In This Old-Fashioned
Course, So Thoroughly Understood By All Who Have Any Knowledge Of
Turkey, The Affairs Of Asia
Minor will be conducted, until revolution
shall bring Russia upon the scene at the most favourable opportunity;
and England, who
Has been thwarted by the Power she has endeavoured to
save, will, by the terms of the Convention, be compelled to appear in
arms as the defender of the remnant of the Turkish Empire.
Common sense would suggest the absolute necessity of special and clearly
defined conditions in concluding an alliance with Turkey which may at
any moment demand our military interference. If we are bound to assist
by force of arms in the defence of Asia Minor, it is equally necessary
that Turkey should be bound to qualify herself for resistance to an
attack from Russia. It should have been distinctly agreed that Turkey
should raise a territorial army of an estimated strength for the
protection of Asia Minor, and that a certain number of British officers
should hold important commands, to ensure the regular payment of the
troops and to maintain the necessary discipline. Had such conditions
been defined, and the civil courts been placed under the supervision of
British officials, the Protectorate of Asia Minor would have become a
practical combination that would have been an effectual check to Russian
encroachments; but as the affair now stands, the alliance is fraught
with extreme danger to ourselves. I cannot conceive the possibility of a
credulity that would induce experienced statesmen to believe in the
assurances given either by Turkey or by Russia.
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