The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-25

dan solution, ana one WHICH "ouiu
throw Greeks and Armenians to
the wolves of Angora, may be in
the nature of pure intrigue. Brit
aims present task in India is to get
the Hindus out of the clutches of
the Mohammedans, who make no
secret of their intention of ruling
India if government is conced-
ed. Nothing in the situation
up to the present moment has re-
vealed what is in the back of Lord
Readings mind. But it is plain
enough that the British government
cannot in any offhand way accede
to the Delhi governments demands,
and that the premature publication
of that demand has for the time be-
+ ing strengthened the hand of the
conservative wing of the cabinet,
which will not, if it can help it, let
go the firm hold of the British Raj
on the empire that Give and Hast
ings conquered and that Colin
I Campbell and Havelock saved"
Lord Reading and his associ-
ates." says the Springfield Repub-
lican QndD, must, like Mr.. Mon
tagu, have understood perfectly how
their action must embarrass the
government and hamper its diplo-
matte freedom at the conference on
the near east. 80. If, neverthe-
less, they decided for publication
it can only be because they felt
that nothing less than the empire
was at stake and that in the effort
to save that they were justified in
taking extraordinary measures to
force the governments hand
/ Acts as Boomerang.
| The Brooklyn Daily Eagle sug-
gests that the doctrine of self
; lies during the war with an eye on
the Danes in Schleswig. the Poles
; in Silesia and the French in AL
SAGE is coming home. The
cause to which Montagu was sac
rificed is bad because it represents
| Great Britain's most reactionary
point of view and means a less en-
lightened and presumably less in
/ formed conduct of Indian affairs at
this crucial hour"
{ The British are stubborn
/ race says the Grand Rapids Press,
/ they committed themselves to sup
port of the Greeks. right or wrong,
and they will hardly give up Con-
stantinople. Furthermore, British
support of, or apology for, Moham-
medan oppression OF Christian peo-
pies during the last century has
been the worst blot on British his
tory and the policy will not be re-
! vived"
The st. Louis Globe-Democrat
believes if we are to have a war
! less world the capacity of the Turk
to work mischief must be destroy
ed. ITO neutraliZe this menace to
peace" it says, lis even more i'm
portant than an adjustment of Pa
,, cific problems. The restoration of
Constantinople is unthinkable
Even the presence of the sultan
and his plot-hatching court in an
internationalized Constantinople is
a cause for anxiety. What
the Reading proposal asked was
! that the allies should confess them
| selves defeated in one of the most
| important phases of the war Of
! 1914-1S."
The strength of the situation is
that Great Britain is discharging
her obligations faithfully" says the
| New Haven Journal-Courant (Ind).
England will muddle through if
she puts her hand to forcible sup
preston, but the end is not yet OF
peace through change of person
neil"
The New York Evening Post
| UndD believes "it should be posi-
BILE to reach an adjustment that
will at once protect the Christian
minorities in the near east
stop the fighting, and restore Anglo
French concord and help placate
England"
Characterizing Montagu as the
Edmund Burke of India the Fort
Wayne Journal Gazette (Dem.)
says, 1T is well to keep in mind
that men of genius and intelligence
like Reading and Montagu honest
ly believe that the present policy
in India is destructive of the en-
pire"
India may be ripe for a revolu-
ton says the Winnipeg Evening
Times, but it is not at all the sort
of revolution looked for by Chan
di and the Ali brothers. 1t will be
a sweeping out of a government in
which the generosity of conquest
has degenerated into the wanton
and arbitrary exercise of power
Its replacement by some
thing more in touch with the mod
ern spirit Of the British empire
cannot. be long delayed"