Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1912 — HAD HIGH OPINION OF TURKS [ARTICLE]

HAD HIGH OPINION OF TURKS

Gen. Mlles In Eulogy of the Fighting Force Put In the Field by Sultan’s Empire* During the spring of 1897 the war between Turkey and Greece broke out and Gen. Nelson A. MileA. was ordered, to Europe to observe the military operations. His opinion of the Turkish army he gives in his book, "Serving the Republic:” "The Turkish army, which we hear less about than any other, is a well organized, disciplined army, numbering at that time 700,000 effective men. It is trained to look upon the sultan as the spiritual head of their religion on earth, Thlshas the effect on the mind of the Turk of inspiring the belief that in serving his sultan he is serving his God. There is certainly one advantage in their religion, in that it maintains absolute sobriety. The use of liquor is abhorrent to the Mohammedan, and results in their army being an absolutely temperate organization. The personnel of their army is made up of strong men, and their military establishment is conducted with great economy. "I had an audience with the sultan and was cordially received by the high officials of the Turkish army. The manner of his assuming sovereign power, the fact of his keeping his elder brother a prisoner in a palace just above Constantinople on the Bosporus for over twenty years, had prejudiced me somewhat before meeting him. On seing him I found a man of small stature, keen, sharp face, cold, black, cruel eyes, black hair and full beard. In conversation I found him thoroughly familiar with military affairs and deeply interested in the condition of his army. "Great reverses occur in political as well as in other walks of life, and it Is somewhat remarkable that, after thiran autocratic position is now a prisoner practically in the same condition as his brother was at the time, and his brother enjoys the liberty and authority which he had been deprived of for so many years.” -