The Washington herald., 1922-10-05
By FRANK H. SIMONDS.


strated that the possible war will
not be In any sense general; ut
! most It. will be confined to Great
Britain and the Turks. although the
latter may be supported by Mcham-
medan populations in Mesopotamis.
Palestine. Egypt and even India.
Thus the British effort to estab-
lish a solidarity between European
nations in the face of the victorious
Turks has already failed. The with
drawal Of French and Italian troops
from the Asiatic s'de of the Straits
and the refusal of ugo-Slavia and
Rumania- that Is, OF the little en-
tente-to take the British view OF
the situation demonstrated that
even the fiction of an entente had
vanished and the various nations OF
the continent not only resumed
their own freedom of action. but
tended to follow French rather
than British leading.
Continentals Oppose Britain
And in this effort Britain is using
the Greek as a soldier and lighting
the Turk as an enemy. thus revers-
ing the policy of British govern
ments in ali of the Victorian era
BY contrast, the French. the Italians
and the rest of the continental ma
tions are opposing the Greek. and
openly or secretly supporting the
Turk, because none of them wishes
British control at the Dardaneiles
to become absolute. And all agree
that if Greece should be permitted
to occupy Constantinople, British
domination would be real and Greek
power only nominal.
When one comes to exami3e the
steps by which British policy has
come to change sides in the Balkans,
to abandon the Turk and enlist the
Greek. one passes into a still only
partially explored region of intrigue
In the years before the world war
Britain. feeling ever more strongly
the German menace, made arrange
ments with France and with Rus
sia, who were themselves allies
These arrangements were deliber-
ately vague. but they nevertheless
constituted something which had its
value at the moment the war came
But Turkey, always having to
fear the ultimate return of the Rus
sian. who for a century had sought
Possession Of Constantinople, saw
this Anglo Russian entente Develop
ing with natural apprehension. And
as a consequence it turned toward
Germany: that is. toward the other
group of powers in Europe. When
the war broke and Britain Joined
Russia and France. nothing was
more logical or more Inevitable than
the Turkish decision to go with
Germany. although allied diplomacy
totally misread the signs.
Trx IN E,Il,,tn.,o T,.-I-
AT the close OF the war the Brit
ish had made up their mind that the
Turk was no longer useful as an
agent and that the time had come
to eliminate him. British policy at
Paris in the treaty making time
was based upon the assumption
that the Turk was down and out"
and could be treated as politically
extinct. This explains the terms of
che treaty of Sevres. which under
took to fix the frontiers of the
Turkey which was to survive.
But the British policy was intri-
cate in the extreme. During the
war they had rallied the Arabs by
promising them an independent
state in all the Arab regions south
and east of the Cilician gate. Thus
Arab against the Turk and. since
both were Mohammedans, there was
in this maneuver little peril Of
awakening the resentment of their
vast Islamic populations in Egypt,
India and elsewhere. But, unfor-
tunately. this policy had two limi-
tations; while the Br tish promised
all of Arabia to the Arabs-that is.
al TIL,
Arabs: Syria. Mesopotamia and
Palestine. as well as the peninsula
they prom sed a part to the
French under the famous Sykes
PicOt treaty. and they promised
still another fraction to the Jews
in the not less famous Balfour ut
terance.
But in the end the British had to
Use to the French: and the French. |
after a brief trial, bundled the
British Arab prince. Feisal. out Of
Syria. Meantime there was gen.
eral dissatisfaction among the |
Arabs not merely about the French |
mandate for Syria. but also about
the British Interpretation OF their |
own mandate for Mesopotamia
And there was even more dissatis-
faction over the British attempt to |
make Palestine a colony of immi-
grafton for the Jews of the world. |
for tn meant a colony Of Moslems, |
who constituted five sixths of the |
population. an effort to expel them |
from what was also for them a
Holy Land.
stamboul Really Greek.
Erpp- tho NJ hfStpru ~
the shores OF the Aegean have been |!
inhabited by Hellenes and the Per-
stan wars arose out of the support !
given by Athens to Hellenic cities |
on the very shore where Smyrna /
stood until very recently. Constan- !
tinople Itself. by every just consid- |
Grafton. should be Greek and not |
Turkish. Ven zelos. moreover, had |
proven far too valuable to the al !
lies not to be able to draw upon |
their present gratitude and their !
aope for future favors. and so
Greece was launched upon a career !
of expansion which took the rest Of !
the world by surprise.
Under British urgings the French !
and the Italians consented to the |
occupa tion of Smyrna by the !
Greeks, although It was rumored !
that the Greek occupation was Sc
cretly designed to head off italian
intentions In this same city. Bat
at this point both the French and
the Italian statesmen began to per-
ceive quite clearly the direction in
which events were headed. While |
Great Britain refused to supper.
France along the Rhine or Italy in |