THE FUTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
[To THE Enrroa op Tea " Sprorssoa."3 Sus,—No doubt you will permit a final rejoinder on this subject (I do not desire you to be compelled to have to "declare this correspondence closed").
The Population of Constantinople.—I not* that yen still do not quote the source of your statistics of 1912. I was frank about my Encyclopaedia, which happened to be the only thing I had to hand at the moment. I have since looked up other authorities. Should some one suddenly declare that only one- third of the population of London were (for instance) over five feet in height, you might very well know that the state- ment was incorrect, but you would probably be at a leas to prove its falsity on the spur of the moment from statistics. I desired to lose no time, and therefore replied at once, stating the source of the only information that was at hand. Having lived over nine years in Constantinople, I know perfectly well myself, for example, that Scutari does not contain more non- Moslems than Moslems; on the contrary, it is, as I stated before, almost purely Turkish—take " purely," if you like, to mean "in great majority" as a concession. I suspect that you, like many others, have been misled by Greek propaganda statistics, which are made to prove wonderful and terrible things (see any letter in the Westminster Gazette of the 23rd ult.) at times. I suggest that French pre-war statistics such as are contained in the Grande Encyclopedic or the Nouveau Larousse (which are freely quoted by the Turkish Government side by side with Turkish statistics derived from Census, taxa- tion, and military records—in other words. the usual basis for a Government) give a more probably correct view than the particular set you have before you. Putting aside any poor old Encyclopaedia, you might even look up the figures of Curriet (1898—it is improbable that the whole proportions should have changed since then in view of the " massacring " habits of the Turk On which give for the whole Vilayot 780,000 Turks, 180.000 Greeks, 65.000 Armenians, and various 202,000, with a total of l,227,000—i.c., 65 per cent. Turks. Or again take the 1919 figures of the Turk Yordou of Geneva (admittedly pro-Turkish, but still as much to be believed as Hellenic propaganda figures), which give 65.5 per cent. Turks. 22.5 per cent. Greeks, &o. All these figures, Turkish and French, more or less oorrespond together, as they do with everyday experience of residents in Constantinople. However, ae I stated before, a new and absolutely impartial Census would settle the whole matter and put a stop to the distortion caused to statistics by the double counting of Ottoman Greeks as (a) Rayahe (by their " Not:Houses ") and (b) Hellenin Greeks (by their Consular Registrations, for immense numbers of them possess and use both sets of papers as and when circum- stances make it desirable).
The 'Goeben' and the 'Breslau.'—Italy's contention of not being bound to help Germany in an offensive war is very different from her action in going into war against Germany from territorial motives. I know perfectly well that, had Enver and Co. not had the two German ships to bold Constan- tinople under their guns, the secret Treaty would never have been able to drag Turkey in against us. The majority of the Turks were friendly to England. and viewed with great appre- hension the war against the old allies, although the attitude of the latter did cause serious fears of Russia. The two ships turned the tide absolutely, and our various mistaken policies since the Armistice have. I admit, almost succeeded in elimi- nating the feelings of trust and confidence which the Turkish people had in their old ally. On this point no argument can arrive at anything, for it is not a question of taking a Censmi and proving now what the facts were. I only speak having been in Constantinople from 1910 to 1919, having intimate friends amongst the Turks and the fullest possible means of knowing the way their feelings swayed them. Ambassador: often know very much less than other people as to the real thoughts and desires of the populations of the countries to which they are accredited, and this was very much the case with tits° of our Embassy in Constantinople in the critical days of August to September, 1914. Tact, justice, and energetic action combined on our part could then have kept Turkey out of the war, instead of which a long series of blunders before the war was crowned by the impossible way in which the "Turkish ships building in England were seized, the fatal blunder of letting the Goeben ' and the Breslau ' escape from the Mediterranean, and the misfortune of not having British diplomats in 'Constantinople capable of coping with their German adversaries, who were clever enough to be always definite, astute, and impressive in their dealings with the Said Halim Cabinet.
I note that out of the ten points dealt with by me in my letter in your issue of the 17th ult. only two, those of the population ca Constantinople and of the German ships, have been seriously tackled. This, to my mind, proves that the case against our diplomacy is such a strong one that discussion, properly con- ducted and not on the " waste-paper basket " lines of the majority of the Press, would be fatal to the cause of the upholders of the "bag and baggage" policy. I will not trespass further on your space with a detailed reply to your long article of the 17th ult. except to point out that if, on the one hand, the Indian Mutiny followed closely on the Crimean War, the Turkish Government gave us special facilities for the transport of our troops to India—was that nothing? It is also forgotten that during the Transvaal War prayers for the success of the British arms were offered up in mosques in Turkey. No, Turkey cannot be accused of ingratitude nor of the violation of Treaties. She has always avoided the "scrap of paper" policy, and If, as I contend, she would not have kept to the Turoo-German swat Treaty, it would have been because this was not a Treaty of the nation, but a secret manoeuvre of a little clique who in no way represented the nation. With regard to religious toleration also, had Turkey imitated Europe of the Middle Ages in her treatment of people of alien faith, she would not now be confronted with the problem of the Christian races, for they would not exist. The Jews fled to her for protection from Catholic Spain, and she received them and gave them sanctuary. Do we now hear of Jewish shrieks against the " barbarous " Turk ? No, and this because he has not organized revolts and massacres of Moslems, which, a la Auction of Souls film, have to be carefully suppressed to avoid spoiling the picture of " martyred "
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