st be Mohammedan, and respect must be secured for
Mohammedan institutions and traditions. Other nationalities must be
denied the right of organisation, for decentralisation and autonomy are
treason to the Turkish Empire. _The nationalities are a_ quantite
negligeable. _They can keep their religion but not their language. The
propagation of the Turkish language is one of the sovereign means of
confirming the Mohammedan supremacy and assimilating the other
elements_."

The confusion of aims in these two paragraphs reveals the direction in
which Young Turkish policy has been travelling. Religion is now
secondary to language, and the precedence still given to the Islamic
formula is only in apparent contradiction to this, for Mohammedan
supremacy is equated with the Turkish National Idea. Such a version of
Panislamism leaves no room for an Arab race under Ottoman rule, and the
"Panturanian" address given by the Turkish Professor at the Military
College in Constantinople had a sequel which showed the Arabs what they,
too, had to expect from Turkey's entrance into the War.

There were Arabs among the officers whom the Professor was addressing,
and one of them ventured to protest.

"All Ottomans are not Turks," he said, "and if the Empire were to be
considered purely Turkish, then all the non-Turkish elements would be
foreign to it, instead of being living members of the political body
known as the Ottoman Empire, fighting the common fight for it and for
Islam."

To this the Professor is reported to have replied:

"Although you are an Arab, yet you and your race are subject to Turkey.
Have not the Turks colonised your country, and have they not conquered
it by the sword? The Ottoman State, which you plead, is nothing but a
social trick, to which you resort in order to attain your ends. As to
religion, it has no connexion with politics. We shall soon march forward
in the name of Turkey and the Turkish flag, casting aside religion, as
it is only a personal and secondary question. You and your nation must
realise that you are Turks, and that there is no such thing as Arab
nationality and an Arab fatherland."

It is said that the Arab officers present handed in a joint protest to
the Minister of War, asking for the Professor's dismissal, and that
Enver Bey's answer was to have them all sent to the front-line trenches.

Certainly the Turkish Nationalists have not concealed their attitude
towards the Arabs since the War began