'File F/1 Criminal Intelligence, Circular Memoranda: Pan-Islamism' [‎30v] (60/68)

near the spot fniled to apprehend the murderer. Dr. Nrizim, one of the
leaders of tho Committee, had previously warned Sammim that if he persisted
in his criticism a ** Bela" (misfortune) would befall him.
In 1910 and 1911 a band of Circassians, some of whom were relatives of
Dervish ftey, M. P. for Seres, and Midhat Bey, afterwards Secretary-General
of the Committee of Uiiion and Progress, established a reign of terror in the
Seres-Drama-Kavala reirion. They participated in the murders of Greeks and
Bulbars to which attention has previously been drawn, and they alsa murdered!
or maltreated sundry Moslem landowners, who disliked being blackmailed.
Two of them finally proceeded to Constantinople and shot Zeki Bey, an
official of the Ottoman Public Debt, who had given great offence to the Com
mittee of Union and Progress by publishing a Turkish translation of an Arabic
anti-Committee article written by the well-known Seyyid Rashid Ridha for an
Egyptian newspaper. The victim had been warned by JMaat Bey that he wa^
in danger, but, in spite of his warning, had added to the ire of the Committee
by publishing an article in a Constantinople newspaper in which he pointed
out that Javid Bey was the reverse of a financial genius. The murder aroused
great indignation. The Committee of Union and Progress which now com
manded a bare majority in Parliament, was unable to prevent the arrest
of the assassins or their trial, which extended over several months, before the
Criminal Courts.
But, meanwhile, the Committee decided to meet the growth of popular
discontent by dissolving Parliament, and holding new elections. These were
held in the spring of 1912. They were "made" by the local Executive-
authorities, and by the gendarmerie who included many of the nominees and
creatures of the Committee. Every species of trick was employed against the
electors and candidates of the opposition. One of the latter, while waiting at
a station near Salonica for a train which would carry him to a meeting of his
constituents, was attacked by roughs who bespattered him with red ink.
The local gendarmes insisted that he was dangerously wounded, and, ia
spite of his protests, carried him three miles to an hospital, while his train
steamed away. Other incidents were more tragic: near Langaza, 15 TurkSj.
of a party whWi was proceeding to the town to vote for an Uppositiou candi
date, were shot by gendarmes in consequence of their refusal to return to
their homes without exercising their electoral privilege. Other persons were
set upon and beaten or imprisoned by the gendarmerie. The Procureur-
General of Monastir Vilayet was shot. In many of the Asiatic constituencies
the order to vote for the Committee candidate was issued by the Commandant
of the local gendarmerie. In consequence of these abuses the Committer
Government was returned by a large majority, and was overthrown a few
months later by a military movement which had more popular support than
usual. The Committee of Union and Progress was temporarily driven from
power. It returned to power on 23rd January 1913 by a coup d'etat, in
which Nazim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the Opposition Minister of War, was muruered. The
Censorship of the press now became most rigorous; the espionage and delation
which had strongly revived since the early days of the Revolutionary period
became more widespread than ever, and a number of uliicers, suspected or
accused of anti-Committee tendencies, were imprisoned, or shot in brawls by
comrades who belonged to the Committee of Union and Progress organisation. '
After the murder of Mahmud Sbevket Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. the Committee laid violent
hands on such members of the Opposition as it could catch on the charge of
complicity in that crime. Several were sentenced to death by 'default, and
among the persons actually executed—see Chapter B—were men who were
not believed by their Turkish acquaintances and friends to have had any
connection whatever with the murder of the Grand Vizier.
In the autumn of 1913, the Committee of Union and Progress determined
to rid itself of Sheriff Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , a bitter and pertinacious critic, who had several
times been condemned to death, and who edited the " Meshrutiyet **—a highly
polemical Opposition organ at Paris. Azmy Bey, recently notorious for his
cruelties in Syria, and at the time on half-pay, in consequence of his having
ordered tue murder in prison of a Russian protected subieot while Chief of.