EDITORIAL
TURKEY AND THE POWERS.
Of all the recent statements made by leaders of the Young Turks’ party, that of Dr. Riza Tewhtik stands out 85 being most illuminating. What he reveals, in a recent interview in the Jewish Chronicle, is of great interest as showing the precarious position the party he speaks for occupies in the Ottoman empire. What compels him to advise the Jews to be cautious is not fear that the interests of the Jewish people are inimical to Ottoman interests, but the dread of all Ottomans of intervention by Europe.
This Ottoman statesman declares that the Arabs and the Christians are the worst enemies of the Jewish people 18 Palestine, and whatever is said in Europe regarding Turkey is brought by interested agitators to the attention of the Arabs and the Christians, who use such information to incite the Turkish masses against the Jews. The bogie which they employ 1s the threatening danger of intervention. That is why the English are made to accuse the Jews of being the pioneers of German colonization, and the Germans are made to say that the Jews are the bearers of the British flag in Palestine. The Zionist movement 15 represented in Turkey by interested parties as being the forerunner of intervention.
Riza Tewtik therefore advises Jews to go to Turkey and settle there as Ottoman ciu- zens. There is plenty of work for those who wish to work, and an infiltration of Jews into Turkey can do no harm. There must be no claim for autonomy or concentration in Palestine, and Zionists must dissipate all reports concerning their desires to capture Palestine.
Zionists cannot repeat too often the fact that what they desire is exactly what Riza Tewfik advises them to do. There is work to be done in the Ottoman empire for Jews that will lead to the establishment of a Jewish center within its territory. There
is no conscious desire on their part to concentrate only in what is now known as Palestine. Our movement is one of self-help, and it is not our intention, given a liberal government in the Ottoman empire, to in any way call upon any foreign power to assist us in the attainment of our object. We deal and propose to deal with the Ottoman government, and the work that is now being done in Palestine has for its object the strengthening of no other influence but that of Turkey and the Jewish people, whose interests in this particular should be identical.
It remains for the Ottoman statesmen, however, to give less credence to rumor and more to the spokesmen of the Zionist movement. And, moreover, it would be well for the Ottoman government to indicate by actual deeds its expressed friendliness to the Jewish people.
THE RUSSIAN PASSPORT.
Ir seems to be a foregone conclusion that the United States will do nothing effective this year to secure the recognition of the American passport by the Russian gov- ernemnt. Behind the demand 01 the American government which, it has been alleged, has been made by the State Department, there has been no determined intention of forcing the issue. If one may infer from a recent statement which appeared in the New York Times, President Taft has given up all hopes of gaining a direct diplomatic victory, and expects to switch the issue into another channel by making it hinge upon the acceptance by Russia of the arbitration treaty to which Great Britain and France are said to have subscribed.
The barrier against which American insistence breaks is unknown to the citizen at large, but the secret of the whole matter, the indifference of the State Department and the calm assurances of President Taft, lies in the refusal of the