The record-union., 1897-05-30


greater to the other greater has been
forced TO go''
1t is not possible to give the space
necessary to follow the essayist's trac-
ing of the activities of Occidentalism
and Orientalism meeting on the shores
of the Aegean, it is an absorbing and
romantic study from the first wave of
the Occidental tide to the present, when
or held in sham accord. and the
question is who is to be the leader Of
the Oecidentalism that will push out
over .Alexander's track?
Mr.. Miller describes Turkey as an as
semblage of peoples under absolute
sway of the Sultan, with no sense of
the right of self-government; thor
oughly Oriental, with the idea that gov
eminent is a power about and outside
of and not within the people. 1t is
government of Orientalism, geograph-
ical misfit on Occidental sofia strand
ed wreck left high and dry beyond the
sea wall by a receding tidal wave.
While it must be confessed that its re-
cent triumphs apparently refute this
| conclusion of Mr.. Wheeler's. we must
believe that it is a power more appa-
rent than real, and manifest now rather
because of the permissive attitude of
the great Powers than because of in
| herent strength.
Concerning the Armenians under
Turkish sway, nearly a quarter of
million of whom are in COnstantinople,
Mr.. Wheeler says that they are in race
the Thraco- Phrygians of old. Indo-
Europeans, some. of their descendants
were defenders of ancient Troy. They
preserve their distinctness in language,
literature and religion, and in racial
and national type. Occidentals hold
that such a people have. right to gov
ern themselves, but Turkey has not the
sense to recognize this right of individ-
ualty and personality-to the Turk the
Armenans are simply plague spot on
the empire.
| The Armenians are not an easy people
/ to get on with. They are distinguished
| by an energy, busy-ness and fond
ness for acquisition that are almost
super-occidental. They are selfish, per-
| sonally unattractive and strikingly
| lacking in traits of nobility and self
respect. The average Armenian is un-
questionably of sharp intelligence so
far as small things go. The saying is
| that it takes ten Jews to outwit one
| Greek, and ten Greeks to outwit one
Armenian. He is unquestiOnably ex-
| tremely irritating to the quietistic, re-
signed, fatalistic Turk. The two have
| little in common. The Armenian is
clearly pestilent fellow, and the Turk
| has decided to get rid of him. The
Armenian is a persistent source of un-
rest He is kicker" What men
| do with "kickers." in the Occidental
scheme of things, is to vote them
| down. The Turk knows no other way
| than to club them down, cut their
| heads off, or sink them in the Sea of
| Marmora. He is applying the triune
recipe with patient zeal as occasion
offers.
| Crete, says Mr.. Wheeler, the Turk re-
CARDS as another plague-spot, though
all the 10000 Mussulmans there speak
| the Greek tongue. Concerning Greece
and Crete then, Turkish theory offers
no solution except utter subjugation or
determination. Similar conditions re-
! late to the Macedonian coast sections
and in Eoirus, in both of which the
Greek language prevails and the popu-
lation is Greek.
So here is an unnatural situation
that makes the postponement of a set
tlement only temporary. The great ma
tions of Europe are united in keeping
| Greece from her own. because the
Greeks must be reckoped with in the fu-
ture settlement of the Eastern question;
! commercial interests around the
Aegean Sea are largely in Greek hands;
one-third the population of Constan-
tinople is Greek: the Greek nation is
bankrupt; its land offers no abundant
promise of greatness; it is not suited to
agriculture; it has neither water power
nor minerals in plenty: nor coal supply.
| But its population is active, optimistic,
restless, impulsive and half educated;
abstemious and thrifty, they go abroad
and accumulate wealth; profoundly pa
| triotic, the traditions of their ancient
glory never fade; thoroughly Occden-
| tai, they are also bitterly antagonistic
to Orientalism and hate Turkey and
| the Turks So the conflict iS oD and
will last to the death, because ground
| ed in indestructible difference of
/ thought mood and character
If all the territory having predom-
/ nance of Greek blood and speech was
united in nationality. one would. says
| Mr.. Wheeler, have a state 100000
! strong, menace all around the Aegean
if not control of the waterway to the
would be affiliated with Russia: il
would be an independent element in
truding into European politics: a bar
between Russia and the Mediterranean
and between England and the East:
wedge between the Kaaba and the La
/ teran. The balance of power policy
does not favor the creation of such a
State
Besides, any disturbance on the
Aegean would create suspicion and
dread. There is a long list of claims
against Turkey, and each claimant op-
poses any preferred creditors being
!