King Country Chronicle Tuesday, June 3, 1919 EXIT TURKEY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1219, 3 June 1919, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Tuesday, June 3, 1919 EXIT TURKEY.

w If any reliance may be placed upon the forecasts of the peace treaty with Turkey, it would appear probable that, after many yeare, Mr Gladstone's advice is to be followed and the Turk 'bandied

out of Europe bag and bßggage.' Time has confirmed the judgment of the grand old man that the Turk was not fit to rank as a European, and to-day tbere is no one to mourn the passing of Turkey. For cen-

turies the military power of the

Turks made them a menace io their neighbours, and a curse to the unfortunate people wbo fell beneath their away. Bat for many years

the impotence of tbe nation has been a growing danger. It lured

Germany on to dream of a near Eastern Empire, wherein the Teuton would wield paramount influence. Through the door that Turkey could not hold Germany hoped to find a passage that led to India.

Over half a century ago, Cobden suggested tbat a European Turkey should be given to Greece so that Constantinople, still tbe capital of the Greek Kingdom, might be in tbe possession of a nation able to withstand the blandishments of greater Powers, but not strong enough to become a menace to tbe peace of Europe. Under the new treaty, Greece is to have Turkey in Europe, but Constantinople, the key of tbe world, as Napoleon termed it, is to be internationalised, probnbly under an American mandate. The decision to give Smyrna to Greece would be an act of historic justic?, and be sound on the fßcts of population. Turkey will become a small State in Asia-Minor, and this, again, will be a fiair application to the same broad principle, for the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants in the beart of the peninsula are Mohammedans. The question of mandates for Armenia, Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine, may not attract very much attention, but a little thought will show tbat it involves issues of profound importance to the Empire. The passing of Turkey may close the only route along which any European Power could travel if anxious to Bbake our power in Asia.