Mar. 14.
Tt merely remains to know what indemnity the Allies' Supreme Council propose to offer to Turkey for driving her out of Mesopotamia, Palestine, Smyrna and other places she has grievously oppressed, and at what date these provinces are to be restored to her misrule. Such may be the general feeling on reading the Allied proposals now officially published for the ''settlement''—Heaven save the mark of the Near Eastern problem. The bitterness with which these humiliating terms will be received, at least in England, cannot be put into words.. One reads them again and again with incredulity, anger and shame.
A variety of explanations suggest themselves, but none that gives any satisfaction. A possible explosion among the Indian Moslems, if Turkey be hardly dealt with, has often been paraded. But by the best advices India really cares very little about the Turks and the dangers of a pro-Islam movement in that quarter are greatly exaggerated. Then there is the amount of money that France has invested in Turkey and the notorious fact that she wishes Turkey to be handled with kid gloves, The answer is that there is the Allied Financial Control Commission in Turkey with resources for extracting what she owes at least as good as we command in Germany. Besides, the Turks, having found that they can as successfully play off one Power against another 1s ever Abdul Hamid did, will certainly not hesitate to employ the same ruse the other way round when it suits them. The weakness shown in London is the last thing to encourage them to pay inconvenient debts. The further explanation suggests itself that the Supreme Council is trying to bribe Constantinople to play the policeman over Mustapha Kemal and the Nationalists, to prevent them from allying themselves with Russia and to build up a buffer state against the Soviet. But is it seriously to be expected that any Turk will be more loyal to the infidel than to his brother Turk, especially as the London Conference has plainly shown that the Nationalist and Constitutionalist delegates can combine excellently in the common cause of their country, and when
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.