TURKEY: Involuntary Bachelors Taxed

The Eunuchs' Benevolent Association is an organization of about 100 shiny old black men, remnants of Turkey's harem system which ended in 1909. (Even before the harem was abolished white eunuchs had become rare.) When the Government levied a tax on bachelors in April 1934. the association asked that its members be exempted, on the ground that their bachelorhood was involuntary. This week their petition was rejected. The tax, said the Government, was on men not supporting wives, regardless of the reason.

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