Page:Englishwomaninan00elli.pdf/292

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Turk. The big capitals kill his sincerity and capture his affections by their vices. His mysterious dark eyes (an everyday commonplace in his own country) too often prove 'false lights' leading him on to the rocks. It is a test of character to ask the European Turk if he is not 'longing to get back to Turkey?' When I put the question to Hussein Raghib, he said 'if I must stay here for my country, I will stay, but I am never happy for long so far away from Angora and all it means to me.' Certainly a healthy view!

"It is surely better to let the Turks work out their own salvation, only helping when they ask for help; and even then we should be careful to give them what they desire and not what we may think best for them. It is really cruel to tamper with other people's ideas, particularly their religion, and it does no good in Turkey. The gospel of Islam has made them the fine race they will always remain at heart.

"You can do good in practical, material affairs and for the diminution of physical suffering. I wish every American would preach the gospel of the Rockefeller Institute all over the world: the creed of the open window, a crusade against vermin and microbes. That would bring us a 'new' world.

"I would like to see a closer union between the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. The Turks have not your organising ability; but they have many sound ideas already operating in their hospitals.

"We must be quite sure that our civilisation is perfect before we force it on others. It is 'mine,' and I owe much to it; but I, for one, can see much to criticise."

"I, too, believe we have no right to offer more than material assistance, and such an example as our own efforts, towards the best we know, may afford."

"It is a great deal, if given in the right spirit. My own idea of 'service' is to try and understand the East, to prevent such terrible blunders as our ignorance of them have brought about, which may even involve us in the horrors of another war.

"Why should we ask Orientals to accept our