Is he not anxious to keep Mosul, from fear of Russia. We could buy the oil, and the Turks would gladly sell it. Also a promise to Arabs has been broken before now; and if our bungling has led Turkey into a temporary alliance with Russia, no one knows what will come of the German-Jew Soviets. Maybe, we have far more need to protect India from them, than to stand on our dignity with "new" Turkey.
The British Empire was founded, and can only survive, on Trust. It is a poor policy that dare not act for fear of backing "the wrong horse." It is a criminal policy, when hesitation means war and the loss of millions of lives.
Lord Curzon's association with the Coalition has sadly shaken his high repute for "good faith"; and unless he can see his way to come forward frankly for a "free and independent" Turkey, the Nationalists will fight in their own defence.
There seem to me too many "Commissions" at Lausanne. Closer contact between Lord Curzon himself and those able men, Djavid and Hamid Bey, as well as Ismet Pasha, would surely not only go far to restore their confidence in his good faith, but enormously "speed up" decisions on the essential problems that need to be promptly settled.
As I listened to the public speeches of Lord Curzon I was haunted by all the fateful memories of the ruin I had seen in Angora. The doubt would come; does he really realise the supreme necessity to wipe out for ever that awful page of history, to establish peace, and to help, with all the tactful sympathy at his command, the new nation to stand on its own feet. Maybe we should even be comforted by hope, if our Government would only take us more fully into its confidence. The people of England are, after all, deeply concerned. They have faith, they would gladly be loyal; but why are they kept in the dark? When I am speaking with the Turkish delegates, I sometimes fancy I catch a look on their faces of "deep anguish" as we name Lord Curzon, and my heart sinks. How am I to convince them, certain as I am he is right, that he is not
