The Washington herald., 1918-10-20

other employees. They ordered foreign
business houses 70 keep their books in
Turkish. but by a compromise ar
rsnxement by which they could keep
them IN both French and Turkish. The
Ottoman government even refused TO
have any dealings with the represen-
tative of the largest Austrian NUM-
tion maker unless he admitted a Turk
as q partner. They developed a
mania for suppressing all languages
except Turkish. For decades French
had been the accepted language Of
foreigners in ConstRntinople; all street
signs were printed in both French and
Turkish. One morning the astonished
foreign residents discovered that all
these French signs had been removed
and that the names Of streets. the d.
rectlons on street cars. and other
public notices. appeared only in those
strange Turkish characters, which
very few Of them understood. Great
confusion resulted from this change.
but the ruling powers refused TO re-
store the detested foreign language.
/ These leaders not only reverted TO
| the barbaric conceptions of their an
| cestors. but they went to extremes
! that had never entered the minds Of
the wary Sultans. Their fifteenth and
sixteenth century predecessors treated
/ the subject peoples as dirt under their
/ feet, vet they believed that they had
| a certain usefulness and did not dis
| daln to make them their serfs. But
1 this Committee Of Union and Progress,
| led by Talaat and Enver. now decided
! to do away with them altogether. The
: old conquering Turks had made the
| Christians their servants, but their
! parvenu descendants bettered their in
struction. for they determined 10 cN-
| terminate them wholesale and Turk
| ify the empire by massacring the
non-Moslem elements Originally this
was not the statesmanIike conception
of Talaat and Enver; the man who
/ first devised 1t was one OF the great
| est monsters known TO history, the
Red Sultan" Abdul Hamid. This
man came 70 the throne in 1876 at a
critical period in Turkish history. In
| the first two wears Of his reign, he
| lost Bulgaria, as well as important
/ provinces in the Caucasus, his last
remaining vestiCes of sovereignty in
! Montenegro. Serbia. and Rumania.
and all his real powers in Bosnia and
| Herzegovina. Greece had long since
/ become an independent nation. and
| the processes that were to wrench
| Egypt from the Ottoman Empire had
! already begun. As the Sultan took
stock OF his inheritance, he could
easily foresee the day when all the
rest Of his domain would pass into
( the hand Of the inidel. What had
caused this disintegration Of this
extensive Turkish Empire? The real
I cause. Of course, lay deep in the
| character Of the Turk but Abdul
3 J. avr,fI ha FrrTE
( fact that the intervention Of the great
!, European lowers had brought relief
, TO these imprisoned na tions. OF all the
new kingdoms which had been carved
out OF the Sultan's doninions. Serbia
/ let US remember this fact to her ever
/ lasting honor-is the only one thai
has won her own independence. Rus
sia, France. and Great Britain have
set free all the rest And what had
! happened several times before might
! happen again. There still remained
one compact race n the Ottoman En-
pire that had national aspirations and
national potenualities. In the north
eastern part Of Asia Minor. border
| ing on Russia. there were six prov
| inces in which the Armeuians form
! ed the largest element in the popUis-
tion. From the times OF HeTodotUs
name Of Armenia The Armenians OF
the present day are the direct descen-
! danLs OF the people who Inhabited the
| country 1900 years ago Their origin
is so ancient that IL is lost in fable
and mystery. There are stu unde-
ciphered cUneiforn inscriptions on the
rocky hills OF Van. the largest Ar
menian city. that have ked certain
scholars-though not many. mus
sdmit-to identify the Armenian rarv
with the Hittftes OF the Bible. Win
Is definitely known about the Ar
nenians. however. Is that for sEps
they have constituted the most civil
lied and most industrious race IN the
eastern section OF the Ottoman I'm
pire> From their mountains they
have spread over the SUlran's dUmin-
ions. and form = considerable elemen,
IN the population Of all the larg,
cities Everywhere they are known