TURKEY 1159 



July 23rd, a fire broke out at Stamboul, and, a furious north wind blowing at the time, 

 one fifth of the city was laid in ashes. The Moslem population noted the date, the 

 anniversary of the Revolution, and said it was a judgment of God upon the Young 

 Turks for not respecting the traditions of Islam. 



But another much greater calamity was to befall Turkey. All the world knew of 

 Italy's long-cherished designs upon Tripoli. Hakki Pasha's Cabinet alone seemed to 

 attach no importance to them, either because the Government believed the 

 The war Italian Minister's diplomatic protestations of friendship, or, as is more 

 likely, because the grand vizier considered the friendship of Baron Marschall 

 von Bieberstein and his master an absolute guarantee against Italian aggres- 

 sion. After the Agadir incident and the subsequent Moroccan negotiations, which 

 assured France of the possession of Morocco, Italy decided to hurry the pace and get 

 her share of Mahommedan Africa. A pretext was found in the ill-will shown towards 

 Italian economic enterprise in Tripoli under Turkish administration, more particularly 

 over the operations of the famous " Banco di Roma." On September 28th, Di Martino, 

 the Italian charge d'affaires, handed Hakki Pasha Italy's ultimatum. The Porte was 

 given twenty-four hours notice to order the evacuation of Tripoli and the sanjak of 

 Ben-Ghazi by the Turkish troops. On the 2gth war was declared, and Di Martino 

 quitted Constantinople. It was a death-blow for Hakki Pasha's Cabinet. He and his 

 colleague at the Foreign Office were blamed for negligence in diplomacy; Mahmud 

 Shevket Pasha, for withdrawing troops from Tripoli into the Yemen; and 

 Fall of Halil Bey, Minister of the Interior, for administrative negligence. On the 



Pasha. 3th of September, Hakki Pasha resigned. Turkish opinion went the 



length of demanding that the Cabinet should be brought before the High 

 Court appointed under the Constitution to try ministers accused of high treason. 



Everybody expected Kiamil Pasha and his opposition party to come into power. 

 Things went quite otherwise. The party of Union and Progress still had a majority in 

 the Chamber. Said Pasha was called upon by the Sultan to construct a 

 ^? ld . , cabinet. It was done with some difficulty. Mahmud Shevket Pasha was 



ministry. maintained at the War Office because it was not thought safe to take all 

 authority from the man who had organised the national defence and knew 

 all its secrets. Two struggles thus began: a war with Italy in Tripoli, carried on by two 

 Young Turkish officers, the famous Enver Bey and Fethi Bey (military attache at Par- 

 is), with admirable energy and persistence; and another conflict as fierce or fiercer at 

 Constantinople, between the Opposition and the party of Union and Progress. Colonel 

 Saadik Bey, working with Kiamil Pasha's adherents, carried on a campaign against the 

 Young Turks, in the army, in political circles, and in town and country. Events made 

 it easy for him. With the reopening of Parliament on November i4th, he brought out 

 a programme for a new party of " Liberty and Understanding " (" Liberte et Entente "), 

 which set about organising itself on the lines of the party of Union and Progress, found- 

 ing clubs all over Constantinople and the provinces. Through their news- 

 New party papers, the Alemdar and the Tanzimdl, and their spokesmen in the Cham- 

 aad Under- ^er, tnev tried to ruin the Young Turks, blending partly true accusations 

 standing." with obvious calumnies, chief among them the charges of being abettors 

 of Zionism and bought up by the Jews. In Constantinople the campaign 

 had considerable effect. When Rifaat Pasha (minister for Foreign Affairs) went as 

 ambassador to Paris, the victorious candidate for his vacant seat was a member of the 

 partv of Liberty and Understanding, Tahir Ha'ireddin Bey, editor of the Alemdar. 

 Meanwhile Albanian and Arab deputies were demanding loudly that the privileges 

 given to the Malissori should be extended to Moslem Albanians, insurgent Druses and 

 Karak Arabs. The party of Union and Progress took alarm. The progress of the 

 Opposition meant, they thought, that a reactionary and anti-Turk tide was setting in; 

 and they decided upon immediate dissolution, so that the elections should take place 

 under a Unionist government before the Ententists could capture the provinces. 



Said Pasha conceived an ingenious bit of strategy. On the i3th of December he 



