CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. (To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—In your issue of March 5th you call attention to the attitude of Switzerland towards League of Nation troops going on a peaceful, policing errand to Vilna, and to possible more serious complications of the same kind which may make Switzerland in the future an impossible headquarters for the League of Nations. This once more brings forcibly to the front the conviction that the League of Nations will have no real solidarity until it has a home of its own, and that its one and only possible home is Constantinople, with St. Sophia as the great meeting-place of all nations and all religions of the earth. There is here no question of dispossessing the Turk or interfering with the Mohammedan religion. The Turk himself does not seem to know whether his real government is at Constantinople or Angora. With the help of the League of Nations at Constantinople he might be able to find out and to restore, or rather to create, :iberty, equality, and fraternity in his distracted dominions. " There is one God and Mehemet is His prophet." Granted. But he is not the only prophet of the one God. The Basilica of St Sophia was built by Christians, and has only for a comparatively short time been held by Mohammedans. Why should not the representatives of the religions of all the countries composing the League of Nations, with all their other delegates, join together in that great sanctuary in worshipping the one God in whom they all believe? They could begin by all singing the 100th Psalm :- " All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice."
Previous page
