Current History, A Monthly Magazine | Page 2

to the other. All
non-Moslems, mere boys and young men of 25 to 30 years of age and
grown men up to 45, are being arrested by the police and secret service
force, and dragged to the barracks, like convicts, and if they fail to pay
the fifty or eighty pounds Turkish ($230 or $350) for exemption from
military service, they are forced to work as "assistant-soldiers."
The soldiers thus designated are not given rifles, nor are they trained
for service, but are simply employed as servants to the regular soldiers.
It is easy to understand that no one can endure such conditions of
military life, the result being that each and every one of these
non-Moslems sells whatever property he has in order to pay the ransom
and get away from the army, and from Turkey as well. In ten days,
since this peculiar recruiting began, fully ten thousand Greeks found a
way of escaping from Constantinople, many of them finding a refuge in
the free and hospitable United States. This getting away is not so easy,
writes the same correspondent, because officials of the various ports are
exacting heavy sums from the fugitives before letting them go. Graft
and extortion in this case reign supreme, and it costs anywhere from
three to fifteen pounds ($13 to $70) to "buy" a police or port official.
This process, originating in Constantinople, is widespread in the
provinces, and the sums paid in this way by the non-Moslems to escape
military service amount to millions. "Let the infidels pay!" say the
Turkish officials. "They have taken our ships, and they have to pay for
it."
The popular feeling against England in these first days of the European
war is fierce. Numerous manifestations, in which the younger element
was largely represented, proceeded to attack the British stores and
British subjects, and there have been serious attempts against the

British Embassy in Constantinople and the British Consulate at
Smyrna.
[Illustration: H.R.H. PRINCESS MARIE JOSE
Only Daughter of the King of the Belgians.
(Photo from Underwood & Underwood.)]
[Illustration: HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL MERCIER
Archbishop of Mechlin, Primate of Belgium.]
CONSTANTINOPLE IN AUGUST.
Another letter from the same source, dated Constantinople, Aug. 6,
gives the following picture of the Turkish capital in the early days of
the European war:
It is impossible to describe the way in which the Porte is trying to put
the country on a war footing, notwithstanding the terrible odds she has
to fight against. God only knows what the Turks are expecting if the
Austro-Servian conflict turns out according to their desires, or if the
European conflict takes the form of a decisive Austro-German victory.
We now have ample proof to show that the Turkish mobilization is in
such a way conducted as to be ready to act in common with Bulgaria,
in a simultaneous attack against Greek and Servian Macedonia, as soon
as the Austrians have a first decisive victory over the Servians. This
scheme, however, seems to be doomed since the entry of Great Britain
into the general war, and there are indications that Turkey, warned by
England and Russia, will disband her already mobilized army. On the
other hand, the news reaches Constantinople that the Russian forces
have crossed the frontier into Turkish Armenia, and occupied Erzeroum,
while Enver Pasha was seen yesterday, (Aug. 5,) paying hasty visits to
the Russian and British Embassies. While such is the political situation,
matters are still worse in the business world of the Turkish capital. It is
almost impossible to give an idea of the general upheaval brought
about by greedy speculators, who are taking advantage of this

anomalous situation, and by the Government itself, requisitioning
everything they can lay their hands on, regardless of reason or
necessity.
Policemen and Sheriffs, followed by military officers, are taking by
force everything in the way of foodstuffs, entering the bakeries and
other shops selling victuals, boarding ships with cargoes of flour,
potatoes, wheat, rice, &c., and taking over virtually everything, giving
in lieu of payment a receipt which is not worth even the paper on which
it is written.
In this way many shops are forced to close, bread has entirely
disappeared from the bakeries, and Constantinople, the capital of a
neutral country, is already feeling all the troubles and privations of a
besieged city. Prices for foodstuffs have soared to inaccessible heights
as provisions are becoming scarce. Actual hand-to-hand combats are
taking place in the streets outside the bakeries for the possession of a
loaf of bread, and hungry women with children in their arms are seen
crying and weeping in despair.
Many merchants, afraid lest the Government requisition their goods,
hastened to have their orders canceled, the result being that no
merchandise of any kind is coming to Constantinople either from
Europe or