The English mail has brought us a full and official report of the
Premier's speech which he recently made when he received the Khilafat
deputation. Mr. Lloyd George's speech is more definite and therefore
more disappointing than H.E. the Viceroy's reply to the deputation here.
He draws quite unwarranted deductions from the same high principles on
which he had based his own pledge only two years ago. He declares that
Turkey must pay the penalty of defeat. This determination to punish
Turkey does not become one whose immediate predecessor had, in order to
appease Muslim soldiers, promised that the British Government had no
designs on Turkey and that His Majesty's Government would never think of
punishing the Sultan for the misdeeds of the Turkish Committee. Mr.
Lloyd George has expressed his belief that the majority of the
population of Turkey did not really want to quarrel with Great Britain
and that their rulers misled the country. In spite of this conviction
and in spite of Mr. Asquith's promise, he is out to punish Turkey and
punish it in the name of justice.
He expounds the principle of self-determination and justifies the scheme
of depriving Turkey of its territories one after another. While
justifying this scheme he does not exclude even Thrace and this strikes
the reader most, because this very Thrace he had mentioned in his pledge
as predominantly Turkish. Now we are told by him that both the Turkish
census and the Greek census agree in pointing out the Mussulman
population in Thrace is in a considerable minority! Mr. Yakub Hussain
speaking at the Madras Khilafat conference has challenged the truth of
this statement. The Prime Minister cites among others also the example
of Smyrna where, he says, we had a most careful investigation by a very
impartial committee in the whole of the question of Smyrna and it was
found that considerable majority was non-Turkish.' Who will believe the
one-sided "impartial committee's" investigations until it is disproved
that thousands of Musselmans have been murdered and hundreds of
thousands have been driven away from their hearths and homes? Strangely
enough Mr. Lloyd George, believes in the necessity of fresh
investigations by a purposely appointed committee in Smyrna as the most
authenticated and up-to-date report, whereas he would not accept Mr.
Mahomed Ali's proposal for an impartial commission in regard to Armenian
massacre! Doubtful and one-sided facts and figures suffice for him even
to conclude that the Turkish Government is incapable of protecting its
subjects. And he proceeds to suggest foreign interference in ruling over
Asia Minor in the interests of civilization. Here he cuts at the root of
the Sultan's independence. This proposal of appropriating supervision is
distinctly unlike the treatment meted out to other enemy powers.
This detraction of the Sultan's suzerainty is only a corollary of the
Premier's indifference towards the Muslim idea of the Caliphate. The
premier's injustice in treating the Turkish question becomes graver when
he thus lightly handles the Khilafat question. There had been occasions
when the British have used to their advantage the Muslim idea of
associating the Caliph's spiritual power with temporal power. Now this
very association is treated as a controversial question by the great
statesman.
Will this raise the reputation of Great Britain or stain it? Can this be
tolerated by those who fought against Turkey with full faith in British
honesty? Mere receipts of gratitude cannot console the wounded
Mussalmans. There lies the alternative for England to choose between two
mandates--a mandate over some Turkish territories which is sure to lead
to chaos all over the world and a mandate over the hearts of the
Muhomedans which will redeem the pledged honour of Britain. The prime
minister has an unwise choice. This narrow view registers the latest
temperature of British diplomacy.