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The Review of Reviews. 



that England desires to be on the friendliest terms 

 with the Caliph spurs them on in their loyalty and 

 work for the Emperor-King. 



At the present monicnl, however, it would seem as 

 if the British Government, occupied with Cabinet 

 differences and local affairs, had completely forgotten 

 that we are a Mohammedan Empire, or that it behoves 

 us to stand well with the centre and direct control of 

 Islam. They remain still under the hypnotism of 

 Mr. Gladstone, who led the nation to think of the 

 unspeakable Turk, and whose ideas have caused a 

 generation to grow up holding as a fixed tradition that 

 the Turks are models of iniquitv. What suited Mr. 

 Gladstone in his time is, however, far from being the 

 best policy to-day, and no time should be lost in 

 changing the British policy of indifference towards 

 Turkey into a warm friendship and rapprochement. 

 No two nations have more cause for joint action, and 

 it would be untrue to say that British friendship for 

 Turkey would be only to the advantage of the latter. 



Lasting alliances are based upon common interests, 

 and not upon parchments. The common interest 

 l)etween the Empire possessing more Mohammedan 

 subjects than any other, tind the land where is all that 

 is sacred and revered by these Mohammedans, is 

 .sufficiently defined. If this country is hall-marked 

 throughout the world of Islam as friend and defender 

 of the Caliph, many of the sources of possible danger 

 will have become innocuous, even if they have not 

 been turned into forces for good. To allow any other 

 country, especially Germany, to usurp in the world of 

 Islam the place which is ours by right, would not only 

 be reprehensible, it might easily be almost suicidal. 

 Nor must it be forgotten that besides the verv real 

 advantages which are to be gained by friendly alliance 

 with the head of Islam, there are sufficiently good ' 

 reasons for friendship with the Sultan of Turkey as 

 temporal monarch. An entente with Turkey means 

 much in the Mediterranean question, more still for the 

 Suez Canal, while it opens up a safe land route to 

 India. 



Whoever holds Constantinople or is friendly with 

 those who hold it dominates the Eastern Mediter- 

 ranean. The Black .Sea becomes a negligible question 

 if an Anglo-Turkish entente controls the Dardanelles. 

 The Suez Canal is saved from danger within and 

 without and the two Mohammedan Powers command 

 one of the world's great natural highways, and reach 

 unbroken to India and beyond. 



What then should 1)C done ? Turkey is threatened 

 from within and menaced from without, so that what- 

 ever is to be done must be done quickly. First and 

 foremost, there should be an immcrliate change of 

 Mritish representation at Constantinople. The present 

 Ambassador is not able to adequately .safeguard the 

 country's interests, much less take an active and 

 moulding part in Turkish affairs. To leave Sir Gerard 

 Lowther at Constantinople, because of influential 

 support, or for any other reason, is to betray vital 

 Imperial interests and to risk the losing for ever ol 



an opportunity to bring together in harmtinious ' 

 co-operation the two great forces of Islam. But wc 

 should not rest content with merely replacing an 

 incompetent Ambassador by one more fitted to British 

 dignity and more able to take advantage of occasions 

 such as the present. \Ve should recognise boldly and 

 openly that in the Sultan we have to deal with two 

 distinct factors — the spiritual head of Islam and the 

 temporal ruler of Turkey. The Vatican and the 

 Quirinal are not more distinct — the difference at 

 Constantinople being that the Caliph has far more 

 direct and actual power for good or evil than has the 

 Pope in Rome. What greater recognition of this 

 difference and of the power of Islam and British 

 interests in its welfare could we give than by sending 

 a Mohammedan Ambassador to the Caliph as well as 

 our regular Ambassador to the Sultan ? Such an action 

 would ring throughout the whole world of Islam and 

 win the whole-hearted gratitude and friendship of 

 every follower of Mohammed, down to the negro 

 of savage Africa. And what an insight the British 

 Government would gain into the thoughts and ideas 

 of the world of Islam, knowledge precious to the 

 governing of countless parts of the British Empire ! 



We hold not only the future of Turkey and of 

 Islam in our hands, but also the present. Prompt 

 and decided action on our part will not only checkmate 

 possible schemes of dismemberment by other Powers, 

 but will be welcomed by the neighbouring small States 

 who are now straining at the leash because of the 

 manifest impossibility of adequate reform in the 

 Turkish provinces. If we arc with Turkey, the day 

 of reform will soon come, and with reform will come 

 closer friendships and alliances with those neigh- 

 bouring States which have been carved from Turkey's 

 territory, but which would find more stable safety in 

 common action and common policy with an Anglo- 

 Turkish entente than with ever-hungry Austiia or 

 Russia. In this way the menace of Near Eastern unrest 

 would pass for ever and Europe arrive at another 

 stage nearer certainty of peace. Disinterested as wi 

 are towards Turkish territory, interested as we arc 

 vitally in the maintenance of the Caliphate, this 

 country can best come to the aid of Turkey and, 

 recognising franklv the claims of Islam to respect, 

 reorganise the administration of the country. British 

 administrators trained amongst Mohammedan or 

 mixed peoples are easily to be found, and by their 

 aid marvellous changes would be wrought. Turkey 

 would become a serious and progressive nation living 

 at peacewithin its frontiers, and no longer would Europe 

 look towards Constantinople, awaiting the tearing 

 asunder of the dominion of the Sultan. Let " the 

 greatest Mohammedan Power in the world " join 

 friendly hands with the highest Mohammedan force, 

 and together, doubly strong and in no wise weakened. 

 Great Britain and Turkey will become the " lords ot 

 Islam," and the hundreds of millions of Mohammedans 

 will have been transformed into a furtlier force for 

 imivcrsal peace. 



