OCR Text |
Show Turkey Would Surrender All to U. S. 5 5 & & 3 fc3 American Supervision Nation s One Hope $8 ! .. - . f : tri 4 v ! i 4 ! jt n .u fuy. AIUSN3V INSPECTING TROOPS AT SKITS SH 1EKBASSY, COsrAHTlNQPtsT emjI ' V;'.) :XN Hv TOMMIES MOOTE I y-- r , t YiN:.' through turkey, i Proud Ottoman Officials Join People in Making Request, . -Copyright. 1319, by tho New York Herald ' ..( Company. Ail rights reserved.) :'i,(CopyriErht, Cannca: by the New Tork V:.'-' Kerala Company.) ( Special to The .salt Lake Tribune and o" New York Henild.) By WILLIAM T. ELLIS. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 20. As twenty years afro no American ci reamed that moral mdisna. on over outrage?? m Cuba woul'i land i i his country in the Philippines, on Qo shores of Asia, so also nobody ever ; Supposed that when we decided to help .i .save humanity from the hurt of the Hun ; America was launching upon an enterprise ' tnat would J'orever ivrest her frnm her : ancient isolation and land her on the ?lediiei ror-ean, where once the Caesars V and the sultans ruled. u '-Nevertheless, that dramatic transition f7 scorns at this writing: inevitable. There is -' every evidence that the United States will be appointed to the task of actiiiS" vis man datory over at legist some pnrt of the Ottoman empire. If the Turks are listened to at all, America will be put in entire ir-t-bntrol of the nation, from the Dardanelles i -to the Persian gulf, with complete au- -t.hority in every department of the na- f-ional life. "Unconditional surrender" to Vrneriean evsrlordship is the attitude of "."liie most enlightened Turks with whom J" have talked, including some in very nigh . ' pificial position. Tieady to Go Limi. As this plea for American suzerainty 'Thii.s come to me unsolicited in conference otter conference, I have shot such qucs-r'-tions as these at my hosts or quests, as ".-the case may be: "W hat if it should be come necessary to displace the sultan, would Turkey agTee?" "A strong power can do anything with the Turks. If they trust the government us they trust America, they will let it do whatever it thinks best." "Do you realize that an American mandatary man-datary would put an end to 'backsheesh,' or 'craft' in local courts and public of-fines?" of-fines?" "Our people all yearn for that." "If Anurua should come find make her own investi.cr.tion cf the Armenian atrocities, atroc-ities, we micht have to hang; thousands of Moslems." . . ""Ye ask only justice. Let the nx fall where it will, so 10112: as it falls justly . upon Moslem and Christian, high and low, with ecu id impartiality." "Have you realized that all laws derived de-rived from the Koran, and -.vorkin hardship hard-ship to non-Moslems, would be abrogated by Amr-rican rulo? There would hao to be absolute religious liberty for nib" "Your question shows how little the west knows Turkey, and how greatly the nv-.tion has sulfered from luck of fair interpreters. in-terpreters. Our civil and common law is bused upon the Code Napoleonic. Our re-litriotis re-litriotis Jaws, as to marriage, divorce, etc., affect only Moslems, just as the Christians in Turkey have their owr special laws for their internal affairs. "We welcome religious relig-ious liberty and seek tolerance and good will." Loss Is Discount. "There is certain to be a loss of territory terri-tory ly Ti-rkey, the world has agreed upon that." "Very well, we nil accept the fact. Our only plea is that the Wilson principles be observed. Do not act hastily. Know thu tacts, Krush aside the rlairus of professional profes-sional propagandists t nd ficilators. nrd ascertain the conditions and the riglit of each case. Don't put eight million Moslems Mos-lems v.ixW one million Armenians, where the Mosleri-s wi!L again be massacred its in the past." ""Will the fanatical Turkish peasant agree to live under a foreign Christian power'.'" "If the power comes seeking only the p-XT'e's good, introduced, let i:s say. by such woi.iierful philanthrope, as America is now e-rryine on, everybody, hih and low, will welcome it. i-"ix months 01 peace and justice beuns we have not known lor many years woulet outweigh all ciher arguments in our people's minds. Tor what do men and wonnr. want mot? Is .it not a free and ho nor:', hie chance to live, their men live nr,mnliici,.l unH mm. exploited? Th.it what ihe pvojiie of this ur.hapr-y land have noL had for a long, long time." Why Turks Choose America. "But why not ln America alone, to live her own lif o ? The very Jat thing- the Americui people would choose to do would be to come over here and take on thia huge task. We would willingiv give m llions for relief and philanthropy and education to escape such a distasteful responsibility. Jt i.s ju.st what President W ahhmgton warned us atrainst. H runs counter to all our traditions. We don't want to ruie Turkey, even for five year."?." "Wo "know you do not. That is thf very reason why -mm- people unanimously desire America f;ir control bv uny other powr that doe want to estab-itsi estab-itsi If here. You must come because you are a people to whom moral principle prin-ciple Is supreme. You em '-red the war for lite sake of ideals. Now vou must carry those ideals out to their logical conclusion, even ihouK'h to do so interferes inter-feres with your (U-Mrts, your rum fort and your traditions. It In simply impossible that the preat American nation will abandon tho world in the hour of ita greatest need." "Certainly, if America, is drawn into th!s unde.sired job, it will be only from a hi'h moral and altruistic t-ense ot duty." "My dear sir. In this period of history we hold a nation, as well an a man, responsible re-sponsible according to its power. America Amer-ica has men emial to any task; she, has money with which to capitalize any venture; ven-ture; sho has natural resources, t he utilization of which have rqulpped her to develop Turkey y resources; she ban commercial Imagination to bee and make tho most of this field; she has a spirit, as well as a nystem of popular educa-t educa-t ion, such hh could lift up our people; she has shown in dealings with her own for'Kn population, as well us with the I'h il :ppt nes and Cuba, that nho knows how to tret along with oilier races--! n short, A in erica has every fjualif icatlon for handling this gigjinlic task and not a single disqualification, except unwillingness. unwil-lingness. More About Wilsonian League. "Turkey pins alt her hope on the Wilson Wil-son principles. Tho Wilsonian Turkish league Is a national organisation here, led by our Intellect un Is. It aeeks tho application of tho ideals set fort h by your president to the conditions existing here. Already, though, we have found that the rival power now competing for dominance here will not pn-mit t he propagation of these principles. Wo must have America herself to apply tho Ideals which she has published. (five us A merica as a mandatory with full power pow-er for a few years a nrt wo shall give you results that will a maze t ho world." So run the colloquies that I hold, day after day, sometimes until far into the morning. t 'oust ant ly I :i m being surprised sur-prised by the knowledge of history, American as wMI as Kurope:tn and Turk-'sh. Turk-'sh. which these men show. They cite h Istorical allusions ln a way quite unusual. un-usual. Signs Are Portentous. Kxourslons a re made Into Incident al phases of the situation, such as the danger dan-ger of Holshovism in present conditions; th menace of the dire poverl y of t he people: tli" advantage of having such a fearless and Informed American as .Mr. I M urgent hau b:i ek here In Turkey ; the pussMiilit y or ImposslhlH! y of ret urn lug St. Sophia to the ( 'hrist l;i ns as an net of freo wilt by tho present Turkish government; govern-ment; the eeonornio considera t Ions that prompt Kuropea n powers to sei,, pjirts of Turkey ; the new rnuod a broad In t lie la m! which l t urn log Tu rks towa rd trade, rnther than loward nfl'len holding; the essential blunder of former persecutions persecu-tions of ono group of ( mutilans by another. an-other. Always the tnllc comes back to America Amer-ica us 1 ho one hop of the pen rile not of tho government merely, which de-nerves de-nerves to full and which should not be perpetual ed in t lio old ways but of t lie people, the huge, f nnrt leu la t e, povert y St r Irk en, suffering people, who must be the first concern of n n v govern nient up guvrnin'Oits th.it may be set up in this part of the world It dors uuk jis If In a bllter school some Turks have bej:uti to learn Ihe big lessons of patriotism and democracy. |