TURKEY ANXIOUS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 129, 3 June 1935, Page 3

TURKEY ANXIOUS

OVER THE DARDANELLES

FORTIFICATION BAN

Despite the optimistic declarations by the statesmen who took part in the Stresa conference, it covered so wide a range of conflicting interests that many countries are now wondering what will be the final outcome, writes J. W. Kernick in the "New York Times." • Among these is Turkey, and one question that primarily interests her is, of course, that of the Dardanelles Strait. The present status of the strait is defined by a special convention annexed to the Treaty of Lausanne, which imposes upon Turkey various restrictions, particularly prohibiting permanent fortifications on the seaboard. Turkey's plea as formulated by her Foreign Minister at Geneva is that when the Lausanne Treaty was signed the general belief was that the League of Nations would become the strongest possible institution, capable of preventing or solving important international disputes, while Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria were all that time also bound by treaties- imposing military restrictions, which were to be followed by reductions in armaments.

Turkey asks what is the actual situation today. The League, she feels, cannot be considered, even by its staunchest supporters, as capable of preventing international strife; Germany has repudiated the military restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles; and the Stresa Conference has virtually recognised the re-armament of Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Why, therefore, should Turkey alone remain bound by the military restrictions of a peace treaty? Turkey complains that the European Powers, especially Great Britain, which is regarded as responsible for the opposition.to fortification of the strait, consider the waterway from the naval point of view, as a means of communication between the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and that they disregard the strategic peril it creates in dividing Asiatic and European Turkey, which unless the straits were under complete Turkish control,'would jeopardise Turkey in time of war. If Bulgaria re-arms, as seems likely, her army may reach 100,000 in time of peace and, in time of war, as many as 1,000,000 men could soon be mobilised. As for Turkey, despite the increase in railroads, it is so spread out that several weeks would be needed to complete mobilisation and, in case of a war in the Balkans, the army would have to be transported across water. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that Turkey has already made provision to close the Strait, and experts say she could do so within twenty-four hours, despite the absence of permanent fortifications. Her proposal, therefore, that a situation existing de facto be recognised seems logical, and it is difficult to see how the Great Powers will justify one treatment for one former enemy country and another for the others.