SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent reviete.1
The Western Question in Turkey and Greece. By Arnold J. Toynbee. (Constable. 18s. net.)—Professor Toynbee is con- vinced that the Turks and Greeks have both suffered from contact with Western civilization and that they must come to an understanding with one another. Ho elaborates this argu- ment and denounces the Western Powers in set terms for their errors and delays in the Near East. He describes his experiences during a recent tour in Anatolia, gives some account of last year's campaign, and relates at length the sufferings of Moslem peasants at the hands of the Greek troops. Professor Toynbee's indignation is doubtless justifiable, but when we remember that the Greek peasantry have been murdered, not in tens or hun- dreds, but in tens of thousands, by the Turkish Nationalists, we cannot help feeling that the Greeks had some provocation. Moreover, as Professor Toynbee admits, some at least of the Greek officers held responsible for acts of cruelty have been punished, whereas the massacres of Greeks were ordered and carried out by the Government at Angora. Professor Toynbee does his best to show that the Turk is really a good fellow and on much the same level as the Greek. Yet the contrast between Greece and Turkey—the one a civilized and orderly country, the other a primitille and barbarous land—is not to be explained away. Greece in less than a century has assimilated Western civilization, but the Turk has learned nothing at all.
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