LEADING ARTICLES. 



487 



the insertion in the treaty of peace of a 

 clause concerning the protection of 

 Greeks who remain under Ottoman rule. 

 The assassin of the King of Greece was 

 affiliated to the Committee. The writer 

 does not desire that summary proceed- 

 ings, such as the Committee takes 

 against its political opponents, be taken 

 against the Committee. But he asks that 

 the most deeply compromised of its 

 members be brought before a High 

 Court and judged legally and impar- 

 tially, so that future generations might 

 have a striking example of what politi- 

 cal responsibility ought to be. 



HOPE FOR THE TURK. 



According to William Maxwell, in 

 the Nineteenth Century, there is a great 

 future for the Turk to develop the 

 Asiatic residue of his once world-wide 

 Empire. The writer, however, sets out 

 the problem with so painful a regard to 

 the facts that one is hardly hopeful that 

 the Turk will be encouraged in the task 

 of governing the mixed-medley of Ar- 



menians, Kurds, Circassians, Jews, 

 Chaldeans, Greeks and Arabs. It seems 

 like a case of "out of the frying-pan 

 into the fire," for the conditions in Ana- 

 tolia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia 

 do not lend themselves to a uniform 

 policy which would be acceptable to 

 Turk and Christian alike. Mr. Maxwell 

 discounts the fear of a Moslem re- 

 vival : — 



Christendom has been so often invited to 

 tremble under the menace of Panislam that 

 we have ceased to be* disturbed by the cry 

 of 'Wolf!" And there is logic, as well as 

 sense, in this indifference, for if Panislam 

 was a liv r e wire we must have felt the shock 

 every time Turkey was undergoing ampu- 

 tation in Europe and Africa. Panislam was 

 the re-invention of Sultan Abdul Hamid, 

 and was intended for export. By striving 

 to restore his spiritual authority he hoped 

 to secure two things — compensation for the 

 loss of temporal dominions and freedom 

 from constitutional fetters. As a political 

 weapon abroad it was useless from the start, 

 and as a religious weapon it failed to achieve 

 the purpose of its maker, for there are sec- 

 tarians in Islam as well as in Christendom, 

 aud they have the common weakness of hat- 

 ing one another. 



THE AUSTRIAN HEIR APPARENT. 



Writing in the C liantauqiian on 

 European Rulers and their Modern Sig- 

 nificance, Mr. x^rthur E. Bestor deals 

 with the Emperor Francis Joseph. 



He refers to Austria as a Government, 

 not a State ; for the hereditary posses- 

 sions of the House of Hapsburg have 

 been gathered by purchase, marriage, or 

 war, and are in no sense a nation. 

 From every point of view Vienna and 

 Budapesth are the storm centres for the 

 solution of racial, nationalistic, social, 

 and industrial problems. The Austrian 

 Emperor is characterised as an indus- 

 trious and conscientious ruler, with a 

 capacity for political life, but without 

 ability. He is said to speak all the 

 languages of his realm — German, Hun- 

 garian, Bohemian, Polish, Ruthenian, 

 Croatian, Slavonic, and Italian — besides 

 French and English. Democratic in 

 manner and approachable to all classes, 

 he gives up one day a week to private 



audiences of those who believe they have 



grievances. 



The unknown factor in the interna- 

 tional affairs of Europe, however, is 

 Franz Ferdinand. Nearly fifty years 

 of age and the next in succession to the 

 throne for many years, his personality 

 remains largely unknown. He possesses 

 one of the largest private fortunes of 

 Europe, and is an art connoisseur and 

 a lover of sports. In his early youth he 

 was destined for the Church, but later 

 was trained for a military career. His 

 wife, a daughter of Baron Chotek, 

 created Duchess of Hohenberg, is 

 spoken of as a woman of great clever- 

 ness and charm of manner. There can 

 be little question that she is ambitious 

 that one of her children shall eventually 

 sit upon the Austrian throne, and if 

 Franz Ferdinand succeeds as Emperor 

 it is well within the range of possibilities 

 that he will bring about the designation 

 of his eldest son as the next heir. 



