828 



TURKEY. 



appointed Governor-General of Crete, his place 

 in the Cabinet was filled by the appointment of 

 Gen. Tewfik Pasha, ex-Minister to Washington 

 and ex-Minister of Finance, as Minister of Pub- 

 lic Works, Commerce, and Agriculture. 



The Question of the Dardanelles. The 

 change of ministry was supposed to indicate an 

 abandonment of the Anglophile policy of Kiamil 

 Pasha in consequence of the Franco-Russian al- 

 liance, and a tendency to rely on the Russians - 

 and French to back the Porte against England 

 and the central powers in the bolder assertion of 

 the sovereign rights of the Sultan in Egypt and 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first manifesta- 

 tion of this change of attitude was the granting 

 of permission to the steamers of the Russian 

 volunteer fleet to pass through the Dardanelles 

 and convey soldiers destined for or returning 

 from the Russian possessions in eastern Asia. 

 This fleet, of 8 vessels, which are now used as 

 transports between Russia and the penal colony 

 on the island of Saghalien, was first created at 

 the time of the Afghan crisis of 1885, and the 

 vessels were intended to be used as swift cruisers 

 in the expected war with England. As a warn- 

 ing against further concessions to Russia, the 

 English naval forces made a landing at Sigri. on 

 the island of Mitylene, which is near the mouth 

 of the Dardanelles, though not ostensibly as a 

 hostile demonstration. The Porte, had issued a 

 circular note refusing permission to foreign war 

 vessels to execute manoeuvres within 15 marine 

 miles of the Turkish coast, being influenced by 

 representations made by the Russian ambassa- 

 dor regarding manoeuvres carried out by the 

 strong English squadron of 15 vessels collected 

 in Turkish waters on the islands of Samothrace, 

 Lesbos, Lemnos, and Tenedos. Notwithstand- 

 ing this prohibition, the British admiral, within 

 two weeks, on Sept. 13, landed a force on the 

 islet of Sigri, sank torpedoes in the harbor, and 

 carried out a series of mock naval operations, for 

 which the British ambassador was afterward 

 called upon by the Porte to give an explanation. 

 In a circular sent by the Porte to its represent- 

 atives abroad concerning the Dardanelles ques- 

 tion it was pointed out that the vessels of the 

 Russian volunteer fleet had been running for 

 several years between Odessa and Vladivostock, 

 and had been granted free passage through the 

 Dardanelles, as they sailed under the commercial 

 flag. Because they sometimes carried convicts, 

 with their military guards, and brought back 

 time-expired soldiers, the Turkish authorities 

 had sometimes detained them by mistake. To 

 avoid the possibility of similar misunderstand- 

 ings in the future, an arrangement had been 

 made with Russia which defined the rights of 

 the vessels under the old treaty, but introduced 

 no new principle. 



Insurrection in Arabia. The Sultan was in- 

 fluenced to adopt the policy of leaning on Russia 

 and France and opposition to England partly by a 

 formidable insurrection that broke out among the 

 Assyrs, the most powerful tribe in the Yemen 

 province, which threatened to spread to all the 

 other tribes of the country. The Arabs in their 

 refusal to acknowledge the caliphate of the Sul- 

 tan are at all times hostile to the Turks on re- 

 ligious grounds, which have been immensely 

 strengthened in consequence of the British occu- 



pation of Egypt. The rebels of Yemen were 

 furnished with repeating rifles and Hotchkiss 

 guns, and as they could only have obtained these 

 through British instrumentality the Sultan sus- 

 pected that the English Government, for some 

 unknown object, had incited or connived in the 

 uprising. The southwestern province of Arabia, 

 known as Yemen or the vilayet of Sana, is a rich 

 agricultural region, producing the famous Mocha 

 coffee and tobacco of excellent quality, as well as 

 cinnamon and other spices. The people expelled 

 the conquerors in 1630, and Turkish rule was 

 not re-established till 1872. The government of 

 a Turkish vilayet was organized at Sana, and for 

 a time the customs duties collected at Hodeida 

 and Mocha were sufficient to support the local 

 administration and furnish a considerable sur- 

 plus for the Government at Constantinople. 

 These tariffs, however, hastened the decline of 

 the trade, which had already begun to leave 

 these ports for Aden, and the governors were 

 obliged to levy a land tax and other direct taxes 

 which the people were unwilling to pay. Several 

 local disturbances occurred, and these the pashas 

 were restrained from putting down by energetic 

 means, because the Sultan was anxious to pre- 

 serve his character as the benevolent caliph of 

 the Arabian tribes. When the spirit of revolt 

 became rampant and the Turkish authorities 

 were obliged to resort to active measures, the 

 military force at their command was insufficient 

 in numbers, and the troops that were there, neg- 

 lected and unpaid, badly nourished, ragged, and 

 suffering from climatic conditions, had neither 

 the heart nor the ability to perform the service 

 that Turkish soldiers seldom fail in. Thus it 

 happened that Nizams were more than once de- 

 feated by Arab tribesmen. In June it was known 

 that the rebellion had reached a serious stage, 

 and that the local forces were beaten and de- 

 moralized. The Sultan and his advisers were in 

 consternation, fearing lest the movement should 

 spread to Hedjaz, and the Grand Shereef of 

 Mecca be tempted to head the rebellion and pro- 

 claim Arabian independence. Orders were given 

 to dispatch an army of 10.000 men from Syria to 

 the disturbed province. From lack of funds and 

 equipments, it was found to be impossible to 

 mobilize so large a force. Therefore the com- 

 mand was rescinded, and the expedition was lim- 

 ited to two battalions, or 2,000 men, who left Con- 

 stantinople in steamers, accompanied by 80 

 cavalry and 150 artillery, with 6 guns. The ex- 

 peditionary force, though it gained some suc- 

 cesses over the Assyrs, proved quite inadequate, 

 and in July the governor. Redjeb Pasha, who 

 had been transferred from Bagdad, where he 

 commanded the troops, to replace Hakki Pasha, 

 sent urgent appeals for re-enforcements. The 

 rebels remained on the defensive and the Otto- 

 man troops were afraid to attack. The soldiers 

 were enervated by the excessive heat and in 

 dread of cholera, which was raging in Hedjaz. 

 Many of the soldiers were Arabs, who sympa- 

 thized with the insurgents. A column which 

 left Sana on July 19 had several engagements 

 with the rebels, and suffered severe loss on the 

 march to Hadje, which the rebels had laid in 

 ruins. A new rail was appointed. Hassan Kdib 

 Pasha, who, with Gen. Ahmed Rushdi Pasha, 

 undertook a movement against Kufle and Hadje, 



