from the proceedings of the 'Committee of Union
and Progress,' held in Constantinople in 1911, have a sinister
suggestiveness about them for which the acts and measures of the
Committee had already supplied the comment.

'The formation of new parties in the Chamber or in the country must be
suppressed, and the emergence of new Liberal ideas prevented. Turkey
must become a really Mohammedan country, and Moslem influence must be
preponderant. Every other religious propaganda must be suppressed....
Sooner or later the complete Ottomanisation of all Turkish subjects must
be effected; it is clear, however, that this can never be attained by
persuasion, but that we must resort to armed force.... Other
nationalities must be denied the right of organisation, for
decentralisation and autonomy are treason to the Turkish Empire.'

Could there be a completer reversion to the policy of Abdul Hamid, than
this formal resolution, passed within three years of the time when the
Young Turks deposed him? The conviction begins to dawn on one--as it
began to dawn on the Balancers of Power--that he owed his downfall not
to his illiberal and butcherous policy, but because he was not thorough
enough.

The second extract, from a pamphlet by Jelal Noury Bey, may be added,
which defines the policy, not with regard to the Christian or Jewish
subjects of the Turks, but with regard to the Arabs, Moslem by creed,
and the guardians of the Holy Cities.

'It is a peculiarly imperious necessity of our existence for us to
Turkise the Arab lands, for the particularistic idea of nationality is
awaking among the younger generation of Arabs, and already threatens us
with a great catastrophe. Against this we must be fore-armed.'

The design of Ottomanisation soon began to take practical form.
Ottomanisation was to be the highest expression of patriotism, and any
means which secured it, massacres such as, in 1909, had taken place at
Adana, or the treatment accorded to the Greeks and Bulgarians who
remained in Thrace after the Balkan wars, were in accordance with the
new 'Liberal' gospel. Thrace was the only territory left to the Turks in
Europe, and as it was largely populated by Greeks and Bulgarians, it
could not be considered as sufficiently Ottomanised. A massacre under
the very eyes of Europe was perhaps dangerous, so it sufficed to put the
entire non-Turkish population over the frontier and lay hands on their
property. In fact this was the first of th