CONSULAR EXPERIENCES IN TURKEY. 
443 
under different conditions and not to tlie same extent, occurred in the northern 
part of the country. The nomads over-ran the fertile valleys of Armenia, eating 
up everything as they passed; but, in this case, instead of remaining permanently 
in the country in large numbers, they swept onward to the richer districts of 
Western Anatolia. As in Mesopotamia, the butcheries of Timur drove many of the 
Armenian inhabitants of the valleys to take refuge in the mountains. But, instead 
of occupying a compact district as the Nestorians did, they settled down in 
scattered villages under the protection of different Kurdish tribes, to whom they 
paid tribute. This tribute was paid in many districts until a comparatively 
recent period, and one of the original causes of the late disturbances appears to 
have been partly due to it. The Turks, during the last forty or fifty years, have 
been gradually bringing the mountain districts under control and levying taxes 
on them. The unfortunate Armenians have been called upon to pay both Kurds 
and Turks and, being unable to do so, have in places resisted the Kurds who 
they thought were losing their power. But the people are so intermingled that 
it is difficult to find out exactly what their relations really are. There are two 
great evils from which the people suffer to which I do not think Colonel Clayton 
has alluded. One is the irregularity in the registration of land. The land 
registers are in a terrible state of disorder. I know of no country in which 
they are so badly kept. Many of the titles are bad and there is much cheating 
and oppression of small land-owners. Another very fertile source of disorder, at 
any rate in that part of the country that I was in, is the money-lender. Nearly 
all the peasantry in the districts round Sivas are in debt to the Armenian pedlars 
and money-lenders and, of course, when an Armenian pedlar presses for payment 
in a Moslem village there is generally a row. A great many local disturbances 
are due to this cause. 
I will not detain you longer, but I will ask you to give a cordial vote of thanks 
to Colonel Clayton for his lecture. I have listened to it with very great interest, 
as I know what Colonel Clayton did when he was Yice-Consul at Yan, and that 
he has a wide experience of the country and people which he lias so ably described 
(applause). 
General Maurice —I am sure, ladies and gentlemen, we shall all wish to 
offer a vote of thanks to Sir Charles Wilson both for his great kindness in coming 
here at all, and also for the very interesting speech he has made to us now 
that he has come (applause). 
