THE LOOT OF NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 33, 2 November 1918, Page 8

THE LOOT OF NATIONS

WISDOM OF THE EAST TURKEY'S WAR PHILOSOPHY (By Captain Lord Dunsany.) A''Turk named 'i'alaat has stated in Vienna that peace will come soon because "everything that could be got out of the war had been got out of it—a continuance of the war is manifestly useless.'' One feels some sympathy with this Turk on account of his romantic calling, which is that of Grand Yiziar; but he should have stayed amongst . the Arabian nights, where pillage and murder seem natural. We should have read of him then with pleasure in some slightly bowdlerised version; but the "Neue Freie Presse," which preserves his words for us, seems somehow a little too close, and wo admit, with, a regretful glance back at the days of our boyhood and the tales that'charmed us once, that murder and robbery are not what they-were.

Yet ono hardly likes to blame Tafoat Pasha.' There is almost a charm in his bloody simplicity. Wo hnvo got the loot, he feels; let's stop. His alliance with the Kaiser, his devotion to his cause, arc the most natural things on earth. The Kniser stood for all those things that would be dear to a Grand Vizier, his aims were those of' any old man who kept a nice sharp scimitar upstairs, and who wanted to see blood flow again a3 it used to when he wns young. There were all those fat Armenians and no ono cutting their throats; there were" good lands to be plundered and nobody plundering them; end then one day the call! Ono day the Kaiser calling aloud for Mood, calling all -the robber peoples to como and shed it with him, and blood as red and plentiful as of old. ■ And loot! Loot beyond expectation, beyond hope, loot-adequate to satisfy the longing of. all who longed in tho voluptuous days when Shehiu-azftde told a tulo every night for her life. . . '■'....

Yes, that is the great cause t ioo?. It is for loot that this ill-matched four are banded together; bloody Prussia; poor, feeble, defeated Austria whom the Prussians beat; cunning Ferdinand; and romantic, murderous, pre-mediaeval Turkey. They make a paudy combination. And ono great principle binds them all together,' one aims fires the Wood of all of them; that principle, that aim, is loot. What binds them together now would ,fiontter thorn fast enough if they won, when tho dny, dor tai, camo for dividing the loot. But that is a pretty picture that wo shall never see: othw forces will scatter them. At present the bond holds; much loot has lieen gathered in. But the chief looter i* troubled. Great Tiernlexities trouble his Wack heart. They lay their heads toeether in Berlin. Tiny are'in sore doubt. They issue .manifestoes, but these onlv rovea! their doubting. Poor Karl of Austrja wonders hour on earth tliinw will turn out, but he is told it is not his business to wonder. Ferdinand fihnms sick. It is all w>; perTilexinjr. For tho question' arising is nnthing less thaiv this. Can the great orineiple bo maintained? Can we bold tno loot we have stolen? And ii this -.nomenfc of crisis, tins eclipse in blood of all the Kaiser's dreams, this time Hint is fraueht with counsel, where counsel is unavailing, in the hour of Wtter nuestioninge, Talaat snenike; and wisd.vm comes out of tlio Ea't not; as of old; "We'vo a «ico lot of loot," he says. "Lefs stop." .