The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1922. MORALITY AND EXPEDIENCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1922, Page 6

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1922. MORALITY AND EXPEDIENCY.

■ For the cause that lacks assistance, For the xcrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good tliat we can do.

It is to be assumed that tbe "official statement of the terms of armistice pro posed between Turkey and Greece, a* issued by the Near East Conference thi; 2 week, is an authentic document; at al events, it has not yet been publicly con tradicted or modified. We are therefon at liberty to observe that the Grcai Powers —supposing that they have en doreed these conditions—have appar ently made up their minds not only U tear up the Treaty of Sevres, but tc repudiate most emphatically the princi pies which according to their own pro fessions they intended to apply at th< close of the war to the settlement oi the Near East. For if we are to accepl 1 these terms as an accurate forecast ol the final settlement, all the worst appre L hen-ions of those who have for manj * | years regarded the rule of the Turk in j the Balkans and Western Asia as "the -1 abomination of desolation, standing where it .ought not," will be fully • realised. It is proposed to leave Con- • 6tantinople in the hands of the Turks, and to readjust the boundaries of Thrace in such a way as possibly to consign large numbers of the Balkan Christians to bondage once more; while, if the Greeks can be induced to see the necessity for such a step Turkish sovereignty is to be assured throughout the length and breadth of Asia Minor. The one * redeeming feature of this ill-omened bargain appears to be that the hapless Armenians are to enjoy the "protection" of the League of 'Nations; though how ' such protection is to be rendered effective against "the barbarous Turk" withl out military force to back it, does not ■ yet appear. Among the many influences which have been striving steadily to undo the work of the Peace Conference in the Near East, and to "scrap" the Treaty of Sevres, an important part may be assigned to the diplomatic rivalries that ' have arrayed France and Italy on the one hand against Greece on the other. The Power that stood to gain most, by the Treaty of Sevres was undoubtedly Greece, and the anxiety of Italy and . France to get some material advantage out of the collapse of the Turkish Empire was naturally heightened by their resentment at the very ambiguous :part played by the Greek Government during the most critical period of the struggle. France indeed has not been content with protests, but in her determination to secure her own interests and to prevent Greece from profiting unduly, she has even gone the length of concluding a separate agreement with Turkey which has seriously embarrassed the Powers and may fairly be inter- ; preted as a repudiation of the Peace : settlement, so far as the relations between France and Turkey are concerned. But there can be little doubt that if Britain had stood resolutely by the Peace of Sevres the other Powers would not have been induced so easily to modify their original intentions toward Turkey; and it is only because Britain has decided that it is not expedient to destroy or dismember completely the, iTurkish Empire, or to rob it entirely :of its old prestige and authority, thatj the Conference •on Near Eastern affairs I has now arrived at these decisions. | The most obvious and important : cause of this British change of front is the so-called Khilafat agitation in India. In our opinion this is quite an inadei quate cause to justify this startiling reversal of the policy that Britain announced in regard to Turkey during i the war. In tbe iirst place the conces- ! sions now offered are certain to be in- ; adequate, for it would be impossible to I placate the Turks and the Asiatic Mos- | lems without handing back MeaopoJ tamia, and Palestine, and Arabia —and 'more especially the Holy Cities —to the : care of the Khalif. But it seems to us : even more important to realise that ! there is involved here a sacrifice of prinj ciple which should not be lightly undertaken and cannot be carried into effect j with impunity. .For more than a century the curse of European diplomacy has been the persistent subordination of morality to political expediency. The worst outrage on> Right and Reason and Justice that the Powers have ever perpetrated has been their support and defence of the rule of "the unspeakable Turk" to serve their own selfish ends. Now, to bolster up her authority in India, Britain once more intervenes to save the Turkish tyranny from wellmerited destruction.