STARTLING RESULTS OF THE LATE WAR IN TURKEY.
WAR is always a terrible calamity, but the world has as yet gained only a very partial idea of the results of the late war in Turkey. It was unlike any European war of the present century. Although it was complicated by foreign invasion, it was essentially a civil war. It was also a religious war. It was at times a war of extermination. We know something in America of civil war, although, strictly speaking, our last war was of that character only in certain localities, as in Eastern Tennessee and Missouri; but happily we know nothing as yet of a religious civil war,—a war in which each town and village is divided against itself, and in which neighbors, separated for centuries by religious differences, regard each other as infidels worthy of death. The war commenced in Herzegovina in July, 1875. It came to an end nominally in March, 1878, but in fact is still in progress in certain localities. Russia took part in it after April, 1877, for eleven months. There were few important battles, but the war has proved to be the most fatal of late years to the armies engaged. The number of soldiers who have perished cannot be less than a million. The Russians acknowledge a loss of over 300,000 in Europe and Asia. The Roumanians, Servians, and Montenegrins lost at least 50,000; the Austrians, not less than 30,000. There are, of course, no statistics in regard to the Turkish losses, but careful98investigation as to the number drafted and the present force of the army makes it certain that the number exceeds 600,000. The present condition of the Turkish army is such that if there is no improvement, there will soon be very little left of it. There is a large force about twenty miles from Constantinople engaged in building fortifications. They are living in tents, with so little clothing that many are unable to leave their tents at all, with so little food that there have been days when their whole ration consisted of half a biscuit. If such is the condition of troops under the command of Baker Pasha, an Englishman, within twenty miles of Constantinople, what must be their fate in other places under Turkish officers? It is sad to think of the sacrifice of a million brave men, but this is by no means the most startling result of this war. It has been accompanied by massacres, and by movements of population which remind us of De Quincey's famous story of the “Flight of a Tartar Tribe,” and which I think have no parallel in modern times. This movement commenced in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875, when the greater part of the Christian population fled to Austrian territory. Some went to Servia and Montenegro. The war from the outset was one of plunder, outrage, and massacre; but the Mussulman population, comprising most of the land holders and supported by the Turkish army, had every advantage over the Christian peasantry. Bands of rebels could maintain themselves in the mountains, but could do nothing to defend their homes and families. The great mass of the people had no choice but flight or massacre. They fled, and it is only since the Austrian occupation that they have been able to return. During their exile at least half have died of cold, hunger, and fever, although the Austrian government has expended large sums of money in aiding them. We may estimate the loss of life at 200,000 souls in these two provinces. Add to this the fear, anguish, torture, and distress of every kind, which have been suffered by the whole population, and we have a picture of misery to move the hardest heart. In the spring of 1876 the Turkish government foresaw a Servian war, and ordered the Bulgarian massacres, to terrorize the province and insure their line of communication. About 12,000 were massacred, and a large number of towns were destroyed. This was followed by the flight of a large part of the Christian population of the district to the mountains and large cities, but, unfortunately, most of them were afterward induced to return. The war with Servia and Montenegro depopulated the frontier districts, but only for a time. When the Russians crossed the Danube, the tables were turned; and the Moslem population of the Dobrudscha and of Northern Bulgaria fled with precipitancy,—men, women, and children,—to take refuge in the Turkish fortified towns. At Rustchuck, Shumla, and Varna, for months, they crowded every house and even lived in the streets. The typhus raged among them, and great numbers died of want. Some came to Constantinople. Many, especially the Circassians, were transported to Asia Minor. The remnant have just now returned to their homes. At the same time Suleiman Pasha, under orders from Constantinople, undertook to exterminate the Christian population of Eastern Roumelia. Great numbers were massacred, but most of the population fled over the Balkans, suffering untold misery and anguish; but their flight was in summer, and their suffering less than that of the great Mohammedan exodus, which took place when the Russians crossed the Balkans. It was mid-winter, and a season of unusual severity; but as the Russians approached, a wild panic seized upon the whole Moslem population. They seem to have felt that a terrible retribution was about to fall upon them for all the wrong which they had done to the Christians, and, without waiting to see a Russian soldier or hear a Russian gun, they fled. I think not less than a million of souls thus left their homes, some going toward Macedonia, but the majority seeking to reach Constantinople. They carried with them what they could, and plundered as they went; but their sufferings were terrible beyond description. Multitudes froze and starved to death by the road side. Epidemics broke out among them, and swept away hundreds. In some cases the Russians overtook them. Then they threw their children away or drowned them in the rivers, left everything, and fled. In one case the advancing Russians collected and cared for several hundred small Turkish children picked up in a single day. They crowded the trains for Constantinople, and died by the score in the cars. They died at Constantinople of epidemics, cold, and starvation. Of all this vast multitude very few have returned to their homes or ever will return. Probably half of them are already dead; a large number are now dying of starvation in the Rhodope Mountains; others have been sent to Syria and Asia Minor. Perhaps 50,000 remain in Constantinople and vicinity. By the treaty of Berlin, no Circassian is allowed to live in Bulgaria or Roumelia. The Bulgarians have returned, and it has become a thoroughly Christian province. The recent massacres in Macedonia and the retiring of the Russians from Thrace have also caused a large Christian emigration from these provinces into Eastern Roumelia. I think we may set down the loss of life in these various massacres and migrations in European Turkey at not less than 750,000, not including Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time a similar movement of population has been going on in Asia Minor. When the war broke out, the half savage Kurds were armed and let loose upon the peaceful Armenian population of Eastern Asia Minor. They are still ravaging the country from time to time. Large numbers of Armenians have been massacred, many have been carried off as slaves, and it is said that about half of the Armenian population from the provinces of Erzroom and Van have emigrated to Russia. The suffering from fever, famine, and other causes, has been very great, but I have no means of estimating the loss of life. Other small displacements of population have taken place. In Sukum Kaleh and vicinity the people were incited to insurrection by the Turks, and on their defeat were transported to Asia Minor. The loss of life in this emigration is said to have exceeded 25,000. There has also been some emigration from Lazistan since its annexation to Russia. On the whole, the loss of life in these massacres and displacements of population must be more than one million of souls, and those who have escaped death have undergone hardships terrible beyond all imagination. Two millions of human lives, and all this incalculable human misery, is the price which has been paid for whatever has been gained in this war.—Christian Union.