The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1922-12-01
SULTAN FLEES ON
BRITISH WARSHIP
Mohammed vi. Requests Asylum
on the Ground That His
Life Is in Danger.
NOT ADVOCATING, He SAYS
Welcomed in Name Of King George.
The British Assert There Was No
Pressure-His Status at Lau-
sanne-Harem's Position.

CCnstantinople. - Mohammed vi,
the Turkish Sultan, has fed from
Constantinople on a British warship,
bound for Malta.
Upon embarking, the Sultan empha-
sized that he was not abdicating, but
merely removing himself from imme-
diate danger.
The Sultan wrote to Lieut.. Gen.
Harrington, the British commander-in-
chief, stating he considered his life to
be in danger and would like British
protection.
All arrangements were consequent
ly made, and a car, in which were the
acting dragemans of the British en-
bassy and General Haringtons aide,
drew up at the side entrance to the
Sultan's palace.
Soon afterward, while the guard
was being changed, the Sultan, with
his son, Prince Erlogrul Effendi, and
six members of the Palace staff,
slipped into the car and drove to the
British Naval Base, where General
Harrington and Neville Henderson,
acting British high commissioner, re-
ceived him. The Sultan Immediately
embarked on the the Adniral's barge
without anybody perceiving his flight.
lie was roWed cut to the British
dreadnought Malaga, where he was
received by Vice-Admiral Brock.
Commissioner Henderson gave the
Sultan a welcome in the name of
King George as the Turkish monarch
set his foot on British territory.
The Sultan replied that he felt safe
under the protection of Great Britain,
adding that he was not aDdicating,
but was merely removing himself
from the danger which was imme-
diately threatening.
The kemalists, it is generally
thought, will endeavor to make it ap-
pear that the Sultan fled under Brit
ish pressure.
Apparently the Sultan did not wish
to face the ordeal of the selamik, or
official attendance of the Sultan at a
mosque, which occurs on Friday, the
Mohammedan Sabbath, at noon, The
last selamik was a somewhat pathetic
spectacle, which the Sultan carried
through with courage and dignity, but
it is thought he feared an attempt
might be made upon his life on the
next occasion.
Vahid-Eddin was proclaimed Sui
tan on the death of Mshammed V on
July 3, 1918, in the midst of the
troubles of war, famine, brigandage,
and political discomfort. In the fol,
lowing October Turkey presented a
note to Secretary Lansing at Washs
ington through the Spanish ambassa-
dor begging President Wilson to take
immediate steps for the cessation of
hostilities between the Allies and
Turkey. The note specified that the
Turkish Sultanate accepts as basis
for the negotiation the program laid
down by the President Of the United
States in his message to Congress
January 8, 1918, and in his subse-
quent declarations, especially the
speech of September 27." On Octo,
ber 80 Turkey surrendered to the
British Vice Admiral Calthorpe.
His abdication was called for in
1920, and 1921 by the Kemalists, but
it did not follow, and last month the
Grand National Assembly decreed
that the Sultante should cease to ex-
ercise control over temporal affairs,
and should restrict itself to the religi-
GUS affairs of the Caliphate.
Mohammed VI, born in 1861, is a
son of Sultan Abdul Medjid and
brother to Mohammed v, whom he
succeeded. The heir apparent is Alb
dull Medjid Effendi, now fifty-three,
uncle of Mohammed VI; but the
Kemalists have favored a younger
cousin of the now refugee Caliph,
who is thirty-seventh in male descent
of the house of Gilman, founder of
the Ottoman Empire, and the thir'
tieth Sultan since the Turks con-
quered Constantinople.