92 Abdul Hamid's Methods t I 9°4 



buy. Everything is astonishingly cheap and one might live comfortably 

 with one's family in Damascus on £100 a year. A man can dress 

 himself well for £i from head to foot, a woman for 10 s., a child for 

 2s. 6d., house rent is one tenth what it is at Cairo. 



" I am becoming converted to the Sultan's mode of government ; 

 though it is a wearisome tyranny for the rich, the poor are happy 

 under it and are more fortunate in the circumstances of their lives 

 than any population in Europe, and there is less discontent. The 

 people in the streets here are all well dressed and fat and healthy, 

 many of them have beasts to ride and there are very few beggars, 

 food is plentiful, and all the small industries flourish. Our European 

 factory system is unknown. Except for military conscription, an evil 

 which they share with all the peasantries of Europe, they have nothing 

 to complain of, and do not complain. I find an immense practical ad- 

 vance since twenty-five years ago. On the other hand the educated 

 and wealthy classes are treated like children. No man may travel 

 as far as Beyrout without a passport, or to Europe without special 

 leave or leaving a deposit behind him of £100, or if he takes his wife 

 with him, £200 more. No newspapers are allowed to enter the coun- 

 try, or any to be published of more value than a childish sheet of 

 local news. What is extraordinary is that nearly all the Government 

 offices in Syria are filled with political exiles from Constantinople. 

 Nazim Pasha, the' Governor, is the same person I remember head of 

 the police at Constantinople during the Armenian massacres, and who 

 was made a scapegoat of to save the Sultan's face. The military 

 commandant is a young Turk, and so are nearly all the functionaries, 

 that is to say, they were Young Turks, but now dare not express any 

 opinions. Constantinople has been emptied of late years of its political 

 notabilities, and as the Sultan will not allow them to go to Europe they 

 are sent in exile to the various provinces, the more dangerous of them 

 being provided with Government appointments to keep them quiet. 

 The wonder is that they do not combine and rebel, but in fact the 

 population is not with them, and except sporadically, there is no dis- 

 content. Such is the impression I have formed of the present regime 

 at Damascus. Peace has been made with the Druses and with all dis- 

 affected communities." [This state of things helps to explain the 

 rapidity with which the revolution, four years later, of 1908, spread 

 through the Ottoman provinces, when it had once declared itself at 

 Constantinople. Nazim was Commander-in-Chief against the Bul- 

 garians later and was assassinated in 1913 at Constantinople.] 



" After luncheon I went with Cockerell to see the great Mosque, 

 which is being rebuilt, and in better taste than any rebuilding on a 

 large scale we have seen in Europe. It is a splendid piece of archi- 

 tecture, and the view from its minaret is superb; only the tomb of 



