OCR Text |
Show CONSTANTINOPLE. Sunday, Nov. 21. (By the Associated Press) "This last war was the most disastrous in the history of Turkey, not because she was beaten but because it made enemies ene-mies of nations naturally our friends," declared Abdul Medjid Effendi, heir to the Ottoman throne, to the correspondent corres-pondent of The Associated Press whdm he received today. "The present sultan and myself," he continued, "denounced the proposal that Turkey enter the war. Moham-med Moham-med V, who was then reigning, showed weakness before a clique of adventurers adventur-ers like Talaat Bey and Enver Bey, then cabinet ministers and now fugitives, fugi-tives, whom Germany had fed with dreams of power. "I am more ashamed of the Armenian Armen-ian atrocities committed during the lU UK11J UL (WIVIUIU, 111 Ulll 1JJDIU1 ; , but I must insist that they were against the will of the' present sultan, the nation as a whole. They were instigated in-stigated by unpatriotic ministers who were guaranteed in their places by their services to German militarism. 'The fanaticism of provincial officers jservtd as the mediums, while the cen-1 cen-1 served as the mediums, while the cen-j cen-j from the general public. The mem-Ibers mem-Ibers of the imperial family tried to make use of their prestige against this but were imprisoned in the palace, j "Of the future, I can say we must i have foreign assistance, as the country coun-try is exhausted. We prefer to deal I with one nation because the difficulties difficul-ties of International control have been shown elsewhere but we welcome any control not menacing the sovereignty of the caliph." Dr. Riza Tewfik. tho minister of . public instruction, whcv was received j at the same time as the correspondent, I complained of the provincial officials appointed by the former ministers and ! still retained because of tho lack of other trained men. Ho declared that they wero delaying, for profit to themselves, them-selves, the shipment of coal from tho Turkish mines on tht Black seacoast to Constantinople where a fuel shortage short-age is threatened. "Secure proofs," said the heir to the throno, "and I myself will guarantee the support of the sultan and the punishment pun-ishment of the miscreants. Strike hard and quickly. Such criminals may ruin the country in a critical moment." |