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Show Jll OLDEfc IllllNAnQNS Personalities Behind the Transformed Ottoman Empire The Young Turk Organization Really a Masonic Movement The Sultan as a Tool. By WILLIAM T. ELLIS. Constantinople. At the back of every movement n-ust be men. The transformation of Turkey from a mediaeval absolutism to a constitutional constitu-tional government was not wrought without human agencies. Who did it? . At the time of the constitution and the revolution there were stories of a romantic secret committee in Paris, with a chief possessed of greater statesmanship and more dictatorial powers than any crowned head in Europe. The present Paris committee commit-tee is disgruntled and in opposition, and it is rather generally admitted that there was considerable romancing romanc-ing about the original committee. Admittedly the Young Turk movement move-ment was a bit of successful opportunism. oppor-tunism. Its leaders were quick to take advantage of favorable events, which is certainly nothing to their discredit dis-credit The men were ready for their chance when it came. A German on Top. But now, after the lapse of many months, who is the top man in Turkey? Tur-key? Amid all the personalities here, which one towers above all others? It is none other than Baron von Bee-berstein, Bee-berstein, the German ambassador. One searches in vain for this omnis-scient, omnis-scient, omnipotent Young Turk of whom we read so much at the time of the passing of the old order. Instead, he finds behind the forces at work here this shrewd old diplomat, the ablest in Europe, who has within a year recovered all the prestige that the German cause lost with the fall of Abdul Hamid. In domestic affairs, as well as in foreign relationships the hand of von Beeberstein may be traced by those whose business it is to know the inwardness in-wardness of current events here. Since this wise old German is an extra-Turkish extra-Turkish personality, perhaps It is not fair to consider htm in looking for the most influential figure in the present regime. A Glimpse of the Sultan. It is easier to say who this man is not than who he is. First of all, it Is not the sultan. He may be eliminated elim-inated at the outset A high diplomat who has had to converse with the present sultan says that the ordeal is like talking to a wooden man. One encounters various terms In the diplomatic dip-lomatic circles to describe the nonentity nonen-tity of Mohammed V. Doubtless, many of these are exaggerated, like the stories of his devotion to the flowing flow-ing bowl. The sultan sees no foreigners, for-eigners, but anybody may see him at the Selamlik the weekly function when he goes to- the mosque to pray. With Abdul Hamid, this was an ordeal or-deal to be dreaded, and he sat cowering cower-ing in his carriage in a coat of mail. Apparently his brother is glad to have this weekly outing, for the poorest hamal that totters over the Galata bridge jeneath his monstrous load, sees more of life than does his Royal Highness. He likes the pomp of the lines of soldiers who line the highway high-way for the short distance from the palace to the mosque. The day I saw the sultan an American Amer-ican girl in the carriage next mine was aiming a camera at him. He was attracted by the ftesh young figure, fig-ure, aDd obligingly tiirned his face toward her and smiled and then kept on smiling and craning his neck toward her like a gay old flirt. It was not very dignified or royal, but It was decidedly revealing, especially when one remembers that this man is "King of kings," "Commander of the Faithful," Faith-ful," and "The Shadow of God on Earth.' Incidentally, he Is a political cipher. The Prisoner of Salonlca. Nor Is Abdul Hamid any longer a possible factor in Turkish affairs. Wild rumors fly around occasionally of his escape from his imprisonment, in the garb of a woman servant, and of bis being at the bottom of revolutionary revo-lutionary plots. This is the last of the contingencies that the present government has to face. The best advised say that, while Abdul Is morose mo-rose and sleepless, he none the less is too fond of life to take any chances with this committee. His supreme passion is to be permitted to die a natural death. For a generation he has been haunted by the nightmare of a violent death. Now he is guarded by the most trusted representatives of the committee commit-tee of union and progress. I am told by one whose knowledge of Turkish affairs has proved correct on other points that the jailers of Abdul Hamid are men who have blood feuds with him whose relatives the deposed sultan has slain and who would be glad of an excuse to square their accounts ac-counts with him. Moreover, Salonica is the center of Young Turk sentiment, senti-ment, and the most difficult soil for the growth of a reactionary plot A Masonic and Jewish Body. Everybody In Constantinople seems to know that the . committee which overthrew Abdul Hamid and brought in the new day for the empire Is really real-ly a Masonic organization. It differs from the masonry of the west in that it is non-religious the name of the Deity is not mentioned in Its documents. docu-ments. It Is affiliated with the Italian Ital-ian masons and not with the British or American. This fact has incurred the special hostility of orthodox Mohammedans, Mo-hammedans, who dislike the Masonic order even more than they detest Christianity. This fact may be borne in mind In any study of present conditions, con-ditions, for it is likelier to be a factor in the developments than some more apparent causes. Another charge brought against the committee of Union and Progress is that its membership is largely Jewish. Jew-ish. Here one must try to master a strange condition, possible only In this romantic east, where the improbable improb-able and the incongruous are matters of every day. This particular story harks back more than 200 years, when the son of a Salonica rabbi announced himself as the Messiah and got a considerable con-siderable following. His cause was so portentou." that he was arrested and taken before the sultan, where, in his extremity, he renounced his claims and accepted Islam. So great was the confidence of his follower:. In this Messiah, that they too obeyed his lead and became Moslems. Mos-lems. During the ensuing centuries they have remained a distinct community, commu-nity, with their own mosque. They never intermarry with other Moslems, and the genuineness and depth oi their fidelity to Islam is a subject ol scepticism among the faithful Cer tainly this Moslem-Jewish community has furnished some of the most aggressive ag-gressive men in the empire, and far more than its proportion of the leaders lead-ers of the Young Turk movement The Military "Dictator." I have Interviewed many of the leaders lead-ers of the Turkish government, and shall have occasion to quote some of them. Here ft must suffice to give as representative the one most picturesque pictures-que figure in the government Mah-moud Mah-moud Shevket Pasha, the minister of war, the supreme commander of the Turkish armies, the "Saviour of Constantinople" Con-stantinople" and the man who has frequently been said to be the real dictator of the present regime In Turkey. Really, Gen. Shevket Is practically subordinate to one of his own aids and associates. He is. not in the inner in-ner circle of the committee of Union and Progress, although a genuine Young Turk. It is perhaps an inconsiderate incon-siderate way of putting the case, but I am credibly informed that he is only a sort of puppet In the hands lit jilililif t H : --- m H ffJ r -trj ; : : r -: f .- -cV- - '-4t'' i vik.q f - ik-- : v --v ? i .;. . - - -. K tUr . , .-r--T".'-- . : - . . The Sultan on a Visit to the Mosque. ' of stronger men. However, he looks the part of a popular Idol. Tall, bearded, with small black eyes that flash, he is a veritable Beau Brummel. He could readily be a cruel man and a dictator If he had the power, else I misread physiognomy. While we talked he twirled his nose glasses by the handle, or rolled thini on bis fingers, fin-gers, or twiddled his nose the right side of. which bears a large vaccination vaccina-tion mark. Frequently he tilted aside his green astrachan fez and scratched his Iron-gray hair. 1 The Government's Many Critics. So much for one cabinet minister's view. That he and many like .him, in office and out, are real patriots cannot can-not be denied. There are many disaffected dis-affected persons In Turkey and for various reasons, some of them obvious. obvi-ous. The foreigner Is displeased, as he chronically is with any government carried on by those whom he likes to call his Inferiors. There are various portentous elements of disintegration at work in the empire. I question whether it will ever be possible to have a homogeneous nation here. The new order of things has brought In a new restlessness among all classes class-es of people, and Turkey, be it ever remembered, is a hodge-podge of nationalities. na-tionalities. On one occasion I counted count-ed at least flfteeu distinct and different differ-ent peoples that go to, make up this strange government The Turkish ship of state was never so difficult to navigate as Just now. (Copyrislit. 1311. by Joseph B. Uowlc-s.) |
