OCR Text |
Show I A Turk's View of the War. The feeling of the Turks in regard to the war is well illustrated in a conversation which a correspondent of the Augsburg Augs-burg Allgemeine Z3itung held with a Turkish merchant in Kuatchuk just before tbe outbreak of hostilities, daid the merchant: "It seems that uot only the Russians, but also the rest of tha nations, want to drive us out of Europe to ABia in order to get possession of lands which have been oura ior centuries. It is possible that this may be brought about, but it is as ' certain as it is natural that vre ihall resist it. To this end we have bent all our energies at whatever sacrifice; we will spend the last man and the last dollar to prevent the outrage. To protect ourselves touches the highest interests of mankind; it concerns our faith, the soil that nourishes ua, the roof over our heads, the care and love of our wives and the happiness and future of our children. Inspired by this thought we will fight, and, if we must, wo will full and enter the paraj diseofour fathers. But if the Franks think that they can make laughing-stocks laughing-stocks of us and put ofl their -on- j slaught till they are in a better poai- ' tien to attack us, they are very much mistaken. We cannot stand forever on the banki of the Danube expecting expect-ing their bortUities, asd we will not. We will havs either an honorable and lasting peace or a fierce and docisive war, and one of the two we know how to extort by force." |