San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-04
MISSIONARIES

b The United States government will be
Tonfronted with a troublesome situation
ST the Turkish nationalist carry out their
ethreat to exclude American missionaries
from Turkish soil on the ground that they
.are troublesome" The authorities al
Washington will be at once besieged II
Turkey carries out her threat, by all the
ssnissionary societies in the land, urging
s1hat it at once take steps to rcinstate the
missionaries and this the people in WASH
sington will be unable to do. Between
Turkey on one side and the Jealous ms
-sionary societies on the other, " ashing-
rton will be on a hot griddle.
s OF course missionaries arc trouble
some" They are always troublesome not
Sin the sense that they are creating trout
-blc as such, as in the fact that they are
supsetting old ideas and proposing meas
s,lres of reform. The world generally pre-
Tiers to cling to established habits and Gus
toms and missionaries are always progress
ssiyes who are urging that new ways and
methods be adopted. Naturally mission
varv is troublesome He could not be a
Turkey claims that American mission
taries have stirred up the Armenians to re-
kyo1t and rebellion. There may have been
some instances where red-blooded mission
aries have suggested to the ArmenianS
that they should take steps to protect
themselves against the injustice and bar
: >i,afoas cruelty of the Turk, but that
American missionaries. as class, have
urged any people TO revolt against an es-
tablished government requires some
stronger proof than the voice OF Turkey.
1t is probably true that American mis-
Sionaries have eNerted themselves to pre-
= vent the slaughter of Armenians who are
Christian people and naturally, the Turk
considers this TO be ar interference with
his prerogatives; and whatever intefferes
with prerogative is apt TO be trouble
some" >.
The Turks have given an index OF what
they consider proper government by an
nouncing that they have not the Slight
est intention OF treating Christians as wei
as they treat Musselmen. They figure
that the followers OF Mahomet are entitled
10 preferential treatment before the law
as COHlpdlCu u SHl4oldh>' III ONhN'
words, they do not propose to construC
their laws equally. There are to be certain
privileges for Mohsmetans and another
for other peoples.
On the cold logic OF the situation how
ever. Turkey is acting within her right
when she construes the presence OF an.
class of people as troublesome and de
ports them or denies them admission. W
have deported people whose presence W
did not consider desirable and we con
stantly reject at our immigrant gateway
other people whose society we wish t
avoid or whom we believe would be unde
sirable additions to our citizenship
Turkey has the same right in this drec
ton that we have and besides, she is
sovereign nation as is the United States.
While all these things may be tru
there are constantly increasing indication
that the Turk is growing "too large fc
his breeches' and he wears baggy rurl
ish breeches at that He is talking abol
his big army and what he can do with
and what he will do with it il anybod
interferes with him. We surely dislike I
contemplate the idea OF more fighting b,
the Turk is certainly putting himself in II
way of licking. Boastful and arrogal
people invariably wind up in the hospit
and the Turk will be no exception.
m