HLI Chronicle 1909 - The Royal Highland Fusiliers

36 HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY CHRONICLE..vears of 8ge, who had been in close confinementin thp Yemen for ten years, while thethird was a direct descendant of the Prophet,who had spent the last eighteen months, inirons, in prison at Mecca.The procedure in all cases seems to havebeen somewhat similar. They were summonedbefore the Sultan, accused of friendly feelingstowards the YoUllg Turkish Party, and,without being able to make any defence orbeing allowed to say farewell to their families,were put straight away into carriages andsent off to exile, and their property, amountingto several thousands of pounds, confiscatedin order to swell the already enormous revenuesof the Sultan.Smyrna itself is not of much interest; thetown, fol' a Turkish one, is clean, and thebazaars are certainly far pleasanter to walkabout than those d Cairo, but a drive roundthe environs brought home to us evident signsof the Turkish misrule, as the roads, whichobviously had once beeu well made, were in astate of disrepair beyond description.We were fortunate enough to find ourselvesin the middle of a Young Turkish meeting,and, although unable to understand thelanguage, we were seated next a Turkishlawyer, who spoke French, and who gave usthe gist of most of the speeches.What most impressed us was the evidentdesire of the Reform Party to eradicate theold abuses of corruption, and every speechwas practically on these lines.As a police officer, I was naturally interestedin public security, and what interestedme was to note the almost entire absence ofpolice.From inquiries I ascertained that at presentthe police were non-existent, a~, under theold regime, the only system that existed wasthat of secret spies, and these naturally disappearedat once under the new Constitution.A somewhat disturbing factor at presentexists owing to the fact that all the prisonswere opened and every prisoner released.This step was rendered necessary owing to theimpossibility of ascertaining who were reallyguilty or who were in prison merely becausethey were unable to pay the necessary sums.to ensure an acquittal under the old regime.The Committee of Young Turks, before releasingthem, warned every man that if hecommitted any crime he would be promptlypunished, and I was told that the day beforeour arrival they had given a very good example.It appears that one of the menreleased had been for some months in jailunder the charge of murder, and as soon as hewas freed he immediately went off and shotthe man who had previously informed againsthim. He had a short shrift, however, as hewas shortly afterwards arrested by the Committee,tried by a Court (similar to a CourtMartial), and hung within twenty-four hours.Such summary justice had not, I was informed,been known in Turkey for the lasttwenty-five years, and it made a great impressionon the populace.From Smyrna we proceeded direct to Constantinople,stopping for an hour at the prettyisland of l\Iitylene.The approach to Constantinople is mostpicturesque. As the guide book puts it­"Pens have failed to do it justice, whilstartists have been unable to portray its.beauties. "The town, rising up from the water's edge,on seven hills, with picturesque minarets andmosques in every corner, makes a charmingpanorama, but alas! once inside the picturechanges, as the roads are filthy, and swarm.with crowds of pariah dogs.Our arrival was even more enthusiasticthan at Smyrna, some twenty steamers comingout to greet us.We spent the first day making a round ofthe usual sights-St. Sophia, Ahmedia, andother mosques of well-known reputationandalso visited the underground oisterns,which are distinctly interesting, being supportedby numerous pillars, in one case asmany as 1000.We also visited the scene of the late enor-­mous fire, which had destroyed some 6000,