CURRENT LITERATURE.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1923, Page 4

CURRENT LITERATURE.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. I.onl Kvcrsley’s inv;ili«aol«- "History ni the Turkish Empire iirst appeared in 11)17, ami covered the period from jests A.IT, when, with the accession of the Othman dynasty, i iirkey »ai born, down to the eve of the (treat War hut, of course, the years since 1911 have been fruitful in events of profound significance for Turkey, and a .second edition has been published, containing a number of supplementary chapters by Sir Valentine Chirol, than whom no one speaks with greater authiiiitv regarding the East, Sir \ alenline Chirol take-, tip the tale where Lord Evet'sley left off, and brings it to the Mundanin convention. Not only does his contribution round off the record, but in the light- of it the history of Turkey as-umes a singularly dramatic f|utility. It is a flow and tin fill): first a crescendo, then a steady, decline to collapse almost to extinction, and then when Turkey seemed to be done for ail amazing renascence.

We think of the Ottoman Empire as a feeble anachronism, and its rulers as degenerate, cruel, corrupt, and incompetent. Hut it was not always thus. At the heifilit of its power it

extended from Hilda Pesth to the Persian Gulf. Its shins harried the coasts of ‘'pain ami [mini. No country in Europe was more efficiently administered. and while the Western world was sunk in the dark ages, science and learning flourished under Islam. . The remarkable growth of the Ottoman Empire is attributable to various causes. The Turkish armies were well disciplined, and the 'Turks were line lighters, whose martial ardour was encouraged by magnificent rewards. Lord Everslev does not accept the conventional view that they were animated by religious and proselytising zeal. They .sought the materia! gains of victory, loot, slaves, and land. Moreover, the various peoples of South-eastern Europe would not make common cause against them. Then, as now, Serbs. Magyars, (ireeks, and Bulgarians hated each other even more bitterly than they hated the Turk. And lastly, the members of the Othman dynasty were men of rare energy and ability. They were pure Turks in their origin, and for ten generations in unbroken succession t his family provided Turkey with ruler, who were accomplished administra-

tors ami statesmen, and brilliant lenders. Snlvmaii the Magnificent, who died in Id!)!), was the last oi the line, and in hi., reign I lie Turkish Empire reached il- zenith. Since then the Sultans have been u ih . ruh nt crew oi mixed blond. The harem became the principal inlluenee in (be gin eminent, and,in i-ouseum-llce i orrnpliiin and intrigue became rife. Tlie armies had no longer the -aim: ineentii e to valour, because in w ars n! defence fought upon their own territory no loot was h, he had. And too third cause of the failure of the lurks to maintain their Empire in Europe was undoubtedly their harsh treatment of their -übicct-penpßs under ihe Othmans. Tiie condition oi the Christian population n| the Ottoman Empire was tnneli better titan that of the peasants in the neighbouring States of Austria llti ll miry, and Russia. Hut with the degeneration of the Central Goverilinent the old order changed. uppreesiou and persecution became tin* rule, with the result that the Western Powers were impelled to intervene, and to support the ellnrts ol the lialkan States to win their Ircedom Provinces were torn from the Ottoinan Empire periodically "like leaves from an artichoke," until at the end ef the (treat Wai Turkey was stripped to the very core. In recent limes Turkey s ev»l geiiiliha- la-eii a nation that posed as bet friend. Tor go tears holore the war -be was cb.-U'-c i-.tel> exploited 1..- Germany. 11 wa‘- AVillbnn !!■ i"li" originated tin- policy -a policy which was largely responsible lor the breach between him and Bismarck. The latter disapproved oi the intimacy between (lermany and Turkey which tile Emperor was sedulously promoting. Hut. said William. Turkey was Germany's "bridge-head’’ to "world dominion." "World dominion," retorted the Chancellor, "is a term which finds no place in my p.-ditiral diet ionic ry." William neverc lieb'ss persisted in his purpose, and Turkov was harnessed to Germany's chariot. Ii has been suggested thin if British diplomacy bad been more skilful Turkey eun!d Tune been kept out of the war.

anil in p.trtn ular ibat if Br itain had nm requisitioned the iwo batik- i-rui-sers wliieb had been built tor Turkey in British yards Turkey would have remained neutral. But it seems that :i 'king that Britain did or left undone affected the result. For we know now, on German authority, that although the outbreak of war in August, 101-1, was followed by a formal proclamation of neutrality by Turkey. Enver Pasha had alreadv eoneluded a treaty with Germany providing for the armed e<>operiuion ol Turkey with ihe Central Powers. And throughout the war Turkey relied upon German assurances, which to the knowledge of Germany were utterly valueless. Turkey would probably have thrown tip the sponge toward- the end of 1 fll7 had not William solemnly “guaranteed" the Sultan all his territorial possessions. And later the German Government gave its dupe an equally solemn pledge that Germany would in no event evacuate Belgium until Britain evacuated Palestine.

The final chapters are a record of frustration. The Allies were going to emancipate the subject races; they were going- to render Turkey powerless for further evil. But wliar has come of it all? For many months the Turks were prepared to submit to any terms that the Allies might impose on them, but time wore oil without a settlement, and in the interval Turkish spirit revived. The delay was perhaps, inevitable: it was prompted by the hope that America might be Induced to co-operate. But the ATlies were guilty of other errors of omission and commission in their dealings with Turkey. Sir Ahtlentine Chirol agrees with Professor Toynbee 'that they were ill-advised to authorise the Greek landing at Smyrna. Moreover, the very extensive cessions to Greece in Thrace were hound to intlame Turkish opinr ion. The Turks were reconciled to the loss of provinces out of which they had Itoen driven in fair fight, but to lose those which they had still held at the end of the war. and to lose them not to the victorious Allies or even to the Arab-, but to the Greeks, who had never set toot on Turkish soil until j long after the Armistice, was intolerably galling to Turkish pride. The Allies, moreover, had been short-sight-ed in allowing the Turks to keep their arms after the Armistice. France, in concluding a separate treaty with Angora, did not play the game with her Allies. Turkish intransigeanco was fostered by the attitude of the Government of India, which Sir Valentine Chirol thinks to have been grossly improper. Lord Pleading, the Viceroy, in order to conciliate the Moslems in India, publicly advocated a revision of the Treaty of Sevres, although the Imperial Government still stood formally committed to it. What Sir Valentine Chirol sardonically terms a “great” speech by Mr Lloyd George ! encouraged Greece to persist in her i disastrous adventure. 1 So what with one thing and another j

the abased crescent rose again, and the dispositions of the Allies were nullified. The Treaty of Sevres has gone by the board. All that is left of it is the freedom of the States, and Sir Valentine Chirol considers the maintenance of this to ho problematical. The Mudania Convention averted war, and closed an unsatisfactory chapter in Anglo-Turkish relations, but Sir Valentine Chirol sums up its effect as follows:—"It wiped out the ill-starred Treaty of Sevres, and with it almost all the penalties which Turkey had brought upon leer-elf ley her entry into the Great War, and the atrocious crimes perpetrated by her against her subject races. When she surrendered to the merev of the Allies on October ,'.O. 191 S, the death-knell of Turkey seemed to have actually sounded. At Mudania four years afterwards she was resuscitated, and resuscitated in a blaze of mjlitary glory which, however cheaply earned, could not fail t<vindicate in the eyes of the East, her claim to be regarded as the triumphant sword of Islam and the spearficatT of the Asian revolt against the West. It was hailed with enthusiastic demonstrations by Mahommedan Indians in Calcutta, as well as by the Turkish population in Constantinople, and it was hailed everywhere, and not without roatioii, as a Mow dealt specially at England.