Page:Englishwomaninan00elli.pdf/350

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firmly believes "must out"! They will, certainly, never hoist the propagandist "on his own petard," since, to their thinking, the man who accepts money to defend a cause is no better than a "political prostitute." They argue that "he who works for me, must believe in me, as a true friend, eager to help." And for the moment, Europe has made them feel that "facts" would avail them nothing—"whatever we do is wrong."

In the East news spreads with accurate rapidity without the assistance of newspapers; but the foreigner who needs chapter and verse for every statement may be, to some extent, excused for suspecting their obstinate reticence about statistics and exact figures. I should, myself, have welcomed more information about a story I quite believe, but cannot substantiate, that came from an Italian lady at Broussa. She said that the Greeks burnt a Turkish prison, with all the prisoners in it, and, "to her dying day she would never forget their awful screams," but no one will give me the least idea of how many prisoners were slaughtered. I called on a Vali whose palace was burned to cinders before I had the information. And I could discover no precise details, despite inquiry at Angora, Constantinople, and Lausanne!

The Norwegian head of the Minorities Committee, a man given to wise and just decisions, has said: "It is no use expecting Asiatics to be Europeans. They have as much right to do things in their Asiatic way, as we have to act like Europeans. There are standards of right and wrong, against which neither may transgress, but for the rest, nothing can be done." He also agreed that to secure protection from a minority, you must enforce loyalty to the majority. I told him the head of the Armenian community had begged the Pope to see that they "were left to the mercy" of the Turks, which is merciful.

The League can really help Christians in Turkey by putting a stop to pro-Christian propaganda, for which Armenians in Anatolia will have to suffer.

There is so much that the League of one's dream