Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-11-22


1t has been said there are two sides
to every question. Even the devil has
apologists and many have declared
him not to be 80 bad as he's painted.
Such a declaration may not unnatural
ly give rise to the Inference that the
apologist is more or less intimate with
the actual coloring of his internal
majesty and 1t is noticeable that the
distinguished defenders Of the Sultan
of Turkey have or claim to have in
innate acquaintance with him.
Really this is about the only way in
which they could gain public hear
ing. F. Hopkinson Smith traded for a
time on such intimacy real or exag-
gerated and later President Andrews
Of Brown University and Sex- Minister
Terrell Rave taken up cudgels in de-
fence of the Great Assassin" Mr..
Terrell. at least, being able to speak out
OF a certain acquaintance and knowl-
edge that lend considerable weight to
his words. At the same time he car
not be considered an unprejudiced OBJ
server for me was subject as an official
to good deal of criticism on the part
of the missionary influence and un-
doubtedly regards that criticism unjust
as. not fmprobably. some of it was.
AS for President Andrews, we pre-
sumo his words in behalf of the Sultan
were ostensibly spoken in the interests
of justice: but when is considered his
brief acquaintance with the things
whereof he essays to speak, a lack of
knowledge brought into painful
prominence by the reply of DR.. Ham,
lin, 1T would seem that in fairness to
all he should have deferred his alleged
disquisition until he might acquire
more knowledge.
If it be granted at the outset that
the words of the missionaries cannot
strictly be regarded as free from preju.
dice. that they may have made unrea-
sonable requests in some instances.
the awful facts which no apologist can
successfully deny bear out their con-
tention in the main and render the task
of acquitting the Sultan not only un-
savory but impossible SO far as the
common sense of mankind is con-
hoc 1noo nd Sy,<a1, hi
will remain in some minds the suspi-
cion that trouble over the Armenians
was in some degree fomented by those
outside for political purposes. Never
theless as DR.. Hamlin in his reply to
Mr. Terrell, asserts:
There have been 1923 Christian
churches, Gregorian and Protestant.
changed to mosques; 56S destroyed,
and n monas.eries destroyed. the
priests and monks being converted or
killed; and 100000 men, women and
children killed; 2493 villages have been
destroyed, and 500, 900 driven from their
homes and all their property confis-
Gated. What the plunderers could not
carry off they destroyed. More than
100, 900 more perished from starvation,
cold and typhoid fever. All this, and
much more, the Sultan knew; and our
minister either knew or should have
known. and no word of power was
spoken on their behalf"
AS to the charge that the Sultan only
desired to put down an uprising of the
Armenians DR.. Hamlin replies:
These revolutiondsts did just what
the Sultan wanted. He could now de-
stroy them all as rebels. The accusa-
tion of rebellion is so absurd that the
Sultan must have laughed at the SIM
plicity of the world in being deceived
by it! Who are the rebels? Two and
a half million of loyal. unarmed peo-
pie. A leading Turkish newspaper. the
Terjiman Hakikat, of October 80, 1896,
printed at Constantinople, under the
eye of the censor. testifies that this
people has always been quiet and loyal
for 600 years: and that ii is foreign in
reference that has changed their
spirit.
The Sultan has an army of 250,0)0
trained soldiers and has one million
magazine rifles, and has ordered mil
lion mere" Yet he has been so fright
ened by the threats of these poor
peasants, mechanics and traders, that
he has slaughtered 100000, often with
the most horrible torture!
But 'there was no religious persecu-
tion." Oh no, that is impossible! No
Moslem ever does any such thing. And
yet, from the beginning of this out
break, rescue, safety. shelter, pardon,
Office, have been offered to all who
would abandon their faith and accept
Islam. Old men and young men have
been confronted with instruments of
torture and death, and exhorted to say.
There is but one God and Mohammed
is his Prophet They have almost
invariably chosen death.
In the letter replying to DR.. Andrews
Dr. Hamlin has wide field for the
employment of his sarcasm and does
not scruple to use it. He speaks out
of sixty years acquaintance with the
East, thirty-five years Of which were
passed there as an educator, and his
intimate acquaintance with the Ian
puape c,lsfnmS and ronnl<, them Salvas