Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-09
GREEK AGAINST TURK
AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS
The Whole Tangled and Formidable
Near Eastern Problem Is Reopened
by the Victorious Ottoman

NE Suduen ana perhaps trreparable
L Greek collapse in Asia Minor unmasks
situation in which posturing was car
ried beyond the brink of disaster.
1t has been customary in some quarters
| to regard the war in the Near East as the
residue of the universal conflict, as a
struggle sniritlessly waged on both sides,
securely localized and destined in the end
to relieve some of the major European
Powers of the embarra ssment of complex
! problems in the Levant Hostilities were
! sanctioned by the o-Callcd Allies when the
difficulty of enforcing the Treaty of Sevres
was realized in the continental ChanCeleries.
Another view has heen that in which
Hellenic ambitions beyond the Aegean were
seen, in the light of historical compensation,
as modern revival of the epic contest be-
tween OCcidPnt and Orient. with roots in
the old Persian Greek wars. goriied by
Salamis. Marathon and Plataea and, mil
iennum later by the long death struggle of
the Byzantine Empire against the inter-
Looping Ottoman Turks
1t is easy to be dcluded by such ideoogues,
especially in that quarter of the globe where
racial and religious claims and the prec-
edents of ancient civilizations inextricably
overlap.
Nothing is more deceptive in the Levant
than PHILOSOPHERS of history rigdy fash
Toned, For centuries every contestant here
has been fortified with conceptions of mani
fest destiny.
The Turk has battled for what he deemed
the homeland, the Greek for tho soil of his
ancestors. Western nations with weather
eye on trad" and exploitation have not hesi-
! tated to speak of new crusades.
These formulas may he temporarily con-
von!ent. hut they are beyond all question
| spurious In the Near East it is the covert
| motives. the policies most carefully hidden
! from public gaze which are dominating
| Occasionally the drumming guns which have
no doubts bring down the whole flimsy struc-
ture OF fctions.
At the present moment the demolition
program is in the hands of the Kemalist
Turks. Their injection of realism into the
situation was probably not virtuously IN
| tended, hut its effect could not have been
more striking If deliberately and morally
| planned.
Four nations, two OF the first rank and
| two subordinate. have been staging a tre-
| mendous drama in the Near East and deco
rating it with attitudes which in them
selves bear the faintest resemblance to
actual facts.
| Constantine. whose throne is the most
! rickety in Europe, has sought to save his
dynasty by the perilous expedient OF con-
! quest. Britain and France are competing
| for domination in the Near East. No con-
/ ference however pretentious, has suficed
! TO alay this intense rivalry
! How bitter it IS was revealed some months
ago when Earl Curzon thundered against
| the negotiation by France of separate
| treaty with the Turkish AnatOlian Govern
Ment at Angora.
1t is quite conceivable that the fruits of
that pact are now being garnercd. Con-
| S"!oH-ly and with materialist foresight the
| French republic has for number Of years
been cultivatinC n spirit Of accommodation
with Islam. With n stake in AIoham-
medan Africa with its vast possibilities
for army supply. the French are definitely
aligned in policy Of concession toward the
! Crescent, reading n warning in the diff =
cuIties that have besct England in Egypt
and India.
The situation IS n curious reversal of the
D!sraeli strategy. whereby Britain for more
than Il half century became the guardian
Of the Turk in Europe and Western Asia.
! RopudlAtiOn Of this protective system is.
naturally, not forgotten by the Kemalsts
engaged in picking up the pieces of the cor
roded Ottoman Empire. English prestige
| in turl1cr portions of this realm is UnqUeS-
tiunaby at low cbb.
For the present French affiliations and
! antagOnigms there is another cause grounded
! in passionate nationalist sentiment Con-
stantine has never been forgiven by France
for his pronounced pro -Gcrmanism during
the World War. and no step which might
contribute to his overthrow has been over
looked In Paris.
Turkish motives in this amazing labryinth
| of cross purposes are as simple rs those
| Of their opponent on the field of battle
are troubled and confused. Th" KemaIsts
look 10 France for financial rehabilitation
and national revival.
Political dssensions and !rrrconciuble
conceptions Of government have. on the
other hand virtually destroyed all harmony
of purpos" in Greece. The cynical and
purely selfish ambitions Of Constantine are
angrily recognized by liberals. who have been
growing in numbers and power since that
! pcryprse reaction which resulted in the
overthrow Of that superb statesman and pa :
triot to whom modern Greece Is so deeply
indebted, Elcutherios Vrnizelos.
II Is said thar resentment against the
virtual control Of Greece hy the Al lies
during the latter years Of the World wa,
was responsible for the recall Of COnstan.
tine. However that may be, II is fast bcInc
COmprehended in Greece that Constantine ;,
rule Is wreCking the nation which rose [,
such distinction in 1913; that the Vcnlzelis
conception of a greater Greece in the van
guard Of intelligent progressive civilization
has been dragged in the dust; that th
threatened advance against COnstantinopl
was the infatuation OF folly, and that th
campaign in the hinterland Of Asia Mlno
was hideous and tragically costly bunder
The prospect Of dynastic overthrow an,
a return 10 political sanity in Grerre grow
hourly brighter. This, indeed, is som
compensation for the military debacIe
; The darkest side of the whole crisis is tn
, possibility of "A revived ascendancy In tn
; East of the Turk, whose destructive tend
, cncies are thoroughly proved and who's
, capacity for organized sayagery il quite IA
inrontestable as are the charm OF his man
, ner ard the solid virtues of his strangeI
! contradictory character
= Even though Smyrng be lost, Greece ma
H. Ia a aense radeemeh nv the swift ma re