Page:The promises of Turkey.djvu/11

7 of Mussulman power—the admission of clever non-Mussulman boys to be trained as officers of a purely Mussulman army.

"'All the evils of Turkey,' says the Special Correspondent of the Times in Constantinople, may be traced to the difference between the Osmanlis as a conquering race and a military caste and the Christians as a people unfit for and unworthy of the privilege of bearing arms and sharing the most sacred of duties—that of fighting for their country. To do away with this difference it is necessary that the law should prescribe universal enlistment. The law of conscription, as it now exists, falls exclusively upon the Mussulmans, allowing, however, those who wish it to ransom themselves by the payment of a certain sum. But the Christians have no option. They are exempted, or excluded from the service, but must pay a tax for their freedom. The consequence is that 15,000,000 of Mussulmans [including those of the Asiatic provinces] must do the military work of 30,000,000, to the severe exhaustion of the productive powers of their race, and the 15,000,000 Christians must pay the cost of the war establishment, to their utter debasement and disgrace.'"

Now as to this tax, which is falsely called an exemption tax. In December, 1875, the Sultan issued a Firman, proclaiming and promising that in future the tax should not be levied upon two categories of male persons who, by reason of their religion, were not eligible for service in the army. The Sultan pledged himself that the tax should be no longer levied upon male infants from their birth till the serviceable age, nor upon "old men long past service." The promise of this Firman was not observed, and has never been observed. But the maintenance of the tax upon these useless categories demonstrates the true character of the burden. It is not an exemption tax; it is a helot tax—a badge of serfdom, of slavery, submission to which must produce oppression on one side and on the other a deepening degradation. Sir