1 88 Curries View of Abdul Hamid [^9S 



them severely. ' I myself,' he said, ' could not so much as go away for 

 forty-eight hours to Broussa without permission from the Sultan him- 

 self. Neither the Minister of War nor the Grand Vizier could give it 

 me.' The Softas, too, are tired of Abdul Hamid, who they think is 

 ruining the country. The army has been unpaid for five months. 



: ' Norman, a newspaper man, came in and told me tales of assaults 

 and assassinations of Armenians last night by the mob. But as yet 

 neither Europeans nor Greeks have been molested. I do not think the 

 matter is likely to go much farther at present. The chief Armenians 

 went to-day to the palace to arrange terms for the men shut up in the 

 churches, and are believed to have been successful. I find Philip very 

 strong on the necessity of getting rid of Abdul Hamid. ' We have come 

 to the conclusion,' he said to-day, ' that it will be necessary to kill him. 

 To depose him would be very difficult, perhaps impossible.' I do not 

 suppose that he would do this by any direct instigation, but he would 

 certainly countenance a revolution which should proceed by this means. 

 The idea is in the air, but twenty years of absolute despotism have 

 weeded out the more venturesome spirits. 



" I have written a long letter on the political situation here to Lady 

 Lytton, who will, as likely as not, show it to the Queen, as she is now 

 in waiting at Balmoral. Archibald Lamb has arrived from England, 

 Lady Currie's brother. 



" 3rd Oct. — The Queen's Messenger, old Conway Seymour, was 

 despatched to-day. So I was busy writing letters. Philip went in with 

 him to the Porte to call on the new Grand Vizier, Kiamil Pasha, who 

 is supposed to be more favourable to English policy than the last, Said 

 Pasha. But I fancy there is little real difference. I remember Kiamil 

 at Aleppo in 1877, a little man of Jewish origin, who had once been tutor 

 to the Khedive Tewfik. 



" 4th Oct. — In the launch to the mouth of the Black Sea, and in the 

 afternoon to the Sweet Waters of Asia in the ten-oared caique, a. pretty 

 sight. Philip saw the Grand Vizier to-day, having missed him yester- 

 day. He tells me the attacks on Armenians still continue, and the 

 churches are still full of refugees. It is certain, however, that the 

 Armenians are being pushed on by the Revolutionary Committee. It 

 is a Secret Committee prompted, Philip tells me, by Russian Nihilists ; 

 and the trouble has been caused by the arrest of Armenians suspected 

 of belonging to it, and their torture in prison. On the other hand mur- 

 ders have been instigated by the Committee, of Armenians suspected 

 of betraying their cause. They seem to count on English help, and talk 

 of an independent Armenia under an English Prince. All this is, of 

 course, impossible, but it is the fault of our people, who have encouraged 

 a rising they are really powerless to assist. On the other hand the 

 Sultan, Philip thinks, has a design of exterminating the Christian 



