ملف ١٩١٦/٣٥٧٩ "تركيا: مستقبل القسطنطينية" [و‎‎٢‎٤] (٥٣٠/٥٦)

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X TELEGRAM FROM POLITICAL, BAGDAD;
DATED 23rd JANUARY, 1919.
(RECD. 25th, 3 p.m.)
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$9 941 - My immediately preceding telegram, I venture to
take ?opportunity to en^phasise in the interests of future
peace of provinces formerly under Turkish rule, the importance
of ejecting Ottoman government from Constantinople. No step
could emphasise more sharply the fact that the Turks are a
beaten race and that their defeat implies that they no longer
hold sword of Islam nor can pose as spokesmen of Islamic
op: ini cm. Those chins are bound up with the possession of
Constantinople which has given Turks a status in Europe control
over a very important waterway. The expulsion of Ottoman
Government from Constantinople will not only produce a great
moral effect but will offer practical obstacle to (group ^ ^
undecypherable) of Turkish influence on the old lines. ,
Constantinople has been for sixteen hundred years the capital
of a great empire: it id essentially fitted for thax position.
Its palaces, government offices, religious and educational bail: ~
ings, to say mothing of its amenities as a place of residence,
and the fact that it is a large city with immense housing
accomodation with pleasant summer resorts close at hand, would
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give to Turks if they retain it a framework of Empire which
would to some extent continue to be filled. I- vkag are
obliged to to remove the seat of government the framework must
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be re-created and this will not come to pass quickly. In the
past many Arab families from Mesopotamia dr Syria have migrated
to Constantinople for private or official reasons and habitually
resided there. They inter-married with Turks, their children
are brought up as (?Turks) and a network of relationships are
thus established. But an educated Bagdadi who has found in
Constantinople a pleasant alternative to his native place will
not