NEAR EAST PERSONALITIES

Evening Star, Issue 18137, 29 November 1922, Page 3

NEAR EAST PERSONALITIES

BIG FIGURES IN THE CRISIS. [From Odb London Correspondent.] October 5. Whatever their private views about the Near East, crisis, and the policy of surrendering to the Turk all that, we conquered him to attain, most people have a sneaking liking for M.usta.pha Kemal lasha. Able pencil portraits, as well as photographs, confirm, the man in the street in an agreeable impression of a remarkably handrome, fellow with a pleasant expression. And that, is a popular belief tor once supported by the, facts. Those wno met Kemal only’ a few months ago in London know him a. most accomplished man of affairs and a gentleman of charming appearance and manners. This amazing Big Man of Turkey is a vigorous person in young middle-age, a bachelor, in the case of a, Turk assumes an added lustre, with a, villa three miles outside sweltering Angora on a comfortable hilltop. This residence was presented to Kemal by the municipality, and the great Pasha’s official allowance, voted by the Assembly which his personality dominates, is the equivalent of £4O a year. yyAT ously tile one modern equipment which Turkey stands in no need is Sir Eric Gcddes and his famous axe. The frugal lurk pays his I/ird Protector less than wo do our Whitehall doorkeepers. FRANKLIN-BOUILLON. The personality of AT. h ranklin-Bouillon has all the romance that surrounds those mysterious figures who posture in big history as powers behind the throne of real authority. In all ages there havc_ been men and women of an intense vitality or mentality who have never held official status, but have exercised a dominant influence over events. The most conspicuous recent instance was, perhaps, Colonel House, ttie unofficial President of_ the United States during Woodrow Wilson’s official reign at White House. AL Fra.nk-lin-Bouillon is almost, hut not quite, halfEnglish and half-French. Technically he is; racially he is not. His mother was a native of the Channel Islands, and Cambridge was his university; bat, though he speaks our language with absolute purity and facility like a well-educated native, in temperament and characteristics he is essentially Gaelic. And lie was the man who negotiated France’s secret treaty with the Angora Government. That was-a fatal coup so far as France is concerned ; hut naturally, when the Kemalists were returning resurgent, in arms, ant! knocking at the gates of the. Cockpit of Antiquity. France sent Franklin-Bouillon to talk Kemal over. Ho is about fifty-two years old, full of vigor and zest, and a great cvnic. There must be habitues of the Cafe Royal who remember him as a keen onlooker and animated talker at its marble tables amid the after-dinner glitter and the maelstrom of talk and laughter on crowded nights before the war. CABINET DISCUSSIONS.

It is perfectly true that there have been, not exactly acute discussions, but very animated discussions, in the Cabinet. A strong minority of Ministers, of whom the most eminent member was Mr Churchill, favored prompt measures to expel the Turk from the neutral /ones. This policy of instant military action, which might have been tactically sound in view of the compromised position now held hy our troops at Clianak, with the Turks all round and dominating their lines, was strenuously opposed hy other Ministers, notably Lord Curzon, who urged that nothing would ho gained, and much risked, by anything of the sort. Lord Curzon argued that we should endeavor to the last minute to keep in line with our Allies, abstain from any overt hostilities, and trust to diplomatic pressure so long as the least hope existed of averting war. Happily, this view prevailed to the end, though 1 hear that last Friday night it was almost touch and go. It is not to bo inferred that either (Mr Churchill or any of the Ministers who supported his views are any more anxious for “another war” than anybody else, but simply that their estimate of the situation, and of the Turk, called for strong measures as the only chance of saving what certainly looked like a desperate position. BIG GREEKS IN LONDON. From on© point, of view it is perhaps unfortunate that the. presence in London of M. Yenizelos and Sir Basil Zaharoff should have been so widely advertised at this juncture. It might give rise to suspicions in certain quarters that there was more caballing going on between the Cabinet and the Greeks. Rut those who have nil through resented what they call “onr proGreek” policy must, not forget that the Greeks themselves blame ns for their military debacle, first, because they say we encouraged their Asiatic adventures, arid, secondly, because wo slopped them making military use of the .neutral zones, thereby depriving their troops of a. great chance of seizing Constantinople and nutniauceuvring Kemal. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the. mischievous suggestion, which is absolutely devoid of truth, that “Court influences” have been instrumental in moulding our Near East policy. Ft is as absurd as the other canard’, to which a, farmer member of the Cabinet gave some color in a, moment of personal pique, that the Prime Minister is specially “interested' 1 in Greece hy family business associations. THE GREEK LEGATION. It will be interesting to see if the developments in Greece result In. change in the representation, of that unhappy country in Load cm. Mr Rizo Rangnbe is an ardent Royalist, and has always been loyal lo King Constantino, although when M. Venizelos was in this country in connection with the, settlement of the Balkan War, prior to the Great War, he was in- the secretariat! entourage of Yenizelos. Afterwards Mr Kangabe became the representative of his country in Holland, and finally came to London, where ho is very popular and is greatly respected by his diplomatique confreres. By a curious irony the legation buildings—most palatial premises for a legation—was the gift to the Greek nation of Airs- Yenizelos. That lady, when her present husband was in power in Greece, purchased, the building and presented the freehold 1 intact to the Government of that day. I understand that the figure was somewhere in the region of £Y3,000. Mr and Airs Ranga.be frequently entertained largo and influential parties, and a/re, moreover, well known in the highest social circles.