A NEW PHASE IN THE NEAR EAST

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 6

A NEW PHASE IN THE NEAR EAST

General Harington and his troops have well earned the welcome given to them in England. Whatever may be the judgment of history upon the British Government's part in the Chanak episode, the British Army, at least, comes out with an unblemished record. With nervy or excitable troops or an impotent leader holding the linos at Chanak, the simmering cauldron of war would have boiled over; but General Harington (described as the most patient and imperturbable man in the Army) maintained the British prestige and yet avoided a clash with tie victory-flushed troops of KemaL The return of the British troops ends one phase of British policy in the Near East. It marks also' the commencement of another pba-se inaugurated by the Treaty of Lausanne. Greece and Turkey are henceforth to be responsible for the settlement of their own quarrels. At least, it is hoped that they will be, and that the Western Powers will neither butt in nor be dragged in. To lessen the possibilities of quarrel steps are now being taken to exchange the minority populations in the respective territories. Greeks are being deported from Turkish soil, and Turks from Greek soil. In the process there will be much hardship. It is appearing already, according to the " Express " correspondent. Yet the exchange appears to be a measure of cruel necessity. The minorities have existed from the time when there were no definite national boundaries in the Jfear East, and their existence has proved incompatible with the maintenance of stable, frontiers. While there was a " minority " over the border, its ili-treatment, real or aliened, would always cause illfeeling, and its liberation (with, the territory it occupied) always provided the. Chauvinists with at: excuse for war. iM'ow this oxoubo is being reiuojied at Uio expeaeij of

some hardship to the minorities. Yet the exchange is at least more humane than the extermination formerly practised by the East— and by the West in its earlier days.