Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



547 



OUTLOOK IN TURKEY HOPEFUL. 



Sir Edwin Pears write:? in the June Conleiiil>irary 

 on the situation in Turkey. He by no means overlooks 

 the darker side, hut his conclusions are, on the whole, 

 hopeful. He mentions that he met Mr. Stead in 

 Constantinople, who candidly confessed that having 

 had an inner view of the situation, he had changed his 

 opinion and had become optimist. Mr. Stead described 

 [ahid Bey, the editor of the Tanin, as " a man quit" 

 after my own heart." 



YOUNG TLRKS TAUGHT BV RESPONSIBILITY. 



In .spite of the errors and misdeeds of the Young 

 Turks, Sir Edwin insists they are a great improvement 

 upon their predecessors. The Committee has made its 

 greatest failure in Macedonia. If the Committee's 

 recommendations are sent and followed up by practical 

 measures, there may be hope that Turkey can retain 

 -Macedonia. Its opposition constitutes a very serious 

 danger for the Government. He grants, too, that the 

 courts of justice are just as corrupt as ever, but : — 



I prefer lo ask — arc there no hopeful signs ? My answer is in 

 llie affirnialive. They have effected niuth improvement and 

 'lesire to effect more. A specially hopeful sign is that the men 

 who have governed the country during nearly four years confess 

 (rpnkly that they have made blunders. Responsibility has had 

 its effect on then). They are losing, or have lost, much of their 

 t'hauvinism. .Some of their wildest and most unreasonable 

 projects — notably that of Turkefying the country — cease to be 

 >pokcn of. 'I'he absolutely fearless discussions in the Chamber 

 dl' Deputies have had an excellent effect. No efforts of the party 

 in power, or of reactionaries, succeeded in slopping the exposure 

 of abuses. The deputies on both side were in deadly earnest. 



IMHROVE.MENT WROUGHT BY RAILWAYS. 



.\ hope has dawned on the Turkish peasantry 

 throughout Anatolia. In general, Sir Edwin reports 

 that the construction of railways is going steadily 

 forward. Now that the railway has come to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Turkish peasant, he has begun to 

 cultivate four fields instead of two, the produce of the 

 added two being now sent to market at a profit. 

 Throughout the length of the new lines the same story 

 K heard. New lands are being broken up for cultiva- 

 tion, l-'reedom of travel was granted by Young Turkey 

 immediately after the revolution. Sir Edwin reports 

 that he has heard more said in favour of the abolition 

 of the local passport than of any other advantage that 

 has been conferred upon the people. The consequent 

 education of travel has had its effect upon the people. 



ADVANCE IN OTHER DIRECTIONS. 



The distressing hostility between the Greeks and the 

 I'.ulgarians has greatly diminished. 'The improvement 

 in the condition of Turkish women is continued. .Xs 

 lo the enormou-ly increased efTiciency of the Turkish 

 troops, no one who has seen their development during 

 the last four years can have any doubt. 'The intro- 

 duction of Christians among them has so far worked 

 well. Sir Edwin says : — " My conclusion, in reference 

 to the progress of Turkey, is that, all things considered, 

 --he has made as much progress since July, i()o8, as 

 ought reasonably to have been expected." Me objects 

 lo ihe criticism of the alleged secret character of the 



Committee of Union and Progress. " The Committee 

 keeps its secrets largely by telling them to everybody." 



THE CROATIAN PROBLEM. 



Mr. R. W. Seton-Watson writes in the Con- 

 temporary Revinc on Hungary and the Southern Slavs. 

 His paper is one long indictment of the tyrannous 

 and unconstitutional and eventually impossible attitude 

 of Hungary to Croatia. The result has been a great 

 impetus for the movement in favour of Croato-Serb 

 unity : — 



There is a growing feeling of solidarity between the various 

 provincis of the Sl.-'.vonic South. In 1883, when the Constitu- 

 tion was last suspended, Croatia was isolated and friendless ; 

 to-day Dalmalia, Istria, and liosnia regard her cause as their 

 own, and are no longer a negligible quantity in the counsels of 

 the Monarchy. 



If Austria had any statesman worthy of the name, he would 

 not be slow to take advantage of this intolerable situation, and 

 by guiding the national movement among the Southern Slavs 

 into .Austrian channels, would seek to promote Habsburg in- 

 fluence and prestige in ilie lialkans. But so long as there is no 

 sign of such a man, it still lies in the power of the Magyars, 

 even at the eleventh hour, to retrie\'e the situation. The intro- 

 duction of universal sufTrage in Hungary would jiurge Parliament 

 of its most Chauvinist elements, and by breaking the power of 

 the present oligarchy, would pave the way to an understanding 

 with the nationalities and with Croatia. The insane policy of 

 forcible Magyarisation would have to be abandoned, and the 

 Law of Nationalities would have to be enforced ; but the 

 hegemony of the Magyar race, so far from being destroyed by 

 such a change, might be established on surer foundations than 

 ever. It is to be feared that reform will come too late, and 

 that the leadership will have passed to other hands than those 

 of Hungary. One thing alone is certain — thai the present 

 situation is untenable, and that the introduction of electoral 

 reform in Hungary is, in the long run, as inevitable as the 

 achievement of Croato-.Serb Unity. 



TENNYSON AND THE (ilRL. 



" Edward W'hvmi'er as I Knew Him " is the title 

 of an interesting paper in the Slratid by Coulson 

 Kernahan. Whymper tells this story of Tennyson : — 



.\\. a garden-party a rather gushing young girl went up to the 

 hostess and said, " Oh, is that really, as I am told, Lord 

 Tennyson sitting there by himself smoking on that rustic scat?" 



" Ve.s, my dear, that is he," was the reply. 



" Oh, I should so like to meet him. Do introduce me," said 

 the girl. 



" Lord Tennyson," said the hostess, when the two had walked 

 together to the seat where the Laureate was smoking, " this is 



Miss B , daughter of an old friend of mine, who is very, 



very anxious to have the honour of saying, ' How do you do ! ' 

 to you." ^ 



" How d'yoH do?" responded Tennyson gruffly, and scarcely 

 looking up. 



.Seating herself l)cside him, the girl attempted awkwardly to 

 carry on some sort of conversation, but .as all she got in reply 

 W.-IS an occasional "Humph I" or else stony .silence, she lost 

 her nerve and began, schoolgirl-wisc, to wriggle and to fidget in 

 her seat. 



Then the great man spoke. " You're like the rest of them," 

 he grunted. " Vou're laced too tightly. I can hear your slays 

 creak." 



Abashed and embarrassed, the girl withdrew. Later in the 

 afternoon Tennyson came behind her and, laying a hand on 

 her shoulder, said kindly, " I wa>. wrnn^ just now, young lady. 

 It wasn't your slays I hean. creaking, but my braces. They're 

 hitched up too lightly. Sorry." .•\nd he lounged nway. 



