Do the European Residents in Turkey Provoke Conflicts?
- (From the Literary Digest) *
Complaint is made in the Correspondent (Hamburg) that the Christians resident in Turkey have not yet learned to restrain themselves, especially when they believe themselves protected by the consuls of foreign powers. “Christians,” in this case, refers not to the missionaries, but to any citizens of a country under the sway of Western civilization. The Correspondent relates the following: “The Christians on the coast of Palestine have the foolish custom of celebrating Easter by the continual firing of pistols and guns. This almost led to a massacre at Haifa. There has been bad blood between the Christians and Mohammedans of the port for some time past, and the kaimakan (governor), to prevent an outbreak, prohibited this useless burning of powder this year. On Easter Sunday the order was respected, but on the second day several hundred shots were fired. On the third, when the French consul, dressed in his gala uniform, left the Greek church, a mob of 2,500 to 3,000 persons accompanied him, yelling Vive la republique de France! and a regular fusillade ensued. “This behavior irritated the Mohammedans, and they made up their mind to celebrate the Mohammedan All Souls’ Day, which fell upon April 19, in the same way. The kaimakan prohibited shooting and a parade, but the sheiks came to him to inform him that they could not prevail upon their young people to abandon their project, as they were determined to show that they had as much right as the Christians. The parade took place. The Christians, fearing violence, had bought the day before all the arms they could get hold of, and had garrisoned a house on the road of the parade with 150 men, determined to accept battle if occasion offered. The authorities, however, were on the alert, and no fight occurred. It could have ended only in a general massacre. But the incident shows how provokingly the Christians act upon occasion, taunting the Mohammedans. They are encouraged in this by the influential and ambitious consuls. When passion has been aroused to fever heat in this way, very little is needed to cause an outbreak of fanaticism.”413 A dispatch from San Juan de Porto Rico, under date of June 27, says: “At a teachers’ conference, held here yesterday evening, Dr. Saldana, a member of the insular board of education, during the course of an address remarked that the Catholic religion should again be introduced into the public schools of Porto Rico. “Dr. Campos Valladares, a Portuguese Presbyterian, superintendent of public instruction in Brazil, took exception to Dr. Saldana’s remark, and, turning to Bishop Blenk (the bishop of Porto Rico), he said, in substance, that the Catholic church had been negative in results in all the South American countries, asserting that the illiteracy prevailing there was due entirely to the church’s influence. This remark caused great excitement. No sooner were the words uttered than Bishop Blenk jumped to his feet, and, striking the table with his closed fist, shouted: ‘It’s a lie,’ adding, ‘I will not sit quietly and hear the church of which I am the representative in Porto Rico traduced in such language.’ “After a painful silence, by a common impulse the adherents of the bishop shouted as with one voice: ‘Long live Catholicism,’ and the incident was closed, though it has aroused much feeling.” This is a point upon which Rome is very tender. It was very inconsiderate, to say the least, for Dr. Valladares to give utterances to such a distasteful truth in the presence of a Catholic bishop. Possibly, however, he did it to give the bishop opportunity to show what manner of spirit he was of.