II. 



TO-DAY. 



Reprinted from "THE TIMES," Tuesday , February 20, 1917. 



a. THE "CLEAN-FIGHTING" TURK. 



A SPURIOUS CLAIM. 



The writer of this article, who is a distinguished 

 authority on Oriental affairs, has had exceptional experi- 

 ence of the ways of the Turk. 



DURING the present war we have heard a good deal of the 

 good nature of the Turks, yet they have pursued the most 

 devilish policy that even this war has seen. The Armenians 

 have been massacred, assassinated, marched to death, 

 starved, and exposed to ravages of disease, until 

 perhaps 700,000 men, \vomen, and children have met 

 with untimely ends. In the Lebanon an artificial 

 famine has swept away more than half the population, 

 who died within sight of plenty ; the Moslem Arabs 

 of Syria have been robbed of their noblest families, 

 bullied, crimped, and taxed to the last penny ; the 

 Je'wish colonists have been impoverished, conscripted, 

 and subjected to vile indignities. The British prisoners 

 of war have perished by the roadside, of hunger and 

 thirst. Some of those who survived are known to have 

 been left to die of cold in unhealthy prisons, where they 

 are denied garments, medicine, and the ordinary neces- 

 saries of life. 



Nevertheless the sportsmanship and chivalry of the 

 Turks is a favourite theme of some writers. How is the 

 paradox to be explained ? 



The plain fact is, that the Turk as a ruler is a merciless 

 oppressor; as a negotiator a cunning Byzantine; as a 

 soldier a tough fighter; as a victor a remorseless bully-- 



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