CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 15

CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM

•Why Should. Ikqrbtefliur

Enemies

By HAMILTON- FYFE,*

liavailtoii Ffye is the aew-appointed edif-'or of London's Labour daily, ttis "Daily He#ad." ' : -A '■' ; .. : «• » * #4. •: '-■" ..No one who has; seen anything oi* .thft eiTocis of religious rancour can jdontt -the need for -protectio'ii of the Christiiin minority in Thrace. If. theTurk-; got \n there and were Ptirred up to slaughter in tbo hatefululy fainiiiat' way, there would be scenes of horror, murder and outrage- beyond the power of pen. to describe.;' Such scenes, in fact, aa. disgraced the Greek occupation of Smyrna, when Chrir-ttian Greeks massacred Moslems 'and behaver!'with such barbarity that -the sailors on Britsh. ships were .with ditficulty prevented from leaping ashore and. taking the Turks' part. How is it that these appalling thing;? happen in Near Eastern lands? Are the people there of a different iiumanlty from other people—ourselves, for instance? That view is taken by the -'Daily Express/ which said a few daya ago:— The British people- ax'v convinced ■ ihat all these Balkan races arc a'.ikc barbaric, and they do not deem ii tlioir duty to make peace where thor.oMs i;o peace and establish order ■ where there Is nous. Tins I*, no-doubt,, the easiest way to .siHti-? the difficulty, to say "They are ali s-:ivai?;es, and savager. they will'rcBut then that.is quite untrue., ~ -•»■■ * » «■ ;' • If the writer who wrote "'ail the 'Balkan races are barbaric" had erei.. been among them, he would know iivxl so.}bng as they urc in thoir normal siate they are pleasant, \kindiy, compassioiaate folk. They are no more barbaric than v.*e are. Simple they arc m their habits and ideas— call ihcjft. if you like, priniitivo/ But in tiia Balkans and hi Turkey I have ■fo.uaci as Touch genuine civilisation, exr-re?scd in liospitality, In frieadliness, .in ibe desire to live on agreeable, terms with all men, as I have found anywhere else, But, remember, this is Ivue -only— <: so larsg as they are in their normal state'" All' • depends on 'that; as it doi>B anions many other, races —the Russians, for example. It is in the easo which scoundrels make them "abuormar , that- the danger lies. "■Consider.the case of the Armenians. For- contariejj they lived on good tersvis with, the Turks. They w'cre Christian?, but tlie Moslem Turks liliec! tuerr; none the less for that. Maay of them were Jiiaii up-in tho| SuUan'B service j they consider-: 1 sd rather a favoured section of his? Majesty's subjects.

It wan only when the Armenians started tbeir agitation for Home-Uule that bad -relations with the Turks began. That agitation was? large??'.'-flue-to the intrigues of the Tsar's Government. Bussia took every opportunity of doing Turkey harm, The Tsardom wanted to get to Constantinople. It used the unhappy Armenians as its pawns.

They were encouraged. to agitate. Thoy liKil among them many young men educated in Europe, who were ready enough to be banner-bearers In the nationalist cause. The Sultan tried to put down the agitation by massaci - e. Russia's diplomacy used tiio massacres of Christians by Moslems an an argument for pushing the Turk out of Europe.

Truly, there was no _ religious hatrsd on either wide entil it was 'deliberately created. The Turks were induced to kill Armenians by being told that, as ' Christians, they wanted to broalt up Islam <and drive the Caliph, the head of the Moslem faith, out of Constantinople.- The Armenians then came to regard the Turks as their natural enemies BECAUSE THEY WMtE MOSLEMS, and massacred tUera revengefully whenever they got a cliaxiee.

In Russia the Russians and tlio Jews got on quite well together so long as they were left alone. ,It was wlic-n police officers stirred up the fanatical feeling. in .Russian' minds that riots and organised killing stained the page of history.

"How terrible, how uncivilised to be so easily influenced!" you say. But have you ever been in Ulster? Do you know how Irish Republicans sonietimes treated their prisoners? How about, the Gordon. in. out own country less than 15.0 jrears ago ? We "were supposed toJ.be ..fully civilised then. How about the man lynched the other day in Glasgow by an excitable crowd? .

The truth is, we are all -liable-to"be ;swept off our feet by appeals to outprejudice, our fanaticism.' Until those appeals cease in NGar Eastern, lands there will be no permanent peace between Chntetian and Moslem. The way to protect minorities i* aot