the Koran, and in many cases preaching sermons that
had been written for this purpose by the Sheikh-ul-Islam himself. It
was also a great help to the cause that nearly all the Turkish press
supported the Committee. Indeed, during the first few months of the new
_régime_, a paper holding the unpopular opposite opinions would have
had but few readers.
The Committee, having army, religion, and press on its side, was strong
enough to dominate the Palace. It demanded of the Sultan the signing
of _Iradé_ after _Iradé_, and if the required Imperial decree was
not immediately forthcoming, a threat that the Adrianople army would
march upon Constantinople within twenty-four hours always produced the
desired effect. Thus, within a few days after the proclamation of the
Constitution, Abdul Hamid had to sign _Iradés_ by virtue of which he
granted a general amnesty, the release of all political prisoners,
the abolition of the spy system, the inviolability of domicile, a free
press, the abolition of the censorship, the liberty of the individual
to travel in foreign countries, in short, all the privileges enjoyed by
the citizens of free countries.
Then the Sultan was compelled to dismiss his favourites and principal
advisers, including his hated secretary, Izzet Pasha, his old Arab
astrologer, Abdul Houda, Tashin Pasha, and Ismail Pasha, the founder
of the detestable military spy system. The Camarilla, that had
all but destroyed Turkey, was broken up and scattered. Izzet and
several other notorious people effected their escape to England and
elsewhere—fortunately for some of them, who, had they remained, would
probably have been torn to pieces by infuriated mobs, like the infamous
Fehmi Pasha. But the Young Turks, as I have explained, despite the
intense hatred which some of them must have nourished against the
cruel oppressors and traitors to their country who had acted as the
instruments of the Despotism, refrained from vengeance, and there
were no reprisals. Penalties were only inflicted where the country’s
good demanded these. Some of the worst ministers of the tyranny were
imprisoned in the War Office, or confined in their own houses on
Prinkipo Island in the Sea of Marmora, where many rich Turks have their
summer residences. Some have undergone their trial, and have been
compelled to disgorge the public moneys which they had embezzled. For
the rest it was complete amnesty, and when the Constantinople mobs
began to occupy themselves in hunting down men recognised to have been
spies of the Palace, in order to carry them off to the prison of the
War Office, the Committee, whose word had to be obeyed, peremptorily
forbade this practice. On the other hand, if any man took advantage of
this leniency to indulge in reactionary intrigue, sterner justice was
administered. Ismail Pasha, for example, the inventor of the military
spy system, for very good reasons was shot in Constantinople in
December last by a young officer.
The Committee recognised that one of their first duties was to complete
the pacification of Macedonia. They successfully accomplished this
within a very short time, and without bloodshed. The Greeks alone were
causing any difficulty; but the Greek bishops, clergy, and leaders of
bands came to understand that the Young Turks would put up with no
nonsense from them, and that the sympathy of Europe would not be with
them if they resisted the new _régime_. So it was not long after the
granting of the Constitution that the last Greek band came in, and for
the first time for many years there was peace in Macedonia. The British
Government, recognising that there was no longer any need for European
intervention in that region, withdrew from the arrangement with Russia
that had resulted from the Reval meeting, displaying a confidence in
the Young Turks that won their deep gratitude. The Young Turks had a
very keen appreciation of the sympathy that was displayed for them by
the English. To Englishmen travelling in the country, at that time, the
sincere and hearty friendship extended to them by the Turkish people
was most gratifying and affecting.
It is one thing to make a revolution, but it is quite another thing
to undertake to govern and administer a country after the successful
revolution has swept away the old order. The Young Turks showed that
they were wise enough to know their own limitations. There were few
among them who had any knowledge of administration, public finance,
and diplomacy; so they decided to make use of the existing machinery
of government. They got rid of the notoriously corrupt among the high
officials, but retained the services of the more capable and upright
of the ministers, provincial governors, and others, even if they
happened to be Pashas of the old-school, fanatical Mussulmans who hated
European ways, looked askance at liberty, and regarded with horror the
scheme for giving equal rights to Christians and Moslems. But these
old servants of the State were kept under observation, and they were
promptly ousted if they failed to exercise their authority on the
lines laid down by the Constitution, and faithfully to hold aloof from
reactionary intrigue. As many of these officials were honest patriots
at heart, though narrow-minded in their views, the compromise worked
well pending the training of a new school of administrators belonging
to the Young Turk party.
Thus to the highest office of all, the Grand Vizierate, men of long
administrative experience have been appointed. So soon as the Sultan
had submitted to the will of the people, the then Grand Vizier, Ferid
Pasha, and his ministers had to go, for they were too closely connected
with the Hamidian system to be trusted; but the three Grand Viziers
who have so far succeeded Ferid—Said Pasha, Kiamil Pasha, and Hilmi
Pasha—have all taken a prominent part as servants of the State under
the old _régime_, Said and Hilmi having already been Grand Viziers
on several occasions. Said Pasha, the first Grand Vizier under the
new _régime_, has been the Sultan’s friend and adviser—disgraced at
intervals like the rest—from the commencement of the reign. First,
as the Sultan’s secretary, he helped his master to overthrow Midhat
Pasha’s Constitution and to destroy the power of the Sublime Porte.
A few years later, as Grand Vizier, he encouraged the Sultan in his
Pan-Islamic dreams, and in his effort to deprive the Christians in
Turkey of their ancient privileges. He had proved himself an upright
and strong man, and in his old age he had modified his views and
recognised the evils of the despotic system which he had helped to
build up, but he was scarcely the right sort of man to be Prime
Minister under a constitutional government, and it is not astonishing
that his term of office lasted for but a few days. His first mistake
was in the execution of the Imperial _Iradé_ that liberated all
political prisoners. He took it upon himself to free all the criminals
as well, letting loose upon the capital, at that critical time, a
crowd of murderers and robbers. The ever-watchful Committee, mindful
of Said’s career, suspected that he had acted thus in order to cause
disorder in the city, and so injure the cause of the Young Turkey party
in the interest of the reactionaries. A week later a discovery was made
that precipitated the crisis. Said, while drawing up a statement of the
principal points of the Constitution, to which the Sultan’s signature
was to be appended in token of adhesion, had altered a clause so as to
leave the appointment of the Ministers of War and Marine to the Sultan,
instead of to the Grand Vizier, as had been laid down by Midhat’s
Constitution. To leave the control of the army in the hands of the
Sultan was to place more trust in his word than the Young Turks were
willing to do. So the Committee, as guardian of the nation’s hard-won
liberty, gave the word that has to be obeyed. Said had to resign, and
his Ministers of War and Marine were at once placed under arrest, as a
precautionary measure.
On August 6, 1908, Kiamil Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier, and was
allowed to choose his own ministers; of the members of Said’s Ministry
he retained but two, the Sheikh-ul-Islam and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. The appointment of Kiamil was universally acclaimed. Able,
firm, and patriotic, with an honourable career behind him, he was a
_persona grata_ with men of all races and creeds, and was the most
popular statesman in Turkey. He had always been the steadfast friend
of the English, and has many friends in England. The gracious telegram
of congratulation which King Edward VII sent on Kiamil’s appointment
produced a wonderful effect and did much to tighten the cordial
relations between the two countries.
Kiamil is now about eighty-seven years of age. Throughout his long
career this wise old man has shown himself incorrupt and a hater of
corruption, a lover of justice, an advocate of reform, but moderate,
unwilling to force radical changes on a people yet unripe, a man
of wide knowledge, free from fanaticism and friendly to Europeans,
while ready to protect his country against the undue influence in
her internal affairs which has been exercised with such callous
selfishness, to their own advantage and to Turkey’s partial ruin, by
certain Powers.
Six months before the outbreak of the revolution, Kiamil was holding
the important office of Vali of the province of Aidin, of which Smyrna,
the commercial centre of the Levant, is the capital. Here for thirteen
years he had won the confidence and affection of people of every class
by the justice and usefulness of his administration. But the Camarilla
ever hated a just and honest man, and Palace intrigue arranged for
his destruction. He was falsely accused of being in league with the
brigands of Asia Minor; secret instructions were given for his arrest,
and a steamer was sent to Smyrna to convey him as an exile to the
island of Rhodes. Under the Despotism exiles died quickly, and Captain
von Herbert, from whose description of the incident in the _Fortnightly
Review_ I have taken some of my facts, himself saw the canvas sack in
which it was intended to drop Kiamil overboard during the voyage—the
official account would doubtless have informed the world that the Pasha
had died of sea-sickness. But fortunately Kiamil obtained knowledge of
the order for his arrest, and on January 12 he hurried to the British
Consulate at Smyrna, and there took refuge under the British flag. The
Consul gladly received him, and got into telegraphic communication
with London. Sir Edward Grey commanded that British protection should
be extended to the Pasha, who as a native of Cyprus was technically
entitled to claim it. The Consulate was surrounded by police and spies,
the steamers in the port were closely watched; but, despite all the
precautions that were taken, Kiamil was able to escape in the steam
launch belonging to the well-known banking firm of the Whittals, and
got safely on board a German liner bound for Stamboul. The steamer duly
arrived at her destination; the British Ambassador guaranteed that
Kiamil should have interviews with the Sultan at which none of the
Camarilla would be present; and the Pasha landed in the capital, thus
placing himself in the power of the Despot; which was a brave thing to
do when one bears in mind the fate of Midhat and others. Kiamil had his
private interviews with Abdul Hamid, and spoke to him boldly concerning
the evils of his rule, the ruin that was threatening the Ottoman
Empire, and the corruption and villainy of the Sovereign’s _entourage_.
But the Camarilla still remained to exercise its mischievous power
until the very end, though apparently it dared not interfere with
one still nominally under the protection of England; for Kiamil did
not disappear mysteriously. He kept outside public affairs and dwelt
quietly in his house in Constantinople—no doubt under the close
surveillance of spies—until the successful revolution brought him once
again to the head of affairs.
During the first six months of the new _régime_, that very critical
period when the Constitution was menaced by foes within and without,
and even the integrity of the Empire was at stake—Kiamil, as Grand
Vizier, steered the ship of State safely through many dangers, and his
shrewd and cautious diplomacy greatly strengthened the position of
Turkey. His ministers, among whom were one Armenian and one Greek, were
men whose characters were above reproach, and they did much to reform
the machinery of their respective departments. Kiamil stood his country
in good stead, and Turkey has good reason to be grateful to him; but
he, too, after six months of office, had to resign, though with no loss
of honour to himself, at the bidding of the Committee; and, as in the
case of his predecessor, Said Pasha, the question of the appointment of
the Ministers of War and Marine was the immediate cause of the Cabinet
crisis—a matter concerning which I shall say more in another chapter.
Kiamil’s successor to the Grand Vizierate, Hilmi Pasha, is another man
of the old _régime_. I have already spoken of the part which he took
in Salonica during the last days of the Despotism, when the Committee
threatened him with death. Long before any one thought that there
was a chance of Hilmi’s becoming Grand Vizier, he was described to
me as being an honest and able man of strong character, with a good
record behind him, somewhat fanatical, and with little sympathy with
the Christian elements of the population. As Inspector-General in
Salonica before the revolution, he obeyed the instructions given to
him by the Palace, and obstructed as much as possible the reforms in
Macedonia—dictated by the Great Powers—which it was his ostensible duty
to superintend. But to stand in the way of European intervention was no
grave fault in the eyes of the Young Turks. Though the officer of the
Despotism, Hilmi’s sympathies were with the cause of the reformers, and
he is now trusted by them.
From the beginning, therefore, the Young Turks have placed at the
head of the Government, not advanced reformers, not ambitious men out
of their own ranks, but experienced men of the old _régime_, who,
so far, have done well, and have been able on occasions to check
hasty and ill-considered changes. In other respects, too, the Young
Turks have manifested their moderation and wise opportunism. Foreign
intervention is the thing that they detest and fear most, for it has
worked nothing but ill for the Empire; but these men are free from
any anti-European feeling, and while anxious, as soon as possible, to
get rid of the Capitulations and other fetters which the Powers have
placed upon Ottoman independence, they welcome European assistance to
place their house in order. Thus it was at the request of the Turkish
Government that France lent Turkey the aid of the great financial
authority, M. Laurent, to assist in the reorganisation of the finances
of the country and the establishment of less wasteful methods of tax
collection, and that England lent the services of Mr. Crawford to
conduct the reorganisation of the Customs. Turkey has also asked for,
and has obtained, the services of an English admiral and several naval
officers to help her recreate the navy which was destroyed during the
Hamidian _régime_, and Baron von der Goltz, who has already done so
much good for the Turkish army, is to be entrusted with powers that
will enable him to bring it up to a high state of efficiency. The Young
Turks, anxious to develop the great natural resources of their country,
have also borrowed from France excellent engineers to superintend the
construction of irrigation works and the execution of other useful
projects.
While what is best of the old _régime_ still supplies the higher
officialdom, nearly all the men belonging to the lower grades of the
Civil Service, as I have already pointed out, had become adherents
of the Committee of Union and Progress some time before the outbreak
of the revolution. Most of these men, under the corrupt system that
then prevailed, had to supplement their miserable pay, generally in
arrears, by taking _bakshish_ and by robbing the State in other ways.
This general impurity of the officialdom was loathsome to many of those
who were compelled to follow the almost universal practice in order to
keep themselves and their families alive. Minor officials knew that
what was wrung from the people in the form of taxation was not spent
for the country’s good, but was for the most part appropriated by
the Palace gang, and it was but natural that they helped themselves
to a share. But the Turks, in their dealings between man and man,
are among the most honest of people, and public sentiment regarding
official corruption has been undergoing a remarkable change since the
revolution. The newspapers preached public purity, and the servants of
the State began to realise that for the future the misappropriation
of public moneys would not be at the cost of the Palace gang as
heretofore, but at the cost of their beloved country itself, which was
in sore need of money to further its regeneration and to strengthen its
defences against the formidable enemies that threatened its integrity.
I have told the story of the patriotic civil servants in Salonica, who
abandoned their claims to arrears of pay in view of their country’s
necessities; I am assured that the same sense of civic virtue has led
to a remarkable diminution of the corrupt practices in the various
public departments. I have heard it maintained that the Turks cannot
change their nature, and that Turkish administration always has
been, and always will be, corrupt, whether the form of government be
despotic or constitutional. One might as fairly have argued thus about
England’s administration in India, or in the British Isles themselves,
but a few generations ago. A people who, like the Turks, are honest
as individuals, and intensely patriotic, are likely to arrive at the
right moral sense in a matter like this. The Japanese, who, while being
as patriotic as the Turks, are not remarkable for commercial probity,
regard it as far more criminal to embezzle the country’s funds than to
cheat the individual; but Japan is the only country which has attained
this high ethical standard.