DISRAELI 249 



which Abdul Hamid had alone known how to rule. What 

 the Liberal ideas of the Young Turks were we now know 

 liberality to themselves and a fig for their country's 

 welfare. The would-be promoters of Liberal phantasies 

 among Oriental peoples are like missionaries who en- 

 deavour to convert the Chinese only the missionaries do 

 no serious harm, whereas the visionaries who hailed the 

 setting up of Enver Pasha as a triumph for Western 

 civilisation strengthened Germany and damaged the 

 whole world. 



Disraeli was absolutely right in 1878 to stand by the 

 Turk, as the Turk then was. What the Russian is we 

 now know, what the German is almost passes the bounds 

 of imagination. 



The Bulgarians are hardly superior to their late allies 

 in human qualities. The old Turk may have been no 

 saint, but at least he was vastly better than any of the 

 ruffians just mentioned, and as I write this I remember 

 a pantomime at Leeds in which kings and queens of 

 England were introduced in procession. Last came 

 Queen Victoria, a chubby little girl, who sang the refrain 

 of MacDermott's then popular war song, with splendid 

 effect striking one small hand on the other vigorously 

 over the prohibitory line : 



The Russians shan't have Constantinople. 



Yes, it was all fixed up for the best at that tune, for 

 Russia has been a world danger for many a year, and 

 Germany ever since 1870. Turkey was roped into this 

 war by Enver and his German associates. No genuine 

 Turk has any animosity towards England. 



I am writing, as it seems, in an atmosphere of past and 

 present, but I remember those old days so well and how 

 the bogus agitation about Bulgarian atrocities was con- 

 ducted in the Midlothian Campaign, and I would fain 

 say a word for the poor, coerced Turk, in whatever the 

 forthcoming settlement of Europe may be. 



