TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE FUTURE OF SYRIA.
THE lull in the war has given opportunities for discuss- ing the future. A good deal of late has been said behind the scenes in regard to the fate of Syria after the war. In the course of these discussions it has been whis- pered that a certain amount of anxiety has been shown by Frenchmen lest England should put in a claim to the Holy Laud—a part of the world in which French influence has always been very carefully cultivated, and to which France, ever since the Crusades, has had continuous historic claims. These doubts and anxieties lest England should try to " grab " Syria at the end of the war have not, of course, been indulged in officially by the French Government, or by any people of real knowledge or political standing. The statesmen of France know the state of things too well and arc too loyal to entertain even for a moment jealousies of this sort. If, then, the matter only concerned French- men of light and leading, we should not think it worth while to contradict rumours so ridiculous. Since, how- ?ver, there appear to be a number of uninstructed French people who have come to entertain an opinion so erroneous and so harmful (no doubt ultimately through German and Austrian suggestions conveyed 'via the reptile Press in certain of the neutral countries), it is, we think, worth while to offer the firmest and clearest contradiction possible of the preposterous suggestion that we want to take Syria for ourselves, and so to rob France of a piece of Oriental territory upon which she has prior claims.
We say with all the emphasis at our command, and with- out the slightest fear of contradiction, official or otherwise, not .only that we do not want Syria for ourselves, but that nothing would induce us to take it. Englishmen of all parties; or political schools of thought—as we ought now perhaps to call them—are agreed that the British Empire is quite.big enough already, and that at the close of the war the danger will he, not of our getting too little, but of our getting too much—of getting, that is, more territory than we, shall have the man-power or financial strength to manage and develop properly. We have, in fact, like Candide, got our own little garden to cultivate—and not such a very little garden after all. We are content with that, and with such enlargements and developments as our active ..hildren oversee will be certain to insist on—and in their :11.4c:. quite rightly no doubt—in South-West and East Africa . and in New Guinea and Oceana. Again, in all probability we may be obliged to take over responsi- bilities of a heavy kind in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. The acquisition of such new and grave responsi- bilities, the world may be assured, will be undertaken by us in no light spirit, but out of political necessity rather than from any desire for commercial or Imperial advance- ment. In spite, however, of these exceptions, it is quite safe to say that the very last thing that we want to do is to go round with a pot of red paint trying to include as many square miles as possible in the British Empire. This statement does not exhaust the question as regards Syria. Not only do we not want Syria for ourselves, but France may be assured that English public opinion will be heartily glad to see her established there if she so deiires, and if she believes that such establishment will be for her material or political benefit. The flying of the Tricolour from Dan to Beersheba, from Jaffa to the Dead Sea,.and from Haifa to Damascus will awaken no jealousies on our. part. All Englishmen are determined to maintain and solidify our hold upon Egypt, but it is no part of our Egyptian policy to play dog-m-the-manger to our French allies. ' For us to refuse to, take Syria for ourselves, and at the.same time to prevent them from having it if they want it, would be a selfish and unworthy part which we can assure them will never be played by this country, and has. never been contemplated by any serious statesman on this side ..of. the Channel. Prophets of evil may, no doubt; be found to say that some day we shall be enemies Of France, and that France might attack us from the Desert, and so 'on and so forth; but such periens are' entirely negligible 'quantities.-- All we - need -say of this morbid twaddle is that taking the most conical. view Of feture developments, we are quite sure that France will not be a bad a neighbour as Turkey has proved. Again, we who find it no injury to our Imperial position, and no in- tolerable menace to our welfare, to be within gunshot and almost eyeshot of France in the Channel are not going to be so foolish as to shiver with terror at the thought of France being within some hundred and fifty miles of the Suez Canal. As long as we command the sea the possession of Syria by France will be no menace to Egypt, and if we are mad enough to lose command of the sea, it does not very much matter who are our neighbours. The string that held together the Imperial necklace will have been snapped. There will be no necklace left to guard, but only a for- tuitous concourse of pearls—a set of curiosities, not the glorious heritage of a free and united people. Though we have felt it a duty to make it as clear as possible that France, if her heart is set upon Syria, need fear no attempt on our part to seize it, or to resent in the very least the development of French influence there on the greatest scale, we desire, as warm friends and well-wishers of France, to be preserved from the appear- ance of egging France on to acquire the Holy Land. Indeed, to be quite plain-spoken, if we were Frenchmen nothing would induce us to lay claim to the possession of Palestine, or the exercise of a predominant influence there of the kind which is sure to lead before long to annexation. If the avoidance of the policy of petits paquets is an essential principle of war, it is also the last word in the politics of Empire. Concentration and consolidation should be watchwords of great Colonial Empires. That being so, we cannot help thinking that France would be wise to concentrate on the development of that magnificent Empire which she now possesses in North Africa, and which stretches from the borders of Tripoli, through Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, almost to the Bight of Benin. Morocco still remains the greatest and most valuable piece of undeveloped territory in the world. Not only is its mineral wealth enormous, but its fruitful soil and good rainfall render the greater part of it only African in name. As far as possi- bilities of cultivation and habitation go, the conditions are as good as those of Italy, Spain, or Southern France. From a great many points of view its natural advantages are far• greater even than those of Algiers. And France can develop Morocco with comparatively little trouble because she can work from her oldest and best organized colony. If, however, she elects to take over and develop Syria, she will be in possession of an isolated stretch of territory with very long communications with France, and likely to need for many years large subsidies from her Treasury. However, this is not our business, but that of the French people. All that concerns us is to point out the absurdity of imagining that we are going to interfere with French aspirations as regards Syria.
To return once more to our main thesis, as far as we are concerned nothing would suit us better than to see France in Syria. Somebody must own it. That beim-, so, we must obviously want to see it owned by a friendly Power, and one which will be able to maintain law and order and prevent outbreaks and insurrections, whether political or religious, that will produce difficulties in Egypt, or, as would be equally bad, in Arabia, the Holy Land of the world-wide Moslem faith. France is clearly the ideal Power for this purpose. As the second Mohammedan Power in the world, she is as deeply concerned as we are not to interfere with the rights, the interests material and religious, and even the prejudices of those who profess the religion of Islam. In a word, we shall not look sour, but take off our hats, if we hear the French band playing " Portent pour la Syrie."
Previous page
