Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1935. DEFENCE OF DARDANELLES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 126, 9 March 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1935. DEFENCE OF DARDANELLES.

Piquancy is indeed added to the situation between Bulgaria and Turkey by reason of Tewfik Rustin Bey being president of the League of Nations Council. The complaint made by M. Antonoff is that Turkey has greatly augmented her troops on the Bulgarian frontier, thus constituting a menace to peace. It is quite understandable that any semblance of movements such as were described in the representations to the, League would be disturbing to people as highly-sensitive and as suspicious as those of the Balkans. The representations are made under the second part of Article 11 of the League Covenant, which says: "It is also declared to be the frendly right of each member of the League to bring to the attention of the Assembly or of the Council any circumstance whatever affecting international relations which threatens to disturb international peace or the good understanding between nations upon which peace depends." There is conferred the right to bring Balkan relations before the League whether the nations affected ask for action or not. The Turks are reported to have replied to the Bulgarians that the military movements were made to defend the Dardanelles. For some time Turkey has been agitating for the abrogation or drastic modification of the treaty provisions that apply to the Dardanelles and adjacent territorial zones. An important part of the treaty at Lausanne in 1923, which constituted the Near East peace settlement, consisted in what is known as the Straits Convention. In this instrument the high contracting parties, the Allied Powers on the one hand and Turkey on the other, agreed to recognise and declare the principle of freedom of transit and navigation by sea and by air in the strait of the Dardanelles, (he Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus, comprised under the general term of the ''Straits." They drew up specific provisions relating to the transit end navigation of merchant vessels, warships, and aircraft jn the Straits in time of peace and time of war. They declared that certain zones, including both shores of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, and various islands in the Sea of Marmora and in the Aegean, should be demilitarised, and contain no fortifications or military organisation. They also provided for the setting up of an international commission at Constantinople to exercise its functions over the waters of the Straits. The Treaty or Lausanne imposed obligations on Turkey in these directions, but it freed her of onerous obligations ot older date, and its terms were generally regarded as very favourable to her in view of all the circumstances lhere would therefore appear to be little need for the concentration ot large Turkish forces for protecting the Dardanelles and as the development took place before the outbreak of revolt n Greece the Bulgarians are naturally somewhat concerned.