The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-11-25
RELIEF FOR ARMENIA
ENGLISH WRITER ON THE DUTY
OF HIS OWN AND OTHER NATIONS.
Suggestfons Which,. IL Made Effective,
Might Result I'm improvements
American influence.

eminent OF Turkey has been at all times
inaccessible to the considerations by which
civilized governments are moved, or to
which they must at any rate-even the
| worst OF them-profess to defer. Hence
the difficulty of making any impression on
the Turks by remonstrance or persuasion
Nothing moves them but fear. They are.
however, most of them. so purblind, so In
capable of looking forward or around and
foreseeing the action Of the causes now in
motion. that they cannot be made to learn
by experience. or to realize that the course
they are Pursuing must at no distant date
involve the ruin Of their power. These
faults nave been aggravated during the
last few years by the policy Of the present
Sultan. who leaves very little to his min
listers. is jealous of any talent that shows
itself among them. tries to direct every
thing himself, and is. in fact, largely
swayed by a camarilla of ignorant per-
sonal attendants and hangers-on. at the PAL
ace. There are some able Mohammedans
in Constantinople who detest the present
regime and see its perils. Now and then
a good governor Is found in the provinces.
who tries to improve the local administra-
ton. But the able men are never listened
to. and the good governor is speedily re-
called. In every government more depends
upon the men who administer than upon
the system: but in a. despotic government
men are everything. In Turkey the men
and the system are equally corrupt; ana
to try to reform the Turkish monarchy is
like trying to repair a ship with rotten
timbers. ..
Why does not such a government go to
pieces, according TO the law of nature which
happily provides that corruption ana weak
ness bring dissolution in their train! There
are three reasons. One is the jealousy of
fhraa great ElrOnGan mowers. Wnlcn mas
had the effect OF preventing two OF them
from annexing what remains OF Turkish
T seTsiaTTy; A nSn1Iat;d is b bes ii IN the snI major ore
ity, is so fanatically i'll disposed TO the
Christians (who are the greatest suffer-
ers) that 1t is not only willing to help the
government to hold the Christians down,
but even disposed to tolerate evils which
would produce Mussulman instructions
were there no Christians in the country.
There is, however, a great deal or latent
discomfort among the Mohammedans, and
but for the fatalism which Islam engenders,
and which has made the masses iistiess
jealousy of the Christians would suffice TO
prevent outbreaks. The third reason is the
ons give to a government which can raise
money to purchase them. Two centuries
ago instructions were far easier and more
likely to succeed than now. because the
Insurgents were more on a level with reg
ular troops than they are in these days
of swift-fring guns ana rifles OF long range.
lnere Is little RfOuUl u uOptiS " ally
speedy extinction Of the Turkish power
by natural causes.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
If. then. 1t is going to last some time
longer, can nothing at all be done. If not
to reform 1t, yet TO abate its evils? Elk
perience has shown that there is only one
way of reforming an Oriental government,
and that is by putting it into leading
strings, by either superseding the chief Off
Gals and putting Europeans in their place.
or else by giving them European adjutants
who shall virtually direct them. This
might be done in Turkey if the European
powers were willing. But it would be nee
essary practically to supersede the sultan
that is to say. to prevent him from inter-
fering either with administrative policy or
with appointments. And it is a method
which, though capable of being efficiently
worked by a directing and protecting pow
err, as England works it in the minor pro-
tected states of India. cannot be well APP
piled, at least on a large scale, by three
would suspect the other of obtaining some
advantage for itself.
Another expedient would be to detach
from the rest of the empire those parts
Of the country where disorders were most
frequent, placing them under a specially
constituted administrators. This was done
in the case of the Lebanon. and with very
good results. 1t has been proposed for Ar
menia, and would probably succeed there.
IL the powers Chiefly COiltcfncu WttC W
compel the Sultan to erect Armenia into a
distinct province. with a European COVER
nor who should be irremovable except with
the consent of those powers, who should
control the revenues OF the province and
maintain out of them a strong police. and
who should be free to introduce administra-
tive and judicial reforms, the countrg
the same perfect order. and obtain a meas
ure of the same prosperity, as has attend
ed the rule of Count kallay in Bosnia,
| which was delivered from the Turks in
1878. There are, no doubt, as many Mus,
sulmans as Christians In Armenia. but
the former have also much to gain by the
establishment Of good administration, and
would welcome IT,. Russia, however. is un-
willing to set upon her borders what she
fears might become an Armenian pr.ncipai-.
ity toward which her own Armenian pop
ulation would gravitate; so 1t Is to be
feared that this course. however promis-
ing, will not be taken.
We are brought back, then to the ques-
ton what the European powers can or will
do to deal with a situation which every one
admits must not continue. Their present
plan is to introduce small changes In local
Observation-Disclosures too numerous to be
stated ~here-which may give the Christians
and property, and to institute a commits
sion of supervision at Constantinople, with
which the European ambassadors may be
in communication. conveying to II the re-
ports OF their consuls, and pressing it to
see that justice is done In the provinces.
This. scheme. though somewhat compli-
Cdltus III iHC OHiltOD Va otftia JUL"
cious British and American residents. be
made to work. But il will require the clos
est attention by the European consuls and
ambassadors. and the most unremftting
pressure must be brought TO bear on the
Sultan If it's provisions are not to be neg
lected or evaded in practice. Nothing but
fear and threats will move a government
which has UP till now never expressed the
slightest penitence nor shown the slightest
ramorse for the Sassoun massacre. nor TAX
en- any serious step to put an end TO the
hideous prison tortures which the British
embassy has so often brought TO Its notice.
AMERICAN INFLUENCE.
One closing word as to the influence
which America may exert in these ques-
tons. She has very wisely. and very for
tunately for herself. abstained from join
ing in any of the treaties which determine
the relations OF European powers to one
another: and she has neither obtained any
such legal right TO interfere for The pro-
lection. OF the native Eastern Christians.
nor incurred any such responsibility toward
them. as is the case with the six great
powers. But she has missionaries in many
parts Of Turkey, whom, and whose church
es and schools, constantly threatened by
local Turkish governors, she is entitled TO
protect: and she has the enormous advan-
tage of being obviously disinterested IN all
Mediterranean questions. having nothing 10
gain for herself in that region OF the world.
Hence, any action taken by her, either on
behalf OF her missionaries or from senti-
ments OF humanity and sympathy for the
oppressed and prosecuted, cannot be misun-
by the press OF continental Europe. as that
procc constantly misranresanfS the apffon