Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-10-02
WEARY OF TURKEY.
State Department. Urged to Take Viz.
orOus Action.


''The empire of Turkey has, in the opiu.
ion of q very large number of Americans,
lived long enough" 1t was. says WASH
sngton correspondent, an official of the
State Department who spoke, at the same
time pointing to a pile of letters just
opened and read. Then he continued:
II judge from letters coming every day
from all parts of the country urging us to
take vigorous steps to put an end to the
Turkish outragcs and prescribing the de-
thronement of the Sultan as the best and
justest aud promptest means TO that end.
Some of our correspondents go into clab-
crate detail as to the exact method of
going about it. One in particular may
interest you. Were we to follow it out the
President would send our White squadron
to Turkish waters. While the feet was on
the way our Minister ut st. Petersburg
would call on the Russian Minister of
Foreign Affairs and propose to him that
inasmuch as Russia could not, under the
treaty which now binds the European
powers, dethrone the Sultan. and further.
as Russia wants Constantinople, Russia
should order her Black Sea and Mediter-
fanean fleets as near Constantinople as.
practicable under the said treaty, and then
our White squadron would steam within
smelling distance of the city and open fire
till the Sultan had nbdicatcd and the
government was wiped out. The Russian
fleets would keep close to the White sauad-
ron and thereby let it be known to the
other powers that we had the sanction off
the Gar for what we were doing. That,
would prevent any nation but Turkey in ,
terfering with us. When we had cap .
tured the city. and put the officials to
tight, we would announce that we had ac- !,
complished our mission, and giving the
tip to the Russian admiral, quietly with !
draw. The downfall of the Turkish Gov
ernment would warrant Russia Selling
the city, and this she could do by landing,
her troops from her fleets and taking
prompt possession. The White squadroni
could remain till everything had quieted
down and without our saying word let
the other nations take it for granted that
we should recognize Russia's right to Con-
stantinople, to which she has, our corre-'
spondent insists, an unbounded right over
other nations. Then we could recall our
squadron, the Turkish empire outside
Constantinople would be ut the mercy
of the other powers, and they might do
with it as they pleased for all we cared.
BY such coup, as the correspondent puts
A. We NOulu Ilil lue WOrlu OI II royal QlNr-
derer, save the lives of thousands now in
danger of the Turkish wrath, make our
selves solid with the Christian world. and
then mote the comprehensive mind of this
statesman our squadron could come back
by way of Cuba, kick the butcher Wey-
ler off the island, recognize the independ-
ence of Cuba, whip Spain if she whim-
pered, and then come home and resume its
drill in fleet nvnlutinno
The official, continuing, said that letters
We're still coming in urging action in be-
half of Cuba and that every fresh outrage
reported gave an impetus to this corre-
spondence. Some of the letters contain
severe criticism of the department for not
acting more vigorously in behalf of both
the Cuban revolutionists and the unpro-
tected Christians in Turkey. The horrible
tutchery of the newspaper correspondent
by the Spanish soldiers in Cuba has called
forth very decided expression of in
tense feeling on the part of the letter writ
ing part of the people and demand that
prompt measures be employed to bring
Spain to reparation. In reply to my in
quiry as to what the department is doing
with regard to both Turkey and Cuba, the
official said automatically that it was
doing everything which the rights of
American interests demanded and inter.
national law permitted.