File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎117v] (232/450)

APPENDIX.
Miscellaneous Cuttings from the Press.
Enemy Propaganda in England.
Views of Settlement.
(To the Editor of the “ Nation.”)
Sir,
PERMIT me to resume the theme of my last week’s letter, and to come to the
more difficult questions involved in the settlement of the terms of peace after the
present war. If I take as my basis the supposition that we and our Allies win a
complete victory, this is not because I assume such an issue as certain; but it is at any
rate a possibility; and it is only on this assumption that we can determine for ourselves
what our real purposes are; what we shall do, if nothing impedes our doing it.
Imperfect success may bring results of real value ; but we shall only know our own mind
if we assume our success to be complete.
In the event supposed, Germany will (it can hardly be doubted) lose Alsace and
Lorraine ; Germany and Austria will lose those parts of Poland which have hitherto
been subject to them ; the foreign territory invaded by our enemies will revert^ to its
original status ; Russia will win Armenia, also Constantinople and the land adjoining
that city up to Adrianople, and also the suzerainty over Poland. It can hardly be
doubted that Italy will win the Italian Tyrol and Trieste ; and it will seem natural that
Bosnia and Herzegovina shall cease to be Austrian and become part of a greater Serbia,
as also that to this greater Serbia the seaport of Cat taro shall be attached. In con
sideration of this extension of Serbia, it is probable that Bulgaria might be allowed to
resume that borderland which, though now under Serbia, has a Bulgarian population.
What of ourselves ? We could not, without giving deep offence to our own colonies,
contemplate the retrocession to Germany of South-West Africa, or of that part of New
Guinea which before the war was under Germany, or of the adjacent islands, or of
Samoa.
The results which I have just been enumerating are almost inevitable, if the victory
of ourselves and of our Allies be complete. But they are results which cannot be
accepted by Germany, Austria, and Turkey without humdiation; and now comes the
question how far we wish that humiliation to be pressed. To be humiliated, is an
experience which has belonged some time or other to every nation of Europe ; and there
has, generally, been something salutary in the effects of it; but if we wish the countries
of the world to be united in a permanently peaceable bond, we must not allow that
humiliation to be an enduring memory. Bearing this in our mind, let us consider each
of our foes in turn.
The Turks are, in some simple ways, an excellent people; honest, brave, and of
great dignity ; but they cannot conceive of government except by military methods;
that a government should accept the will of its subjects is an idea foreign to their
character. As a governing race they are a danger to the world ; they ought to be
treated, like all Mahommedans, wixh consideration and respect; but they ought not to
govern; and now is the time for their government practically to cease.
The Germans, during the last half-century, have allowed the military aspect of
government to grow upon them in a lamentable degree, and herein has lain the cause of
the present war ; but the spirit of warfare, though present in them, is not deeply engraved.
In so far as it has been the result of pride and ambition, it is to be hoped that the issue of
the present war will correct it in them. But fear has also been a potent influence m
producing it; if they no longer fear their neighbours, they will cease to be warlike.
The same is true of Austria ; and the peaceable achievements of both Germany and
Austria have been so numerous and so striking that we may trust, if they are not too
deeply wounded in their self-esteem now, they will fall into the general line of European
progress without resentment against other countries. Whether the Hohenzollerns
should be permitted any longer to rule in Germany is a question to which perhaps I
need not give a determinate answer. But the main key to the solution of the situation
lies, I think, in the committal of the greater part of Asiatic Turkey to the supervision
of Germany and Austria. Not, however, Syria ; that ought to be under the super
intendence of France, as Egypt is under that of Great Britain. But if Germany and
Austria have the task of restoring Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to their ancient
prosperity, they will have their hands full of peaceable occupations, and such as