The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. THE UNSPEAKABLE TURK

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10286, 22 May 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. THE UNSPEAKABLE TURK

In tlhe plenitude of partisan scurrility, swirling round the Peace terms, there is no word about the fate of the Turkish Empire. The reason is obvious. Coming down from the clouds of general abuse to this particular case of Turkey would be os disastrous as the fall of an aeroplane from the calm upper i air ..into the boiling sea. Defence* of the Unspeakable Turk would be the end of all denunciatory flying and lying. The Turk is beyond the reach of any principle of defence. The Free Traders used at one time to adore the Sublime Porte because there was no Tariff, but when they found out the real character of the criminal they knelt no more with the reverence due to shrines. The evidence against him is from all sides. In the Bast it is summed up by that saying about the desolation that settles for over on tbe hoofprints of this criminal’s charger. This sumrtary <?f an infamous career is supported by the desolation of vast areas celebrated in history for their fertility and wealth. In the first part of his career, after 'his conquest of these regions, he lived on their wealth with prodigal magnificence, feeding his attempts to conquer the rest of the world. Defeated, he settled down to the utter waste of the fairest regions of the earth remaining in his hands.' His later years he spent partly between promises of reform, wluch he did not keep; partly in denials of the- assassinations which ho intended to perform ; and partly in j"«s*acres of appalling scale. During great war he added to his criminaSirecord the massacre and nameless outrage of over a million Armenians, and the starvation deliberately malignant of a million Syrians (with a garnish of hangings and violations), and the destruction by starvation largely and by massacre to some extent of a million Greeks. It is true that his country is sown with hatred, and equally true that not oven partisan writers dare to pretend to think that the war and the Allies are the cause. The main point in the situotion is that the suppression of Turkish rule will destroy the whole crop of hatreds.

According to a Paris newspaper writer, who professes the possession of the special information usually referred to as “inspired,” this suppression is the thing aimed at in the Peace Treaty. According to him the first sign of this is the occupation of Smyrna by Greek troops, signifying, he declares, the handing over to Greece of Roumelia and Western Anatolia, with Constantinople in between, under the control, subject to mandate of the League of Nations, of the United States. If this is truc,_ the only thing disquieting in the story is the hint, that the United States will not accept. That hint is, it must bo borne in mind, however, in harmony with the old American faith in the necessity for, keeping clear of European entanglements, while it is against the new idea. The new idea centres in the League of Nations, and tho fact is now recognised throughout both America and Europe that in his attitude towards the League of Nations President Wilson has now the support of nearly all in the United States. So much so that it is now openly said that no one with tho exception of a few disgruntled Republicans ever thinks of dividing the nation on tho League of Nations is.sqo. Under the circumstances it would he surprising to learn that the United States had refused so important a mandate as Constantinople and tho Dardanelles under the League, for which tho President of the United States (with his people now, at his back on this very matter) has done more than any other man living. It will bo objected to this arrangement that the handing of Roumclia to Greece will he the beginning of a vendetta with Bulgaria. But Bulgarin, is not likely to ho content unless she gets, so to speak, the whole earth—this is tho root vice of the Bal-

kan States, for which there is no cure but the knife—and, besides, Bulgaria is down and out, and should be glad of any concession. According to this .authority the Asialtic provinces are to bo under mandatory control of Britain and France, and perhaps America, To the inhabitants of these countries— Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia—the change is like the difference between death and life. That governs the situation. Their old ruler, the Turk, cannot be allowed to resume his feeble, fanatical, futile sceptre on any account whatever. Never was case for forfeiture better, supported by all the laws of God and man. Protects have been heard—German, Russian, Pacifist, Mohammedan —but they are of the kind one might expect, but never gets, from sentenced burglars against the judges on the ground of their coveting the spoils of burglary. Neither is the objection of a certain crop of jealousies and vendettas of any avail. The three nations —Britain, France, United States—are in the best understanding; their spheres of activity ip these regions have been working easily side by side; in the extension of ■ those spheres there can he no hurtling, and the three nations have by a triple alliance Strengthened their duty of obeying the League of Nations, and their power of protecting that salutary Court of Last Appeal for the permanent peace of the world.