Outskirts of Empire by John Fisher

Author:John Fisher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Corruption

Wilson, as well as his subordinates, was greatly preoccupied with personnel and ‘corruption so deep, so widespread, and so open that it has a material effect not only on official business, but on the ordinary transactions of daily life.’ By way of redress, he felt that something would have to be done both in the localities and at Constantinople. The central government alone could remove valis and their deputies, the mutasariffs, who oversaw sanjaks.16 He suggested security of tenure for effective governors-general for a period of five years and the abrogation to them of fuller powers. Their immediate subordinates ought to be able to suspend or dismiss ineffective lesser officials guilty of demonstrable misconduct, and to block further unwise appointments. Central reform, in Wilson’s view, must include the abolition or curtailment of the Committee of Appointments and, more generally, the civil service must be ‘reorganized and purified’. Measures would include the proscription of most officials from obtaining nominations to appointments in their own towns, and against the sale of appointments, greater devolution from Constantinople to the localities, and the more effective use of the vali as a conduit for reforming initiative. Wilson also suggested that Christians, who had previously been overlooked, must be eligible for appointment, and that schools be established to train officials.

As suggested by the title of this chapter, perhaps the most pressing issue was personnel and some examples serve to illustrate the deep-rooted nature of the problem. In November 1879, Wilson had noted that the difficulties in the Sivas Vilayet derived from the ten-year governorship of Mehemet Ali.17 Early in 1880, Wilson recorded the appointment of Izzet Pasha as governor of Amasia, in central-northern Anatolia. Izzet had twice been dismissed for peculation and dishonesty. The Mufti of Zilleh had, by virtue of similar dishonesty, defrauded the government of large sums of money. The assistant public prosecutors in Amassia and Kara Hissar were either ignorant of the law or drunkards.18 In Wilson’s absence, in March 1880, William Richards, who was an assistant in the Levant Consular Service, had reported the likely removal of Abedin Pasha, the Vali of Sivas, to Salonica. This would undo all of his reforms. Richards also reported the dismissal of the similarly efficient Inspector of Justice.19 In Kastambul, which was reported to be relatively peaceful in February 1880, Herbert Kitchener noted Mahmud Bey’s removal as Attorney General: a role in which he had excelled. Kitchener had praised Mahmud’s work to the Vali, who was complicit in his removal. Kitchener felt that in general his intercessions had been effective so this was a disappointing development. Equally unfortunate was the continuation in office of the ineffectual inspector of justice, Azin Pasha.20 Lt Herbert Chermside, when attached to one of two reforming commissions, appointed in January 1879, but not despatched to Armenian districts by the Porte until May 1879, recorded the view that the Christian inhabitants of Zeitoun, some way to the north of Ayas Bay, had faced considerable distress due to the behaviour of governor Kiamil Pasha.

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