TURKEY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS—THE PARLIAMENT OF NATIONS MUST BE TRULY IMPARTIAL AND INTERNATIONAL
For those of us who pinned their faith on the League of Nations, it is a matter of the deepest regret that Turkey has lost her trust in the great Parliament of All Nations, especially now that it could have played so important a part in settling our differences at the Lausanne Conference. It is not entirely the Turks' fault; indeed, considering all things, one can scarcely urge them to any other attitude.
To them, at least, the League must seem definitely anti-Islam, and (as founder of the Lyceum Club 'League of Nations Circle,' of which Lady Gladstone is president) I have continually endeavoured to impress upon Lord Robert Cecil the danger of allowing such an idea to remain uncontradicted, that it may spread more widely and be more firmly held.
Turkey never interfered with British property during the war, and British merchants continued their business in Smyrna throughout the hostilities. Yet we not only confiscated, but sold enemy property. In one case, for example, the business of a man, brought up in England and a pronounced Anglophil, was sold to a Greek for a quarter of its value, and the money sequestered by the Government. Had the Bey even been a traitor he should have been given the full value of his business, and then expelled, instead of being driven to exist on money borrowed at an exorbitant rate of interest. On the other hand, Ottoman "Christian" property was freed from sequestration; a
