THE TURK UNFIT TO RULE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 4 May 1917, Page 6

THE TURK UNFIT TO RULE.

Writing on the future of Constantinople, Sir William Ramsay says: "In regard to the Turkish people and their fate, I write a s one who has known thousands of them in the course of the last 35 years, and is on very friendly terms with many. I am indebted to them for much kindness. I have eaten the bread and salt of very many individuals and villages, and there are few, if any, even among the Turks themselves, whose face used to be so familiar or so welcome as mine. I claim to speak on behalf of the Turkish people, both when I have denounced the Armenian massacres and now when I maintain that Turkish domination on the great international waterway which is commanded by Constantinople is an outrage that ought to be ended. Every plan for improving Turkish administration has failed; and the conclusion must be draAvn. The streets of Stamboul must be swept clear of blood. The Young Turks swept them clear of filth and of dogs, but the stain of innocent blood shed throughout the Em-

pire is deeper than ever at the centre of Government. No true friend of the Turks would keep them where they lave to perform a grave inter-ational duty. It is a work for which "-ey are not suited; no one who knr ™ s and loves their pood qualities fr a intimate knowledge can be i gn ant of the faults which unfit them'tc rule at Constantinople. They cannot nse, hut only misuse, the resources of civilisation. Anything may happen in Turknv except what is reasonrble and natural i and possible, and the results are often '

comic, but sometinies tragic. Moreover, the people who suffer most from the governing class have been the Turks themselves. This sounds a paradox, but it is the plain truth."