_Turkish mobilization was still at its first stages when the European
war began on Aug. 1, 1914. The Turkish Government in particular and
the Turkish population in general were overwhelmed by the unexpected
turn of European events, and it was at the height of the crisis that
Turkey received the news of her two battleships building in British
yards being taken over by England. A correspondent of The Daily
Atlantis of New York, writing in Constantinople on Aug. 10, said:_
The European war makes the Turks think that this is their golden
opportunity for turkifying the empire from the one end to the other.
All non-Moslems, mere boys and young men of 25 to 30 years of age and
grown men up to 45, are being arrested by the police and secret
service force, and dragged to the barracks, like convicts, and if they
fail to pay the fifty or eighty pounds Turkish ($230 or $350) for
exemption from military service, they are forced to work as
"assistant-soldiers."
The soldiers thus designated are not given rifles, nor are they
trained for service, but are simply employed as servants to the
regular soldiers. It is easy to understand that no one can endure such
conditions of military life, the result being that each and every one
of these non-Moslems sells whatever property he has in order to pay
the ransom and get away from the army, and from Turkey as well. In ten
days, since this peculiar recruiting began, fully ten thousand Greeks
found a way of escaping from Constantinople, many of them finding a
refuge in the free and hospitable United States. This getting away is
not so easy, writes the same correspondent, because officials of the
various ports are exacting heavy sums from the fugitives before
letting them go. Graft and extortion in this case reign supreme, and
it costs anywhere from three to fifteen pounds ($13 to $70) to "buy" a
police or port official. This process, originating in Constantinople,
is widespread in the provinces, and the sums paid in this way by the
non-Moslems to escape military service amount to millions. "Let the
infidels pay!" say the Turkish officials. "They have taken our ships,
and they have to pay for it."
The popular feeling against England in these first days of the
European war is fierce. Numerous manifestations, in which the younger
element was largely represented, proceeded to attack the British
stores and British subjects, and there have been serious attempts
against the British Embassy in Constantinople and the British
Consulate at Smyrna.
[Illustration: H.R.H. PRINCESS MARIE JOSE
Only Daughter of the King of the Belgians.
(_Photo from Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL MERCIER