DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0165
IN ASIATIC TURKEY 155
will not be made, till it comes to be a rule among
our rulers first to understand, and then to tell the
truth about, the Eastern bungle. I often have
wondered, in reading the utterances of officials in
both parties, whether the managers of our Eastern
policy are selected because of their skill in mis-
representing, or their power of misunderstanding,
Turkish affairs. Sometimes the one theory seems
more natural, sometimes the other.
It may be said for the former English policy
that, in general, it supported and encouraged the
best elements in Turkish life. It was too blind to
the inevitable predominance of the worst elements
in the government, and often too weak in checking
them, when it was not blind to them. But, except
in the one damning case of the Bulgarian mas-
sacres, no British Government deliberately and con-
sciously championed the worst side of Turkish
action ; and it must be allowed that those massacres
sprang more from the weakness of the Porte and
its utter inability to control the elemental forces of
barbarism within the Empire, than from any de-
liberate plan. Our statesmen had a vague belief
that Turkey might be reformed with care and time ;
and they hoped on with foolish, but well-meant,
credulity. But, at the present day, the European
Concert is supporting the worst elements in Turkey ;
and, perhaps, our co-operation in a policy which is
will not be made, till it comes to be a rule among
our rulers first to understand, and then to tell the
truth about, the Eastern bungle. I often have
wondered, in reading the utterances of officials in
both parties, whether the managers of our Eastern
policy are selected because of their skill in mis-
representing, or their power of misunderstanding,
Turkish affairs. Sometimes the one theory seems
more natural, sometimes the other.
It may be said for the former English policy
that, in general, it supported and encouraged the
best elements in Turkish life. It was too blind to
the inevitable predominance of the worst elements
in the government, and often too weak in checking
them, when it was not blind to them. But, except
in the one damning case of the Bulgarian mas-
sacres, no British Government deliberately and con-
sciously championed the worst side of Turkish
action ; and it must be allowed that those massacres
sprang more from the weakness of the Porte and
its utter inability to control the elemental forces of
barbarism within the Empire, than from any de-
liberate plan. Our statesmen had a vague belief
that Turkey might be reformed with care and time ;
and they hoped on with foolish, but well-meant,
credulity. But, at the present day, the European
Concert is supporting the worst elements in Turkey ;
and, perhaps, our co-operation in a policy which is