The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1919. AN APPEAL TO AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 250, 21 October 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1919. AN APPEAL TO AMERICA.

For the cause that lacks attiitant*. For the wrong that needs rceialanct, for the future in the diKiance, And the good that we w* do.

"With a directness and force that may have made old-fashioned statesmen and diplomatists shiver, (Mr. Lloyd George has appealed to the United .States to take up the white, man's burden in the Turkish Empire. .Since the question o! American mandates is engaging American opinion, strictly speaking, Mr. Lloyd George is guilty of the ollence of interfering in the internal affairs of a friendly country. Before the war an appeal similar to this from the Prime Minister of England would have caused no end of a stir in America. But new problems demand new treatment, and Mr. Lloyd George is perfectly justified in publicly placing before the American Senate and people the reasons why the United Stales r-hould assume permanent re-spoiit-ibilities in Turkey. There are three reasons—the interests of peace, the interests of the subject peoples of Turkey, and the inability of the other Allies to .•shoulder the burden. Unless some strong Power undertakes to keep order in the interior of Asiatic Turkey—to' cay nothing of Constantinople—there' will always be danger of a local war, which might flame out into something very big. The Caucasus area is now a hotch-potch of conflicting nationalities and interests, in whic'n the remnant oi the miserable Armenian people is probably the worst sufferer. If some Power does not look after tiiese Armenians, most of them will probably go the way of their compatriots who were massacred by the Turks. They have appealed very plainly for protection. '"Our experiences have been most heart-breaking,"' said a member of the American -mission after visiting Armenia this year. "We have raised fifty million dollars for Armenia, and we are going back to America to raise more money. We want also to awaken an appreciation of the possibilities of the new Armenia. I ehall tell the American people that if a mandate for Armenia is given to us we dare not shrink from it.' . The third reason is the weightiest. If Britain were not so exhausted by the war and had fewer added responsibilities as a result of her victory, she might be able to take over the mandate for Turkey. Of | all the Powers she is by geographical position and experience the bpst fitted for such a task. "The only reason that some of us are inclined to refuse such a mandate,"' continued the American Commissioner whom we have just quoted,' - is because we think that, with her greater experience, Britain might be able to achieve better results." But Britain has already an enormous burden on her back. She will have Palestine, Mesopotamia, itnd immense areas of former German colonies to look after and watch; as Mr. Lloyd George truly says, "wo find we arc approaching tine limit of our strength, and that it is unwise to go further." America, immensely wealthy when she entered the war, and to-day not exhausted by the conflict, could easily take over some of the tasks confronting the Allies. It is her plain duly to help in this way, just as it is the duty of a strong member of a family to help a weak one. Just as the Allies were brothers in the task of defeating Germany, so are they brothers in the work of healing the world's wounds and keeping the peace. The European Allies know well that it is just as true that they fought America's battles as that America fought theirs, and there will be disappointment and bitterness if America, ■which, compared with their own exhaustiun from wounds, has hardly bled at all, refuses to take a fair share of the costly and worrying responsibilities that have followed victory. No rea-sonablo person would expect an American mandate in Turkey to be popular with the American people. The traditional objection to foreign entanglements applies with special force to a proposal concerning a problem so distant and so difficult as the control of Turkish territory. To be mixed up in the politics of Western Europe is bad enough in the opinion of many Americans, but to be involved in the corrupt and tangled affaire of the Ottoman Empire is infinitely worse. This old feeling, which was originally quite soundly based, is being exploited very vigorously by the news- , papers and public men who are opposed to the acceptance of mandates. Some of the opposition is sincere and wellinformed, but some of it is the product of ignorance, selfishness, and want of imagination. The idea that America, having helped to win the war, should now shed responsibility for the consequences of the common victory, retire into her castle, and pull the drawbridge up behind her, is foolish and wrong. America could not retrace her steps if she would, and if she tries to she will sufl'er a severe decline in moral prestige. When she intervened in Europe's affairs she broke irrevocably with the policy of isolation, and she can no more reconstitute the old state of affairs than a man can renew his youth. There may be legitimate differences of opinion as to how far America should go, and what methods she should adopt, but there should be agreement on the principle of responsibility. The decision "'ill lie critical for hcr-clf and the world. It is n.i wonder that the Allies in Europe nrr watching Washington with anxious eyes.