San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-30
BY =. NJ. S.ARL.

DN i. vi. S.AItks.
London, March 29.-The abolition
of the Caliphate by the Turkish re
publican government at Angora marks
the end of the empire founded by 9th
man in the Thirteenth Century, ant
reduces Turkey TO the level of nintl
or tenth rate power forever. or a!
long as the republican government
lasts. according to English students o.
the Moslem problem.
Further, it has cOnvulsed the whole
Moslem world and sown the seeds oi
endless trouble for present and future
generations for non-Moslem govern
ments.
At first sight. the decision of thu
Angora assembly to do without .
caliph, or Mohammedan religious chief
might seem to the casual reader o.
foreign news TO be a purely odmesti'
matter. and no concern of the rest Of
the world. Modern progressive thought
might even approve the separation O
religion from politics.
But the matter goes far beyond that
And it goes far beyond the views oil
ton of Turkey. 1t is as though 1tul,
had expelled the pope and absolutely
barred the Roman Catholic religion
His holiness would doubtless be abl'
to make his headquarters elsewhere
and the Roman Catholic religion
would survive, but there would be ;
tremendous loss of prestige to the pom
tiff, endless trouble with foreign ma
tons. and the rapid decline of Ital!
among the powers of the world. For
even as Italy enjoys tremendous prest
ige as the seat of the Catholic faith
so Turkey maintained huge empir;
and had an altogether disproportionat'
standing among the powers through
being the home of the religious heat
of the Mohammedan faith.
The 2J0,000,000 Moslems all ovel
the world might be split into differen
sccts, which might have local leaders
but, while they turned their faces tC
Mecca in prayer. they looked to Con
Stantinople rs the home of their su
premc spiritual head, the caliph, OF
direct descendant of Mahomet, th,
founder of their religion.
MOslems in World War.
The effect of this was demonstrate,
during the World war, for the grea
Moslem governing nations. Britain ant
France, not only had an immensely 81
trouble persuading their Moslem sub
jects to fight for them. but had iC
exercise the utmost diplomacy to pre-
vent them throwing in their lot will
Germany.
The Mosems of India. for instance
or the TeutOnic confederation, but
.In, hn s. IN,
the side of the ex-kaiser it was a diff
ferent matter. The sultan's war be-
came a holy war. and not only die
they object to fighting against him
but their religion actually called upOr
all good Moslems to fight for him.
National and local jealousies among
the various Mohammedan sects helped
the allies. and Britain induced hel
Moslem subjects to fight the Turks
only by pledging that she had no in
tention of breaking up Turkey or de
throning the sultan and caliph. Siml
larly. she obtained the help of th'
Arabian tribes and France was able &c
utilize her Mohammedan troops from
Northern and Central Africa.
Indians and Arabs. as well as thu
African tribes, did not mind fightius
the Turks. who. as Turks. they hated
and once persuaded that their religion:
chieftain was not threatened they ac
copied the explanation that the sultan
as sultan, and not as caliph, had beer
led astray by evil advisers.
For this the present-day Republican
Turk was mainly to blame. The
Young Turk" movement in 1905. un
der Enver Pasha, resulting in the de-
position of Sultan Abdul Hamid H.
shook the Moslem world TO its fOund1-
tions. but Enver was too wise TO AT
tempt to abolish the Caliphat. He
merely put another descendant oi
Ohtman on the throne. Mohamme,
VI. and the Caliphate was continued
in accordance with MOhammedan
ideas.
Feared Holy War.
For something like thirty years Alb
dul Hamid had maintained Turkey as
world power, simply by threatening
possible aggressOrs with holy war
in which 250.000.000 Moslems would
flock to his standards. Any of his
neighbors could have CLEANED up
Turkey in Europe. as was proved by
the Russo-Turkish war and the Bal
kan war of 1912-and his empire was
so ramshackle that Italy had not much
difficulty in tearing off his Nortl
African possessions. and England hal
long before virtually annexed Egypt
But the capture or annexation oi
Constantinople. the seat of the Caliph
was a different matter. and the No
hammedan world was always ready 70
rise in defense of its spiritual capital
In the Russian war of the last cen
fury the cars victorious armies were
halted at the command Of Europe. and
Turkey escaped comparatively light
~ from losing war. In 1872 only
definite threats of Intervention by the