possess the resources and the technical skill which are required to develop and modernize Asia Minor. And, from the Turkish point of view, the political record of the United States in the Near East is a good record. America never has annexed Ottoman territory or staked out spheres of interest on Turkish soil; America has not participated in the Ottoman Public Debt Administration; America has few Mohammedan subjects and therefore is not fearful of the political strength of Pan-Islamism; America did not declare war on Turkey during the European struggle; America was not a party to the hated treaty of Sèvres. America alone among the Western Powers seems capable of becoming a sincere and disinterested friend of Turkey.[53] The avowed foreign policies of the United States appear to confirm the opinion of the Turks that Americans can be depended upon not to infringe upon Turkish sovereignty. America must be kept scrupulously free from all "foreign entanglements"; therefore an American mandate for Armenia has been firmly declined. Splendid isolation is declared to be the fundamental American principle in international affairs.
The political theory of isolation, however, is not altogether in harmony with the economic fact of American world power. The enormous expansion of American commercial and financial interests during and since the Great War brings the United States face to face with new, difficult, and complicated international problems. American business men will be increasingly interested in the backward countries of the world, in which they can purchase raw materials, to which they can sell their finished products, and in which they can invest their capital. American financiers, manufacturers, and merchants will look to their government for assistance in the extension of foreign markets and for protection in their foreign investments. Already there is grave danger that the United
