The New York herald., 1922-06-12
America in Turkey.

American educational and philan.
thropic interest in Turkey has been
a determining factor in the relations
between the United States and the
Ottoman Empire for the last seventy
! five years. In the sos when DR..
CYRUS HAMLIN, the two DwIGHTs,
WILLIAM r. ROBERT and the BLIssEs
went to Turkey they were encour-
aged by the Sultan in their mission
airy and educational work. One Of
the Sultans explained this by saying
that America was looking for neither
territory nor concessions and, being
free from entanglements in Euro
pean politics, had no Interior pur-
pose in its work
American missionaries have not
suffered greatly from Turkish gov.
ernmental interferences. Robert Col
lege and Scutari Woman's College
on the Bosporus and the American
College at Beirut, Syria, have thrived.
They were unmolested even during
the world war. The position thus
held by the United States is one rea-
son why Great Britain, France and
Italy now desire us to take part in
an investigation of the latest Turk
ish atrocities against Christians in
Asia Minor.
| Secretary HUGHES in accepting the
invitation for the United States to
join in the inquiry has made it clear
that this country is actuated wholly
by humanitarian motives But how
shall the United States Government
avoid entirely the political phase of
the question? Does not the situation
in the Near East now present as
many seriously disturbing perplexi-
ties as ever before? German, Aus
trian and Russian rivalries have dis.
appeared, but are they not replaced
by other conflicting ambitions?
The reckoning now is not with a
weak Sultan's rule at Constantinople
burt with an aggressive Turkish Ma
tionalist party at Angora Sending a
few gunboats to anchor in the Bos-
porus off the Sultan's palace and
threatening to lombard Stamboul IL
the atrocities did not cease would
avail little. For punitive expedi-
tion to reach the present seat of
Turkish power would entail the dis
patch of an army into the heart Of
roadless, mountainous Anatolia.
where a mere handful of men could
hold the passes against regiments.
And would Great Britain. France and
Italy, all with large Mohammedan
populations as more or less restless
subjects. be willing to war against
Angora. the new center of Islamic
thought and agitation?
The Treaty of SAvres is dead and
forgotten The influence OF Islam
and the strife for territorial advan-
tages among European nations killed
Il. The Greeks made two attempts to
uphold the treaty and failing lost
most of the concessions allotted to
them While Great Britain weak.
heartedly backed the Creeks the
French made an agreement of their
own, the -Bouillon Treaty,
with The Angora Government, by
which they secured valuable slice of
Cilicis, control of the western part Of
the Bagdad railroad and a railway
connection from the Tigris Valley to
the Syrian coast. Italy, as the cost Of
her noninterference. expects the CT.
lician mines for which she has long
struggled. Great Britain set I'D a
kingdom in the Mesopotamian valley
with the Arabian Prince, FErsAI, as
its head and formed an alliance with
the Kingdom OF Hedjaz at Mecca.
But the struggle for control of
Arabia only began with this move.
France, according TO a Paris dis.
patch, has gained an Arabian sup.
pert which may yet give her the mas.
terry of the ancient Saracen Asiatic
dominion. THE whole controversy
over Asiatic Turkey is in hopeless
tangle.
Turkish atrocities have been held
up before the Europeans in all their
horrors for three-quarters of cen.
tury. Russia lifted the yoke of per-
secution from the Bulgars shoulders,
but would the other nations, Of Eu.