The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-27
Popping Up lettering Turk.

y
"once more it begins to appear" OBJ
serves the Indianapolis Star Ond. Rep.),
that the sick man of Europe may sur
vive another disastrous war and cling
with undiminished tenacity to the city
on the Golden Horn from whose min
arets the crescent has flown since
| 1853" This news, the Memphis Com
mercial Appeal (Dem) remarks, will
cause no thrill Of Joy throughout chris
tendom," and many other American
| opinions bear testimony to the same eff
| feet
This Turkish question, the Fresno
Republican (Ind) believes is "the test
/ Of the league of nations" and it goes
| on to say:
IF the allied nations of Europe al
low Turkey to continue as an empire
| because it is expedient to do so, then
the league will be erected upon a rot
ten foundation that will disturb its ex-
lstence fol-, years and may imperil it at
| any time"
=, The Boston Globe Qnd.) reminds us
that Lloyd Georges righteous wartime
slogan" was drive the Turk out of
Europe" 1t asks why he seems to be
receding from it. why this second
thought about oejecting the sultan from
thinks, because the sultan is the
titular head of the Mohammedan re-
lgion'j and Ito kick the sultan out of
Europe, Gas the war promise was) would
| pc a slap in the face of every son of
the prophet, The second reason is
that England may use the Turk to
guard Russian access to the Mediter-
| ranean" as in the past.
The Turk wins" as the New York
| Herald (lnd.) puts it, because he fits
INTO the scheme of the ambitious Euro
mercial (lnd( explains that neither
England nor France desires at this
| time to run the risk of aggravati
their Moslem dependencies BY drastic
| action against the head of the Moslem
faith" remembering that millions of
Mohammedans are in the African, Ash
auc and Indian possessions of those
| two nations.
But how real is the fear that the ex-
| pulsion Of the sultan from Constanti-
nople would drive Islam to revolt ?
"Frenchmen and Englishmen are prob
apiy building bogeys when they express
this fear" says the Tacoma Ledger
| llnd.), the feelings of the embattled
| Moslems who, under Arabian and Brit
ish and French and Russian banners
have blithely slaughtered Turks and de-
stroyed the Turkish empire will not be
outraged If the most eminent OF the
Turks is politely compelled to change
his place of residence" Furthermore,
as the Boston Herald (Ind. Rep) tells
US:
THE Mohammedans are far from
unanimous in recognizing him as salif.
| They are as one In acknowledging
Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet,
as their most sacred city,
And so, the Herald thinks, the sultan
might find more appropriate place
Ohan Constantinople) for such re-
ligious leadership as he is capable OF
exercising"
The New York Journal of Commerce
I'd he HLrnp Hnr IN
raised in the recent Turkish note to
the entente powers and the United
States-that interference with Turkish
unity and independence would mean
the creation of a center of endless
chaos in the near East. AS an alterna-
formation of Turkey with the help OF
single power" The Journal of Com
merce believes the solution will be
that Turkey remain as nominal SOW
ereign power, her flag continuing to
fly at Constantinople, but that the
straits be neutralized their administra-
ton, government and policing by land
and sea being carried on by one coun-
try under a mandate from the league
of nations"
But the Christian Science Monitor
Qnd), when it hears the Turk promis-
ing reformation" becomes ironical:
she promises reformation, just as
she promised it when Mr.. Gladstone
was exposing the Bulgarian atrocities
just as she promised when the butcher
of Adana was chasing the Armenians
with his knife, and just as she prom
Used it at any and every moment wher
Abdul sat in the seraglio on the Golden
Horn, and played the cupidities ano
jealousies of the European nations one
against the other. . Now the ole
jealousies are beginning to operate
again in Europe, and the great powers
are getting ready to patch up the Turk
ish empire rather than to make an enc
of it,"
The New York Times Gnd. Rep.) re.
hearses the long history of Turkish
misrule, and comments bitterly that al
this has failed to teach the lessor
that Turkey cannot be reformed"
Many protests are made against thu
apparent determination to take bach
from Greece her ancient possession o.
Smyrna, and to place it under tenn
porary French protectorate. No on,
Denies" says the Tacoma Ledger, thai
Smyrna is a Greek city, and it de