In the settlement of Turkey, conspicuously, the Allies will be crowning
a historic task, at which they themselves have laboured in former
times. The _liberation of the subject peoples of Turkey_, and the
_reorganisation upon the principle of nationalities_ of countries under
the Sultan’s _murderous tyranny_, began a century ago with the national
struggles for independence of the Serbs and Greeks—struggles which were
part of the general struggle for freedom in Europe, and which gave
inspiration to the people of other subject lands. England, France and
Russia stepped in in 1827 to secure Greece the reward of her heroism when
she was almost succumbing to her oppressor; Russia compelled Turkey to
recognise Serbian autonomy in her treaty of peace with Turkey in 1831;
Russia again, by taking up arms in 1877, freed Rumania and Serbia from
Turkish suzerainty, liberated more of their oppressed brethren for Serbia
and Greece, and restored Bulgaria to national existence. In the Balkan
War of 1912-13, the Balkan nations carried on the work by their unaided
strength, and expelled the Ottoman Empire from all the provinces over
which it still tyrannised in Europe, with the exception of Constantinople
and Thrace. In 1916, the Sherif of Mecca, at the opposite extremity of
the Ottoman conqueror’s domain, liberated an Arab province and the Holy
Arab City of which he is the legitimate head. It is for the Entente to
liberate the Arabs of Syria and the Armenians, who cannot save themselves.
The Syrians and Armenians have not, as the Turks and Germans allege,
been disloyal to Turkey in her hour of danger. The Arab and Armenian
conscripts have fought dutifully for a cause not their own in the Balkan
War and in the present more terrible conflict. Their leaders are too
prudent and the people too peaceable, their stake is too great, their
forces are too scattered, to allow them for a moment to contemplate
rising in arms. But their loyal and straightforward conduct has not
preserved them from the ferocity of their Turkish rulers; it has only
exposed them to a cold-blooded scheme of extermination which the
Young Turks are prosecuting at this moment with all their might. The
redemption of these innocent peoples from the hell into which they have
been cast, and where they will remain in agony so long as Ottoman and
Prussian militarism holds out, is incumbent upon the Allies if they are
to redeem their plighted word.