The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1920. THE TURKISH TREATY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 114, 13 May 1920, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED. The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1920. THE TURKISH TREATY.

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From the standpoint of international politic* the moat interesting feature of the Turkish Treaty drafted toy the Supreme Council is the readjustment of geographical boundaries in the Balkans. Turkey as it will exist after the treaty is carried into effect will be almost completely wiped off the map of Europe. For the European territory henceforth to be governed by the Turk is cut down to the few square, miles that lie between the outer limits of the city of Constantinople and the famous Chatalja lines, the fortifications which checked the advance of the victorious Bulgarians toward the capital in the first Balkan war. Even Constantinople, though it is still nominally the seat of Turkey's Imperial power, will Ibe practically tinder International authority, for the Powers are to control the' Dardanelles which henceforth must not be subject to blockade or involved in any act of war. All else that was left to Turkey of her European possessions after the close of the second Balkan war is now handed over to Greece, which becomes mistress of nearly all Thrace, or Macedonia. The decision of the Powers on this last point has naturally evoked a great deal of controversy. But the Italians, who protest against Greece's undue aggrandisement, are getting solid material compensation elsewhere; while the Bulgarians, who on nationalist grounds might fairly claim a share of Macedonia and .part of the. Thracian coastline have only to thank their own shameful record of ingratitude and treachery toward the Allies and the other Balkan Statea for the strict justice now meted out to them. On the whole, so far as European Turkey is concerned, the treaty at last liberates the Greek and Slav populations of the Balkans from Turkish tyranny after the slow torments of four and a-half centuries of oppression, and though, it fails j to realize the Gladfltonian ideal of summary ejection, "bag and baggage," it effectually reduces the Turk at least in Europe to impotence and ignominy. Next in importance to these considerations come the'readjustments of territorial frontiers in Abuu It must be observed that when the cabled abstract of the treaty states that "the boundaries in Asia remain the same" it implies the vital exceptions detailed further on. i"or Turkey in Asia, bereft of the Hejaz and Armenia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, and with portions of Asia Mino* converted ' into economic "spheres of influence" for Greece, Italy, and France, will be but the shadow of its old Imperial eeif. The only part of the Turkish dominions in Asia that will remain indisputably Turkish are Anatolia and the adjacent highlands in Aela Minor from which the Turkish tribes originally issued on their mission of slaughter and conquest. Even Kurdistan ie regarded by , the" treaty as conceivably an independent State, for provision ie made under certain conditions for its autonomy. It is of course necessary to remember that these -"paper boundaries" will be useless and the ratification of the treaty itself will be futile unless the Powers take effective means to enforie their will on the Turks and to protect , the newly-formed States from a revival of Turkish aggression and tyranny. As , regards this aspect of the situation, we may fairly assume that the responsibilities undertaken by Britain and France in regard to Syria, Mesopotamia, and the new Arab Empire will provide an effective defence against all serious contingencies. In this connection it is impossible to avoid an expression of regret at the failure of the United States to' recognise the moTal ' obligation 'thrown upon them to share the burden of the Allies more especially in regard to/Armenia. It may be added as an omen 1 of happy augury for the future that Britain ha* now formally assumed the duty of protecting Palestine as "a national home for the Jewish people," and has thus committed herself to practical participation in what seemed a few years ago the most Utopian of all political projects—the reconetitution of Jewish Nationalism on a definite political foundation.

Most of the other clauses in the treaty are concerned with economic matters or with the precautions that will obviously be needed if the conditions now imposed upon the Turk are to be effectively carried out. It is noteworthy that control of Turkish cables, railways and waterways in the Balkans is to be transferred to the Allies; that, enemy States are to be prevented from securing special advantages in the Balkans for either economic or military purposes — as witness the curious but significant clause forbidding enemy States "rights of air passage" over the Turkish frontiers; and that special precautions are to be taken against the renewal of that "peaceful penetration" in which , the Germans have shown themselves to be so insidiously and dangerously expert. One extremely important clause of the treaty provides for the protection of "religious', racial and linguistic minorities" in Turkey. This provision, we may observe, was first suggested for the protection of the Jews in Poland, and was incorporated in.the treaty drafted by the Supreme Council for the purpose of defining the new' Polish State and its powers; and it now seems that the same principle is to be applied in all the

political settlements, that the Allies are able to carry into effect. This is in iteelf an encouraging proof that the readjustment of the world's affairs on which the Supreme Council is now engaged ie not being conducted solely with an eye to material or economic considerations, but that the Powers recognise in fact, as well as in principle the supreme importance of justice as an element essential for the world's peace and safety.