WRONG HORSES.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1925, Page 1

WRONG HORSES.

(New Zealand “Times”) “Backing tile wrong horse” was the description by a great British statesman some years ago of the long-con-tinued Turkophile policy of Britain. Lord Curzou told the House of Lords the other day that Britain is not going to hack the Turk in the matter of the Check Patriarch ; neither is she going to hack the Greeks. The hitter backing proved, in a very recent years, another hacking of the wrong horse. Air Lloyil George hacked the Greeks in their rush on Angora, and they went down. Now they are asking to be backed again, and in vain, of course. As to the Turk. Britain backed him for a century, fought a terrible war for him, and interfered in another war for his protection, bringing a victorious Russian army to a stop by the guns of Admiral Hornby’s Boot at the gates of Constantinople. The “wrong horse’’ showed his grati tilde hv kicking us heavily in the ribs in our war with Germany. After we had punished him and swept liim out of 'Europe and half of -Asia Minor, and hacked the Greek horse against him. we suddenly took him into favour again, gave him a new treaty, and put him into 11 position from which he will probably he able to reconquer all his lost territories, and stamp them again into tile foul mud of Turkish corruption. About this last revolution of the ill-starred Turkish kaleidoscope, Lord Curzou knows perhaps more Hum most men. and perhaps more than lie would care to own., British policy in Turkey lias certainly been inconsistent and Ititile. One day we defend bis weakness a.s champions; another we cuff him for his treachery; another we denounce vengeance on him a.s a murderer stained with the blood of millions; another we pamper him a.s a reformed character. It is good to bear now that we arc not going to touch him, so to speak, with a ten-loot pole. But what about the dominions should foreign policy bring them, in their new status, up against the Turk? AA’liat guidance can history give their representatives at 11 crisis that mav arise at any moment?