440 
CONSULAR EXPERIENCES IN TURRET. 
siderable mineral wealth, though this has been only very partially ex¬ 
plored at present. 
Unfortunately the country is, I fear, getting poorer and poorer. The 
insecurity of property prevents enterprise and when I was in the 
country the amount of land under cultivation was steadily diminishing, 
the peasantry thinking it useless to grow crops from which they derived 
so little advantage, owing to the depredations of Kurds and the rapacity 
of officials and a continual exodus was taking place of population to 
safer regions. 
Evils. Some of the principal evils weigh on all the population alike, 
whether Moslems or Christians and others are suffered by the Chris¬ 
tians alone. 
In the first category may be placed :— 
First .—The inordinate demands for money from Constantinople, so 
that all the revenue which can be squeezed out of the country that does 
not stick in the hands of the collectors goes out of it and the very 
minimum is available for local purposes. Therefore all the officials 
and troops are underpaid or not paid at all and can only live by oppres¬ 
sion and corruption. 
Secondly .—The rapacity and venality of the officials. This is partly 
due to the cause just stated, but is much greater than can be fairly all 
attributed to that cause. The tenure of office of every official is pre¬ 
carious and has often been obtained by large bribes to the dispensers 
of patronage, either at Constantinople or in the provinces and there¬ 
fore the main object of almost every official is first to recoup himself for 
the bribes he has given and next to get as much as he can out of his office 
whilst he holds it. 
Thirdly .—Due to these causes to a great extent is the third evil, 
that the Government takes little pains to keep order. If a Kurdish 
tribe makes a raid upon another or on an Armenian settlement it is 
much easier and more profitable to make them pay a sum of hush-money 
than to punish them and so lawlessness in unchecked. 
But, besides these evils from which the whole population suffers, 
there are others which fall only on the Christians. 
In the first place, Christians are not allowed to possess arms, whereas 
all the Moslems are armed to the teeth and the Christians are there¬ 
fore helpless against Kurdish raids. 
Secondly, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a Christian to 
obtain justice in any dispute with a Moslem. Christian evidence is 
usually not admitted and courts and judges are hostile to them. 
And lastly, independent of the general prejudice against the Chris¬ 
tians, I believe myself that the Turkish Government has a deliberate 
policy of repression of the Christians. They are well aware that the 
Christians, especially the Armenians, are progressive and enterprising 
and they are afraid of their advancing and getting too powerful if they 
are not continually kept down and they are therefore well pleased to 
see them harrassed and plundered and give indirect, if not direct, 
encouragement to Kurds, troops and officials to do so. 
