Another day he was again in despair. “Well, it will just have to be war.”
But I would not hear the word. To all the Turks, Riza Nour, Tewfik, Hikmet, I say the same. “We are both in the wood. We must walk round and round, until we have found a way out.”
It may sound paradoxical, but, while there is absolutely no offence to British prestige in the National Pact that is worth shedding one drop of human blood to remove, it yet stands for such vital ideals, means so much, and has been achieved with such grand courage and self-sacrifice, that the Nationalists must uphold and defend it to the bitter end. That is the “problem” of Lausanne.
There is, however, no reason why, if foreigners are afraid to trust themselves, and the capital, in a Turkey governed by Turks (without “protection,” which means “interference”) they should not leave the people to find their own way towards commercial and political stability.
Lord Curzon, naturally, told me nothing; but his questions enabled me to guess at what he wished and intended to achieve. Perhaps I have guessed wrongly.
Is he not anxious to keep Mosul, from fear of Russia. We could buy the oil, and the Turks would gladly sell it. Also a promise to Arabs has been broken before now; and if our bungling has led Turkey into a temporary alliance with Russia, no one knows what will come of the German-Jew Soviets. Maybe, we have far more need to protect India from them, than to stand on our dignity with “new” Turkey.
The British Empire was founded, and can only survive, on Trust. It is a poor policy that dare not act for fear of backing “the wrong horse.” It is a criminal policy, when hesitation means war and the loss of millions of lives.
Lord Curzon’s association with the Coalition has sadly shaken his high repute for “good faith”; and unless he can see his way to come forward frankly for a “free and independent” Turkey, the Nationalists will fight in their own defence.
There seem to me too many “Commissions” at Lausanne. Closer contact between Lord Curzon himself and those able men, Djavid and Hamid Bey, as well as Ismet Pasha, would surely not only go far to restore their confidence in his good faith, but enormously “speed up” decisions on the essential problems that need to be promptly settled.