lessly struck off the registers, or on various pretexts were not allowed to vote. The returns were sometimes ludicrous. We hear of Greek villages returning Moslems, and of places notoriously opposed to the Committee voting for its nominees. In many places voters abstained altogether. In the capital itself the improper means adopted to secure victory were open and barefaced. The Opposition newspapers were suppressed. The Tanin, the ablest and most outspoken supporter of the Committee, though its able Editor has often shown his independence, sarcastically or generously offered the use of his columns to the supporters of the Opposition. Freedom of speech was forbidden. Dr. Riza Tewfik, a deputy who would be an ornament to any elective chamber, was imprisoned for a month because he addressed a number of men in his own room at a hotel. Gerrymandering is a practice which is soon learned, and beyond doubt the elections were gerrymandered. But allowing for that fact, it is not enough to account for the clean sweep made by the Committee. To explain it, one must note other facts. On the one hand there was a well-organized body; on the other was one virtually without organization. The Committee, organized to bring about the revolution, when it had succeeded in accomplishing its object, maintained its organization and developed it. Young Turkey is to-day, as represented by the Committee, more completely than it has ever been the real ruler of the country. It is worth trying to understand its position, because it is the government of the country with which England and other States have dealt, and will have to deal. It exists, and foreign statesmen have to make the best of it.

The name Young Turkey is appropriate. Of course, the most important signification is in the adjective, to dis

tinguish it from Old Turk. But the active members of the party are almost all young and inexperienced men. They have felt the necessity of putting old men in their front-Said Pasha now; Kiami in the first year of the revolution. But the Young Turks are never quite content with their leaders. Kiamil, with a singularly energetic mind, but with a statesmanlike grasp and the caution of old age, was ruthlessly swept aside because he saw the futility, and would not approve the methods of Turkifying Albanians, Arabs, and Christians. Said, though more pliable than Kiamil, is an able veteran, but is tolerated just so long as he consents to do what Young Turkey, as represented by the Committee of Union and Progress, desires. Hakki, the Grand Vizier, between those mentioned, though not an old man, only took office at the urgent request of the Committee, and probably was well content to be relieved of it. Young Turkey recognizes that Turkish Ambassadors ought to have had experience. Nevertheless, the statement remains true that the moving spirits of Young Turkey are young. They have energy, but lack experience; they are impatient of results. The country had fallen so much behind the civilization of all European States that they must drive it forward. They have obtained a constitution, and they must have a majority in the Chamber. If that cannot be obtained by fair means, then other means must be used. They acted upon this principle, and in consequence the new Chamber was obtained rather by nomination than by election.

But in spite of the errors and misdeeds of the Young Turks, they are a great improvement upon their predecessors. I say this, though I have often seen the contrary stated in English newspapers. Much depends on the point of view. I agree with the statement in a letter to The Nation

(March 30th, 1912) that "things when seen from a Christian village in Turkey look different from the same things viewed from a London newspaper office." The writer, who is unknown to me, speaks of the report sent to the "Friends of Armenia," a society in London of which Lady Frederick Cavendish is president, which has done, and is doing, splendid work for the victims of Hamidean cruelty. He compares the reports sent to the organ of the society by writers who sign them, who speak "of help and approval given by Turkish officials in places from which they sent nothing but tales of tyranny and cruelty in the time of Abdul Hamid." The revolution gave a stimulus to the forces working for religious equality, and good generally, in Turkey. It gave hope to the subject races and encouragement to those Moslems who, from various motives, wished to see Turkey act justly to all subjects of the Empire. The late Mr. Stead, though his impulsive enthusiasm led him sometimes to form too hasty judgments, kept a mind always open to conviction. When in the pages of this Review last July I expressed my belief that Young Turkey, notwithstanding its blunders, would succeed in establishing a permanent government on constitutional lines, that it would muddle through its difficulties, and generally that the internal position of the country was hopeful, he made a comparison in the Review of Reviews between the opinions I had expressed and those which, in the same number of The Contemporary, Dr. Dillon had given. He showed me the article in proof, and unhesitatingly declared that he agreed with the pessimist rather than the optimist, as he called us. Some six months later he came to Constantinople, moved thereto by indignation at the sudden declaration of war by Italy. He saw the principal members of the Government, the leaders of the Opposition, the

editors of the Turkish papers, the orthodox Patriarch and the heads of the other Christian Churches. He used his tireless energy and genius for learning facts to grasp the situation. When he left he could have dictated columns regarding grievances of the poor Turks and of the Christian communities, and those who knew him do not need to be told that his sympathies were always with the desolate and oppressed. He had an inner view of the situation, and he candidly confessed that he had changed his opinion and had become optimist. He found Jahid Bey, the Editor of the Tanin, the organ of the Committee, a man with a clear purpose. He described him to me as "a man quite after my own heart." If Mr. Stead had fully explained what he meant in using this phrase, he would probably have stated that Jahid and the other leading members of the Committee had good ideals, but were not only impatient of results but determined to drive popular opinion in the direction they wanted.

The task before Young Turkey is colossal. Four and a-half centuries of cruel misrule cannot be put an end to in four years. The important question is whether the rulers recognize that it ought to be ended, and are striving to substitute something better. Some of the results which they have to show for their four years of office are utterly indefensible. Many of the worst instances of their improper conduct in the recent elections come from Albania. The Committee aroused so strong a feeling of hostility by their treatment of that country two years ago that the accounts from it are always open to suspicion. But the instances of bad faith and unfairness during the elections are so numerous and detailed as to leave no doubt as to their old substratum of truth. Take a typical instance: At Skotra, when the Christians proposed to meet in the Cathedral

church to select their candidates, a band of Unionists intercepted the chief notables and tried, happily without success, to compel them, under threats of prison or exile, to vote in favor of their candidates. They succeeded only in preventing them from voting. A few Christians however did vote, under the influence of terror or money, for the Committee. It is alleged that a certain Shahin Bey in the same district is acting in connivance with well-known brigands, but that he is tolerated because he declares himself a partisan of the Committee. The suspicion of everything done by the Government is so general that Hadji Adil Bey's Commission was taken to have been named solely for the purposes of the electoral campaign. The dismissal of employés by the Commission was attributed to their opposition to the Committee of Union and Progress. Here suspicion, I think, induces the writers to ignore facts.

The Committee-and I use the word as synonymous with government-has made its greatest failure in Macedonia. The eviction of Bulgarian peasants to make way for immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina is especially inexcusable, because it is in violation of the revolutionary programme of justice, irrespective of race or creed. The appalling murder of Bulgarians at Ishtib in December last is hardly less terrible than the news that the courtmartial sent to investigate the incident and to punish the culprits was dissolved in April without report and without any person being punished. It suggests that the Government dare not do justice. The same suggestion is caused by the failure to condemn any of the authors of the political assassinations, which have aroused ill-feeling against the Committee. Greeks, Bulgarians, and Albanians speak of the conditions of Macedonia in just as severe terms as they did five years ago. The

It

appointment of a Commission by the Government five months ago, with the object of reporting upon the condition of the country and with power to apply remedies, was a useful step. would be rank treason in the eyes of a Young Turk to suggest that the delay in introducing just government is already too great to allow of Macedonia being saved for Turkey. The President of the Commission is Hadji Adil Bey, the Minister of the Interior, and he is aided by Mr. Robert Graves, quite one of the ablest Englishmen in our public service, and by Moslem members. Any report to which Mr. Graves attaches his signature may be trusted, and it is perhaps only fair to await such report. But people who know the country are not hopeful about either the intentions or the power of the Commission. As a palliation of the eviction of Bulgarian peasants to make room for Moslem immigrants it is urged, first, that hospitality to men of their own faith is a religious duty; and second, that the peasants are tenants of Moslem landlords who have the right of eviction. The real reason is the desire to increase the proportion of Moslems to Christians. In an inter

view with a correspondent of the Tanin in the last days of April, Hadji Adil Bey stated that the two great needs of the country are roads and education. The Commission had decided that £T. 62,000 should be spent for roads, principally in the vilayet of Janina. If the statement is true, and the money is employed, it is good news. His an

swer as to schools is vague, but that may be the fault of the interviewer. The best news that has reached the capital of the work of the Commission is that the gendarmerie, to which Mr. Graves has always attached great importance, is to be increased. It now numbers nearly 16,000 men. Though the gendarmes are paid less than the ordinary policemen of the country, the

employment is sought after as being permanent, and the discipline of the new corps is satisfactory. Both in Macedonia and other parts of the Empire they will be employed more in the country than in the large towns. It is significant that a few weeks ago the constant report of misdeeds in Macedonia brought the Bulgarian Committee, known as the Internal Macedonian organization, to the front again; and that according to the manifesto of Professors Georgov and Mileticj this Committee, which suspended its activity at the Turkish revolution, now declares once more for Macedonian autonomy. The factors in the Macedonian problem, including Albania, are so many and complex that it is difficult to predict what the outcome will be. Something, will depend on the work of the Committee. If its recommendations are sound, and if they are really followed up by practical measures, there may be hope that Turkey can retain Macedonia. Its condition constitutes a very serious danger for the Government. It may force the Balkan States to take action, and it is a temptation to Austria and Russia to come to an agreement about a new arrangement in the peninsula. If the Internal Macedonian Organization is really about to recommence its operations, the difficulty of the Turkish Government will be largely increased. A bold Turkish statesman would probably establish an autonomous government under the suzerainty of the Sultan. The step would not only relieve Young Turkey of its most difficult problem, but would have the full approval of Bulgaria, Greece, and Servia, each of which is greatly embarrassed by the appeals made to it by men of their own race. Though it is not likely that any Turkish Government will venture on such a step, it may be said that the tendency of events is towards autonomy as providing the best solution, and as relieving Turkey

and the Balkan States from the danger of an Austrian occupation.

One of the reforms in the internal administration of the country which requires attention is that of the Courts of Justice. An ambassador told me a few weeks ago that the consuls in all parts of the Empire reported that no improvement whatever had been made in the administration of justice. The Courts are just as corrupt as ever. Moreover, there is a tendency in many matters to introduce into the commercial courts the provisions of the Sheri, or sacred law, provisions which are in some cases quite alien to Western conceptions of justice. Twenty years ago, had an advocate in such Courts quoted the Sheri, he would have been told that the Court only recognized the provision of the commercial and civil law, largely borrowed from the French code which the Government had adopted for such courts. It would be easy to mention other shortcomings of Young Turkey, but in presence of the fact that some can see nothing but evil in what they have done, I prefer to ask -are there no hopeful signs? My answer is in the affirmative. They have effected much improvement and desire to effect more. A specially hopeful sign is that the men who have governed the country during nearly four years confess frankly that they have made blunders. Responsibility has had its effect on them. They are losing, or have lost, much of their chauvinism. Some of their wildest and most unreasonable projects-notably that of Turkifying the country-cease to be spoken of. The absolutely fearless discussions in the Chamber of Deputies have had an excellent effect. No efforts of the party in power, or of reactionaries, succeeded in stopping the exposure of abuses. The deputies on both sides were in deadly earnest. While it is true that the Committee has managed the elections in such a manner as to get

rid of their most formidable adversaries, yet it is certain that in the new Chamber there will be men who will not, and cannot, remain silent in presence of abuses. The excuse made by the extreme partisans of the Government, that the opposition in the Chamber rendered it impossible to carry through measures of public utility, was not altogether without justification. Probably half the time of the Ministers was spent in trying to make their personal position secure. That excuse will no longer avail them. By the elections they have gained a free hand. The country hopes to see them making good use of their victory. Even their opponents say: "Now you have things all your own way, let us see whether you can reform the law courts, build roads and railways, and put in order the great mass of confusion which the misgovernment of centuries has caused."

In my six-hundred miles journey already mentioned, as far as the range of Mount Taurus which separates the great central plain of Anatolia from Cilicia, I was once more struck, as all travellers have been, with the poverty of the inhabitants. Under ordinary circumstances there is probably little of the abject and hopeless distress which is to be seen in the unemployed of great cities in the West; but there is a low level of comfort, and the general impression is depressing. The villages of Austria, Germany, France, England, and even of Bulgaria and Servia, appear models of civilization when compared with Turkish villages. Houses constructed of mud in wooden frames, badly built and nearly always out of repair; the absence of ordinary sanitary arrangements; the village road suggesting that a thousand years ago it was fairly made, but has never been mended since; the village rendezvous or coffee-house, often crowded with men who probably do not spend over

their luxurious idleness more than a penny per day; men idle because they have no inducement to work; they and their children, with hungry, pinched faces, often covered with tatters, their clothes patched in half-a-dozen different patterns; great tracts of country without any road, or where a road exists in such a condition that the traveller avoids it, and makes a track over the neighboring land. One sees in a score of places rock tombs and rock dwellings, and wonders whether the inhabitants who hollowed them were less advanced in civilization than their successors. It is a sad sight, because this enormous plain which has been crossed during the centuries by invading armies of Arabs, Crusaders, Seljuks, and others, has contained civilized peoples, and will contain them again. Konia, the Iconium of St. Paul, its most populous city, contains possibly 40,000 souls. The population live among the ruins of former civilizations. Sir W. Ramsay and others have thrown light upon its condition in the time of St. Paul. But the subsequent civilization during the period of the Seljukians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries shows a condition of prosperity greatly superior to the dead-level of poverty which has succeeded it in this city of debris and ruins.

But a hope has dawned upon these people of the plains and the other Turkish peasantry throughout Anatolia; and in order to understand what it is, I must speak of the country generally.

Let us forget for awhile the political situation and the politicians, their wranglings and their personalities. Other aspects afford a test of the value of the changes which the revolution introduced. Let us ask: What has been done for the country? Are its people better off than they were before the revolution? Is the revenue increasing? Do trade and industry shows signs of recovering from the in