Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  In October 1921 Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, appealed to the Sinn Fein leaders for a truce to talk over the possibility of a settlement, and this was agreed to. Britain could no doubt have ultimately crushed Sinn Fein in Ireland with her vast resources and by converting the whole country into a desert, but her policy in Ireland was making her very unpopular in America and elsewhere. Money had poured into Ireland from the Irish in America and even from the British Dominions, for carrying on the struggle. At the same time the Sinn Feiners were also tired out; the strain on them had been very great.

  The English and Irish representatives met in London, and after two months of discussion and argument a provisional settlement was signed in December 1921. This did not recognize the Irish Republic, but it gave Ireland more freedom, except for one or two matters, than any Dominion had so far possessed. Even so, the Irish representatives were not willing to accept this, and only agreed when the threat of immediate and frightful war was held over them by England.

  In Ireland there was a tremendous tussle over this treaty; some were for it, others violently against. The Sinn Fein party was split up into two over this question. The Dail Eireann at length accepted the treaty, and the Irish Free State, called officially in Ireland the “Saorstat Eireann”, came into existence. But it brought in its train civil war between the old comrades of the Sinn Fein ranks. De Valera, the president of the Dail Eireann, was opposed to the treaty with England, and so were many others; Griffith and Michael Collins and others were in favour of it. For many months civil war raged in the country, and those in favour of the treaty and the Free State were helped by British forces to put down the others. Michael Collins was shot down by the republicans, and in the same way many a republican leader was shot down by the Free State people. The gaols were full of republicans. All this civil war and mutual hatred was a terribly tragic development of Ireland’s brave struggle for freedom. English policy had won, where her arms had been checked, and Irishman was fighting Irishman, and England was to some extent quietly helping one party and generally looking on, well content with the new development.

  The civil war gradually died away, but the republicans would not accept the Free State. Even those republicans who had been elected to the Dail (the parliament of the Free State) refused to attend, as they objected to taking an oath of allegiance which mentioned the King. So De Valera and his party kept away from the Dail, and the other Free State party, headed by Cosgrave, the president of the Free State, tried to crush the republicans in many ways.

  The formation of the Irish Free State led to some far-reaching consequences in Britain’s imperial politics. The Irish treaty had given to Ireland a greater measure of independence than was possessed at the time, in law, by the other Dominions. As soon as Ireland got this, the other Dominions automatically took it also, and the idea of Dominion status underwent a change. Further changes in the direction of greater independence of the Dominions followed some Imperial Conferences which were held between England and the Dominions. Ireland, with her strong republican movement, was always pulling towards complete independence. So also was South Africa with her Boer majority. In this way the position of the Dominions went on changing and improving till they came to be considered as sister-nations with England in the British Commonwealth of Nations. This sounds fine, and no doubt it does represent a progressive growth towards an equal political status. But the equality is more in theory than in fact. Economically the Dominions are tied to Britain and British capital, and there are many ways of bringing economic pressure to bear on them. At the same time, as the Dominions grow, their economic interests tend to conflict with those of England. Thus the Empire gradually gets weaker. It was because of the imminent danger of the cracking up of the Empire that England agreed to the loosening of the bonds and admitting political equality with the Dominions. By wisely going thus far in time, she saved much. But not for long. The forces that separate the Dominions from England continue to work; they are in the main economic forces. And these forces continually tend to weaken the Empire. It was because of this, as well as the undoubted decline of England, that I wrote to you of the fading away of the British Empire. If it is difficult for the Dominions to remain tied to England for long, with all their common traditions and culture and racial unity, how much more difficult must it be for India to remain tied to her. For India’s economic interests come into direct conflict with British interests, and one of them must bow to the other. Thus a free India is most unlikely to accept this connection, with its corollary of subordinating her economic policy to that of Britain.

  The British Commonwealth, meaning thereby the free Dominions and not poor, dependent India, means thus politically free units. But all these units are still under the economic empire of Britain. The Irish treaty meant the continuation of this exploitation of Ireland to some extent by British capital, and this was the real trouble behind the agitation for a republic. De Valera and the republicans represented the poorer farmers, the lower middle-class people, and the poor intellectuals; Cosgrave and the Free State people represented the richer middle class and the richer farmers, and both these classes were interested in the British trade, and British capital was interested in them.

  After some time De Valera decided to change his tactics. He and his party went into the Dail Eireann and took the oath of allegiance, announcing at the same time that they did so for form’s sake, and that they would do away with the oath as soon as they had the majority. At the next election, early in 1932, De Valera did get his majority in the Free State Parliament, and immediately he began carrying out his programme. The fight for the republic was still to go on, but the method of fighting was different. De Valera proposed to abolish the oath of allegiance and also informed the English Government that he would not pay the land annuities any more to them. I think I wrote to you what these annuities were. When the land in Ireland was taken from the big landlords, they were compensated handsomely for it, and then the money for this was realized year after year from the farmers who had taken the land. This process had gone on for more than a generation, but it still continued. De Valera said that he would refuse to pay any more.

  Immediately there was an outcry in England and a conflict with the British Government. They protested first of all that it was a breach of the Irish treaty of 1921 for De Valera to abolish the oath of allegiance. De Valera said that if Ireland and England were sister-nations, as the Dominions were proclaimed to be, and each was free to change its constitution, then obviously Ireland could change or remove the oath from the constitution. No question of the treaty of 1921 arose now. If Ireland did not have that right, then she was, to that extent, dependent on England.

  Secondly, the British Government protested even more loudly about the stoppage of the annuities, and said that this was a gross breach of a contract and obligation. De Valera denied this, and there was a legal argument about it which need not trouble us. When the time for the payment of the annuities came and they were not paid, England started a new war against Ireland. This was an economic war. Heavy tariff duties were put on Irish goods coming to England so as to ruin the Irish farmer, whose products came to England, and thus force the Irish Government to come to terms. As usual with her, England began using her bludgeon in order to compel the other party, but such methods are not so useful now as they were. The Irish Government retaliated by putting duties on British goods going to Ireland. This economic war caused great loss to farmers and industries on both sides. But outraged nationalism and prestige stood in the way of either party giving in.

  There was a fresh election in Ireland early in 1933 and, much to the disgust of the British Government, De Valera was even more successful than before and came back with a bigger majority. So it was obvious that the British policy of economic coercion had not succeeded. The curious part of it is that while the British Government proclaim the wickedness of the Irish in not paying their debts, they themselves do not want to pay their own debts to America.

&
nbsp; So De Valera is head of the Irish Government now, and he is taking his country, step by step, towards a republic. The oath of allegiance has already gone; the payment of the annuities has been finally stopped; the old Governor-General has also gone, and De Valera has appointed a member of his party to this office, which has lost all its importance now. The fight for a republic goes on, but the methods are now different; the centuries-old Anglo-Irish struggle still continues, and it takes the shape of an economic war today.

  Ireland may develop into a republic soon. But there is one great obstacle in the way. De Valera and his party want, above all, a unified Ireland, one republic, one central government for the whole island, including Ulster. Ireland is too small to be split up into two bits. How to get Ulster to join the rest of Ireland is the great problem before De Valera. It cannot be done by force. An attempt to do so by the British Government in 1914 nearly ended in a rebellion, and the Free State certainly cannot force Ulster, nor does it dream of doing so. De Valera hopes that he will be able to win the goodwill of Ulster, and thus bring about union. This hope seems to err on the side of optimism, for Protestant Ulster’s bitter distrust of Catholic Ireland still continues.

  Note (1938):—The economic war between the two countries, after being carried on for some years, was ended by an agreement between the two governments. This agreement, which settled the problem of annuities and other financial obligations, was very advantageous to the Free State. Mr De Valera has taken further steps towards the republic and has severed many links with the British Government and Crown. Ireland is now named Eire. The vital question before Eire is that of unity, which would include Ulster. But Ulster is still unwilling.

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  A New Turkey Rises from the Ashes

  May 7, 1933

  I told you in my last letter of Ireland’s brave fight for a republic. Between Ireland and Turkey there is no particular connection, but I have the new Turkey in mind today, and therefore I propose to write to you about her. In common with Ireland, she put up an amazing resistance against great odds. We have already seen three empires disappear as a result of the World War—Russia, Austria, and Germany. In Turkey we see the end of a fourth great empire, the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman and his successors had founded and built up this Empire 600 years ago; their dynasty was thus far older than the Romanoffs of Russia or the Hohenzollerns of Prussia and Germany. They were the contemporaries of the early Hapsburgs of the thirteenth century, and both these ancient houses went down together.

  Turkey collapsed a few days before Germany in the World War and arranged a separate armistice with the Allies. The country had practically gone to pieces, the empire was no more, and the machinery of government had broken down. Iraq and the Arab countries were all cut off and were largely under the Allies. Constantinople itself was under the control of the Allies and, facing the great city, in the Bosphorus, British warships lay at anchor, proud emblems of victorious might. Everywhere there were English, French, and Italian troops, and British secret-service agents prowled all over the place. The Turkish forts were being dismantled, and the remains of the Turkish army were being made to deliver up their arms. The Young Turk leaders, Enver Pasha and Talaat Beg and others, had run away to other countries. On the Sultan’s throne sat the puppet Caliph Wahid-ud-din, determined to save himself in the wreck, whatever happened to his country. Another puppet, agreeable to the British Government, was made Grand Vizier. The Turkish Parliament was dissolved.

  Such was the state of affairs in Turkey at the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919. The Turks were thoroughly worn out and crushed in spirit. Remember what a terrible lot they had had to endure. Before the four years of the World War there was the Balkan War, and before that the war with Italy, and all this came hard on the heels of the Young Turk revolution, which removed Sultan Abdul Hamid and established a parliament. The Turks have always shown wonderful powers of endurance, but nearly eight years of continuous war was too much for them, as it would have been too much for any people. So they gave up all hope and, resigning themselves to an evil fate, waited for the decision of the Allies.

  Nearly two years earlier, during war-time, the Allies had come to a secret agreement promising Smyrna and the western part of Asia Minor to Italy. Previous to this, Constantinople had been presented, on paper, to Russia, and the Arab countries divided up among the Allies. The last secret agreement, about Asia Minor being handed over to Italy, had to be agreed to by Russia. Unfortunately for Italy, the Bolsheviks seized power before this could be done, and so the agreement was never ratified, much to Italy’s disgust and anger with her allies.

  So matters stood. The Turks seemed to be down and out, from the craven Sultan downwards. The “sick man of Europe” had at last expired, or so it appeared. But there were a few Turks who refused to bow to fate or circumstance, however hopeless resistance might appear. They worked silently and secretly for a while, collecting arms and material from the depots actually under Allied control and shipping them to the interior of Anatolia (Asia Minor) via the Black Sea. Chief among these secret workers was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, whose name has already appeared in some of my previous letters.

  The English did not like Mustafa Kemal at all. They suspected him and wanted to arrest him. The Sultan, who was wholly under the thumb of the English, did not like him either. But he thought it would be a safe policy to send him away far into the interior, and so Kemal Pasha was appointed Inspector-General of the army in Eastern Anatolia. There was practically no army to inspect, and his job was really supposed to be to help the Allies in getting arms from Turkish soldiers. This was an ideal opportunity for Kemal; he jumped at it and went off immediately. It was as well that he did so, for, within a few hours of his departure, the Sultan had changed his mind. His fears of Kemal suddenly got the better of him, and at midnight he sent word to the English to stop Kemal. But the bird had flown.

  Kemal Pasha and a handful of other Turks began organizing national resistance in Anatolia. They proceeded quietly and cautiously at first, trying to win over the officers of the army who were stationed there. Outwardly they acted as the Sultan’s agents, but they paid no attention to orders from Constantinople. The course of events helped them. In the Caucasus the English had created an Armenian Republic and promised to add the Turkish eastern provinces to it. (The Armenian Republic is now a part of the Soviet Union.) There was bitter enmity between the Armenians and the Turks, and many a massacre by the one of the other had taken place in the past. So long as the Turks were the bosses they had the best of this bloody game, during Abdul Hamid’s time especially. For the Turks to be now put under the Armenians meant almost annihilation for them. They preferred fighting to this. So the Turks of the eastern provinces of Anatolia were willing enough to listen to Kemal Pasha’s appeals and exhortations.

  Mustafa Kemal Saves Turkey

  Meanwhile, another and a more important happening roused the Turks. Early in 1919 the Italians tried to make good their secret agreement with France and England, which had failed to materialize, by landing troops in Asia Minor. England and France did not like this at all; they did not want to encourage the Italians at the time. Not knowing what else to do, they agreed to Greek troops occupying Smyrna, so that the Italians might be forestalled.

  Why were the Greeks chosen in this way? The French and English troops were war-weary and almost in a mutinous mood. They wanted to be demobilized and to go home as soon as possible. The Greeks were handy, and the Greek Government had dreams of annexing both Asia Minor and Constantinople and thus reviving the old Byzantine Empire. Two very able Greeks happened to be friends of Lloyd George, who was then Prime Minister in England and very powerful in the Allied councils. One of these was Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece. The other is a very mysterious person, known as Sir Basil Zaharoff, although his original name was Basileios Zacharias. As a young man, as early as 1877, he became the agent in the Balkans for a British armament firm. When the World War ended, he was the richest man in Europe and perha
ps in the world, and great statesmen and governments delighted to honour him. He was given high English titles as well as French titles; he owned many newspapers; and he seemed to influence governments considerably from behind the scenes. The public knew little about him and he kept away from the limelight. He was, indeed, the typical modern international financier who feels at home in many countries and influences and, to some extent, even controls governments of various democratic countries. People have a sensation of governing themselves in such countries, but behind them, unseen, stands the real power, international finance.

  How did Zaharoff become so rich and important? His business was the selling of all kinds of armaments, and this was a profitable job, especially in the Balkans. But it is believed by many that from his early days he was a member of the British Secret Service. This helped him greatly in business and in politics, and repeated wars brought millions of profit to him, and so he grew into the mysterious giant of today.

  This fabulously rich mystery man and Venizelos managed to get Lloyd George to agree to Greek troops being sent to Asia Minor. Zaharoff offered to finance the undertaking. It was one of his investments that did not pay, for it is said that he lost a hundred million dollars, which he had advanced to the Greeks, in their Turkish war.

  Greek troops went across to Asia Minor in British ships and landed at Smyrna in May 1919, under cover of British, French and American warships. Immediately these troops, the gift of the Allies to Turkey, started massacre and outrage on a tremendous scale. There was a reign of terror which shocked even the jaded conscience of a war-weary world. In Turkey itself it had a most powerful effect, for the Turks saw the fate the Allies seemed to have in store for them. And to be massacred and treated like this by their old enemies and subjects, the Greeks! Anger blazed in the Turkish heart, and the nationalist movement grew. It is said, indeed, that although Kemal Pasha was the leader of this movement, the Greek occupation of Smyrna was its creator. Many of the Turkish officers, who had till then remained undecided, now joined it, even though this meant a defiance of the Sultan. For the Sultan had now ordered the arrest of Mustafa Kemal.