Evening star., 1923-09-29
Curzon's Play for Turkish Friendship
is Bearing Fruit i'm Anti-Soviet Stand

are at. present languishing in the
prisons of Angora, of Constantinople
and OF Trebizond, and now the Turk
ish government has insoently noti-
fed usSof Its enactment of decree
forbidding the entrance into the Bos-
porus Of any vessels flying the
soyier flag Moscow describes this
as merely another of the carefully
planned series Of aggressive acts :di-
rected against soviet Russia by the
sublime porte and declares that she
refuses to tolerate any action that
constitutes an insult to the prestige
or the bolsheviki republic.
Tnls policy icy ,of of Tgrkey in thus
western civilization is of particular
Importance just at the present mo-
ment, when soviet Russia, instead of
restricting her activities to the for
mer empire. Of the czar. has shown
her resolve to obtain a foothold in
western Europe by fomenting, financ-
ms and engineering communist
tnat is 70 say, bolshevist-revolu-
tlon In Bulgaria, where civil war is
now IN progress and where all the
Fcoinrnunlsts IN service are armed with
Russian rifles and small arms and
furnished with Muscovite ammunf-
tion, machine guns and war supplies.
I1 Is matter of vital Importance TO
an civilization to keep bolshevism
within the frontiers of Russia and TO
prevent its = spreading westward. 10
co-operate there with the forces Of
disorder and of anarchy And in thai
work or defense the cooperation OF
lhe Turks will be of extraordinary
value.
Lord st. John of BIedso, whose mar
riage to Mrs. Sanford has lust taken
place at St, Margaret's, Westminster,
Is a widower with six children, is the
eighteenth peer of his long line and
enjoys the distinction of being the
only member of the house of lords
who descends in the male line direct
from an ancestor who directed the
compilation Of the Doomsday Book
In the reign of William the Com
queror. This worthy, who is gen
orally regarded as the founder of the
family, namely, William de ST. John.
took his name from the seigneury of
st. Jean. near Rouen: fought in the
battle OF Hastings as quartermaster
general, and. subsequently, was ap-
pointed by King William the Con
queror to an Office equivalent to that
of chancellor of the exchequer in
!. Inasmuch as exPremier Lloyd
George, when chancellor OF the seS-
chequer. acknowledged having de
rived much assistance from Doonns-
drastic measures for the taxation of
land. prior to the great war, it was
somewhat ungrateful of him to ask
in the course of his diatribes against
the house of lords and about its in
significance in his eyes as political
factor, WHO, for instance, is Lord St
John of Bledso?. ] do not know, nor
probably do any of you"
) --~- x x
Yet the late peer. to whom he thus
contemptuously referred. was the tord
iieutenant--thatsi is to say. the princi-
pal representative of the sovereign-in
the county of Bedford. also chairman
of the. county council and of the
county board OF magistrates: there
fore, q public and conspicuous char
acter in the provinces. But he went
SO very little to London that he was
quite an unfamiliar figure in the
metropolis and almost totally uh-
known at Westminster. Indeed, SO
much was he q stranger there that
on one memorable occasion--it was
the second time that he put in an ap-
pearance In parliament as a heredi-
tary egislator-that he wandered by
mistake into the house of commons
and coolly took his seat on the treas
ury bench, reserved for cabinet min
listers, oblivious to the wild gestfeu-
lations of the doorkeeper. The stu
alton was explained to him when he
asked his astonished neighbour
liberal cabinet minister, whether the
person sitting opposite was not the
late Marquis of Salisbury. Only then
did he realize his error. and byria at
once withdrawing put an end to the
perturbation which always arises when
there is any violation, even through
ignorance Of the Assof either hauss
OF parffamefftA . -s"- ~ srs- =. >. e : 4