MUSTAPHA AND THE COURTS

Mustapha is a good name for Kemal and his Turkish associates. They "mustapha" this and they must have a that, and lately they have been pretty consistently getting it. France and Italy, with the reluctant agreement of England, have given back to them Thrace and about everything they lost in the Great War except complete freedom in ruling the Hellespont and the Dardanelles.

But now they go even further and demand that foreign nations give up the Capitulations. These are the courts run by the consulates for foreigners living in Turkey. The Turks want these done away with and foreigners tried wholly in Turkish courts and under Turkish law. The Koran is the sole Turkish law authority, and anything that is not accounted for in it is not a case for courts. A pistol murder, for example, cannot come up in court because Allah, when he dictated the Koran, forgot to speak of pistols. In addition, a Moslem can kill, assault, rob, and injure a Christian in any manner he pleases because this doesn't constitute a crime in Turkey. With prospects like these any man fortunate enough to be born a Turk is indeed lucky, provided of course that he can find a Christian on whom to practice the pastimes the Koran neglects to forbid. But the Christian in the case, or anywhere in the neighborhood gets as much enjoyment out of the process as a rat hunted by ferrets. Under the circumstances, it is easy to understand why there is some objection to handing over to the Turkish Nationalists, the Capitulation, along with the rest of the "boodle".