es of attitude and policy required, the victorious
Allies proceeded to treat the Orient as though Armageddon were a
skirmish and Asia the sleeping giant of a century ago.

In fact, disregarding both the general pronouncements of liberal
principles and the specific promises of self-determination for Near
Eastern peoples which they had made during the war, the Allies now
paraded a series of secret treaties (negotiated between themselves
during those same war-years when they had been so unctuously orating),
and these secret treaties clearly divided up the Ottoman Empire among
the victors, in absolute disregard of the wishes of the inhabitants. The
purposes of the Allies were further revealed by the way in which the
Versailles conference refused to receive the representatives of Persia
(theoretically still independent), but kept them cooling their heels in
Paris while British pressure at Teheran forced the Shah's government to
enter into an "agreement" that made Persia a virtual protectorate of the
British Empire. As for the Egyptians, who had always protested against
the protectorate proclaimed by England solely on its own initiative in
1914, the conference refused to pay any attention to their delegates,
and they were given to understand that the conference regarded the
British protectorate over Egypt as a _fait accompli_. The upshot was
that, as a result of the war, European domination over the Near and
Middle East was riveted rather than relaxed.

But the strangest feature of this strange business remains to be told.
One might imagine that the Allied leaders would have realized that they
were playing a dangerous game, which could succeed only by close
team-work and quick action. As a matter of fact, the very reverse was
the case. After showing their hand, and thereby filling the East with
disillusionment, despair, and fury, the Allies proceeded to quarrel over
the spoils. Nearly two years passed before England, France, and Italy
were able to come to an even superficial agreement as to the partition
of the Ottoman Empire, and meanwhile they had been bickering and
intriguing against each other all over the Near East. This was sheer
madness. The destined victims were thereby informed that European
domination rested not only on disregard of the moral "imponderables" but
on diplomatic bankruptcy as well. The obvious reflection was that a
domination resting on such rotten foundations might well be overthrown.

That, at any