The British Government and the British people are naturally most
anxious to prevent the war becoming an anti- Mohammedan rather than simply an anti-Turkish war, and happily the Italians are also deeply concerned to show no anti- Mohammedan bias. They realize that they will soon have a large Moslem population as their subjects, and they are doing their best to conciliate the Arabs and to show themselves in no way the enemies of Islam. If our hands are absolutely tied in the narrower matter of intervention to help Turkey as a nation the Turkish Government have only themsel e...ts to thank. Undoubtedly we should have been in a much better position to render them assistance had they not in the last two years so obviously thrown in their lot diplomatically with Germany, and in effect allowed Turkey to become a satellite of the Triple Alliance. Germany is the only Power which can put pressure upon Italy not to deal too harshly with Turkey. In all probability, however, action on her part is para- lysed by some secret agreement with Italy under which Italy was given a free-hand in Tripoli whenever she liked to claim it.
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