Greek Atrocities-1.pdf

The Literary

Digest for June

UNCLE SAM TAKES A HAND IN TURKEY ARE

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/ - % little in accepting the invitation of Great Britain to join - ^ •*- with that country, France and Italy in an investigation of both Greek and Turkish atrocities in Asia Minor? Does the Secretary of State's acceptance mean that the United States is to reenter European politics? I n his note to Great Britain, Secretary Hughes stipulates that the inquiry shall be limited to obtaining accurate data, and that the United States "shall assume no further obligation and enters into no commitment." Then comes the big question, put by a foreign correspondent: "Can the American Government even conduct an impartial investigation in Asia Minor without becoming involved in the European political tangle?" And if the Turkish Nationalist Government, under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, is found to have been carrying on a campaign of extermination against the Greeks in Anatolia, and if it is discovered that the Greeks, not to be outdone, are guilty of maltreating Mohammedans in territory under their control, what will the United States do about it? These are some of the questions which our acceptance of the British invitation has brought up. The latest news of Turkish atrocities comes from American relief organization heads in Asia Minor, particularlj^ Dr. Mark Ward, of the Near East Relief, who says "the Turks appear to be working on a deliberate plan to exterminate the Christians in their territory." We are informed by Dr. Ward that—

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"Further reliable information received from American relief workers shows that the whole G-reek population, men, women and children, from the age of fifteen upwards, of the Trebizond area and its hinterland is being deported, apparently to labor battalions at Brzerum, Kara and Sar Kamash. There are numbers of Christian women and children in deplorable straits in Trebizond, who have been driven out of their villages."

" T h e condition of the Greeks is as bad as that of the Armenians. There are approximately 500,000 of these people in Turkey. They have retained their religion. They are now being indirectly massacred by the thousand. They are not permitted to leave the country, and are being deported from the coast to the extreme interior under conditions under which they can not survive. During the winter one band of 20,000 v/as 'IT AIN'T POLITE TO INTERRUPT!" —Sykcs In the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger.

In addition to these deportation horrors, avers Dr. Ward, the rights of foreigners are completely disregarded by the Kemalists, In one instance, writes Norman W. Baxter in the Brooklyn Eagle, the Turkish Nationalists seized 40 per cent, of American Relief stores at the port of debarkation, another 40 per cent, along the route to the organization's headquarters, and the balance before that destination was reached. The Turks, on the other hand, maintain that Greeks and Armenians have been guilty of atrocities. I t is to get at the truth of the matter that the four governments are to carry on a joint inquiry. Said Secretary Hughes in his note to Great Britain:

HIS BIG BROTHER. —Gale in the Los Angeles Times.

driven through Kharput. From Diarbekir, our last station, only a hundred miles farther, I learned that only 10,000 passed there. Probably not a thousand reached their destination. These deportations are going on constantly." At about the same time the British Government received this telegram from the British High Commissioner in Constantinople:

" I n view of the humanitarian considerations which are involved and of the desire of this Government to have adequate information through a thorough and impartial investigation of the actual conditions prevailing in Anatolia in order that this Government may determine its future policy in relation to the authorities concerned, the President is prepared to designate an officer or officers to take part in the proposed inquiry. . . . " I n order to expedite the inquiry, it was at the same time suggested by this Government that officers should be designated by the respective Governments to institute inquiries concurrently in the districts respectively under Greek and Turkish occupation, and that these two commissions, upon the completion of their investigation, should unite in a comprehensive report." "This acceptance by the United States marks a definite, if small, step forward in the handling of the Turkish situation," declares the New York Globe; " i t marks an effort on the part of American and European governments to get beyond a religious bias." " I t is good news that Turkey is to be investigated," agrees the New York World; " i t is even better news that the United States is to take a hand." " T h e inquiry," asserts the New York Evening Post, "is a warning that Christen-

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The Literary Digest for June 17, 1922

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OVERLOADED. —Harding in the Brooklyn Eagle.

SISYPHUS. —Knott in the Dallas News.

BOTH HAVE THEIR TROUBLES. dom is aroused, and its moral effect should be immediate and decisive." The Manchester Union also approves of the inquiry. Those editors who oppose our participation in the inquiry point out, in the words of the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, that "Great Britain, France and Italy could control the Asia Minor situation if they would." "American inquiry, in conjunction with these nations, can do no more than confirm American reports already made," notes the Boston Herald. And if Kemal, for instance, should be found guilty, asks this paper, "would these four nations think of sending armies into Asia Minor? Should America be induced to send an expeditionary force?" If not, then what will the inquiry accomplish? According to Edwin L. James, Paris correspondent of the New York Times: " T o investigate the situation and to fix the blame and to leave it there would be futile and inane. To draft a report and publish it broadcast would have as much effect on the Angora authorities as water on a duck's back. Moreover, the Greeks deny all the charges against them. "The same Powers which now undertake the investigation undertook one in 1919. The report on it said the charges of cruelty against the Greeks were well founded, but nothing was done; and that this kind of inquiry without penalties is worth nothing is proved by the present necessity for another inquiry. Inasmuch as it is presumed a man so practical as Mr. Hughes would not lend himself to any such useless proceedings, one is free to speculate what is to be done about the matter after the facts are in hand. Unless something is done, there is no use investigating, it is held here. "Suppose the investigators find that the Turks have been to blame. What is to be done? Suppose the investigators find the Greeks to blame. What is to be done? Get the Greeks out of Anatolia, you say. Well, that undertaking is political if anything is. "Suppose both the Turks and Greeks are found guilty. That will doubly complicate a solution. You have the Greeks in Anatolia at the behest of the English, and you have Mustapha Kemal fighting to get them out and being backed by the French. "If the inquiry is to amount to anything, the wound must be healed by political treatment. Unless Washington is going to ship enough soldiers into Asia Minor to protect those in danger, there must be a political arrangement to persuade^those in control in the affected territories to change their habits."

BARLEYCORN'S RESURRECTION AS A BIG CAMPAIGN ISSUE

W

HILE THERE ARE MANY MONTHS to Election Day, and public opinion is subject to change, recent events have shown that the Prohibition issue will be of importance in the Congressional elections this fall. In fact, well-informed Washington correspondents, such as David Lawrence and W. W. Jermane, told us in April that the greatest of all battles between the " w e t " and " d r y " forces of America is to be fought during the next few months. And now we find editors from all sections of the country agreeing as to the importance of Prohibition as an issue. Hem-y Ford's weekly, the Dearborn Independent, and Mrs. Peter Olesen, of Minnesota, Democratic nominee for United States Senator, agree that Prohibition is not a live issue; in the words of Mr. Ford's Independent, " i t is as dead as slavery." " B u t what they mean," interprets the liberal New York Telegraph, "is that they hope Prohibition will not be an issue. The truth is, in Mrs. Olesen's State it will be the issue." Every day, continues The Telegraph, which is frankly "wet," "evidence accumulates that a referendum is to be had upon the Volstead Act?" And we find this statement echoed in many of the country's leading papers The Cleveland Plain Dealer, for instance, which fought for State and national prohibition years ago, admits that "from the standpoint of either wet or dry, the entire country faces a critical contest." "And this is as it should be," declares the Boston Post, "for in no better way can public sentiment be ascertained." "One of the storm centers next fall," we are informed by the Springfield Republican, "will be Massachusetts": " T h e referendum on the new State enforcement law, which now seems assured, will make this State a battle-ground." Others will be New Jersey, where Governor Edwards is running for the United States Senate as an avowed "wet," and New York, where dry-law enforcement is admittedly difflcult, and where the hotels suffer so from hootch-selling restaurants that they

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