The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1923. AN AMERICAN "DEAL"

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 6

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1923. AN AMERICAN "DEAL"

For the cause ihat lacks assistance, For the xcrong that needs rcsistanoe_ For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

With the successful issue of the , Lausanne Conference, and tho consequently increased probability of peace ' in the Near East, what are known as tho Chester Concessions have once more come to the front. As a Washington cable message informs our readers, a group of financiers have been got together (by Colby Chester, a retired American rear-admiral, to take over certain oil rights and railway concessions in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, and to expend something like £400,000,000! sterling in laying lines nnd exploiting the mineral wealth of the country. In return for a 90 years' lease of petroleum and other mineral areas tho American financiers will concede to the Turkish Government 30 per cent oi the net. profits, after allowing for all expenses, interest and sinking fund, and taking a 12 per cent dividend for themselves. Half I of the capital may be raised in Turkey, but whatever is done in this matter the astute Americans who have engineered : this "proposition"' seem likely to come out of the enterprise with considerable satisfaction to themselves. There appears to bo no doubt, among the experts, that there is an enormous oil j supply waiting to be tapped in the Mosul j region, and from the purely commercial or financial standpoint the Americans are probably to be congratulated on their j business acumen in arranging this gigantic "deal.'' ] But there are other and probably i more important aspects of the question Which demand consideration. Only last' month the well-known journalist Mr. ! F. W. Wile, formerly foreign corrcspon- ' dent of the "Daily Mail," commented upon the serious political risks involved for the United States in the Chester Concessions. "Opposition on the part of Britain and France," he said, "is almost inevitable." For France has all along insisted on her prior claims in regard to railroads and mineral rights in Syria and Asia Minor; while tho Mosul oil district is included in Mesopotamia, which is held by Britain as "mandated territory." It is probable that Britain will withdraw from Mesopotamia when the Arabs have proved their ability to stand alone and govern themselves; but it is not likely that during the intervening period Britain would consent to stand aside and forfeit all her material interests in this region by permitting some other Power to exploit its vast natural resources. Mr. Wile reminds us that Britain has more than once warned the Turks that she will retain her hold under the League on Mosul at all costs. What will the British Government do when it is announced that the Turkish Government "has assigned Mosul to nationals of the L T nited States." Of course, the Turks understand all this thoroughly, and Mr. Wile regards the granting of these concessions as a clever move on the part of Mustapha Kemal or his advisers to sow dissension once more between tho Western Powers. "History," he observes, "is repeating itself. 'Abdul the Damned' was able for years to defy, confound, and frustrate the Christan world in Turkey by inciting one Power against another. His successors seem to have taken a leaf out of the Hamidian book." Nor have these aspects of the question been completely lost sight of 'by the leaders of public opinion in America. For it is already clear that these concessions are regarded in the LTnited States with grave suspicion and disfavour not only because they may involve tlie Americans in disputes and quarrels with Britain and France, but because, in any case, they would be likely to entangle the American Government in European and Oriental problems for which it has s_ -far persistently refused to assume any responsibility. According to an official statement issued from Washington, "the attitude of the State Department is that it will not he drawn into any political imbroglio by the concessions." No doubt that is the present intention of the American Government, but as it lias further announced that "it will give support to its nationals in their business enterprises anywhere," it, is easy to conceive the complications that might thus arise. Moreover, it is easy to understand tho apprehensions of the many Americans who protest against "foreign entanglements," and their fear lest their country, which has refused to intervene in European affairs or to assume any sort of moral or material responsibility In regard to the post-war settlement, should ultimately be dragged into political difficulties, or even into war, through the sordid necessity of upholding the material interests of American speculators and concessionaires abroad. It is certainly not an alluring prospect. The Americans know that their country has lost much of its moral prestige and influence through refusing to share Britain's responsibilities in tho Near East or to assist in protecting the Armenians from the Turk; and the best Americans are naturally anxious to save the United States from the humiliation and disgrace of being draggod into some future war at the heels of their millionaires.