rmenian nation, with the exception of such part of
it as has escaped into Russian territory, has been exterminated, and
similar measures have been planned and indeed begun, against the Greeks,
the Arabs, and the Jews.

In consequence of this, in consequence also of the European War, the
policy of the Balance of Power as regards Turkey has been at length
abandoned. The Allies have definitely declared in their joint note to
President Wilson their aims in the war, and for those they have pledged
themselves to fight until final and complete victory wreathes their
arms. Among these aims are:--

(1) The liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous
tyranny of the Turks.

(2) The expulsion from Europe of the Ottoman Empire, which has proved
itself so radically alien to Western civilisation.

For a century that most inharmonious of orchestras called the Concert
of Europe has, owing to the exigencies of the Balance of Power, kept
Turkey together, and in particular has maintained the centre of its
government at Constantinople simply because the Balance of Power would
be upset if anybody else held the key of the straits that separate
Russia from the Mediterranean. England, above all others, was
instrumental in preserving that precarious Balance, and England now must
confess the utter failure of her policy there throughout a century. It
is humiliating to acknowledge the complete collapse of that which for so
many decades has been the keystone of our ruling with regard to our
Eastern Empire, but the arch has collapsed; Germany pulled the keystone
out, and all our efforts to exclude Russia from free access to the
Mediterranean have only resulted in letting Germany in. To-day she holds
Constantinople, and the bitter pill must be swallowed. The situation, as
it stands at this moment, is infinitely worse than it could have been
for a century back, if at any moment during those hundred years we had
done what we always ought to have done, and declared that the
anachronism of Turkey being in Europe was more intolerable than anything
that could happen in consequence of her expulsion. But we have
acknowledged that now. We have also acknowledged the even greater
anachronism of Turkey being allowed to dispose of the destinies of any
of those peoples who inhabit the territories of the Ottoman Empire, for
the Allies, in their joint Note, have declared that the remedy of these
two monstrous abuses forms an essential part of thei