n
and every known artifice for manipulating public opinion.

The volume is not a hasty essay produced to exploit an ephemeral
situation. It embodies the fruit of investigations laboriously carried
on through six years. A slight account of the earlier events appeared
as far back as the winter of 1916 in a book entitled, _Turkey, Greece,
and the Great Powers_: that was my first effort to place the subject in
its true perspective. The results were interesting. I was honoured by
the reproaches of several private and by the reprobation of several
public critics; some correspondents favoured me with their anonymous
scurrility, and some bigots relieved me of their acquaintance. On the
other hand, there were people who, in the midst of a maelstrom of
passion, retained their respect for facts.

I pursued the subject further in a weekly journal. Two of my
contributions saw the light; the third was suppressed by the
Authorities. Its suppression furnished material for a debate in
Parliament: "This is a cleverly written article," said Mr. John Dillon,
"and I cannot find in it a single word which justifies suppression.
All that one can find in it is that it states certain facts which the
Government do not like to be known, not that they injure the military
situation in the least, but that they show that the Government, in the
opinion of the writer, made certain very bad blunders." The Home
Secretary's answer was {viii} typical of departmental dialectics: "It
is inconceivable to me," he declared, "that the Government would
venture to say to the Press, or indicate to it in any way, 'This is our
view. Publish it. If you do not, you will suffer.'" What the
Government did, in effect, say to the Editor of the _National Weekly_
was: "This is not our view. Publish it not. If you do, you will
suffer."

With an innocence perhaps pardonable in one who was too intent on the
evolution of the world drama to follow the daily development of
war-time prohibitions, I next essayed to present to the public through
the medium of a book the truth which had been banned from the columns
of a magazine. The manuscript of that work, much fingered by the
printer, now lies before me, and together with it a letter from the
publisher stating that the Authorities had forbidden its publication on
pain of proceedings "under 27 (b) of the Defence of the Realm
Regulations."

And so it came about that not until now has it been possible for the
voice