THE MOSUL BOUNDARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 6

THE MOSUL BOUNDARY.

The decision of the Commission on the Mosul boundary is a surprise. Under the Treaty of Lausanne it was agreed that the frontier between Turkey and Ira.| should be laid down in a friendly arrangement to be concluded between Turkey and Great Britain within nine months. The treaty was signed in July, 1923. and at the end of the nine months no agreement had been arrived at. Under Article 111. of the Lausanne Treaty it had been further provided that in the event of no agreement being reached between the two Governments within the time mentioned the dispute should be refered to the Council of the League of Nations. When the matter was thus referred to the Council, a Commission, consisting of a Belgian, a Swede, and a Hungarian, was appointed to investigate the matter and report to the League. This Commission has now issued its report. It cannot be said that the report lias cleared the situation, which is one of quite extraordinary difficulty. Great Britain was given the mandate over Iraq, but subsequently agreed to the establishment of a kingdom with Feisul Hussein as king. This arrangement is likely to conflict with the condition of the Commission that Iraq should remain under the control of the League for 25 years. The alternative suggestion, that the territory of the Mosul vilayet should remain under Turkish control, is not likely to be acceptable either to Britain or the people of the vilayet. The third recommendation, that if the territory is divided a frontier Line should be drawn following the course of the lesser Zab River, would leave Mosul under Turkish ru_, and thus the same objection applies to '.his as to the second proposal. Of Mosul's population the great majority are Kurds, a primitive people of Aryan speech, with no racial or linguistic aflinities with the Turks. The Turks, however, have resolved to "Turkicise" them, lest any development of Kurdish nationalism should stand in the way of their ambition to form a Pan-Turkish Confederation. The Britisli are teaching the Kurdish children in the Mosul Province to read and write iit their mother tongue, and this is regarded with the same abhorrence by the Turks as that which they once lavished on Armenian churches and seminaries. The Turks, on their side, say that when they signed the peace after the war they believed the boundary of Iraq to be the boundary existing at the time of the Mudros armistice, and that the British have gradually advanced the lino so as to pass some fifty miles north of Mosul. The Turks, in reality, base their claim to the Mosul vilayet on the ground that the majority is Kurdish, and that Kurd and Turk are a single, inseparable people. This claim cannot be substantiated, but the Turks are especially anxious that the Kurds should not come under any influence but their own, owing to the precarious relations which exist between Angora and the Kurdish tribes in the vilayets of Van and Diarbekr. The matter now rests with the Council of the League for decision, and the Council is not bound to accept any of th,? recommendations contained in the report.