z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 04.indd MK SJ+DK 1 10 2013/YS 13 11 2013 219
PAKISTAN : LESSONS FROM ABROAD 219
“In Munich four European Great Powers met and decided to demand of us the acceptance of new frontiers, according to which the German areas of our State would be taken away. We had the choice between desperate and hopeless defence, which would have meant the sacrifice not only of the adult generation but also of women and chidren, and the acceptance of conditions which in their ruthlessness, and bacause they were imposed by pressure without war, have no parallel in history. We desired to make a contribution to peace; we would gladly have made it. But not by any means in the way it has been forced upon us.
“But we were abandoned, and were alone .... Deeply moved, all your leaders considered, together with the army and the President of the Republic, all the possibilities which remained. They recognized that in choosing between narrower frontiers and the death of the nation it was their sacred duty to save the life of our people, so that we may not emerge weakened from these terrible times, and so that we may remain certain that our nation will gather itself together again, as it has done so often in the past. Let us all see that our State re-establishes itself soundly within its new frontiers, and that its population is assured of a new life of peace and fruitful labour. With your help we shall
succeed. We rely upon you, and you have confidence in us.”
It is evident that the Czechs refused to be led by the force of historic sentiment. They were ready to have narrower frontiers and a smaller Czechoslovakia to the ultimate destruction of their people.
With regard to Turkey the prevalent view was the one that was expressed in 1853 by the Czar Nicholas I, during a conversation with British Ambassador in St. Petersburg in which he said “We have on our hand a sick man—a very sick man .... He may suddenly die upon our hands.” From that day the imminent decease of Turkey, the sick man of Europe was awaited by all his neighbours. The shedding of the territories was considered as the convulsions of a dying man who is alleged to have breathed his last by affixing his signature to the Treaty of Severs.
Is this really a correct view to take of Turkey in the process of dissolution ? It is instructive to note the comments of Arnold Toynbee on this view. Referring to the Czar’s description of Turkey as the sick man who may suddenly die, he says* :
“In this second and more sensational part of his diagnosis Czar Nicholas went astray because he did not understand the nature of the
- Arnold Toynbee— Turkey, p. 141.