It seems that the Aga Khan and Mr. Ameer Ali
posted their warnings simultaneously to Constantinople and Angora. When the letter was received at Constantinople it was published by three Turkish editors in their news- papers before the matter had even been heard of at Angora—no doubt because as Angora is further from London that letter had not yet arrived there. Mustapha Kemal, as head of the new Turkish Republic, was very angry at the action of the Turkish editors, and imme- diately despatched a Commission to Constantinople to try them for their lives. If the Commission condemns them to death, however, the sentences will have to be ratified by the Grand National Assembly. The editors were no doubt indiscreet, but death is an excessive penalty for indiscretion, and if it were generally inflicted few of us, we fear, would survive. The Aga Khan and Mr. Ameer Ali have pointed out that they are by no means opposed to democracy and that their warning was not in any sense directed against the Turkish Republic.
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