6. The prisoners will be under surveillance.
7. The police will be composed of Christians and Turks equally.
8. The local and not State officials are to collect the taxes and enough money is to be retained, before it is forwarded to Constantinople, to pay the expenses of the local administration.
9. The inhabitants of Sassoun shall be paid the amount of their losses.
10. The Kurds shall be disarmed.
11. The laws against compulsory conversions to Islam will be strictly enforced.
Supposing that the above synopsis of the reforms demanded of the Porte is true—though these reforms were not officially published—the reader can easily see that the source of the Armenian trouble starts from the head of the government and runs through all its branches down to the very insignificant, yet well-armed peasant, Kurd who may happen to be a member of the Hamilieh regiment.
The evident reason also why the Powers did not wait for the report of the commission and then present their scheme of reforms was three-fold, namely, they had all the facts with regard to the massacre at Sassoun in their possession; they were aware of the dilatory manner the indolent Turk generally moves, and they would thus save time and prevent the unspeakable Turk from committing something worse. They, however, signally failed in all these. If they ever intended to accomplish anything, they indeed did not succeed, and still worse, they provoked the beast.
After a prolonged pressure had been brought to bear on the sultan by the British, French, and Russian governments he seemed to give up his opposition to their demands and in the autumn in order to pacify England—for England, to her credit, was the leading power that took real interest in the matter, realizing her greater responsibility in the case—the sultan wrote to Lord Salisbury and gave his word that the reforms should be literally and immediately carried out. Meanwhile oppressions and imprisonments were still going on as usual.
St. Paul says, “Render to all their dues....” With all sincerity and truthfulness we must say that Abdul Hamid II, the ex-Sultan of Turkey, was the shrewdest, the most wicked and most diabolical ruler that ever sat on the Ottoman throne. He was sure that there was no concert among the signatory powers. The Triple Alliance, then made up of Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany, was not opposing his policy. More than this, his dear friend, the ruler and the press of Germany had suppressed the true nature of the trouble in Turkey, and had created in Germany the false impression that the Turkish government was at the point of being overthrown by the Armenians who were in revolt; that the sultan was justly trying to suppress this rebellion and maintain his divine right to rule.