The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-16
Pan-Islam.

Pan-Islam.
The Sultan is rapidly undeceiving those
who thought that the advantages of civil
lied government would be 80 far appreci-
ated by Mussulmans who have come under
Christian rule by conquest that they would
look on Turkish success In war against
a small State like Greece with apa-
thetic interest. The contrary is proving
to be the case. This Is particularly so
among the Mussulmans of Africa whose
naturally fiery blood has been reused un.
usually by the exaggerated descriptions
OF Turkish heroism and Christian slaughter
that have been spread abroad by Turk
ish emissaries. An Algerian news
paper recites various Incidents show
Ing how carefully the Sultan and
the Islamic revivalists by whom he is now
surrounded have been preparing their
plans. and how c%unningly they have
availed themselves of modern methods Of
propaganda. A map Of the theatre of the
Turco-Greek war was, 1t seems, distributed
widely among the Mussulmans Of AL
geria before the Turkish army moved
across the frontier of Thessaly. On this
map, the names and inscriptions on which
are marked in Arabic, the territory Of
Greece Is shown as being bounded on the
side of Thessaly by the Othrys Mountains,
and on the west q wide strip of territory
down to the Gulf of Corinth is marked of
us claimed by Turkey for territorial compen-
sation. The map, with its explanatory notes,
was eagerly bought up by the Algerian
Arabs and distributed through the country.
The same thing is reported from Egypt,
md no doubt something similar has been
going on in other directions, and there Is
nothing surprising in it. 1t is known that
the Sultan, from the day he came to the
throne, has had but one object and aim. the
restoration of the power of Islam; but he
tried to hide it from the foreign d~iplomatists
with whom he had relations by airs
Of studied moderation and willingness
to examine into any and every proposition
tending, as they endeavored to persuade
him, to strengthen and reform his admins
~tration. 1t is to the credit Of Sir HENRY
ELLIOTT, the British Ambassador at Con-
stantinople when ABDUL HAND came to
the throne, that he always and consistently
distrusted the bland assurances Of the
Sultan; but his representations to his
Government were unheeded by the men in
power at the time. The Sultan played
England against Russia and Russia against
England, and the Turcophile party and
press in England, it is not easy to say
whether consciously or unconsciously,
helped on a policy the effects of which are
now seriously embarrassing Lord SAILS
BURY's Government.
With all his efforts at concealment,
however. the Sultan was not always
able TO hide his perplexities, for in Down
ing street they came to know ~instinc-
lively, when the Russian Ambassador
was pushing matters rather hard at Con-
stantinople, by the tenor of the Sultan's
conversations with the British Ambassador
reported to the Foreign Office. During
the tenure of the post Of Ambassa-
dor at Constantinople by Sir WILLIAM
WHITE the relations between the Sultan
and the British Ambassador were far
from sympathetic, and the Sultan having
lost his English prop when pushed by Rus.
STA came by habit to fall back upon the
German Ambassador. Whether the reten.
ton of a representative 30 much a persona
~ingrdtu with the Sultan as was Sir VIII
liza WHITE was meant to display indirer>
ence or was a Machiavellic plan to work
up ~antagonism between Germany and Rus
STA in Eastern matters Is best known
to Lord SALISBURY himself; the wisdom OF
1t will have to be judged by results still In
the future. The actual situation In the
East is most undeniably the outcome OF
that policy, whatever attempt may be made
to disguise it but it has to be admitted al
the same time, that the use that would be
mad by the Emperor WILLIAM of the ad
vantages it gave him could not be ~foreseen
The results, however, are there and have
to be faced. With his throne resting on ar
empire bankrupt in resources. the Sultan
has, by sheer force of intrigue and disregard
on his own part and by the European
powers Of every consideration Of right and
Justice, been able to awaken the slumber
ing fanaticism of his own people and
their co-religionists all over the world
which give him hopes, vain though they
must prove in the end, that he can restore
the ancient glories Of Islam. The v~ictorie,
won by his army in Greece, magnihed q
hundred fold, are now the talk of the Mos
lem world In remotest Asia and Africa, an6
while Germany, without a Mussulman sub
ject to embarrass its policy, has been die
tating to the Sultan the course he should
pursue, those countries most interested II
arresting the spread of the Islamio fire
are hampered by the possession of mil
lions of Mussulmans among their popula
tions. For England. and especially for tn,
Tory party now in power, whose policy II
responsible for the Moslem revival through
out Asia and Africa, it is a case of curses
like chickens. coming home to roost.
0unun.pxNAd Gsu-ak vo-