As I said afterwards to Colonel Mougin: “I wish it were possible to supplement the meagre funds with which Father Babadjanian is maintaining this little colony of poor children.” “Tell the Holy Father,” said Father Babadjanian, “that we are _perfectly_ happy with the Turks. They are trying to send us away from Angora for economical reasons, but we do not want to go. We have been told by the Grand National Assembly that we shall have exactly the same rights as the Moslems—no more, no less. What more can we expect or desire? “Tell His Holiness to inform Europe and America,” he concluded, “that it is useless to try and protect _disloyal_ Christian minorities here. It cannot be done by any Church, or any League of Nations. We know very well, and events have proved it, that so long as we remain _loyal_ to the Turkish Government, all will be well. All the trouble that has come to us has arisen from the disloyalty and political intrigues of the Orthodox Armenians and Greeks, and, above all, from outside propaganda. So much has been said and written about an “Armenian Home”; let America offer Armenians that national home. Let the Powers, since it is they who are the cause of all the trouble, only recognise that they must provide homes elsewhere for every Christian who wants to go, or else leave us alone.... “If you only knew how we tremble before this useless propaganda, how we pray to be delivered from our European friends. _Turkey is our home._ We have to live with the Turks on friendly terms; and will gladly do so, if _only_ this political propaganda can cease.” Colonel Mougin, who accompanied me on this visit, can vouch for these statements, which he considered so important that he communicated them to his Government. I have delivered the message of M. Kemal Pasha and Father Babadjanian to the Holy Father. He will receive, also, fuller impressions of my interesting trip through Anatolia; and fuller descriptions of this country and those people who have made so splendid a fight for freedom and independence. Throughout the length and breadth of Anatolia, prayers for peace have been echoed and re-echoed. There must be peace; but not at the expense of the sovereign rights of the people. It is a comfort to the Turks, nevertheless, to know that the head of the Catholic Church stretches out the hand of friendship towards them, and prays for their peace and prosperity through the brotherhood of Moslems and Christians in the East. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXVIII THREE DIPLOMATS AT ROME—THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE HOLY TOMB IN Rome I met three diplomats; as different from each other as night from day, as the Pope of Rome from the Khalif of Islam—a false comparison often made in New Turkey to-day.