NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST ASSOCIATION. [To THE EDITOR or THE
" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—May I venture to call the attention of your readers to the existence of the above society, which forms a useful centre for focusing the interest and sympathies of those British subjects who are distressed by the pitiful exhibition of the present Government's handling of Eastern affairs, and are anxious to bring about a peaceful state of things in the Near and Middle East by urging principles of justice and fair dealing towards the Mohammedan world as well as towards the other nations concerned? The Near and Middle East Association includes the names of many members of both Houses of Parliament and of a large number of business men associated with Eastern trade. The subscription is almost nominal. For the last four years the British Government, mainly owing to the interference of certain Ministers in matters outside their own province, and to the combined obstinacy, subservience, and indecision of others directly responsible, has steadily alienated the respect and aroused the enmity of the Moslem community. It has thereby created a serious danger to the Empire—not only in the Near East and Asia Minor, but in Egypt, Arabia, and India as well. The recklessness of this course has only been equalled by the callous manner in which the Greeks, urged to an adventurous career in Smyrna and beyond, have now been left by their instigator to bear the consequences of trusting to his word. And, to mend matters, recourse is now had to the bellicose rattling of a sabre, which the common sense of the British nation, it is sincerely hoped, will never allow to be drawn.
Whatever may be the outcome of the present crisis, the Near and Middle East Association stands for the possession of Anatolia and Constantinople by the Turks; the peaceful evacua- tion by the Greeks of Eastern, and the creation of a neutral buffer state in Western, Thrace; the freedom of the Straits; guarantees for the protection of minorities—as long as they behave themselves; sympathetic but knowledgeable treatment of the religious susceptibilities of Moslems; the opening up of internal and external trade by practical economic methods; the elimination of Bolshevist interference; and the laying down— and adhering to—of a definite and broad-minded policy in accordance with the principles of justice and British security.—
(Acting Chairman, Near and Middle East Association). 7 St: James's Terrace, N.W. 8.
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