TURKEY AND THE WAR
war has at once revived the old love that
slept, but was alive ; and to-day, if any
fifty recruits were asked " What is
Alsace ?
war has at once revived the old love that
slept, but was alive ; and to-day, if any
fifty recruits were asked " What is
Alsace ?
Jabotinsky - 1917 - Turkey and the War
Analysing the different factors,
we shall easily see that many of them
would not have been able by themselves
to provoke so enormous a conflagration ;
they may have added fuel, but did not
make the fire ; whilst a few of them, or
perhaps just one of them, would inevitably
have produced the conflict even if the
others had not existed. The removal of
these essential roots of the struggle is the
natural immanent aim of the war. With-
out this, the settlement would not be
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
effective even if the secondary causes were
removed, and a new and perhaps more
terrible war must follow.
In dealing with this analysis we must
ignore every sentimental consideration.
Some battlecries which excite our greatest
sympathies may prove, on test, to be of
secondary importance ; in that case we
shall have to accept the truth and to draw
from it the necessary solutions, however
unpalatable they may be. Again, what
our inquiry ascertains to be the " real
aim " may not in itself inspire us with
enthusiasm : but we must submit to its
imperative necessity and carry it through
To make our meaning still clearer lei
us have recourse to an old-fashioned bul
still useful device : to the parable. Imagine
an old town in which an epidemic disease
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
suddenly breaks out. People are naturally
mxious to discover the source of the scourge
md to remove it. Some think that the
:ause lies in the absence of vegetation ;
others say that the streets of the town
ire too narrow and the houses too dark,
others again insist on the necessity of
mproving the underground drainage,
rhus a complete scheme of reconstruction
3f the old town is formed, which attracts
sympathies and excites enthusiasms. It
works its own way further : Mr. Somebody
s suddenly reminded of his own old feud
with his neighbour, a field-boundary dis-
pute unjustly decided by the court, and
ie goes around saying that there can be
10 health where there is no justice, and
that a radical struggle against the disease
mplies a reform of the tribunals -- and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
the revision of some old quarrels. But
the Doctor knows that the real cause of
the epidemic is the bad quality of the
potable water, because the source from
which it comes is infected ; and to dis-
infect it the picturesque beauty of the
river-margin must be deformed by a plain
but hygienic embankment. That is the
difficulty, because many of his fellow-
citizens love the romantic river-side in
its wildness. So the Doctor says : " Your
scheme is very good. I grant you, green
spaces are necessary : wide streets and
bright houses are healthy : a more perfect
drainage is of the greatest importance. I
even agree with the desirability of a
reform of the courts. Try it all if you
can. I shall be glad if you succeed. But
don't forget that even if you succeed in
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
all this you don't destroy the root of our
plague, and it will persist. If you want
to get rid of it you must embank the river.
That is the main thing -- that is the thing
to be done. I know you don't like it ;
but I can't count with your nice feel-
ings in this question. Drop the whole
scheme if necessary, but remember the
river. "
The popular list of the " aims of the
war " includes the freedom of small nation-
alities, a fair solution of the Alsace problem,
and what people call the destruction of
Prussian militarism. We intentionally ab-
stain from mentioning such axioms as the
restoration of Belgium : it is a holy and
imperative duty of the Allies, but the
redressing of a consequence of the war
cannot be considered as one of those aims
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
which determine or underlie human con-
flagrations. Nor will we indulge in such
beautiful ideals as the " prohibition " of
wars and the creation of a compulsory
International Tribunal -- we are dealing
with plain realities, not with ideals. On
the other hand, the three points mentioned
just above are certainly within the bounds
of practical politics. Everybody to whom
freedom is not merely an empty word
must fully recognise that their realisation
would be a blessing for humanity ; and
he will encourage the Allies to insist, cost
what might, upon this noble platform.
Its fulfilment, we hope, will be the conse-
quence of the war ; but we are now
concerned with the causes. Let it there-
fore be said at once, without further pre-
amble, that the present war owes its birth
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
directly and beyond doubt to the problem
of the Near and Middle East.
We strongly reject every suspicion that
we are underrating the great value oi
such principles as protection of the smaller
nations, the re-annexation of Alsace-Lor-
raine, and the taming of the shrew whose
name is German Junkerdom. It would
indeed be a heavy disappointment, perhaps
a moral disaster for the civilised world if
these goals could not be attained in con-
nection with this war. But the root of
the present plague is in Asia Minor, and
the first and last aim of the war is the
solution of the Eastern question.
In the following chapters we shall try
to recall the facts and arguments which
led us to this conclusion.
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? -THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
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? II
The Alleged Aims of the War
(a) Freedom of Small Nationalities
Is the establishment of the freedom of
small nations an indispensable aim of the
war, a conditio sine qua non of peace ?
This question is tantamount to another
one : was it the absence of such freedom
that caused the war ?
Let some serious and unsweetened words
be said on this subject. The list of
small nationalities to whom freedom is
denied is very long. It includes not only
the Slavs, Roumanians, Italians of Ger-
many, Austria and Hungary, not only the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
Armenians of Turkey. It includes also the
Finns, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and many,
many other small peoples -- Armenians not
excepted -- in Russia. Some malignant
people may add that it includes so far the
Irish nation which has no more autonomy
than Poland. And, since we place among
the oppressed nations the Czechs, who
possess two Universities where their lan-
guage is predominant, it may be worth
while to mention the Flemish of Belgium
for whom the " flamandisation " of the
Ghent Academy is still only a hope of the
future. We do not inquire who was right
and who was wrong in all these cases.
We do not even intend to repeat, " Phy-
sician, heal thyself. " But one thing is
obvious : the sufferings of the smaller
nationalities, taken alone, could not have
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
provoked a European conflict. Our sym-
pathy with them does not go so far -- and
none of the greater belligerent countries
ever seemed disposed to draw the sword
for their sake. Italy was the ally of the
ruler of the Trentino and Istria ; Austria,
where the Poles were all-powerful, was the
ally of Germany where Polish children were
forbidden to pray to God in Polish ; and
the sincerest sympathy with the descend-
ants of Kosciuszko did not prevent France
from concluding the alliance with Russia
and from keeping silence over every-
thing that happened in Warsaw. It is
useless to insist further upon this point,
except to say that the status quo of many
small nationalities could have yet lasted
for years and years without provoking a
conflict between Great Powers. The recog-
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
nition of this truth compels us to conclude
that even after this war a quite durable
peace could be signed and kept without
implying any radical improvement in the
condition of subject peoples. This plain
truth is so well understood elsewhere that
the French insist upon " freedom of small
nations " with much less emphasis than
the English, and official Russia with still
less.
(b) Alsace-Lorraine
The Great War has shown that France
keeps the memory of Alsace-Lorraine with
a freshness almost unaffected by time.
For many observers this fact seemed little
short of a revelation. Andr6 Lichten-
berger, in a book on Alsace published in
1912, told us how a French captain had
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
asked fifty recruits : " What is Alsace ? "
Thirty-eight of them had answered " a peu
pres convenablement," whilst twelve- -- that
is a quarter of the whole -- " ignoraient de
quoi il s'agissait. " On the other side,
the younger generations in the annexed
provinces passed through the German
schools, while they were artificially severed
from any French influence ; considerable
numbers of German " immigres," especi-
ally from Prussia, had been poured into
the country, so that Metz, for instance,
had in 1907, out of 6,450 electors, 4,300
immigrants and only 2,150 natives. The
psychological effects of these circumstances
seemed to be undeniable ; and we have
only to recall Rene Bazin's novel " Les
Oberle " in order to remind our readers
that indifference towards France and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
inclination to a lasting settlement with
Berlin were not limited exclusively to
the new-comers, but showed themselves
even amongst the old Alsatian families.
The political elections gave what seemed
even a more striking test of this change
of spirit. In 1887 all the fifteen deputies
which the annexed provinces returned to
the Reichstag belonged to the Alsace-
Lorraine party ; in 1912 only nine re-
mained faithful to the old banner of pro-
vincial particularism -- the other six seats
were conquered by different Imperial
parties. These figures seem to speak very
clearly, especially if compared with the
numbers of the Polish club in the same
Reichstag which, from thirteen in 1887,
rose to eighteen in 191 2 -- in spite of a
German immigration to Posen far more
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
formidable than that to Alsace. Even
after the war began the Temps, discussing
the probabilities of a referendum in Alsace-
Lorraine on the question of re-annexation,
seemed to be not completely sure of a
unanimous reply.
But the apprehension on both sides
proved rather groundless. The Prussians
themselves had the happy inspiration,
through the famous incident of Zabern
which happened just on the eve of the
war, to refresh and strengthen all the
grievances and bitternesses of the Alsatian
heart, and it is now officially admitted in
Germany that the attitude of the native
population in the Imperial land is " not
satisfactory. " Alsace has not forgotten
France.
Nor has France forgotten Alsace. The
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?
TURKEY AND THE WAR
war has at once revived the old love that
slept, but was alive ; and to-day, if any
fifty recruits were asked " What is
Alsace ? " every man would reply : " It
is what we are fighting for. "
This mutual faith after half a century
of severation is one of the most impressive
features of this war. But in trying to
weigh the exact part it plays in the present
conflict we must be careful to avoid any
exaggeration. Now that France is at war,
she wants to recover her own fringes
whose children long to return home. But
it would be a striking injustice to demo-
cratic France, even an outrageous calumny,
to say that France would have ever will-
ingly provoked the war, even for that
holy cause. None of her enemies, cer-
tainly none of her friends could admit
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
such a possibility. The Revanche party
had never, in the course of the last decades,
arisen to a strength sufficient to influence
the foreign policy of the French Republic.
If this war had not come France would
certainly have continued to keep a Memory
and a Will in the depths of her national
heart, but her actual policy would still
have remained as it was seen to be on the
occasion of Agadir -- a policy tending to
peace and prepared for sacrifices for the
sake of peace. The question of Alsace
cannot be considered as a cause of the
war. We must insist upon this, and
insist, first of all, in fairness to France,
whose hands bear no stain of all this
blood.
We hope our words will be rightly under-
stood. Even supposing that the present
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
war proves unable to solve such questions
as Alsace-Lorraine, the Trentino, or Poland,
that will not imply that the concerned
nations renounce their respective claims.
Neither France nor Alsace will ever recon-
cile themselves with the brutal fact of
1871 ; never will Italy forget the terre
irredente ; the Polish nation will strive
and struggle against her three rulers, just
as the other nationalities of Russia and
Austria-Hungary will never bow to their
yoke. But the nature of all these as-
pirations does not necessarily imply a
European war as the only, or even the
main way of realization. Other ways are
open -- internal developments of the back-
ward countries, international bargains and
compensations in the case of eventual
oversea acquisitions, and in general that
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
vague but still undeniable thing which
we call progress. It may assume forms
of revolution or evolution ; in either case
it is a slow process, certainly much slower
than a decision enforced by war. But we
can be assured that everybody in the
civilized countries of Europe will prefer
the slow way to a repetition of the uni-
versal horror that is passing before our
eyes. Now that the world is at war, the
Allies must undoubtedly do their utmost
to achieve a fair settlement of the men-
tioned ethnical and territorial problems ;
but a failure in this regard, sad though it
would be, is not likely to set the world
at war again.
(c) Militarism
What is meant by " destruction of
Prussian militarism " ? Mr. Asquith, the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
responsible author of the phrase, gave an
explanation of it some time ago that
seemed to restrict its meaning very closely.
He said : "As a result of the war we
intend to establish the principle that inter-
national problems must be handled by
free negotiations on equal terms ^between
free peoples, and that this settlement shall
no longer be hampered and swayed by
the overmastering dictation of a Govern-
ment controlled by a military caste. That
is what I mean by the destruction of the
military domination of Prussia. "
Put this way the crushing of Prussian
militarism is an obvious necessity. It can-
not even be said to be one of the distinct
aims of the war -- it is simply an essential
and inherent element of victory. The vic-
tory of the Allies, whatever be the peace
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
terms after the struggle is won, will nat-
urally imply the liquidation of the German
dream of an " overmastering dictation/'
Perhaps it can be said that the buzzing
of this dream has been already stopped
even in the most sanguine German heads.
It is already killed, the victory of the Allies
will bury it for ever.
But this sensible and obviously fair
scheme has nothing to do with the des-
truction of militarism. Militarism is a
system applied nowadays in the major-
ity of civilized countries : it consists in
employing a big part of the State's
resources, directly or indirectly, for arma-
ments. It is a very wicked system ; it
obstructs the development of education
and social reforms ; it poisons the soul
of the civilized peoples ; the removal of
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
it would be a blessing for the world. But
it is clear that it cannot be removed in
Prussia without being removed at the
same time and in the same measure in
all the other countries. It is again the
old question of limitation of armaments --
a question of ideals, while we must not
forget that in this war we are dealing
with realities.
It is a favourite formula with many of
us to say that militarism by itself is a
mutual provocation to war, that the weight
of military expenditures in the different
countries compels them, as it were, to
make good their sacrifices by utilizing the
formidable weapons which they have ac-
cumulated. It may be true. But there
are truths which, like medals, have their
reverse. The facts of the last thirty-five
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
years of world's history hardly suggest that
militarism means frequency of wars between
militaristic countries. It cannot be denied
that the last decades which witnessed an
unparalleled flourishing of militarism, have
been just those in which conflagrations
between Great Powers have occurred much
more seldom than before. The only real
exception was the Russo-Japanese war.
The Spanish-American war was a conflict
between two nations to which the reproach
of militarism can hardly be applied. The
same must be said of the Anglo-Boer war :
as a land-power England has never been
accused of " militarism " even in paci-
fist pamphlets. The Italian Tripoli cam-
paign was rather a military expedition
than a war : it is enough to recall that
the Italian casualties in the conquest of
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
Tripoli amounted to a few thousands.
The Chino-Japanese war belonged to the
same category, and also the European
expedition against the Boxers. In the
Graeco-Turkish war, and in the two recent
Balkan wars, however cruel the latter
may have been, none of the leading
militaristic Powers were engaged. The
leading militaristic Powers managed to
avoid the danger for a longer period than
would have been possible in the middle of
the nineteenth century, when armaments
were cheap and childish in comparison
with ours of to-day. The long European
peace may have been a chance ; but it
may have been also, and perhaps with
more probability, a consequence of the
formidable development of armaments.
Knowing what it costs in money and
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
guessing what it might cost in human
lives, the Great Powers felt naturally afraid
of taking irreparable steps. Buckle proved
that the invention of gunpowder, instead
of increasing the frequency of wars, dimin-
ished it in a very considerable proportion.
The cheaper the easier -- it is a rule for
wars as for goods. All this will certainly
not prevent us from hating militarism ;
but on the other hand there is no direct
proof that the present war is simply or
mainly " a result of excessive armaments/ '
Militarism is responsible for the cruel
character of the tragedy, but the causes
of the tragedy are to be found in the
presence of conflicting interests, not of
modern weapons. The liquidation of
militarism, in Prussia and everywhere, is
a thing fair, holy and necessary, but it
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
is not one of the natural, objective, im-
manent aims of the Great War.
This particular question of armaments
as cause of wars includes one especially
crucial point : the Anglo-German naval
competition. This was perhaps one of
the chief causes of England's entry into
the war, but certainly not of the war
itself. Speaking as we are of its aims
we could dismiss this point even with-
out consideration. No responsible man in
England has ever formulated any intention
of including in the peace terms a clause
preventing Germany from further increase
of her navy. Of course there was, and
there is still, a hope that engagements
on the sea will result in a de facto reduc-
tion of the strength of the German fleet.
But from this hope to the view that a
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
Power of seventy million inhabitants can
be " forbidden " ship-building is a long
way, and so far w T e have no proof that
anybody here intends to press this special
point at the peace negotiations. So we
have the right to leave this question out.
Still let us remember that it presents the
same pros and cons of the greater con-
troversy of armaments. Naval militarism
is, after all, a sub-division of general
militarism. The one can no more than
the other be made directly responsible
for conflicts between State and State.
Here again we have only a weapon which
serves warlike purposes but does not create
them. Two strong naval Powers can live
in peace side by side indefinitely just as
two strong military Powers, unless con-
tending interests force them to draw the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
swords -- or to weigh the anchors. Of
course an international agreement for
mutual limitation of naval armaments
would be a very useful reform just as
in the case of land armaments. But it
would be risky to think that the time
has already come for such an arrangement
on land or sea. It is not likely that
peoples, all conscious of the mighty re-
sources within their grasp, would willingly
renounce using them. It is the same
psychological impossibility that we should
meet if we advised a healthy youth to
abstain from sport under the pretext that
he may become too strong and thus dan-
gerous to his neighbours. We do not
think that the innate human tendency to
develop one's full strength is likely yet
to be bound. It is much easier to deal
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THIS WAR
with the contending interests : they are
the causes of wars, and they do admit
practical settlements which are within the
boundaries of real life, not within those
of Utopia.
*** *
Thus it is to the contending interests
that we have to return in our search for
the root of the present evil. Of those,
we have already seen that none either
of the western or the northern ethnical
problems, was ripe enough or bad enough
to provoke the European war ; and, in
consequence, none of them is likely to
provoke a new conflagration even if this
one leaves their settlement to future times.
So we are forced to turn our minds and
eyes, once and for always, to the Near
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
East. A closer examination will show us
that the manifold contending interests
knotted here could not have been untied
in any other way but by war ; and that,
in consequence, should the present war
leave them tangled as before, they would
inevitably lead to another.
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? -ASIATIC TURKEY
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?
we shall easily see that many of them
would not have been able by themselves
to provoke so enormous a conflagration ;
they may have added fuel, but did not
make the fire ; whilst a few of them, or
perhaps just one of them, would inevitably
have produced the conflict even if the
others had not existed. The removal of
these essential roots of the struggle is the
natural immanent aim of the war. With-
out this, the settlement would not be
15
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
effective even if the secondary causes were
removed, and a new and perhaps more
terrible war must follow.
In dealing with this analysis we must
ignore every sentimental consideration.
Some battlecries which excite our greatest
sympathies may prove, on test, to be of
secondary importance ; in that case we
shall have to accept the truth and to draw
from it the necessary solutions, however
unpalatable they may be. Again, what
our inquiry ascertains to be the " real
aim " may not in itself inspire us with
enthusiasm : but we must submit to its
imperative necessity and carry it through
To make our meaning still clearer lei
us have recourse to an old-fashioned bul
still useful device : to the parable. Imagine
an old town in which an epidemic disease
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
suddenly breaks out. People are naturally
mxious to discover the source of the scourge
md to remove it. Some think that the
:ause lies in the absence of vegetation ;
others say that the streets of the town
ire too narrow and the houses too dark,
others again insist on the necessity of
mproving the underground drainage,
rhus a complete scheme of reconstruction
3f the old town is formed, which attracts
sympathies and excites enthusiasms. It
works its own way further : Mr. Somebody
s suddenly reminded of his own old feud
with his neighbour, a field-boundary dis-
pute unjustly decided by the court, and
ie goes around saying that there can be
10 health where there is no justice, and
that a radical struggle against the disease
mplies a reform of the tribunals -- and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
the revision of some old quarrels. But
the Doctor knows that the real cause of
the epidemic is the bad quality of the
potable water, because the source from
which it comes is infected ; and to dis-
infect it the picturesque beauty of the
river-margin must be deformed by a plain
but hygienic embankment. That is the
difficulty, because many of his fellow-
citizens love the romantic river-side in
its wildness. So the Doctor says : " Your
scheme is very good. I grant you, green
spaces are necessary : wide streets and
bright houses are healthy : a more perfect
drainage is of the greatest importance. I
even agree with the desirability of a
reform of the courts. Try it all if you
can. I shall be glad if you succeed. But
don't forget that even if you succeed in
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
all this you don't destroy the root of our
plague, and it will persist. If you want
to get rid of it you must embank the river.
That is the main thing -- that is the thing
to be done. I know you don't like it ;
but I can't count with your nice feel-
ings in this question. Drop the whole
scheme if necessary, but remember the
river. "
The popular list of the " aims of the
war " includes the freedom of small nation-
alities, a fair solution of the Alsace problem,
and what people call the destruction of
Prussian militarism. We intentionally ab-
stain from mentioning such axioms as the
restoration of Belgium : it is a holy and
imperative duty of the Allies, but the
redressing of a consequence of the war
cannot be considered as one of those aims
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
which determine or underlie human con-
flagrations. Nor will we indulge in such
beautiful ideals as the " prohibition " of
wars and the creation of a compulsory
International Tribunal -- we are dealing
with plain realities, not with ideals. On
the other hand, the three points mentioned
just above are certainly within the bounds
of practical politics. Everybody to whom
freedom is not merely an empty word
must fully recognise that their realisation
would be a blessing for humanity ; and
he will encourage the Allies to insist, cost
what might, upon this noble platform.
Its fulfilment, we hope, will be the conse-
quence of the war ; but we are now
concerned with the causes. Let it there-
fore be said at once, without further pre-
amble, that the present war owes its birth
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? AIMS AND CAUSES
directly and beyond doubt to the problem
of the Near and Middle East.
We strongly reject every suspicion that
we are underrating the great value oi
such principles as protection of the smaller
nations, the re-annexation of Alsace-Lor-
raine, and the taming of the shrew whose
name is German Junkerdom. It would
indeed be a heavy disappointment, perhaps
a moral disaster for the civilised world if
these goals could not be attained in con-
nection with this war. But the root of
the present plague is in Asia Minor, and
the first and last aim of the war is the
solution of the Eastern question.
In the following chapters we shall try
to recall the facts and arguments which
led us to this conclusion.
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? -THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
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? II
The Alleged Aims of the War
(a) Freedom of Small Nationalities
Is the establishment of the freedom of
small nations an indispensable aim of the
war, a conditio sine qua non of peace ?
This question is tantamount to another
one : was it the absence of such freedom
that caused the war ?
Let some serious and unsweetened words
be said on this subject. The list of
small nationalities to whom freedom is
denied is very long. It includes not only
the Slavs, Roumanians, Italians of Ger-
many, Austria and Hungary, not only the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
Armenians of Turkey. It includes also the
Finns, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and many,
many other small peoples -- Armenians not
excepted -- in Russia. Some malignant
people may add that it includes so far the
Irish nation which has no more autonomy
than Poland. And, since we place among
the oppressed nations the Czechs, who
possess two Universities where their lan-
guage is predominant, it may be worth
while to mention the Flemish of Belgium
for whom the " flamandisation " of the
Ghent Academy is still only a hope of the
future. We do not inquire who was right
and who was wrong in all these cases.
We do not even intend to repeat, " Phy-
sician, heal thyself. " But one thing is
obvious : the sufferings of the smaller
nationalities, taken alone, could not have
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
provoked a European conflict. Our sym-
pathy with them does not go so far -- and
none of the greater belligerent countries
ever seemed disposed to draw the sword
for their sake. Italy was the ally of the
ruler of the Trentino and Istria ; Austria,
where the Poles were all-powerful, was the
ally of Germany where Polish children were
forbidden to pray to God in Polish ; and
the sincerest sympathy with the descend-
ants of Kosciuszko did not prevent France
from concluding the alliance with Russia
and from keeping silence over every-
thing that happened in Warsaw. It is
useless to insist further upon this point,
except to say that the status quo of many
small nationalities could have yet lasted
for years and years without provoking a
conflict between Great Powers. The recog-
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
nition of this truth compels us to conclude
that even after this war a quite durable
peace could be signed and kept without
implying any radical improvement in the
condition of subject peoples. This plain
truth is so well understood elsewhere that
the French insist upon " freedom of small
nations " with much less emphasis than
the English, and official Russia with still
less.
(b) Alsace-Lorraine
The Great War has shown that France
keeps the memory of Alsace-Lorraine with
a freshness almost unaffected by time.
For many observers this fact seemed little
short of a revelation. Andr6 Lichten-
berger, in a book on Alsace published in
1912, told us how a French captain had
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
asked fifty recruits : " What is Alsace ? "
Thirty-eight of them had answered " a peu
pres convenablement," whilst twelve- -- that
is a quarter of the whole -- " ignoraient de
quoi il s'agissait. " On the other side,
the younger generations in the annexed
provinces passed through the German
schools, while they were artificially severed
from any French influence ; considerable
numbers of German " immigres," especi-
ally from Prussia, had been poured into
the country, so that Metz, for instance,
had in 1907, out of 6,450 electors, 4,300
immigrants and only 2,150 natives. The
psychological effects of these circumstances
seemed to be undeniable ; and we have
only to recall Rene Bazin's novel " Les
Oberle " in order to remind our readers
that indifference towards France and
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
inclination to a lasting settlement with
Berlin were not limited exclusively to
the new-comers, but showed themselves
even amongst the old Alsatian families.
The political elections gave what seemed
even a more striking test of this change
of spirit. In 1887 all the fifteen deputies
which the annexed provinces returned to
the Reichstag belonged to the Alsace-
Lorraine party ; in 1912 only nine re-
mained faithful to the old banner of pro-
vincial particularism -- the other six seats
were conquered by different Imperial
parties. These figures seem to speak very
clearly, especially if compared with the
numbers of the Polish club in the same
Reichstag which, from thirteen in 1887,
rose to eighteen in 191 2 -- in spite of a
German immigration to Posen far more
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
formidable than that to Alsace. Even
after the war began the Temps, discussing
the probabilities of a referendum in Alsace-
Lorraine on the question of re-annexation,
seemed to be not completely sure of a
unanimous reply.
But the apprehension on both sides
proved rather groundless. The Prussians
themselves had the happy inspiration,
through the famous incident of Zabern
which happened just on the eve of the
war, to refresh and strengthen all the
grievances and bitternesses of the Alsatian
heart, and it is now officially admitted in
Germany that the attitude of the native
population in the Imperial land is " not
satisfactory. " Alsace has not forgotten
France.
Nor has France forgotten Alsace. The
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?
TURKEY AND THE WAR
war has at once revived the old love that
slept, but was alive ; and to-day, if any
fifty recruits were asked " What is
Alsace ? " every man would reply : " It
is what we are fighting for. "
This mutual faith after half a century
of severation is one of the most impressive
features of this war. But in trying to
weigh the exact part it plays in the present
conflict we must be careful to avoid any
exaggeration. Now that France is at war,
she wants to recover her own fringes
whose children long to return home. But
it would be a striking injustice to demo-
cratic France, even an outrageous calumny,
to say that France would have ever will-
ingly provoked the war, even for that
holy cause. None of her enemies, cer-
tainly none of her friends could admit
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
such a possibility. The Revanche party
had never, in the course of the last decades,
arisen to a strength sufficient to influence
the foreign policy of the French Republic.
If this war had not come France would
certainly have continued to keep a Memory
and a Will in the depths of her national
heart, but her actual policy would still
have remained as it was seen to be on the
occasion of Agadir -- a policy tending to
peace and prepared for sacrifices for the
sake of peace. The question of Alsace
cannot be considered as a cause of the
war. We must insist upon this, and
insist, first of all, in fairness to France,
whose hands bear no stain of all this
blood.
We hope our words will be rightly under-
stood. Even supposing that the present
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
war proves unable to solve such questions
as Alsace-Lorraine, the Trentino, or Poland,
that will not imply that the concerned
nations renounce their respective claims.
Neither France nor Alsace will ever recon-
cile themselves with the brutal fact of
1871 ; never will Italy forget the terre
irredente ; the Polish nation will strive
and struggle against her three rulers, just
as the other nationalities of Russia and
Austria-Hungary will never bow to their
yoke. But the nature of all these as-
pirations does not necessarily imply a
European war as the only, or even the
main way of realization. Other ways are
open -- internal developments of the back-
ward countries, international bargains and
compensations in the case of eventual
oversea acquisitions, and in general that
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
vague but still undeniable thing which
we call progress. It may assume forms
of revolution or evolution ; in either case
it is a slow process, certainly much slower
than a decision enforced by war. But we
can be assured that everybody in the
civilized countries of Europe will prefer
the slow way to a repetition of the uni-
versal horror that is passing before our
eyes. Now that the world is at war, the
Allies must undoubtedly do their utmost
to achieve a fair settlement of the men-
tioned ethnical and territorial problems ;
but a failure in this regard, sad though it
would be, is not likely to set the world
at war again.
(c) Militarism
What is meant by " destruction of
Prussian militarism " ? Mr. Asquith, the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
responsible author of the phrase, gave an
explanation of it some time ago that
seemed to restrict its meaning very closely.
He said : "As a result of the war we
intend to establish the principle that inter-
national problems must be handled by
free negotiations on equal terms ^between
free peoples, and that this settlement shall
no longer be hampered and swayed by
the overmastering dictation of a Govern-
ment controlled by a military caste. That
is what I mean by the destruction of the
military domination of Prussia. "
Put this way the crushing of Prussian
militarism is an obvious necessity. It can-
not even be said to be one of the distinct
aims of the war -- it is simply an essential
and inherent element of victory. The vic-
tory of the Allies, whatever be the peace
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
terms after the struggle is won, will nat-
urally imply the liquidation of the German
dream of an " overmastering dictation/'
Perhaps it can be said that the buzzing
of this dream has been already stopped
even in the most sanguine German heads.
It is already killed, the victory of the Allies
will bury it for ever.
But this sensible and obviously fair
scheme has nothing to do with the des-
truction of militarism. Militarism is a
system applied nowadays in the major-
ity of civilized countries : it consists in
employing a big part of the State's
resources, directly or indirectly, for arma-
ments. It is a very wicked system ; it
obstructs the development of education
and social reforms ; it poisons the soul
of the civilized peoples ; the removal of
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
it would be a blessing for the world. But
it is clear that it cannot be removed in
Prussia without being removed at the
same time and in the same measure in
all the other countries. It is again the
old question of limitation of armaments --
a question of ideals, while we must not
forget that in this war we are dealing
with realities.
It is a favourite formula with many of
us to say that militarism by itself is a
mutual provocation to war, that the weight
of military expenditures in the different
countries compels them, as it were, to
make good their sacrifices by utilizing the
formidable weapons which they have ac-
cumulated. It may be true. But there
are truths which, like medals, have their
reverse. The facts of the last thirty-five
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
years of world's history hardly suggest that
militarism means frequency of wars between
militaristic countries. It cannot be denied
that the last decades which witnessed an
unparalleled flourishing of militarism, have
been just those in which conflagrations
between Great Powers have occurred much
more seldom than before. The only real
exception was the Russo-Japanese war.
The Spanish-American war was a conflict
between two nations to which the reproach
of militarism can hardly be applied. The
same must be said of the Anglo-Boer war :
as a land-power England has never been
accused of " militarism " even in paci-
fist pamphlets. The Italian Tripoli cam-
paign was rather a military expedition
than a war : it is enough to recall that
the Italian casualties in the conquest of
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
Tripoli amounted to a few thousands.
The Chino-Japanese war belonged to the
same category, and also the European
expedition against the Boxers. In the
Graeco-Turkish war, and in the two recent
Balkan wars, however cruel the latter
may have been, none of the leading
militaristic Powers were engaged. The
leading militaristic Powers managed to
avoid the danger for a longer period than
would have been possible in the middle of
the nineteenth century, when armaments
were cheap and childish in comparison
with ours of to-day. The long European
peace may have been a chance ; but it
may have been also, and perhaps with
more probability, a consequence of the
formidable development of armaments.
Knowing what it costs in money and
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
guessing what it might cost in human
lives, the Great Powers felt naturally afraid
of taking irreparable steps. Buckle proved
that the invention of gunpowder, instead
of increasing the frequency of wars, dimin-
ished it in a very considerable proportion.
The cheaper the easier -- it is a rule for
wars as for goods. All this will certainly
not prevent us from hating militarism ;
but on the other hand there is no direct
proof that the present war is simply or
mainly " a result of excessive armaments/ '
Militarism is responsible for the cruel
character of the tragedy, but the causes
of the tragedy are to be found in the
presence of conflicting interests, not of
modern weapons. The liquidation of
militarism, in Prussia and everywhere, is
a thing fair, holy and necessary, but it
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
is not one of the natural, objective, im-
manent aims of the Great War.
This particular question of armaments
as cause of wars includes one especially
crucial point : the Anglo-German naval
competition. This was perhaps one of
the chief causes of England's entry into
the war, but certainly not of the war
itself. Speaking as we are of its aims
we could dismiss this point even with-
out consideration. No responsible man in
England has ever formulated any intention
of including in the peace terms a clause
preventing Germany from further increase
of her navy. Of course there was, and
there is still, a hope that engagements
on the sea will result in a de facto reduc-
tion of the strength of the German fleet.
But from this hope to the view that a
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THE WAR
Power of seventy million inhabitants can
be " forbidden " ship-building is a long
way, and so far w T e have no proof that
anybody here intends to press this special
point at the peace negotiations. So we
have the right to leave this question out.
Still let us remember that it presents the
same pros and cons of the greater con-
troversy of armaments. Naval militarism
is, after all, a sub-division of general
militarism. The one can no more than
the other be made directly responsible
for conflicts between State and State.
Here again we have only a weapon which
serves warlike purposes but does not create
them. Two strong naval Powers can live
in peace side by side indefinitely just as
two strong military Powers, unless con-
tending interests force them to draw the
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
swords -- or to weigh the anchors. Of
course an international agreement for
mutual limitation of naval armaments
would be a very useful reform just as
in the case of land armaments. But it
would be risky to think that the time
has already come for such an arrangement
on land or sea. It is not likely that
peoples, all conscious of the mighty re-
sources within their grasp, would willingly
renounce using them. It is the same
psychological impossibility that we should
meet if we advised a healthy youth to
abstain from sport under the pretext that
he may become too strong and thus dan-
gerous to his neighbours. We do not
think that the innate human tendency to
develop one's full strength is likely yet
to be bound. It is much easier to deal
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? THE ALLEGED AIMS OF THIS WAR
with the contending interests : they are
the causes of wars, and they do admit
practical settlements which are within the
boundaries of real life, not within those
of Utopia.
*** *
Thus it is to the contending interests
that we have to return in our search for
the root of the present evil. Of those,
we have already seen that none either
of the western or the northern ethnical
problems, was ripe enough or bad enough
to provoke the European war ; and, in
consequence, none of them is likely to
provoke a new conflagration even if this
one leaves their settlement to future times.
So we are forced to turn our minds and
eyes, once and for always, to the Near
45
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? TURKEY AND THE WAR
East. A closer examination will show us
that the manifold contending interests
knotted here could not have been untied
in any other way but by war ; and that,
in consequence, should the present war
leave them tangled as before, they would
inevitably lead to another.
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? -ASIATIC TURKEY
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 07:16 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uc2. ark:/13960/t9f503c3n Public Domain / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd
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