A BLACK FRIDAY
New York Times, Editorial.
Dec 3, 1922.
There have been many Black Fridays
in recent history. Most of them have
been days of financial panic. There has
been none of blacker foreboding than
last Friday. And the blackness is not
loss or fear of loss in stocks and bonds.
It is the blackness of loss of home, the
blackness of exile and suffering and the
peril of death. But that which deepens
the darkness that has come upon the
earth in the broad daylight of the twen-
tieth century is civilization's prompt ac-
ceptance of the Turks' decree of banish-
ment not only of a million Greeks, but
incidentally of all Christian minorities
within the Turkish realm beyond the
Hellespont, which the Aryan crossed over
three thousand years ago. Light black-
ens such a blot. Lord Curzon but urged
that the Greeks be gotten out as quickly
as possible in order to escape massacre.
For the rest there was, so far as re-
ported, only quiet acquiescence.
Meanwhile, the dispatches from Wash-
ington of the same date report that the
Administration believes that the United
States "is not without influence at Lau-
sanne," that not only the Allies but the
Turkish representatives appear to be
"wholly satisfied" with the part that
the United States is playing at Lau-
sanne, and that the very latest reports
from Ambassador CHILD enable the De-
partment of State to draw the conclusion
that the work of the "gathering" at
Lausanne is "proceeding satisfactorily."
Let us assume that the "very latest re-
ports" do not include the happenings of
Friday. If the government were know-
ingly "wholly satisfied" with that day's
record, then black were white. It is in-
conceivable that the American people
can be as "wholly satisfied" with our
part as the Turks are reported to be.
Is this to be the end of the Christian
minorities in Asia Minor - that land
where, thirteen centuries and more be-
fore the Turk came first to rule it, PAUL
had journeyed as a missionary through
its length and breadth, and where the
first "seven churches that are in Asia"
stood, to which the messages written in
the Book of Revelation were sent?
Source
in recent history. Most of them have
been days of financial panic. There has
been none of blacker foreboding than
last Friday. And the blackness is not
loss or fear of loss in stocks and bonds.
It is the blackness of loss of home, the
blackness of exile and suffering and the
peril of death. But that which deepens
the darkness that has come upon the
earth in the broad daylight of the twen-
tieth century is civilization's prompt ac-
ceptance of the Turks' decree of banish-
ment not only of a million Greeks, but
incidentally of all Christian minorities
within the Turkish realm beyond the
Hellespont, which the Aryan crossed over
three thousand years ago. Light black-
ens such a blot. Lord Curzon but urged
that the Greeks be gotten out as quickly
as possible in order to escape massacre.
For the rest there was, so far as re-
ported, only quiet acquiescence.
Meanwhile, the dispatches from Wash-
ington of the same date report that the
Administration believes that the United
States "is not without influence at Lau-
sanne," that not only the Allies but the
Turkish representatives appear to be
"wholly satisfied" with the part that
the United States is playing at Lau-
sanne, and that the very latest reports
from Ambassador CHILD enable the De-
partment of State to draw the conclusion
that the work of the "gathering" at
Lausanne is "proceeding satisfactorily."
Let us assume that the "very latest re-
ports" do not include the happenings of
Friday. If the government were know-
ingly "wholly satisfied" with that day's
record, then black were white. It is in-
conceivable that the American people
can be as "wholly satisfied" with our
part as the Turks are reported to be.
Is this to be the end of the Christian
minorities in Asia Minor - that land
where, thirteen centuries and more be-
fore the Turk came first to rule it, PAUL
had journeyed as a missionary through
its length and breadth, and where the
first "seven churches that are in Asia"
stood, to which the messages written in
the Book of Revelation were sent?
Source
