The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1922. PEACE AND WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 18035, 1 August 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1922. PEACE AND WAR.

A Peace Congress— not- an official ono this time, but one of tho self-constituted assemblies that meet annually or more often to teach" statesmen how simple, are the problems that perplex them —has been meeting in London. There never was a time when Micro was so much talk about disarmament, of banishing the war spirit, or when tho thing appeared so natural or so easy to fond and impatient souls. “Tho League of Nations will never do it,’' say idealists in India, who have no doubt that the Peace Conference now sitting can perform tho miracle. (A copy of their journal, ‘World Peace,’ has just been received by ns.) “ Only lot the doors of the league be opened wide enough,” say enthusiasts of that body, “and 1 tlie world will be no more troubled by war.” If tho league or the Indian or any other enthusiasts could say bow one war may be ended, which is threatening now a- new peril for Europe, their wisdom would indeed bo established. But tho Near Eastern war drags on. and threatens to do so for much longer yet, to mock all their promises of world peace.'

It may be a false report, that the Greeks aro preparing to end the long stalemate of this war by making a quick leap upon Constantinople. The report will pretty certainly become a true one, however, if the indecisive'conflict should be too prolonged. The stalemate is more costly than such an offensive might be, and the adventure must be tempting in the extreme. King Constantino was reported to be threatening it more Mian a year ago, when it was

expected that* the large remnants of General, Wrangel's anti-Bolshevik army, who had been disbanded in Northern and North-eastern Greece, would’ be ready to assist, him. Thousands of those warriors must be in Greece still, hating the Turks and their Soviet allies -with an equal hwvor. And) a descent on Constantinople would l seem so easy. It is only twenty miles from the Tchataldja lines, those feeble defences of the capital which were included in Greek territory by the latest boundaries!. One hundred and fifty thousand Greek inhabitants of the city might be supposed to he only whiting to rise and welcome their fellows. Allied 1 forces in Constantinople probably are of the smallest. The real pacifism of Allied Governments, since the Great War dosed in exhaustion and poverty, has been the greatest incentive to disturbers’ designs. Nor could a more ungrateful task be proposed to allied soldiers than .that of defending Constantinople for the Turks. The recovery of tin's ancient city, still the centre of Eastern Christianity, though the Turks hold it, has for centuries been the great dream of the Greeks. The dream was to bo realised, according to an ancient prophecy, when a. Constantine, wedded to a Sophia, should sit on the throne of the Hellenes. The King by whom those conditions are fulfilled has been said to be hypnotised by that prediction. The story goes that when a later prophecy, that he would enter Constantinople at the head of his troops, but die a horrible death immediately afterwards, was repeated to him ho replied: “If the first part of the prophecy is fulfilled, there is no objection to the accomplishment of the second part.” And the assurance of this particular King, that an assault on Constantinople is the last thing lie intends, cannot carry a moment’s conviction to the Allies.

One thing is certain: the occupation of Constantinople- by the Greeks would not bo the end of the Near Eastern War, even if the Allies should submit to a “ fait accompli.” The prize would be 100 important for Greece to bo allowed to bold. Sooner or later her possession of it would only bo the cause of other wars. But without some such coup how is the war, •which for two years has disturbed all of Western Asia, to bo ended? The Greeks cannot reach Angora. The Turk will accept no terms except such as would place him, practically, in the position of a conqueror, with entire freedom to go on massacring Greek, Armenian, and other. Christians, in spite of his humiliation in the GreatWar. And such massacres for the Moslem make sound policy as well as vengeance. The more Christians ho exterminates the more confidently he can chum the right to bring new districts under his atrocious rule, on the noble principle of “ self-deter-mination.” The League of Nations may set nominal limits to his rights of massacre, bub the Turk who cared a piastre for the Christian League would -be a bad Turk and a worse Mohammedan. Natural Western sympathies in this conflict must he with the Greeks, who not only eschew massacres as a policy, but were encouraged in their hard warfare by the Allies till the substitution of King Constantino for Venizelos gave the war a different aspect to their view. But Mohammedan sympathies arc all with the Turk, who defies the Powers of Europe as well as Constantine. Indian pacifists would not see this cnnllict ended on terms that should restrict his field for butcheries. All India would vise first in insurrection. France also must bo tender to the Turk, because, as she sees the future, the growth of the already great disparity between her population and that of Germany threatens to make her more and more dependent on Mohammedan armies. The warlike Bolsheviks have the strongest interest in keeping this %uid alive, since it gives them the finest lever to nse against Europe. Something will be done for world disarmament and universal peace when the Turks and - Bolsheviks and Germans can all bo made believers in the League of Nations, but the day of that conversion seems still distant. The most immediate aid to the dream’s fulfilment might be given by a new crusade of the European Powers which should put the Turk in his proper place for a hundred years to come, but that course is prolribite-d by their differences as well as by the Indian idealists. It- is only on platforms yet that wars can be easily ended. ' '