preparing to go on strike. The whole business started to get out of hand. To avert this threat to Istanbul's trade and business life, Bediuzzaman went immediately to the tea-houses and places the porters frequented and persuaded them to avoid any extreme action.
In one place, the Asiret Han, immediately gaining command of the situation with his line voice, Bediuzzaman said the following to the porters:
"You are all from the East like me, and you have all crossed the Tigris and the Euphrates on rafts. You know too that on one occasion a group crossing the Tigris on a raft tried to get rid of some of the ropes and crossbeams of which the raft was composed in order to lighten the load and move more swiftly. Of course, on doing this the main planks of the raft came apart and both themselves and their belongings ended up in the water.
"In the same way, your foremen arc like the ropes and cross-beams; they do not appear to serve any purpose but in fact they are vital. If they were to go, your harmony would be spoilt and your work confused. just like the raft that sank, you would be compelled to split up and disperse."
with this the insurrection came to nothing. The porters understood their ,r: mistake, and obeying their foremen, returned to work immediately. The Istanbul Chief of Police later came in person to offer his thanks to Bediuzzaman for preventing a harmful situation developing.54
Another occasion Bediuzzaman played a similar role was at a lecture given by The well-known figure and owner of the Mizan newspaper, Messianic Murad Bey, in the Ferah Theater in Sehzadebasi in Istanbul. The subject of the lecture was The rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and as the lecture progressed it became clear that Murad Bey, who had previously represented the `Islamist' group of the Young Turks, was comparing the Committee of Union and Progress and the Government to the Roman stale. His comparisons became more explicit, and the CUP supporters among the audience started muttering and grumbling. Murad Bey continued with this criticisms unperturbed, not wavering even when