The outcome of this policy of the Allies has been to drive both the new States, whose independence they persistently refused to recognise, and the old ones, whose national aspirations they did not countenance, towards Bolshevism, the enemy of the Allies; it has induced them, in spite of themselves, to come to understandings with the Soviet Government, in order to defend their independence. England in this way runs the risk of finding herself again face to face with Russia—a new Russia; and thus the old Anglo-Russian antagonism would reappear in another shape, and a more critical one. Sir H. Rawlinson[61] denounced this danger nearly half a century ago, and now once more, though in a different way, “India is imperilled by the progress of Russia.”

However, there is no similarity between Pan-Turanianism and Bolshevism, though an attempt has been made in press polemics or political controversies to confound the one with the other. They have no common origin, and the utter incompatibility between Bolshevism and the spirit of Western Europe exists likewise to another extent and for different reasons between Bolshevism and the spirit of the Turks, who, indeed, are not Europeans but Moslems, yet have played a part in the history of Europe and thus have felt its influence. The Turks—like the Hungarians, who are monarchists and have even sought to come to an understanding with Poland—have refused to make an alliance with the Czecho-Slovaks, who have Pan-Slavic tendencies; and so they cannot become Bolshevists or friendly to the Bolshevists. But, if the Allies neither modify their attitude nor give up the policy they have pursued of late years, the Turks, as well as all the heterogeneous peoples that have broken loose from old Russia, will be driven for their own protection to adopt the same policy as new Russia—the latter being considered as outside Europe; and thus the power of the Soviet Government will be reinforced.

We have been among the first to show both the danger and the inanity of Bolshevism; and now we feel bound to deplore that policy which merely tends to strengthen the Bolshevists we want to crush. Our only hope is that the influence of the States sprung from old Russia or situated round it on Soviet Russia—with which they have been obliged to come to terms for the sake of self-defence—will complete the downfall of Bolshevism, which can only live within Russia and the Russian mind, but has already undergone an evolution, owing to the mistakes of the Allies, in order to spread and maintain itself.

As to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, it seems that far from solving the Eastern question, it is likely to bring about many fresh difficulties, for it is a political mistake as well as an injustice.

This dismemberment, impudently effected by England, is not likely to turn to her advantage. Of course, owing to the treaty, British hegemony for the present extends over Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Kurdistan, and is likely to prevail over the international régime foreshadowed by the same treaty; but the organisation which Great Britain wants thus to enforce on the East, if ever it is effective, seems most precarious. For, even without mentioning Turkey, which does not seem likely to submit to this scheme, and where the Nationalist movement is in open rebellion, or Armenia, whose frontiers have not been fixed yet, the condition of Kurdistan, which England coveted and had even at one moment openly laid claim to, is still uncertain; the Emir Feisal, who is indebted to her for his power, is attempting to get out of her hand; finally, by putting Persia under her tutelage, she has roused the national feeling there too, and broken of her own accord the chain she intended to forge all round India, after driving Germany out of Asia Minor and capturing all the routes to her Asiatic possessions.

Now it is questionable whether Great Britain—in spite of the skill with which her administration has bent itself to the ways of the very various peoples and the liberal spirit she has certainly evinced in the organisation of the Dominions belonging to the British Empire, the largest empire that has ever existed—will be powerful enough to maintain her sovereignty over so many peoples, each of which is proud of its own race and history, and to organise all these countries according to her wish.

As to France, she is gradually losing the moral prestige she once enjoyed in the East, for the advantages she has just gained can only injure her, and also injure the prestige she still enjoys in other Moslem countries; whereas, by pursuing another policy, she might have expected that the German defeat would restore and heighten her prestige.

It follows from all this that the Turkish problem, as we have endeavoured to describe it—considering that for centuries an intercourse has been maintained between the Moslem world and Mediterranean Europe, and that a Moslem influence once made itself felt on Western civilisation through Arabic culture—cannot be looked upon as a merely Asiatic problem. It is a matter of surprise that Islam, five centuries after Christ, should have developed in the birthplace of Christianity, and converted very numerous populations, whose ways and spirit it seems to suit. One cannot forget either that Islam acted as a counterpoise to Christianity, or that it played an important part in our civilisation by securing the continuance and penetration of Eastern and pagan influences. So it is obvious that nowadays the Turkish problem is still of paramount importance for the security of Western civilisation, since it concerns all the nations round the Mediterranean Sea, and, moreover, all the Asiatic and African territories inhabited by Moslems, who have always been interested in European matters and are even doubly concerned in them now.[62]

Footnotes:

[45] Albert Sorel, La Question d’Orient au XVIIIe siècle, pp. 81, 85, 277.