The Blackest Page of Modern History. By H. R. Gibbons.
(G. P. Putnam's Sons. 3s. ficl. net.)—Dr. Gibbons is entitled to write with authority upon the massacres of Armenians, for " their blood was spilt before his eyes in Adana," and he has been in Turkey or Asia Minor almost continuously since 1908. Adana, the scene of Young Turkey's early effort, saw only child's-play compared with the holocausts of 1915. Wo need not recapitulate the horrors, already well known through Lord Bryce and others, of the deliberate slaughter or starva- tion of about a million persons. But the point emphasized by this neutral observer is that the authorities of one nation alone could have stopped the criminals—namely, Germany, who therefore shares the crime ; and he goes further, pointing out the great economic and com- mercial value to Turkey of the Armenian population, and showing that its extermination " is to the interest of a certain nation—but that nation is not Turkey." Germany alone could hope to benefit by the crime, for she alone desires a weak Turkish Empire ready for control or absorption, where there should be no competition with her traders. It is a terrible indictment, which wo hope will be widely read in America and elsewhere.
Previous page
