TURKISH NATIONALISM

Evening Star, Issue 18121, 10 November 1922, Page 5

TURKISH NATIONALISM

A MENACING POSITION. ISMET COHEIRS WITH ALEXES. Press Awociatioti—Bj Telegraph—Copyright. CONSTANTINOPLE, November 8, ' Umet Pasha held a conference with the Allied High Cornmiiwionors and then, left for Angora, •where he . will report to hi« Government on- Iho crisis.—A. and N.Z. Cable. ALARM IN FRANCE. PAMS, November 9. France considers the situation most grave. An immediate meeting oi the Lausanne Convention, is regarded as essential, as the situation is steadily getting beyond, control. The naval forces and Allied tre ops at Constantinople are computed at 30,000 British and 6,000 Frencm— The Times.’ FRENCH PRESS VIEWS. HOSTILE TO TURKISH EXTREMISTS. PARIS, November 8. The Press is now almost unanimous that the Allies must use force if necessary to make the Turks respect them. There is a general demand for sending reinforcements. The cruiser Wakleck Rousseau has gone to Constantinople. •L« Temps’ say#: “We are confronted with the possibility of war between the Turks and the Allies. The former are relying on the Soviets, which have become the arbiter between Asia and! Europe.”— A. and N.Z. Cable. CONSTANTINOPLE. NO COMMUNICATION. THE CABLE OUT. LONDON, November 9. Disquiet is felt owing to the complete absence of news from Constantinople since the message announcing that the Turks had reiterated their demands. The messages, which are now coming by indirect routes, show that the silence is one to the Turks cutting the cable at Chanak-Bokalo. Martial law has not yet been proclaimed. Two British soldiers were murdered at Kissim-Pasha. —Renter. Tlie greatest tension prevails in the city. A dash seems inevitable if the British forces guarding Galaia bridge continue to prevent the Turks fa-versing Grandruo. Concealed machine guns are posted at the end of the bridge and in, the houses overlooking it. The guard has 'been strengthened by motor cars armed! with machine guns.—A. and N.Z. Cable. TURKISH DEMANDS. a largFobder. PARIS, November 8. The Kemalists demanded, in addition to Ihe abolition of the capitulations, a plebiscite in West Thrace, the return of tiie complete independence of Turkey, and nn indemnity of £240,000,000 from Greece. —‘ The Times.’ GRAND VIZIER’S APPEAL TO ANGORA. CONSTANTINOPLE, November 8. The Grand Vizier has sent a final appeal for reconciliation 'between tie Porte and Angora, —A. and N.Z. Gable. TRADE DISORGANISED. CONSTANTINOPLE, November 8. The Bourse is closed. The Turkish exchange is depreciating hourly. Merchants I, re cancelling their orders, and the new Customs tariff has disorganised trade. The new Government is in a deplorable state financially, and cannot pay its officials regularly.—A. and N.Z. Cable GREEKS IN CONSTANTINOPLE. CONSTANTINOPLE, November 8. fir Nansen has asked the Angora Government to negotiate for an exchange of Turkish nationals with Greece, hut the Kemalists expect that the negotiations will prove abortive owing to the Greek opposition to the evacuation of Constantinople by 400,000 Greeks, who collectively possess enormous wealth. If the Greeks go, other foreigners must follow, which would min the city’s commerce. —A. and N.Z. Cable. MR ASQUITH. COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY. LONDON, November 8. Mr Asquith, at Paisley, said the. issues involved in the serious situation in the Near East were for too grave to he subordinated to party distinction. _ It was the considered judgment of the Liberal Party that it was of the utmost importance that un itv of purpose, policy, action, and l front should be maintained between the Great Powers. We were faced, he said, with a dangerous and difficult problem, and any want of tact or any blunder of judgment might precipitate a catastrophe.—A. and N.Z. Cable. A LABOR LEADER’S VIEWS. LONDON, November 3. Mr J. H. Thomas, speaking at Derby, said that the Kemalist leaders would) make a profound mistake if they attempted to take advantage of Great Britain’s preoccupation in an election. Labor stood definitely for peace, but it would leave the House of Commons to decide on committing the country to war.—A. and N.Z. fable. THE SULTAN. Sultan Mohammed VI., whose position ai, the moment is very uncertain, is sixtyone years of age. Be succeeded to the throne in July, 1918,0 it the death of his brother, Mohammed V,, whoso nine years’ reign a# successor of Abdul Hamid was one <,£ inglorious subservience to the Committee of Union.' and Progress. A grandson of Sultan Mahmud 11., noted in history as the man who did away' with the Janissaries. Mohammed VI,, on .ascending the throne, showed at once that he had 1 no intention of being a mere puppet like his brother. During the reign of Abdul Hagnid he had been shut up with his brother in a place on the Bosphorus, and even after the accession of his brother he did not become heir-apparent until hifl cousin, older titan he, Prince Youssouf Izzedin, committed suicide or was killed. He was then brought from retirement, and during the war for eight months was attached to the German, general headquarters, though his sympathies were entirely against Germany and always pro-British, and he was always and ever an opponent of the Committee of Union and Progress. It lias been atated that had- he been on the throne four years earlier Turkey would 'never have gone to war. On reaching the throne he Immediately took h'ia grandfather as his example. He had his coronation robe made, etitoh by stitch, according to the model of that of Mahmud. He used .Mahmud’s sword for the ceremony of girding on. the sword. He qdopted Mahmud’s national anthem, written for him by the younger Donizetti. He appealed to the public sympathy to get rid of the Committee of Union and Progress in the same way that Jlahmud in -a rougher age appealed to the public to get rid of the Janissaries, the power behind the throne. Airways suspected by the Committee of Union and Progress of being a spy of Abdul Hamid, there was no love lest between the new Sultan and the committee.

To this revolt against tho cabal, of •which, Enver Paaha was then the prime mover, the decree of deposition pronounced by the Angora Assembly must be largely attributed. When Mustapha Kemal raised the banner of the national movement members of the Committee of Union and Progress hastened to join him from all parts of Asiatic Turkey, whither they had been sent to virtual exile, and their influence is now dominant in the Angpra Government Thus, compromised by his close relations with tho Allies since tho armistice and the object of the personal animosity of the committee, the triumph of the National Party has Inevitably brought about tho .downfall «f Mabomin*d VI.