Page:Englishwomaninan00elli.pdf/152

 been assassinated—I, for one, could only think with sorrow upon the "splendour of opportunity" which he has missed and lost. No man, since the world began, ever held in his hands such a power for good in England and among all nations. He could have raised the prestige of Empire to even greater heights and led the councils for peace.

Almost the contrary has come to pass. To-day, certainly, our faith, our good word, our justice, and our fair play (without which England is not England) are almost everywhere subjected to suspicion and distrust.

When Turks tell me it is as easy "to buy" one of our officers as those of other nations, that they have done so over and over again in Constantinople, I try to say that it cannot be. When my host tells me they paid £6,000 sterling for our men's assistance to charter a boat and escape from Malta, I can only admit, in silence, that they did—somehow—escape. When I learn that at least one correspondent in Constantinople is subsidised by the Greeks, I can bear no more. Whence have bribery and corruption invaded our country against the traditions of centuries? I told them I used to feel that "I was sitting on a rock amidst howling and roaring seas; now even the rock itself is sinking."

To pay honour where honour is due, I compliment the Minister on the splendid "foreign" news of both his papers—the Tanine and the Vakit. I wish to-day that I knew the language and could read the articles by Hussein Djahid and Ahmet Emine. Even translated, I find them full of sound commonsense and beautifully written. If at times they are bitter, there is none of that sensationalism which our Press has lately borrowed from the States.

My host is due at his office at 9.30, but, though he has ventured to glance at his watch, the talk continues. At about 10.30, I casually ask: "Are you not going to your office to-day?"

"When you allow it," was the startling answer.

Now, surely, time is of importance at least to a responsible Minister? Yet he will cheerfully give up