University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-11-06

Abdul Hamid, passing his last days
, in an isolated villa of his former king
dom, is watching with glee the fail.
ures of the young Turks who de-
throned him. It's almost as good as
personal revenge to him to see his for
mer domain shattering. Unlike other
deposed rulers, he is not expecting to
be returned to his throne; his physi-
cal condition will never permit that
The old Sultan chuckled knowingly
when he heard the Balkan states had
made peace with each other. He knew
they were about to demand reforms
for their Christian brothers in Mace
donia. For had not he been the op-
pressOr over that province for years?
But he was too wise to let other
nations interfere when he was ruling.
He played Off power against power
and Balkan state against Balkan state.
Never were they on amiable enough
terms to combine against the Sultan.
And to dictate to him singly meant to
bring forth his open defiance.
The old Ottoman did not disclose
his secret policy to his successor, for
the new Sultan was one of his enc
mics. Nor would the young Turk and
his followers have listened to Hamid
after conquering him.
/ Hot-headed, they Jumped into the
task of ruling tumultuous Turkey.
Their ideals were good-for Turks
but they did not have the experience.
Their weakness was taken advantage
of by the willy Italians.
/ After a years struggle in the Tri-
politan War with Italy, the Turks sued
/ for peace last month and a treaty was
made. Italy gets Tripoli-now called
Libya-and Cyrenaica. And back into
the treasury of Tripoli goes the funds
paid out to Turkey. Thus Abdul Ha-
mid has seen Turkish power wiped
from Africa by one treaty. for a NOM
inal control of Egypt is all that Tur-
key retains
Hamid looks back over his life and
remarks that he never let his domains
fall off in that way He remembers
that Turkey was near European
power in his reign. And now he sees
that Italy has taken the place he once
aimed at. With the sea power gained
by owning Tripoli, Italy has risen to
one of the six powers of Europe.
Just little anxious was the de-
posed ruler when peace was made
with Italy before the Balkan states
commenced their war He felt that
maybe the Turks, with their big fight
ing forces. might overpower the COM
bined armies of Bulgaria, Servia. Mon
teneero and Greece.
Now he is becoming satisfied with
the revenge which seems his own
Every victory of the Bulgarians or
! Montenegrins, makes sweet story to /.
him. He hears with delight of the |
re-enfOrcements to the Greek army of /
the American Greeks. He begins to |
feel confident that the Turkish army !
will not find themselves and will have |
to bow to the armies of the Balkans.
Then a question arises to the willy
old NIohammedan. What if the Bal
kans win? He knows the war to them
is like holy crusade and he ques-
tions whether they will be satisfied
with only liberating Macedonia from
the power of Turkey. His religion
plays on his conscience He hates the
Christians as much as he ever did
Then he hears of new moves by the
European powers to bring about a
reconciliation. He wants to see the
young Turks humiliated but he dares
not think of seing the Mohammedan
religion set back So he hopes that
the powers will only parcel out Mace
donia to the greedy Balkan states. He
does not see that Austria is watching
slyly to get morsel of the plunder
or that Italy would like to try to
digest another slice of the Turkish
domain.
and now Abdul Hamid hears the
rumbling of the quakes over the Turk
ish kingdom. He reads of the de-
struction near the scenes of the earth
quakes and personal fear steals
over him. His illness gets worse and
he plans to go back to Constantinople