Dearborn independent. [volume], February 21, 1920, Page 5, Image 5

About Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927

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BEAJRBOI&N HMDIEIPIEHBIEMTr
Bag and Baggage1 " Out of Constantinople
A Discussion From an English Viewpoint
of What Should Be Done With the Turk
Manchester, England, February, 1920
BTHE time these lines reach America' the" re
, d Pans Conference may have decided what
to be the future of the Turks and Turkey t
the i tit there is no problem in the foreign field
whn ;-es in England such interest and anxiety If
any. had been asked during the war to name the
bn attires of the settlement which would inevitably
foil. i decisive victory of the Allies, he might have
besil : about the prospective frontiers of Germany
or tl . break-up of Austria, but one prophecy he
wo! ve made as a matter of course
l1ii,hI W2lW hj":said 'e Gladstone policy
Will i filled. Bag and baggage the Turk will be
gsl of Europe. The subject populations whether
Chr n like the Armenian, the Greek or the Syrian, or
M- n like the Arab, will be released from his op-pre-
and he will no longer be left at Constanti
noj.K -he greatest of the world's strategic centers, one
y the worlds greatest emporia, the gateway to the
Middle East and India, the stepping stone from Asia
into I.urope, the diplomatic base from which he has so
long played off against each other the rivalries of
European Powers and so prolonged his life long after
any virtue that he ever had, had deserted him."
Twelve months ago we should all have said that
and it the Allied and Associated Powers had begun
their work Jo January, 1919, by carrying such a policy
into immediate effect, scarcely a voice in the civilized
world would have failed to approve. Turkey for the
Tm-ks, by all means let it be. Let the Turk withdraw
into the region of Anatolia which is genuinely his by
test Oi race and sentiment. But the people who have
demonstrated in every part of the Ottoman Empire
their incapacity for every art but massacre, who have
Bowed the fertile regions of Mesopotamia and Syria
to wither and decay, who have murdered Greek Ar
menian and Syrian not from caprice but from a settled
Pan-Turkish policy whose object was to destroy all the
non-Ottoman elements of their Empirethese have no
title any longer to afflict the earth as a ruling power
And so twelve months ago said all of us.
But alas ! it is not so today. Today there is a sec
tion of political opinion in France which is even dis
posed to push back the wretched Armenian under some
torm of Turkish sovereignty a scandal which would
cry to heaven if jt were consummated and it is no
toriously the policy of the French Gov
trnmenl to maintain the Turk in power
LOnstantinoMt, How far this is part
of the web of world-diplomacy which
France has so actively been weaving
during the past year is yet uncertain.
There are some who say that France
desire to leave the Turk dominant in
Const intinopk and strong in Asia Minor
beca she wants a counterpoise to a
rcv' ssia and to the Mediterranean
jpwei but travelers just returned from
Coasts tnoplc affirm that the motive
Power met not so much from French
dlP!' as from the French com-
jnercir..; .nd financial interests. These
h,avf been strong in Turkey and
li they are able to work in a Constan
tinoi .ich they have themselves pre
server for their Turkish friends they
can 1 ty look forward to a much
richer irvett in the exploitation both
Tur y and the countries to which it
Kes , than if their activities have
? Dc icd on under the administra
on ( international commission of
ne 1 ' of Nations. For cither an
Ilcn ! commission will be cold
Wmj, rtial or it will mean the jealous
mending Imperialistic Pow-
earlv . -a- history of ES'P h the
Fr u 1CS) and in cither case the
1 rencn mtrMM ...:n i
Profitab' a ucn
under th ld.m w.hlch to sow and reap as they would
acr tn. continued rule of the Turk.
By W. P. CROZIER
great city and its waterway in the sole interest of the
P op es of the city and the shores of the Black Sea and
of civilization as a whole.
i Jh".C objectio"s to this course, as to every other
practice 7lCMm,STnS 1 "0t USUa"y work
practice, especially when they are constituted by the
great Powers of the world whose interests, everywhere
conflictmg, nowhere conflict more often and mo e
acutely than ,n the Xcar and Middle East. But 7 !
much the best solution. During the war the Czari
Russia laid claim to Constantinople. But Bolshevik
Russia has already disavowed that aim and there i no
other Russia m existence that can be taken into ac-
kolchak and Denikin had overthrown the Bolshevik
and established themselves at Moscow, they would
whirh F ! j r' reV'Ved ,he daim to Constantinople
wh eh England, France and Italy acknowledged to be
just ,n the famous "Secret Treaties." But Kolchak
and Denikin are now with the snows of yester-year
their unsubstantial dream has disappeared. England
would never concede a mandate for Constantinople to
France nor France to England-both of them rightly
Greece has no real title beyond ancient history; and
sentiment based on ancient history justly does not carry
far in the school of Rcalfolitik.
There remains, then, the international solution, which
alone contains a prospect of a just and impartial ad
ministration amid the conflicting influences from the
various races of Turkey and the manifold peoples on
the fringe of the Black Sea that center in the whirlpool
of the capital. There is one other reason for desiring
the international solution. The United States at pres
ent stands outside the Peace Treaty. But we believe
with confidence that sooner or latcr-and we hope soon
er rather than later the United States will take her
proper place as a member and leader in the League of
Nations and when that day comes, if Constantinople be
in the hands of the League, we shall have the United
btates exercising her immense influence for efficiency
honesty and justice in the ranks of the League Council
and, as we trust and expect, on the governing interna
tional commission. And that, in our view, is worth
generations a political servitude under which an in
ferior and declining power could at any moment bar to
Both A, r SLTcS pened on the Mediterranean
Both the United States and Britain, it is safe to say
would never have rested until they had won the keys
of economic freedom from the Turks.
But what of Constantinople itself? What is th.
reason why even in England there is a current of
eaung the Turks with power and authority in Con-
said, in the foreign office, and perhaps to its existence
sdue the comparative leniency with which Turkey has
Paer1lvrtheVVrn S,'nCVhe Cnclusio" of 'he armestfcS
I- u u Jetmg ,s due ,0 the philo-Turk tradition
which has lived on in England ever since he day, of
Knjam"!Sraeli But much more it reflects the view
which ,s held in the India office. The Sultan ot Turkey
2unthy rJ'r' r,U'er f ,he 0,(oman Empire He
is also the Khahf, relig.ous head of the Moslems with
h. seat at Constantinople and for some fa
active agitation has been on foot among the British
Moslems to oppose his removal from his ancient eat
This ,s one of the elements in the prevailing unrest in
India and as during the last year there was in India a"
unprecedented co-operation between Moslem and Hindu
the government of India and the India office in Lon
don both look askance at the proposal to drive the Turk
out of Constantinople. England, they sav. is the greatest
K7r?7fT- uWha' effect U th expulsion of the
Rhalif Jikely to have upon his faithful Moslem foU
lowers in India and elsewhere? The French Z l?L
have millions of Moslem subjects, have take T up the
cry and add it to their armory of reasons againft the
bag and baggage" policy. e
I .
A GENERAL VIEW OF CONSTANTINOPLE "
The poaseaeton of thit city hat long been bone of contention. Many European statesmen have wanted
to drive out the Turk bag and baggage, but there have alw.y. been ZZSuEECZ
B real i 5? that consrations such as these are
disci, OUghTnot openly, being brought to bear on
thecomt I ' t'0IiS at 1ar,s' tnc more reason for hoping for
leve the T feat.of any and evcy Policy which would
capital I 1 WIth an inch of authority in his old
a Przc to h r'hPrPerIy yarded, Constantinople is not
he'd for '-"w vcr 10 any interested power
normn.,. : exclusivk exploitation. It is a pis
nor a
CnormoiK cWUBITe exploitation. It is a place of
the k?i ,,nPprtance for the prosperity and peace of
vu wnnn ..i t ... . .
1
Dasis of , u Iull,re snouid De settled on tne
faces t ! cl,crai good and the good of its various
there L a trust m the hands of the Allies and if
handeri - ne of them to whom as a trustee it can be
v va vrT. I . .
tes (to cre 18 none now that the United
ard(ld as n -a sorrow) "as apparently to be re
mti of j 'l,ts,ae the question then there should be a
Porting to tH rTnat!0nal stcwards. appointed by and re
c League of Nations, and administering the
working and waiting for. That the Straits at least
will be internationalized there can be no doubt at
all. It would be intolerable that it should again be
within the power of any one country, whether
Turkey or not, at its own whim and pleasure to
block the road between the Mediterranean and the
Black Sea, to cut off the outer world from Russia.
Roumania and the road to the Caspian and the East
and to cut off these territories from all the world
beyond the Straits. It was intolerable long ago that
Turkey, whenever she went to war even with a single
Power, great or small Italy, for instance, or Greece
should not only have it in her power to bar the Darda
nelles and the Bosphorus to the country with whom she
was at war but also to impose the rigors and hard
ships of a partial blockade on neutrals who had no
interest in her quarrel. Americans and British, re
flecting on their long coast-lines and the access to the
open seas with which Nature has blessed them, cannot
but wonder that Russia, so long without a single ice
free port upon the ocean, should have tolerated for
TSifVf TrSC' Ycrious da"ger in Moslem un
i rest if it be widespread and deep-seated. India is full
of combustIe materials, as last year's events proved
m Sf u-5 T' threateniS a"d hostile; in India Mos
mSL?L U ,nuEgyPt MS,em and Christian, are
Dower TnH ;,!.thC,r rcsentment aai"t the British
power And yet there are some signs that this Moslem
agitation largely artificial. If the Moslems are s
warmly devoted to the Khalif at Constantinople how
came ,t that when he declared a Jehad, or Ho lv War
against the infidel in 1915 so few of the Moslems of
India and North Africa consented to
listen." Certainlv nn u
j um wuuiu 5up-
pose from recent historv that the In
dian Moslem cared much about the
Knalif and his habitation and it may
well be that his removal from Constanti
nople would in the event disturb them
as little as the overthrow of the Man
chu dynasty disturbed the millions of
Chinese. It was said at the time that
after so many centuries of absolute
despotism, the Chinese would never
tolerate a republic, whereas in fact they
continued cultivating their rice fields
as though the republic was the onlv sys
tem they had every known.
The question is one that must be
decided on broad principles of right and
justice. The removal of the Khalif may
cause embarrassment both to England
and to France, but that possibility must
not be allowed to obscure the greatest
question of all. which is whether the
absolute removal of the Turk as a ruling
power from Constantinople is not es
sential to the peaceful progress of a
large part of the world. Nothing is
more certain than that his continuance
in the ancient seat of empire means the
maintenance of the old intrigue and
chicanery, the old corruption and the in-
icriinnaDic struggle among the compet
c i L mg ,Powers for the spoils of his estate
o long as the Turk remains, the stronger Powers will
quarrel for his inheritance and he will live bv usine
one against the other. Expel him. replace him not
by a single beneficiary but by a board of trustees and
we gain at once a healthier and saner atmosphere.
If at the finish it be thought necessarv to maintain
in Constantinople the spiritual home of the Khalif then
the suggestion has been made that the genuinely Turk
ish quarter nf Stamboul might be left to the Turk as
the Vatican is to the Pope, while the rest of the city
passed beneath an international jurisdiction. Then the
Moslems, if they chose, could still look to Constanti
nople and the Khalif as Roman Catholics look to the
Pope at Rome, but the Sultan would not exercise po
litical authority nor would his young Turks longer have
the power to set the world aflame, in order, not to
magnify a religious faith which would be a creditable
motive, but to gratify their personal and political
ambitions.