The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1914. TURKEY AND WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 59, 5 November 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1914. TURKEY AND WAR.

The utter folly of Turkey in joining Germany in the war now raging has j amazed everyone, though it is gener-| ally allowed that the weak and harass-1 ed Turkish authorities have been bribed and cajoled into their present perilous position by Germans in the j approved German fashion, which to-, day stands revealed as the standard for everything that is base. As a writer in the Auckland Star remarks, For fifteen years or more the Ger-j mans have sedulously cultivated the Friendship of the Turks, and tried to inspire them with' confidence in Ger-j many’s good intentions. Gradually, German diplomatic influence became mpreme at Constantinople, and! hough the fate of Abdul Hamid loomed to mark the collapse of German statecraft in Turkey for a time,' he failure of the Young Turks and ■ heir disappointment at receiving ctive help from England, drove them 1 nto the arms of the Germans once 1 acre. The same writer also reminds * is that the Kaiser has posed lately j s the patron and protector of the foslem, and it is in this capacity hat he regards the Turks as useful Hies. For it is still a fixed delusion mong German travellers, historians,' ( nd politicians that it would be pos- j ible, with Turkey’s help to stir up ] Mohammedan crusade throughout (1 iio world, and thus to shake the ~ olonial empires of England and r ranee to their foundations. In r ftWocfcb and Algeria and in India., the' „ Falser and his counsellors believe the „ 3ws that the Caliph, the “Father of a re Faithful,” had decreed a “jehad” | • holy war against the unbeliever fl ould be the signal for a great Mos- tl m upheaval, ■ and the consequent it ,'erthrow qf French and British pow-| u • in Africa and Asia. But, apart li om this, the Germans have always u aintained that the most vulnerable tl lint in the British Empire is Egypt, el id’they naturally expect that Turkey, d le suzerain of Egypt, would, in case ol once r&oceupy its old pro- h nee. Only three years, ago Dr. oi ohrbach, one of the many doctrin- c;

airo exponents of Pan-German ideals,] assured his countrymen that England' could be “mortally wounded” through 1 Egypt, “The loss of Egypt would mean for England not only the end | of her dominion over the Suez Canal,] and of her connection with India and the Far East, but would probably en-, tail the loss also of her possessions in] Central and East Airica. The con-j quest of Egypt by a Mohammedan] power like Turkey would also imperilj England's hold over her 60,000,000 Mohammedan subjects in India, besides prejudicing her relations with Afghanistan and Persia.” It is for this reason Dr. Rohrbach frankly admits, that Germany has persisted, in her unpopular policy of befriending and conciliating Turkey.