The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1919. THE PROBLEM OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 159, 31 March 1919, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1919. THE PROBLEM OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Some days ago a cablegram reported that the Indian delegation ;at the Peace Congrc.-s had presented a memorandum to the British delegation, opposing the contemplated decision to drive the Turk _ from Europe, because it would . alienate the Mohammedans. This statement is of far-reaching interest, but it rests on a somewhat shaky foundation, as it is only the unofficial report of a newspaper correspondent, and, after the recent contradictory reports about Italy and Fiume, such statements must be taken with a grain of salt. It is very improbable that the Indian Mohammedans have any real religious concern about the fate of Constantinople. It is not one of the Holy Places of the Mohammedan world like Mecca and Medina; and pious Mohammedans have no sentimental interest in the city. Further, the Indian Mohammedans have only a scornful interest in the "Young Turk" i Government, and it is very improbable that they would move a little finger to prevent that Government being sent'(to use Me. Gladstone's phrase) "bag and baggage" out of Europe. Pious Mohammedans look upon'the "Young Turks" as having brought disgrace to their religion by becoming the miserable puppets of Germany in the war, and by prostituting their religious principles by .declaring the aggressive wars of a non-Mohammedan nation a "Holy War." They also look back with indignation at the "Young Turks" assisting in the deceitful .propaganda, which represented the Kaiser as a convert to Mohammedanism and as a conqueror that would come and dwell'among.'them and be the great protector of the Mohariimedan world. When the Ottoman Sultan sent forth the call to a "holy w.ar" the Indian Mohammedans scorned his claim to the spiritual headship of the Mohammedan world.. His Highness, Ago Khan, the spiritual head of the Khoja community of Mussulman, and who has a following, in India and out, of 60,000,000, sent out the following message to the Mohammedan world when the Young Turk Sultan called to the Holy War: "Turkey' has been persuaded to draw the sword in an unholy cause from which she could not. but be ruined whatever else happened. Our duty is to remain loyal, faithful, and obedient to our temporal and secular allegiance"—that is- to British rule. The Nizam of Hyderabad sent forth a similar manifesto, in which lie declared that "in no Moslem or non-Moslem power in the world did they enjoy such personal and religious liberty as they do in India." Indian Mohammedan troops have fought the Ottoman Turks in Egypt, in Gallipoli, and in Mesopotamia, just as they fought the Huns on the Western frolit. In the face of such facts, as these, the report about the Indian delegation raising the religious 'difficulty to the Peace Congress in connection with the ending of the rule of the Ottoman Turk in Constantinople must be taken with grave doubt. Wc'niay, however, give more credenoe to the other statement regard-, ing the contemplated decision to drive the Turk out of Europe. For generations the Turkish Government in Constantinople has been so hopelessly corrupt as to call for its extinction. Mqhammedans themselves have declared it to bo a "sink of iniquity." Mohammedan rule in Persia and elsewhere is free from the foulness of Turkish rule. .Mr, A. E. Freeman, the historian, in his |ucid.and virile way, thirty years ago said: "The Ottoman Turk camo in as an alien and barbarian, and encamped on. tho soil of Europe. At the end of live hundred years he remains an alien and barbarian encamped on soil which he has no more made his own than it was when he first took' Ifallipolie. It has been the rule of cruelty, frightj fulness, and brutal lust; it has'not. been government, but organised brigandage. For an evil which cannot be reformed there is one remedy only—to get rid of it. Justice, reason, humanity, demand that , the rule ,of the Turk in Europe should be got rid of; and the time for getting rid .of it has now come." Since Freeman wrote Armenia has been the land of a million martyrs slain by orders from Constantinople. The present Young Turk regime, which began with the setting up of a Constitution, and which had liberty, equality, and fraternity as. its watchwords, is worse than that even of "Abdul the Damned."- It'is ah illustration of the house left empty and evil'spirits worse than the first possessing it. In January, 1917, the Entente,in replying to President Wilson's Note of Peace offer, put forth its aims as including "The turning out of Europe of the Ottoman Empire ap decidedly foreign to 'Western civilisation." This was understood at the time to mean annexation by Russia; but when the Russian Revolution Kerensky, then Minister of Justice, declared in favour of the internationalisation of the city. The Bolshevist, 60-called, Government, which at first was simply a German hireling, said "No conquest of the Straits, no partition of Austria will be tolerated by this Council." The Entente have said nothing in the way of withdrawal of their policy, though Mr. Lloyd George said that he did not favour driving the Ottoman Turks from' their "homelands"; but Europe is not their homeland, so his words can hardly be taken as a withdrawal. The problem of Constantinople will probably be solved on the lines suggested by Kbbensky. The city and the straits will be internationalised, but placed under the control of a great Power. Sir Valentine Chirol, in an articled the Fortnightly Review on Islam and the Future of Constantinople, points out that America has worked hard to spread Western civilisation in Constantinople,' and she has there splendid missionary and educational institutions. He holds that the mixed nopulation of the city made up of Turks, Greeks?, Armenians, and other races, would have, under American government, a guarantee of absolute religious and civic 'freedom, and there would be no muddling with the new Turkish State on the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus. He asks: "If this rcrcat and almost Providential call is made on the American nation, can they refuse to hearken to it?" It is possible such a call may be hidden - in decisions not yet made public of the Peace Congress, and such a call coming from such a quarter would be the call of the civilised world.