Show S t foreigners resident in the turkish empire are arc pessimistic concerning the outlook for the new re gime ottomans not loyal by WILLIAM T ILLIS ELLIS in fit turkey for rea sons that hat are apparent appi rent I 1 dare not 10 lo calie the which I 1 shall re port in this article I 1 hie lie persons quoted could eisely be and the oakl mould be made to feel fed the heavy hand of the government the depre sent the lie barkei sida of the bit nation althin mathin the Turk lih empire defore before proceeding to quote these nun mn I 1 may state one ominous and related fact viz evera avei i foreigner whom I 1 have met in turkey and I 1 have intern interviewed le ed hundreds eds bas baa shown himself hostile to the present government this Is an amazing con of things sometimes the an has been merely skeptical and supercilious in other cases it has been deep and hard knocks for the turk the criticisms of the present govern ment made by these british and americans has not been necessarily in contrast with the old regime but it has been a criticism of the turk as a governing power neither Is it to be considered hostile to islam per se but to islam as embodied in n the ruling class of the governments government I 1 have heard scores of predictions that the out come of the present regime will be utter failure this state of mind on the part of the principal foreigners resident in turkey must necessarily be a heavy drag on the wheels of the government another ominous and allied fact Is that the christians in the turkish era em pire are emigrating by the thousands it if anybody has the curiosity to examine the bulletins of ellla ellis island during the present six months he will find a big percentage of turkish subjects among the arrivals these men have fled from the prospect of military ice when p put ut to the test they show that the christian population of tur key la Is not loyal to the government apparently constantinople la Is willing to let these people go although taken as a class the christians are more efficient members of the community than the Alos moslems lems an upper room conference these generalities were illustrated and substantiated by au an interview I 1 had recently with mith a dozen non moslem ottomans who are all educated men and most of them professional men rhey abey would mould be called leading citizens of any community I 1 asked aske a friend to arrange an interview with the educated natives of the city who spoke the result was an evening gathering in fin an upper room of the home of one of the members the interview started with one man who had lived abroad serving as spokes arwin but it quickly developed into a general discussion have conditions improved under the new regime no conditions tire ore really dolse ahrn in the Ila midian davs daa the new regime has haa made the alie Alos moslems lems more alapit to what la is going on and quicker to ahsert their super superiority lorit and to im pose exactions upon non moslems christiana have babe no rights in turkey today in ill spite of 0 what you have read in fit the papers here one man broke in with nn an it II In A short time ago in nay native village a christian caught a thief among hla his goats the home holder was a strong man linan and over oer powered the thief and kept him in the house foi the night the next day he took him to the officials but because JW ay 4 1 IV 4 a 4 it W Y 1 4 I 1 educated non M boslem ottomans the be offender was a moslem lie he was waa set free while the christian was ar arrested and fined 25 turkish for kid naping a moslem Alos leml the old cry for justice tell me I 1 asked what you edu bated non Alos moslems leins want of the gov eminent I 1 instantly there came from several as aa it if by prearrangement the cry I 1 jur JUG tice equally equal equa lit lt why not also I 1 asked reminding them of the third of the watchwords which were so generally used at the time of the revolution never mind about that let us have bave justice and equality and then fraternity will mill take care of itself we cannot get justice there Is as much bribing as aa ever only the tha bribes are bigger there are fewer christians in office than there were in the old days venturing to suggest that in spite of all conditions are improving and that the new forces at work must make for human betterment one man impetuously said when will they be better belter after we are dead we want better times now ottomans who hate the turks after more pessimistic talk I 1 r remarked e then you seem to think that the present government Is going to smash we hope so was the instant response we are willing to have any power but turkey rule of course we dream the dream of independence for our own part of the land and for the various nationalities that go to make up turkey but that Is far in the fu ture at present we prefer the buzer of some one of the powers anybody except the turks or wo me would be glad to see our part of the country neutralized under the powers as Is the case with lebanon over which however turkey has some control then all these emigrants who have t C r t fc left eft by bythe t e hundreds of thousands will return to country all of them pine for the homeland but they simply cannot live here do you not hot see eee I 1 remarked that the country Is 3 being trained drained of the tha best people by emigration tia fco thet the tha prospects grow weaker as more of them tharo leave 9 good people go to a good country was the terse rejoinder of a college there la Is no field hero here tor for educated non moslems the army bugaboo I 1 have said that the prospect of 0 military service which Is now open to the tha christians Is driving many young in non n out of the country several were ow aping iping on ships upon which I 1 tray trav eld el d men remonstrated with these young men inen declared that the christians are persecuted in the army that there aie no christian officers that the immorality of the burld turkish di soldiers la Is of a nature that makes oven even the nominal christians christiana hee flee from it and that the life in the be army is not only poorly paid about 80 cents a month but that the conditions condl tlona are of the hardest hur har debt it seems to be the opinion of these educated observers that turkey la Is willing to have bane as many of the christians as please leave the con country here my companions began to ask questions ques tlona about america they talked of it as aa the children of israel must have talked of canaan every man of the twelve in that room as wo we found by a count has relatives in america some bome of them look forward to going thither themselves they think that the rapid spread of the masonic movement will help improve conditions but they say that in turkey the masons do not cohere the sultans greatest dread speaking of the reform element which undoubtedly exists within islam itself these educated ottomans said that the tha progressive Alos moslems lems dare not show bleir hand in turkey there Is no real fredom of criticism if ou on would print in your paper I 1 suggested to one that the sultan Is IB not a descendant of the prophet and not even a member of the prophets tribe and so according to the ancient law of islam Is not qualified to be caliph would mould you bo be sent to prison this point Is one which gives the sul eul tan greatest concern with fine scorn the man answered no nol 0 would not go to prison I 1 would go to my grave these new days daa have only made the Alo moslem turks more fanatical there la Is likely to be a massacre at any moment none of us la Is safe I 1 cannot venture out without my pistol as aa you you see moving aside his coat and a nd showing the pistol in his pocket everybody goes armed when the moslems could kill americans as they did rogers and maurer in adana they say it la Is safe to go ahead and kill 1111 native christians factors in reform the gentlemen present were dunant that the greatest factors of promise in turkey were the schools schoola maintained by foreigners ind and especially by the americans americana after the beginnings begInning il of the public education which have been made there may come gener general enlightenment there Is great need for the improvement of agricultural conditions by the government itself it if people are to wrest a bare living from the fields with prices rising on every hand late at night the conference broke up and I 1 carried with me a picture of men under the strain of the great fear and a great discontent who could be patriots if given a chance but whose present sentiments are those of utter antagonism to the government of which they are citizens copyright 1911 by joseph B D bowles |