12 BALKAN CRISIS PROVOKED BY POWERS' GREED NATIONS NOT IN ACCORD Alliance to Press Reforms Upon the Porte Crippled by Inability of Christian Governments to Agree —Quarrel Among Themselves Over Loot and Self=lnterest —Peace of the World Imperiled. Marquis of Argenson, Louis XV.'s groat minister, wrote: "The first great change that will take place in Europe will probably be the conquest of Turkey. This empire grows weak er becamse of its bad government, and because it is impossible that this gov ernment should become better, and quite sure that it will grow worse. IvJ h I A, IX xr a ast v. i] ( \' V' ij " < "" s! §k. 112 " k ._r' J <•':- I ; ? I , ■• Map of the Disturbed Region. They are rising in the Ottoman em pire. Every day a feather falls from the wings of the Turkish eagle." So it seemed to this far-sighted man several centuries ago, but to-day there is only one fact of the Balkan situa tion upon which all sane westerners agree, and that is the growing •strength of the Turkish military re sources, writes Stephen Bonsai in the Philadelphia Ledger. That is a formid able body of trained and fanatical men, some 300,000 strong, that tram ples the Christian peasants of Mace donia under foot, and, after looking 'the situation over, the intervening powers of Christianity have not fallen on this rugged host, but have fallen out among themselves on a question of railway concessions. Thirst for Advantage. The czar of holy Russia and Em peror Joseph, who was called to rule the holy Roman empire, are exchang ing letters, which, while the diplomat ic forms are still observed, recall the wordy wars of railway kings. The al liance or entente between the powers which was to press reforms upon the porte that would make it possible for the Christian subjects of the porte to live in peace and yet live Christian lives, has been disrupted by the greed of gain and the thirst for political ad vantage experienced by the powers, which have in tlie last decade plumed themselves upon exercising a mandate in Macedonia which they had received from outraged humanity. It is a pitiful end of the reform decade, and the best that can be said of the situation is that to-day the Christian peasants are not much worse off than they were before, and that -those who have survived their hard experiences are probably much wiser than they were when they began their political schooling under such august patronage. Taking the optimistic view, the Turkish soldier is not al ways a brute and the Turkish effendi not always a thief. Looking backward now. the more than decimated peas antry of the Macedonian highlands doubtless recall the pleasant days of before the uprising, the days when they had not heard of a Pan-Slav or a Pan-Hellenic propaganda, when they didn't know whether they were Servi ans, Roumanians, Bulgarians or Greeks, and didn't much care. The Railway Row. The railway row is clearly a pretext for and not the cause of the s,iiit in the joint Macedonian policy of Russia ar. H Aus'ria. Russia has not even tho remotest intention of building a rail way from the lJanube u> the Adriatic, and if she had the intention, she has not the money. This road would cost millions, and goes through <1 difficult . and what railway men call a very "lean" country. It would never pay; that is, not within the ken of the present generation, and could only serve a political purpose which Russia will be unable to pursue for many years to come. On the other hand, Austria has the right to build her railway, or rather the gaps in the present system. It is a right that was granted by an article of the Berlin treaty, and it has not lapsed simply because the Austrian government hos allowed the matter to lio in abeyance for so ninny yearn. The otht r rumored Austi ian project of building a road from her Bosnian- Herzegovina system to the Adriatic, and then down the coast to Montene gro, and ultimately to Greece, is a sound idea, and one that would pay for itself handsomely, at least so far as Cattaro, and probably there is no idea of pushing the road much fur ther in the immediate future. Ready for Roads. T'nder the fostering care of Herr von Kallay, the provinces of Bosni*, of Herzogovina, and in a measure, too, Dalmatia have flourished under Aus trian rule and development. They are ready for railways, and many more of them. Ten years ago the complaint of little Servia and the veto of Russia would, of course, have brought these projects to an untimely end, hut to day ihe balance of power in the near east has changed as greatly as it has in the far east, and the protests are more likely to fall to the ground than are the projected railways. The story of the so-called reforms in Macedonia is a sad and a sordid one. Officially, at least, all Christen dom "with a long pull and a pull alto gether," has been unequal to the task ot making the "sick man of Europe" sit up, or of bringing the "unspeakable Turk" to book. In England alone of all the great powers interested, and. Indeed, morally responsible for the horrors of daily and hourly occurrence in the luckless vilayets, is there any appreciation of the dreadful situation. Almost weekly the Macedonian com mittee, of which Lord Newton and Mr. Gurney are the most active members, publish statistics setting forth as plainly as cold figures can make them, that the present laissez faire policy of the powers has only served to repro duce a tableau of what in the iron age the world must have been. England Hampered. The English humanitarians are ham pered in their work by the undeniable fact that through the action of the earl of Beaconsfiold and Lord Salis bury at the Berlin congress, when they thwarted Ignatieff's plan of a greater Bulgaria, including a free Macedonia, England is primarily responsible for the present status of affairs. They are further hampered by the presence in Constantinople of an incompetent ambassador, who has given undeniable proofs of his want of cnpacity in such important posts as he has occupied in Sofia, in Pekin and in St. Petersburg. The first whisper of reform —in what we call Macedonia—came in vir tue of the accord of 1879 between Aus tria ami Russia, and their recognition by other European states as the pow ers most directly concerned. The ad vice of the powers was accepted gracefully—it always is—by the sul tan, and with the purpose of forestall ing any possible drastic action the sultan himself drew up a program of reforms, and appointed that adroit diplomatist and profound student of human nature, Hussein Hilmi Pasha, inspector general of the disturbed provinces. Drawing Up Programs. The moment Hilmi Pasha arrived at Salonika to assume his herculean task the late Count Lamsdorff, the Russian minister for foreign affairs, set out I for a visit to the capitals of the Balkan ' CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1908. Peninsula. Hp visited Sofia and Bel grade, anu advised the Servians as well a3 the Bulgarians to cultivate :he more peaceful and above all more iawablding methods in their Mace donian propaganda. Count Lamsdorff then proceeded to Vienna, where he had many confer ences with Count Qoluchowski, the Austro-Hungarian minister of foreign affairs. Together they drew up an other program of reforms, which was.of course, immediately accepted by the porte in February, 1903. The details of (he proposed reforms are unimportant here and now. They never passed beyond the paper stage. The integrity of the sultan's domin ions and his unimpaired sovereignty were safeguarded by them, and in their proposals the powers remained j well within the limits of policy de fined by that important article 23 of i the treaty of Berlin. A Bloody Insurrection. The result of the application of I these paper reforms did not remain in doubt for more than a week. Instead of the pacification and a peace ap proaching that of paradise, which the bureaucratic Russian count prophe sied would descend upon the blood drenched land, came the most bloody and formidable insurrection that the rebellion-ridden country had ever seen. It required 300,000 of the best troops of the Ottoman forces to up hold T"rkish authority, and even with this; tremendous display of force, the Turku made but little headway against tho insurrection untii the fall, when many of the Bulgarian bands, yielding rather before the onset of winter than of tiie Turk'j, withdrew across the frontier. To bolster up their shattered pres tige in the Balkans, in consequence of the summer's bloody work, the czar of Russia and the emperor of Austria met at Muerzsteg in October. As a result of this imperial conference fhe intervention of Europe in Mace donian affairs became for the first time direct, but the results of the new course fell far short of expecta tion in the first place because of the wonderful ability of Hilmi Pasha to checkmate every move made by the agents of the powers, and in the sec ond because of tho well-nigh insupera ble difficulty that was experienced in bringing the agents of the powers to act with unanimity or even in good faith. Buffers—on Paper. However, at least, the Muerzsteg pro gram created two organs of control, or buffers between the Turkish au thorities and the Christian peasants of Macedonia. Two civil agents, one Mons. Demerik, a Russian, and the other Herr von Muller, an Austrian, —~I~I HI 11 II11 ITT~ITT"!I IMIIIMNIIIMIIMN MIMIN■ | TTvXTpr" —« — ¥ .( iT World-Wide Distribution of the Mostem Faith. At the present moment there Is a grent revival of Pan-Islamic feeling, which Is the cause of many new and difficult problems wherever east and west come Into contact. Moslems throughout the world followed the Russo-Japanese war with the greatest interest, and they are keenly alive to the problem of Turkey. A writer in the Times lias pointed out that it is a mistake to believe that the awakening is due to a movement on the part of the Yildiz Kiosk. Its causes lie deeper, and Mohammedans are anxious to shake off the reproach that their religion is only for degenerate or conquered races. The distribution of Islamism is shown in black. were authorized to and expected to control the action of the Turkish au thorities. They were expected to shadow the inspector general, to indi cate to him the reforms which they thought would prove helpful, and to listen attentively to the complaints of the Christian inhabitants. They were ordered and authorized to inves tigate all complaints that were brought to their attention, but unfor tunately the investigation had always to be held in the presence of a Turk ish functionary—in other words under circumstances where no Christian peasant, after GOO years of Turkish su premacy, would dare to tell the truth. Something more than moral support was required to make the slave of cen turies stand up and defend himself. In addition to the restraint of the civil agents, there were appointed a large number of foreign officers to serve with the Turkish constabulary. An Italian general was placed in com mand of the constabulary reorganiza tion scheme, and to him were attached many of the foreign officers. The scheme proved ineffectual from the beginning. Instead of commanding the gendarmerie in the field, the sultan held, and imposed his view upon the powers, that the foreign officers were merely to act as instructors in schools for aspirant constables. Six months, a delay of tragic importance to the hunted Christian peasantry of the Macedonian highlands, was spent in discussing the question whether the European officers should wear Chris tian caps or the Turkish fez. In the meanwhile the wily sultan was more than friendly. Those of the foreign officers who could be reached in that way were loaded with rich presents. Some of these presents were undeniably of a kind that could be easily converted into cash. Others were given brilliant decorations and honeyed speeches. It was quite no ticeable that many of the foreign offi cers soon began to exhibit very little interest in the people whom they were sent to protect. "A vermin stricken, mangy lot." is the way one of the officers was reported to have described the Christian peasants at a concert in Yildiz Kiosk, and shortly afterward his wife appeared with a di amond tiara, which Pera gossips averred she had never been seen to wear before. Making No Progress. So much time was taken in negotia tion and discussions, and, above all, in entertainments, »that few of the for eign officers reached their respective posts until the fall of 1905. Tho French were sent to Seres, the Eng lish to Drama, the Austrians to Uskub, the Italians to Monastlr and the Rus sians to Salonica. The Germans held hack even at this early date in the reform era. They only sent one offi cer, and he was instructed to refuse to enter the disturbed districts. He contented himself with teaching Turk ish recruits the goose-step in the bar racks yards of Salonica. As it has well been said, every one of the powers wishes to modify the present situation, but, unhappily, it would appear that each one wished to modify it for its personal advan tage, and, alas, profit. In a word the npws from Macedonia Is that the champions of Christendom have come to blows, nut with the assassins of the sultan, who are seeking to destroy the remnants of the congregation that St. Paul loved, but among themselves over a sordid question of political loot. World's Peace Imperiled. However, the statements made In the British parliament recently by government officials in regard to the Macedonian question goto show that there was something in the reports telegraphed some days ago about the possible disruption of the concert of the European powers and subsequent trouble in the near east. The secre tary for foreign affairs said emphat ically that if Macedonia continued to be neglected a catastrophe would follow. It is, indeed, time that effective re form measures should be putin force in Macedonia for the good of the Christian inhabitants of the province. A foreign general officer has been in charge of the Macedonian gendarmerie with other foreign offi cers under him, but supreme control has remained in the hands of Turkish officials. As long as that is the case real reform is out of the question. The British government, recogniz- ing that, raises the question whether the time has not come for the appoiut ment of a Christian governor for Macedonia. The sultan may be ex pected to resist such an appointment, for he would see in it the prelude to the loss of the province. Turkish his tory has taught him that. The secretary for foreign affairs says the concert of powers must either justify or stultify itself. That is, it must either demand further conces sions of Turkey or split up. If it shall do the latter, then Turkey will be ob durate and the peace of Europe may bo imperiled once more. Whether any power is prepared to sido with Turkey and block reform In Mace donia remains to be seen. There have been rumors that one or another power would do this, but as yat not* ing is certaia A POPULAR ACTRESS j/'^ jjyj AMJ Miss Maude Adams, now starring in New York city as Chicot, in the new play, "The Jesters." j SAM BERNARD'S "FIRST NIGHT." | How the Popular Comedian "Broke Into the Business." Sam Bernard, sitting with a group of friends several nights ago. told how he "broke into the business." it was in Hoboken that the event occurred, and the place was a beer garden where the admission was two beer checks. He worked just. Ave minutes, was paid a dollar and was "fired." "My brother Dick and myself," said Sam, "applied to the Dutchman who ran the beer garden and he asked me how much I wanted. Thinking he meant me in dividually I said S2O a week and he replied: 'Put it in the book.' The book was like a contract and he hand ed it to me so I wrote: 'Bernard brothers, S4O a week.' Some one called him as I handed hint back the book so he didn't notice the charge for the team. That night Dick and I carried our trunk over the Barclay street ferry and reported for work. Our turn consisted of one single, done by my self and two doubles done by the two of us. I had just finished my single act when the Dutchman came running into our dressing room—it was up in the attic and lighted by a little lamp—and shaking his fist in my face yelled: 'Get out of here, you cheat; S4O a week for a couple of shines like you. Get out before I chuck you both in the street.' Well that let us out. He handed me a dol lar—a trade dollar at that —and Dick and I, carrying the trunk between us, walked to the Barclay street ferry. It was midnight before we reached New York and we hadn't carried the trunk more than two squares before we were arrested and taken to the sta tion house on suspicion of robbery. We had to open the trunk and show the sergeant our makeup before we were released. Every cop we met after that wanted to pinch us, so we kept the trunk unlocked and ready to open upon challenge. We finally reached horn? at 4 a. m., sadder, but wiser boys." Francis Wilson—Scribe. The new work on the American the ater which Francis Wilson will soon give to his publishers will consist of a series of essays on the life and art of the leading actors and actresses of & generation or two ago. Mr. Wilson has long had such a work in contem plation, his reading having shown him the need of collating and preserving In comprehensive form the r\alie.nt facts in the lives and public careers of America's great players. To Give Play in Esperanto. Charles Frohman will have"The Morals of Marcus" translated into Es peranto and announces that he ex pects to present Miss Marie Doro in the international language version of that comedy in Berlin next August This will be the first play to have the distinction of translation and presenta Una In Esperanto. THE BRAVE DRAMATIC CRITIC, Omar, the Old Persian Poet, anti the Shah. During William Archer's American visit a young actress, at a dinner, ran gratula.ted the noted dramatic critic on the unswerving fairness of his re views. "And it is hard, it is even cruel, sometimes, isn't it, to be fair?" she said. "Yes," said Mr. 'Arc-tier, smiling, "to be fair is sometimes hard' and cruel, and sometimes it is rash The unswervingly fair critic often takes up his pen with the shrug of Omar, the old Persian poet. You have heard of Omar's shrug? No? \Ve;V. it was eloquent. The shah one <iay sent for the old poet. 'Omar,' said he, 'I have written some verses. Lfstea and i will read them to you.' And he read the verses and in the ensurn?; silence looked at Omar anxiously. 'Well?' he said. " 'Heaven born,' said Omar, gently 'each to his own calling. Scepter ir hand, you are most wise, just, ami powerful; but pen in hand—' Omar shook his head. 'Heaven born,' sum he, 'such verses would disgrace a nine-year-old schoolboy.' His eyes flashing with rage, the shah shouted to his guards. 'To the stables with this old fool, and let hint be soundly flogged.' Yet the shah, for all, re spected Omar's judgment, and a week later he sent for the fearless and fair critic again. " 'Another poem, Omar,' he aalcl. \\ better one. I'm sure you'll think it » a better one,' he said, wistfully. Ami lie began to read the second poem to the old man. Hut in the middle of the reading Omar turned and started for the door. 'Where are you goinje." said the shah in amazement. Omar looked back and shrugged his shoul ders. 'To the stables,' he answered 'for another flogging.'" GOSSIP OF THE STAGE. William Rossell. who has been pley ing the role of Happy Thuiston to "Brown of Harvard" with Harry Wood ruff," will go out in that play next s«*> son as a star, taking up the part now.' assumed by Mr. Woodruff. "Tom Jones," a musical play base*i on the more temperate episodes i»s> Fielding's great novel of English life in the eighteenth century, was re vealed in Chicago recently. The music is by Edward German. Miss Louisa Gunning and William Norris are the principal meml.ers of the cast. Clyde Fitch's new play, entitled "Girls," will be produced at the Beiae co theater, Washington, on March The company includes Charles Cherry Leslie Kenyon, Herbert Standing, Ed ward Marble, Edward Morissey and Frederick Esmelton and Misses Nelson Hall, Zelda Sears, Amy Rioartt and Ruth Maycliffe. A fine set of the first four folio edi tions of Shakespeare's plays which be longed to the late bishop of Truro wiVi be sold in London soon. These folio**- are all in choice condition.
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