734 



TURKEY. 



Eastern Roumelia, now united and in possession of 

 full autonomy : the tributary principality of Samos ; 

 and Egypt, now occupied by Great Britain. Their 

 aggregate area is 461, (!62 square miles, and their 

 population is 11,524,131. making the total area of 

 the Ottoman Empire 1,609,240 square miles and the 

 total population 39,212.131. In European Turkey 

 the Turks, the Greeks, and the Albanians are about 

 equal in numbers and make up the bulk of the 

 population ;. Bulgars and Serbs are numerous, and 

 there is a considerable sprinkling of Wallachians, 

 Armenians, Magyars, gypsies, Jews, and Circassians. 

 The population is almost equally divided between 

 Mohammedans anil Christians. In Constantinople 

 the census classified the total population of 8?o. 505 

 into 384,910 Mohammedans, 152,741 Greeks. 14<.).5il() 

 Armenians, 6,442 native Roman Catholics. 4.:!77 

 Bulgarians, 1,082 Greek Latins, 819 native Protes- 

 tants, 44,361 Jews, and 129,243 foreigners. In Asia 

 the Turks are the predominant element in many 

 districts, and there are about 4,000,000 Arabs. The 

 population is everywhere mixed, and the variety of 

 races is extraordinary. The Greek element is large. 

 In some districts Kurds predominate, in some Arme- 

 nians, and in some Syrians form the main element. 

 Circassians have their separate communities, and 

 are scattered among the population elsewhere. Jews 

 are numerous in many places. The Lebanon, where 

 four fifths of the 49,800 inhabitants are Christians, 

 has a Christian rnutessarif and special institutions. 

 In Crete there are 88,487 Mohammedans, 205,059 

 Christians, and 646 Jews and foreigners. In the 

 archipelago 91 per cent, of the people are Chris- 

 tians. Except in these vilayets the Mohammedans 

 preponderate everywhere. In Asia Minor a recent 

 estimate gives 7479,900 Mohammedans, 576,200 

 Armenians, 972,300 other Christians, and 184.600 

 Israelites and foreigners ; in Armenia, 1,795,800 

 Mohammedans, 480,700 Armenians, 165,200 other 

 Christians, and 30,700 Israelites and foreigners ; in 

 the vilayet of Aleppo, 792,500 Mohammedans, 49,- 

 000 Armenians. 131,300 other Christians, and 20,000 

 Israelites and foreigners; in the vilayet of Beirut. 

 230,200 Mohammedans, 6,100 Armenians, 160,400 

 other Christians, and 49,800 Israelites and other 

 foreigners. 



Finances. The chief revenues of the Govern- 

 ment from duties and tributes are sequestered for the 

 payment of the debt, and since 1881 the Council of 

 Administration of the foreign bondholders has col- 

 lected and disbursed the Eastern Roumelian and 

 Cyprus tributes, the duties on liquors, salt, stamped 

 paper, fisheries, and silk, the tobacco regie and to- 

 bacco tithes, and the import duties on Persian to- 

 bacco. The net receipts in the year 1894-'95, after 

 deducting 91,790 of expenses, was 1,976.687 ster- 

 ling. Of the conversion loan of 1881 the sum of 

 T. 90,533,968 was, outstanding on Aug. 13, 1895; 

 of the lottery bonds. T. 14,789,690 ; of the priority 

 obligations of 1890, T. 8,139,164. Other loans 

 bring the total up to T. 128,901.509 (1 Turkish 

 lira or pound = $4.40). Of the Turkish securities 

 about 70 per cent, are held in France, 14 per cent, 

 in England, 13 per cent, in Germany, and 3 per 

 cent, in Austria. 



Disorganization of the civil and military admin- 

 istration in various parts of the empire was aggra- 

 vated by the financial straits of the Government. 

 The payment of the troops and of the civil officials 

 fell far in arrears, and only at long intervals were 

 small partial payments made out of loans and ad- 

 vances obtained with difficulty. At one time the 

 troops in Constantinople received no meat because 

 the contractors were not paid. The Porte treated 

 for a loan of 30,000,000 francs secured on the light- 

 house receipts, and extended the concession of the 

 lighthouse company, a French corporation, from 



1899 to 1924, on condition that the Government's 

 share of the gross receipts should be increased from 

 33 to 50 per cent. To this arrangement the British 

 Government objected, with the view of obtaining a 

 reduction of the lighthouse dues for the benefit of 

 British shipping. Negotiations for a loan with 

 German bankers having failed, the Porte obtained 

 T. 1,000,000 from the Ottoman Bank by mortgag- 

 ing the sheep tax and tithes in certain provinces 

 and the receipts of the European railroads. 



On Oct. 21 an inn/f was issued ordaining an in- 

 crease of \ of 1 per cent, in the tithes, 1 per cent, in 

 the sheep tax, and the imposition of a poll tax on 

 Mohammedans to meet the cost of military defense. 

 Retrenchments in the expenditures of the Mublie 

 departments were ordered to meet the deficit in the 

 budget, amounting to T. 3,000,000. A proposal 

 of the French Government to turn the debt com- 

 mission into an international control was not only 

 repugnant to the Turkish Government, but was 

 condemned by Russia. The plan was to raise a 

 loan of T. 10,000,000 or T. 12.000,000 to relieve 

 the Turkish Government of all its immediate em- 

 barrassments, pay up the arrears of pay in the army 

 and civil establishments, and provide means for the 

 carrying out of the promised reforms in Armenia, 

 Syria, and European Turkey. Russia would receive 

 "the whole of the promised war contribution of 3.0(10.- 

 000 rubles yearly, instead of 2,000,000 rubles, and 

 would appoint a representative on the commission 

 of the Ottoman debt. The Russian Government, 

 however, has not recognized this commission as pos- 

 sessing any political authority, and is opposed to 

 every form of European interference in the internal 

 affairs of Turkey. 



The Army and Navy. The military forces un- 

 der arms in the beginning of 1896 comprised the 

 regular peace effective of 220,000 men, 15,000 re- 

 serves called out for exercises, 50,000 conscripts of 

 the year 1894, and 116 battalions of Redif number- 

 ing 75,000 men ; total, 360,000 men. The war effect- 

 ive exceeds 800,000 men. All Mussulmans come 

 under the recruiting law at the age of twenty, and 

 remain in the service until forty years old. Nomad 

 Kurds and Arabs, however, are not recruited in the 

 regular army, but may form part of the Hamidieh, 

 or irregular cavalry. Christians pay a military tax 

 in lieu of service. About 140,000 Mussulmans be- 

 come liable to service annually, and of these about 

 50,000 pass into the Nizam, or regular army, and 

 serve four years with the colors, then remain in the 

 reserve two years, at the end of which they are en- 

 rolled in the Redif, or Landwehr, eight years, and 

 in the Mustahfiz. or Landsturm, six years. In May, 

 1896, a decree was issued reducing the term of serv- 

 ice with the colors to three years. The infantry 

 are armed with Mauser rifles' of 0'3012-inch bore. 

 The artillery has been reorganized, and has 900 

 new Krupp guns and 500 older Krupps and Whit- 

 worths. The effective fleet in 1896 consisted of 3 

 casemated ironclads, 2 turret ships, 2 barbette iron- 

 clads, 1 ironclad monitor, 1 armored gunboat, 2 

 coast guards, 1 torpedo cruiser, 15 torpedo boats of 

 the first class, 7 of the second class, and 1 torpedo- 

 boat destroyer. 



Communications. The railroads in operation 

 in September, 1896, had a total length of 2.633 

 miles, of which 1,237 miles were in European Tur- 

 key, 1,182 miles in Asia Minor, and 214 miles in 

 Syria. 



' The telegraphs have a total length of 20.380 miles, 

 with 31,890 miles of wire. There were 1,824.662 in- 

 ternal, 422,186 international. 44.769 transit, and 

 219,416 official messages in 1891. The receipts were 

 13,102,154 francs ; expenses. 5,664,292 francs. 



The post office in 1891 carried 7,999,000 internal, 

 2,321,000 foreign, and 1,713,000 transit letters, 170,- 



