The Near Eastern Question
By L. A. S.
For some years the political storm-center of the Old World has been in the far East, and the solution of the far Eastern question has been the problem which has occupied the attention of statesmen and inspired the utterances of political prophets. The agitation over that question has culminated in the Russo-Japanese War, and the result of that conflict, together with the new Anglo-Japanese treaty, having called a halt on the program for the dismemberment of China and apparently settled conditions in Asia for some time to come, the storm-center seems now to be shifting back to the near East, where the sultan of Turkey is the central figure, and the dismemberment of his territory, within which is the coveted prize of Constantinople, is the problem to be settled. Turkey has long been referred to as “the sick man of the East,” and the breaking up of his kingdom has been long anticipated, and is still regarded as a settled event of the near future, delayed only by the mutual jealousies of the leading powers. It is possible, however, that the sultan, now that Russia has been weakened and Austria is facing an internal crisis, takes a different view of the situation, and believes that the near Eastern question can be settled in a manner more agreeable to the Mohammedan mind. There is indeed some reason for thinking that the sultan is ready to make a new and startling move upon the political chess-board and defy the European powers. This is the view entertained by a press correspondent at Constantinople, who writes the following:— Abdul Hamid is evidently preparing to defy the powers and to compel a settlement of the much discussed near Eastern problem at a time and in a manner which best suits the interests of Turkey. There is no keener nor shrewder observer of world politics than the sultan; and the fact that he has recently defied Russia in the matter of building additional fortifications along the Bosporus, and absolutely repudiated the program for Macedonian reforms submitted by the powers, is taken as an indication that he has come to the conclusion that the time is at hand for the definite settlement of the status of Turkey’s possessions in Europe. The rebellion in Arabia has practically been squelched, and the hold of the sultan on Mecca is as firm as ever it was. Russia has its hands full in dealing with internal conditions, and Austria is as badly off. There is every reason to believe that the recent outbreak in the Caucasus and the Trans-Caucasian provinces has been fomented from Constantinople, and that the arms in the hands of the Mussulman rebels come from Turkish sources. The Turkish army never has been in better trim than it is now. With Oriental wiliness reforms have been quietly introduced in the administration of the army, which will, it is confidently believed by those who are acquainted with the conditions, afford a surprise to Europeans, second only to that of Japan in the recent war with Russia. Thousands of fanatical Mussulmans from the sultan’s Asiatic dominions have been recruited within the past two or three years, and Turkey could within a very short time put into the field a most formidable army. In fact, Turkey is ready. Thus there is every prospect that the near Eastern question will again come to the front in world politics, the final settlement of which is a matter of such momentous interest to the world.