THE LYNCHING OF A GREEK IN . CONSTANTINOPLE.
LTO, Till EDITOR OF THE " SFECTATOR."]
too, have lived the best part of my life in Turkey, but I cannot agree with the conclusion of your corre- spondent ." Interior Resident" (Spectator, December 5th, 1908) that the Turk is more bigoted from a religious point of view than the rest of the inhabitants of Asia Minor. It is extremely difficult to determine what urges the Turk, as distinct from the Kurd or Circassian, to commit acts which savour of barbarity, but in any case the cause is not religious fanaticism. As a nation the Turk has all through his history shown himself singularly tolerant of other creeds, and Jew or Gentile has been allowed to practise his rites without let or hindrance. Greeks often un- wittingly let slip in the course of conversation the expression
oh Xpurnavoi referring to themselves—i.e., those of the Orthodox faith—but it would be wrong to infer on that account that they are bigoted, though this expression not only sounds strange to the listener, but produces the uncomfortable feeling of being considered without the pale. Similarly I would not care to stigmatise the Greeks as fanatical because in the late troubles in Samos sothe seventeen unarmed Turkish soldiers were wantonly butchered. I have always 'felt that the Turk's contempt for the Christian as a man is at the bottom of his brutality when his passions are raised to fever- heat, and it must be remembered by those who judge the Turk that his contact with the Christian population while he was conquering the Empire that is now his gave .him ample reason to look down on the peoples then in possession of the land, who were incontestably his inferiors from almost every point of view ; and the Turkish peasant has still reason for his contempt, for even he dimly realises the ignoble way in which Europe has plundered his country while pretending to confer
Smyrna.
Previous page
