these figures to pass judgment on the Greeks. This eternal and unjust fault-finding with the Turk not only breaks his spirit (remember he is an Asiatic), but incites him to do things he never otherwise would think of doing. It is a most dangerous policy."
With regard to the Conference, Halidé Hanoum seems to have lost her usual optimism. "Are we right to have faith?" she asked. "We all of us welcomed a change in the British Government, and hoped that our interests would be impartially discussed at Lausanne, but what is happening?"
The two actions which Halidé Hanoum considers most unjust to Turkey are the endeavours to exempt Christians from military service and the retention of the Greek Patriarch. "After the effort we have made to be free, we must have our country to ourselves, and if the Greeks expect equal rights with the Moslems, they must fight for those citizen rights. As to the Patriarch, imagine asking us to keep a man who had taken advantage of his sacred calling to turn his flock against us. . . . Will the Western Powers always interfere? All our history goes to prove that Turks and Christians have lived together in perfect harmony. When the Powers began to interfere, however, the Christians showed the basest ingratitude. They invented the most wicked stories, knowing there was no justice for us, and that whatever they said would be believed. Now the Powers who turned the Christians against us cannot keep their promises. The Christians want to come back to us. But we will have no more interference.
"If the Conference is only to be an excuse to wear the Turks out, why should we wait, only to fight in the end? A policy of slow death is intolerable. We do not seek war, though we are ready to fight, because we want to build up our country, take care of and educate our people, and give them a little of the comfort and happiness they deserve. Rather than have an unjust vassal-peace," she concluded, "let us perish altogether."
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