of the Koran. It is our work to-day to set free religion from the canker of all statecraft."
I could not resist interposing at this point with my conviction that no established Church can pursue wisdom; while the insecurity of our Free Churches to-day must always "put brakes" on their power against the Government, and "muzzle" the real freedom of thought or truth.
When we got back to Greece, the cheik gave me chapter and verse for his conviction that "if the Turks should allow the Greek Patriarch to remain in Constantinople, their tolerance would have degenerated to mere weakness.
"It was a golden dream for the Greeks, nearly realised; but it is not for us to substantiate it.
"They were to drive us back into the depths of Asia Minor, to rule over the peoples who had been their masters for five centuries, to recapture the great 'Bible' towns for the Cross; to settle on the shores of Marmora and Constantinople, that they might drive on to Rome!
"Their vision, assuredly, did not lack grandeur.
"It even seemed for a little that realisation might be achieved by zeal and ardour, until King Constantine's return provoked M. Briand's famous 'Note' of November, 1920, and put an end to the dream."
Here I uttered a word of regret that we had not then followed the policy of the French "surely a course that might have saved us from all the jealousy and suspicion we have so perversely incurred."
The cheik replied indirectly by reminding me that M. Venizelos was not to be quite so easily, or immediately, defeated: "A great, some say a subtle and profound, personality, who had the entrée to all the Courts of Europe. He formed in himself a strong link between the Greek Colonies and all the Powers, particularly England and America. He made British friendship the pivot of 'Greek Expansion.' He was not a man to bow before any discouragement or difficulty.
"Now he conceived the idea, attributed to Lord
