The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-12-28
Abdul HaIuid, Sultan of Turkey.

Abdul HaIuid, Sultan of Turkey.
western part of it is in dispute be-
tween him and the representatives
Of the Western Powers, says the New
York Sun.
Briefly told, they call upon the
Sultan to submit to the amputation
from his direct rule of the richest
and largest part Of his European ter
ntory, containing several millions Of
Inhabitants who, unhappily, are d.
vded among themselves by differ
ences OF race and religion to such
degree that all attempts made at diff
terent times to bring them together
tn their own interests have totally
failed.
Among the Albanians are adher-
snts OF Islamism, Catholicism and
the Eastern or Greek Orthodox
Church. The people OF what is called
cedonia are of Bulgarian, Servian
Greek origin, with about 100,-
of the descendants of the old
.an military colonists scattered
the southwest and given mostly
astoral and commercial pursuits.
..e commercial port and capital of
=Iis country is Salonica, the old
Thessalonlca, with a population in
which the Jewish element largely
predominates, there being a section
about 1000 IN number, called by the
TURKS Dunmeh, who profess the Mo-
no
own mosques.
The consequence of the division of
the population into three strong sec
tons is that there are only four full
working days in the week, the Turks
performing their Selamlik on Friday,
the Jews observing their Saturday
Sabbath and the Christians Sunday.
That the revolt against Turkish
rule in Macedonia was justifable
cannot be denied. The condition of
the country, so far from improving,
had become intolerable to men who
saw the results of the freedom given
to the Bulgarians, Servians and
Greeks, and who had, as so many Of
the leaders of the Macedonian bands,
or cOmitat Is, as the Turks call them,
or committeeman, as we would call
them, have had a western education
The treatment of the Christian
women by the Mussulman Aghas and
Beys, and by the truculent Zaptiehs,
or gendarmes, who lived free on the
country, had as much to do with the
insurrection against Turkish rule as
anything else. Against such a rule
and the social and political oppres-
sion accompanying it enlightened
and high-minded men could do moth
Ing else but revolt, and maintain
their revolt, whether by doing so
they hurt the interests of European
governments and financiers or not.
Harassed by suspicion of every
one around him the Sultan has al
ways, for some reason not easily ex-
planned, entertained special doubt
OF the fidelity of his navy. Whether
It was because of the better educa-
tion of the officers or the foreign in
fuences under which most of them
came, ships that cost millions were
Ao4N bp iOA SNii NObNllblt anu lllt
officers remained in idleness, with
little else TO do than pass their time
in the cafe and gardens drinking
and forming part of the Sultan's
cortege on the Friday when he per-
formed the weekly Selmalik,
The secret murders by poison, the
dagger, and drowning in the Bos-
phorus and the Golden Horn, the
endless intrigues at the palace and in
the provinces, the all pervading spy
system that centers in the Sultan
himself for since the fight into
Egypt of his most trusted political
agent Abdul Hamid gives his conf
dence to no one; all these, combined
with the international jealousies that
crop up between the embassies OF
the Powers, the intrlgues at the
Phanar, the headquarters of the
Greek Patriarchate, and since 1878
those at the agencies of the minor
Balkan States, leave the days of the
Greek empire far behind. The won
der Is not that there are disorder
and oppression going on all over the
empire, but that there Is any empire
at all left for the Sultan to reign
over.