TNT History Archives: Sunken Navy Minister Defends His Honor (1908)/Part V/FINAL

//Ed. Note: Completing his self-defense, impeached Navy
Minister Hasan Rami asserts his opposition to the Sultan's
despotic regime and even provides a list of reforms he 
would have made as Navy Minister had he not been 
"submarined" by his enemies.//


Favorable newspaper report about Hasan Rami Paşa (top center) 
back in the day...




If it can be said  that a man who first had years of training with the
English fleet;  who has always had a hatred of 'jurnalcılık' (Sultan 
Abdülhamid II's secret police organization); who has fought
this evil at every turn; who would not accept anyone connected with
'jurnalcılık' in his own retinue; who stayed away from the Navy Ministry
for years; who has had nothing to do with special privleges; who has no
income other than his salary; who steered clear of the favored groups
who met at the Sultan's palace; who at the time when he was appointed
as Navy Minister accepted the position reluctantly; and who has never
embezzled even a penny is one of the despot's men then ascribing this
vile epithet to me may be appropriate.

It is as clear as day that the Ottoman Navy's current decrepit state and
its weakness and distress are the consequence of 32 years of one man's
corruption of his administration.  I can say with complete assurance
that placing the burden of blame for this decline and decadence on me,
who served as Navy Minister for just 1.5 years in the midst of countless
difficulties, would be outrageously unjust and unfair.  In a day or two,
my memoir will be published and that will be sufficient to expose the
truth.


Hasan Rami Paşa's memoir about the sad state 
of the Ottoman fleet he commanded during the
war with Greece in 1897.


Here is a partial list of  the recommendations I make to the government
in my memoir.  If these reforms had not been stymied by the malicious
misrepresentation of spies, who turned the Sultan against me, most of
them would have been accomplished during my 1.5 year tenure as Navy
Minister.  My memoir will make clear that when one sees the difficulties
I faced, the slanders thrown against me and the destruction of  my well-
intentioned reforms, my frustration will be understood.

1 - Repair and prevention of damage to all the sites within the Istanbul
shipyard;

2 - Repair and renewal of the drydock covers used for the repair and
support of the ships;

3 - Repair and renewal of the boilers of the İdare-i Mahsusa (Istanbul)
ferries;

4 - Establishment of facilities to increase the İdare-i Mahsusa ferries
operating the Anatolian line, as well as obtaining and preserving
our maritime trade and troop transportation;

5 - Purchase of a few new ferries for the İdare-i Mahsusa coastal ferry
lines;

6 - Assignment of naval engineers to the İdare-i Mahsusa's external
lines and their teaching of maritime operations;

7 - Purchase of warships to increase the Navy's power;

8 - Purchase of  one or two training ships for the improvement of
maritime engineers;

9 - Purchase of warships to defend the Ottoman shores and deployment
of the fleet to Izmir and Salonica and for coastal patrols;

10 - Construction of watchtowers along the Ottoman coasts for
detection and reconnaissance of the enemy; 


The "Mesudiye" at the Istanbul 'Tersane-i Amiri' (shipyard).

11 - Construction of a Red Sea shipyard and purchase of a floating
drydock for it;

12 - Improvement of the Ereğli mines and the construction of a railway
from there to Üsküdar for the transport of coal;

13 - Eliminate the need for foreign purchases of coal for factories and
ships  by bringing Ereğli coal to the (Istanbul) shipyard;

14 - Re-acquisition of the Kadıköy and Haydarpaşa ferries, currently
in the hands of Anatolia Railway Company Director Mr. Heuguenen,
but which were built with İdare-i Mahsusa's money;

15 - Retake Sea of Marmara commercial activity from foreign hands
by increasing the number of ferries operating to Aya Stefanos
(Yeşilköy) and the Princes' Islands and to the gulfs;

16 - Purchase of two large ships for troop transport to be docked
permanently in the Red Sea;

17 - Assignment of torpido steamboats to İzmit permanently and
sending the warship Mahmudiye there, as well;

18 - Keep officers and sailors busy with training all the time and by
operating all of the factories at the shipyard, dissuade officers and
rolling mill students from spending their time at the coffeehouses;

19 - Have the factories produce everything to save the Naval
treasury from having to make purchases from abroad;

20 - Purchase of a fireboat and its use for other purposes when there
are no fires to be dealt with;

21 - "Buyouts" to encourage retirement of sick and invalid employees;

22 - Establishment of a commission to ensure night training for officers
and sailors so that without a certificate they cannot be promoted;

23 - Collection of customs duties from foreign companies, especially
Greek ones, operating ferries along the coasts;

24 - Repair or refurbishing of the bridge;

25 - Establishment of a temporary site for 10 of the 20 dsurplus and
outdated torpido steamboats currently at the shipyard and at Sütlüce;

26 - It would be worth considering replacing the permanent workers at
the shipyard with engineering sailors and rolling mill students and,
when necessary, bringing in workers from abroad, as a cost-saving
measure.

//signed// Former Navy Minister Hasan Rami




...not-so-favorable article about Hasan
Rami Paşa in the 9 August 1908 issue
of "Tanin" newspaper. Circled area is
the list of ill-gotten goods found during
a search of his mansion. 

//END of PART V/FINAL//