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TOBACCO SMUGGLING 125
contrabandists. Troops, gendarmerie, and zaptiehs,
all are used against them, but their natural enemy
is a body of police in the service of the tobacco
company. These police are not servants of the
State, and though bearing arms, and uniformed,
and vested with authority, do not carry the prestige
of men in the national service. They work, also,
under a curious restriction w^hich forbids them to
shoot unless first fired upon by smugglers. On
this point a great deal depends. In almost every
skirmish between police and smugglers each side
swears that the other was aggressor. Those who are
versed in the niceties of Turkish law assert that
smugglers illegally shot at by tobacco police thereby
gain support of the law itself, they become citizens
illegally assailed and are free to defend themselves
by every means in their power, and that if they
slay a policeman or two in the process it is not ill
doing. Much, therefore, hangs on evidence as to the
first shot, and no chance is lost in this direction that
might be gained by hard swearing.
To kill or wound a soldier, gendarme, or zaptieh
means a remorseless hunting for the offender ; sooner
or later he falls shot by pursuers who had no
private intention of capturing him, though capture
was their ofiicial duty and purpose. They were
pursuers with a score to settle on behalf of the uniform.
But the regular armed servants of the State
do not, it is said, accept these private vendettas on
behalf of the tobacco police— these are left to wipe
off their own scores as opportunity may offer. Between
police and smugglers, therefore, hostilities have
much the nature of a tribal feud.
Though the national uniform commands a certain
degree of respect from professional smugglers, they
do not allow such respect to stand greatly in
their way. They are guided much in these circumstances
by the force opposed to them. They
will not tamely surrender their stuff to a greatly