KEMAL’S POLICY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11409, 4 January 1923, Page 6

KEMAL’S POLICY

NEW SPIRIT IN TURKEY BISHOP OP GIBRALTAR'S WARNING. ' a DOMINATING INFLUENCES. The following letter from the Bishop of Gibraltar appeared in the London “Times” on November Bth: For some weeke I have been in the Near East, and in touch with all kinds of people able to give me first-hand information ae to wlfaT has been happening out here, and it is plain that we must revise some of our ideas. My informants have been largely, not wholly, English, and of all sorts, both official and commercial, and included many friends of the Turk who have spent, their whole lives in the Levant. My role has been to question and listen, and, after getting, at various times and places, the witness of some two hundred people, 1 am struck by the very remarkable consensus of opinion among them on some important points. Of these. the most vital conoerns the influences, or passions, or fixed ideas, which are now dominating the Turks. The Turk whom we English havb known for more than half a century was rather a fine fellow. We knew him, for instance, under Williams at Kars; then, as our ally, in the Crimea. We admired the fight he put up against Russia in the ’seventies, and thought the defenders of - Plevna were made of good stuff. We saved him then from Russia, giving him a new lease of life, and perhaps he deserved it, and was what we thought he was. But now a new spirit is abroad—a reactionary intolerant nationalism of hatred and dislike, of contempt and rejection of European nations and notions. ATROCITIES i There are many tokens of this. Take a few recent ones. There is the very brutal desecration of the British Cemetery at Smyrna every headstone smashed, coffins dug up and ransacked, and human remains mishandled and trampled on. In our English churches, which the fire has spared, horses ore wantonly stabled in the chancels. Within the last Jew days, from a Black Sea encampment of Christian refugees, all .the men from eighteen to forty-five have been forcibly carried off to become slaves of the Turk, and all the women not too old or to young for the lust of man have been’ abducted —and all this only about twenty miles from Constantinople, and under our very eyes. I give these as a few of many specimens, which show how far the present Turk is from the Turk of our tradition.

If we turn from these acts to the utterances and policies of the leaders, it seems clear that Kemal is deliberately making a breach between .Asia and Europe, emphasising the “Asiatio;neeS” of the Turk, and his contempt [for everything European, so that, 'from the vantage ground of Constantinople, and the prestige of having attained it, .he offers himself as a leader to a hostile Asia.. It must have surely been in that spirit that, as Refert Pasha .passed over the Galata Bridge the other day, the throats of sheep and oxen were cut in sacrifice. . It. is a. resurgence of the old 1 Asiatic spirit, thoroughly alien to anything European. , Let not England think, then, that she has the old traditional Turk to deal with. No one on the spot is deceived. Old English Levantine families, who have dwelt among and traded with the Turks for two or three generations, have sent away their womenfolk aid all their more portable valuables, with no intention of having them back until the Peace Conference is over, and not even then, unless the main questions are settled in a way of which there is at present no sign. For instance, the judicial side of the capitulations must be maintained if European business is to go on in Turkey; and no paper promises,, or merely a written guarantee that order will he kept, wiU really njfeet the case. Something in the nature of a sufficient protecting force —whether national or international—is the only thing which will give confidence. But at present there is no sign of any such conditions being granted. , USED TO MASSACRES. And if- this is felt strongly by wellestablished British Merchants, it «> infinitely more felt by other older elements of - the Christian population Any withdrawal of British troops and war'ships from the Bosphorus—unless their place is taken by another protecting force —will be the signal for a stampede from Constantinople of 130,000 Armenians and 400,000 Greeks. Not one of these would willingly stay, or, if forced to remain, would feel their throats safe. These peoples are too used to massaerfes to be easily scared; indeed,, to those who do not know what them have been through, they often seem strangely, callous and indifferent. But even they are terrified by what has just happened at Smyrna, nor .will they willingly remain in Constantinople unless European protection is afforded them—and no wonder. I dwell on this new Turkish spirit because shortly, England will he voting for a new Parliament, and . the problems of the Near Elast will hulk large in the election. I am sure that every unfettered mind that has. recently been in Turkey and studied this new nationalism on the spot will, agree with me as to its spirit, and this fact ought to he known'to the electors. The power behind those who represent ns at the Conference will depend greatly on England’s attitude towards Turkey during the elections, and a mis take in our general policy in this issue 'will surely bring about another bloody war in the Nqar East, which may spread far and wide. Everything, humanely speaking, depends on us. Our allies—if that is how they still wish us to regard them — have shown their value, and Angora and Kemal are shrewd enough to see the obvious. But, in spite of this amazing blunder of our Smyrna-Greek policy, thanks"to recent events we are still a power in Turkey, and though we may not be popular there, we are centainly respected. It is not the first time in living memory, that we have said ‘No” to a victorious army advancing on ' 'Constantinople and checked its forward march. With the nation’s support, a strong English Government may he able once again to settle theCVear East question without blooddied;. but our Government must have a. stiff upper' lip, as well as a clear vision—it must know its own mind, and -it must also know the mind of the chief force with which it has fo deal—and that force is undoubtedly the new Turkish spirit, which at present, seems to be unknown by England.