Critical Times in Turkey and England's Responsibility. By Georgina King
Lewis. (Hodder and Stoughton. 3s. 6d.)—Mrs. Lewis has made three journeys for the purpose of ministering relief to the Balkan Christians, and she has seen the people, made acquaintance with their sufferings and wrongs, and, we may say, studied the "Near East" question—viewed from the standpoint of human feeling—on the spot. Here we have the outcome of her experiences and observations. Unfortunately, there is a political side also. Every European Power would gladly get rid of the Turk but for the haunting fear that some one of themselves would take possession of the spoils. Then, on the other hand, there is the Macedonian Committee, and a too well founded conviction that if the Christian population became masters of the situation, the Mohammedan minority would suffer the same things that their neighbours have endured. However this may be, Mrs. Lewis's book imperatively demands a hearing. England has a "responsibility," if for no other reason, as the result of her action in 1853-55. It is a harrowing story that we have in these pages, but it is a story of things that ought not to, and indeed cannot, be hidden.
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