CREEK AND TURK.

Evening Star, Issue 18280, 21 May 1923, Page 6

CREEK AND TURK.

No day without its deadlock seems to have been the record of the Lausanne Conference. The impasse that has now been reached is at least as ugly as any that has been circumvented in the past. Having emerged as victors - from the war which the Greeks began in Anatolia, the Turks are naturally demanding an indemnity for the damage done there by King Constantine’s armies. The Greeks say they will pay if Turkey will acknowledge a counter-claim for the expense of succoring half a million Greeks made fugitives by the triumphant scimitar. This the Turks naturally refuse to do, and the Greeks reply that they will resume the war in Europe, wheire they can wage it best, rather than pay an indemnity on any other terms. One country is as impoverished as the other. Disaster may be avoided yet, as it has been on former issues, but trouble is bound to come from another demand of the Turks, however it may bo decided by the conference.

The half million Greek refugees, whom the Greek Government is at its wits’ end to feed, settle, and provide for, are not all the Greeks who were under Turkish rule. At least half as many more, who were outside the track swept by Mustnpha Kemal’s army, and excluding those of Constantinople, who it is agreed shall stay there, still live under the Crescent, and the Turkish Government has insisted that they must follow their forerunners. It wants no alien minorities in its country. The old Turkish way of getting rid of such minorities was by massacring them. Since Europe does not view that method kindly, a new plan has occurred to the Turks. They have required that the, quarter of a million Greeks who have not already been pushed out of Asia Minor should bo removed thence, by Greek transports, to take the place of an approximately equal number of Turks who would be transferred from Macedonia and Epirus—but not from Western Thrace—to their ancestral homeland. The two exceptions to this plan for compulsory intermigration on a scale which Nebuchadnezzar might have shrunk from when such schemes for moving populations about irrespective of the wishes of their component pawns were more practised than they have been since his. day wore not made without due cause. It suits the Allies to havo a large minority population in Constantinople, and the Turks have not lost the hope that, if a big nucleus of Ibeic countrymen, remains, in Western

Thrace, that region may be recovered some day for their sovereignty. The pawns, both Greek and Turk, have been protesting vigorously against tbo summary plan which was agreed to by tho conference at an earlier stage, with a provision for exchanging property rights as well as populations. Tile Greeks who fled recently from Asia Minor have been impatient to return there ever since they loft. They bad been there for three thousand years; tho Turkish occupancy does not number a thousand. They have no mind to begin life again in a country which is strange to them, where tho industries which might promise a livelihood aro all filled, and some industries they have been used to ply aro unknown and unwanted. Tho Greek Government docs not know what to do with them. Greece is only as largo as our own. South Island. Imagine half a million of immigrants, not chosen for fitness, dumped here in a single load, and tho size of the Greek problem can ' bo faintly realised. Tliciro are estimates, moreover, which place the total number of Hellenes who would have to be received back under this new policy at not far short of a million. ‘For commercial, and perhaps also for political, reasons the Greek Government would prefer these nationals to be in Asia Minor, apart from tho difficulty of keeping them from starvation. Tho refugees themselves understand that difficulty, nor have Turks been loss unwilling to leave Greece. If tho conference should think better of its transfer scheme, which makes for tho Angora Government a prime end of policy, alien minorities in both countries will be troublesome in tho future. If tho wholesale iutermigration should bo put in force there will bo grave danger of Asia Minor, left solely to the devices of the uncivilised Turk, relapsing in short time into primitive barbarism. And scores of thousands, alike of Greeks and Turks, will hardly bo saved from starving in the immediate future.

An Australian mail, ex tho Ulimaroa at Auckland, consisting of three bags and two hampers from Sydney, and four bags from Melbourne, reached Dunedin this morning by tho steamer Holmdale from Wellington. The contents were delivered in the city and suburbs this afternoon. The postalauthorities have received advice to the effect that the Maunganui, which arrived at Wellington this morning from Sydney, brought 598 bags of mails for New Zealand, comprising 187 bags from Australia, 134 bags from beyond (including six from, the East and two from Africa), and 277 parcel receptacles. Tho Dunedin portion is expected to come to hand to-morrow evening. The Mocraki, due at Bluff this evening from Sydney, is carrying an Australian mail, the local portion of which should arrive by the express from Invercargill to-morrow forenoon. Practically every berth at the Dunedin wharves used for the accommodation _ of oversea steamers is at present occupied. The steamers Tremere and Erroll occupy tho greater part of the accommodation at tho Victoria wharf. The cargo steamer Montrose occupies the only berth at the Rattray street wharf provided with, shed accommodation. None of these berths will be vacant long, as oilier oversea vessels are due this week.

Some time ago the local Returned Soldiers’ Association wrote to the Prime Minister asking for publication of tho report of the War 'Pensions Commission, which sat in November last. The secretary (Mr A. O. Laing) has now received 1 a reply from the Minister of Defence (Sir R. Heaton Rhodes) to whom the matter was referred, stating that after due consideration the Government has decided that tho report will not be available for publication until it has been laid on the table of the House. A Wellington Press Association message states that a middle-aged man named Frederick George Layton was found hanging by a strap at the back door of the Kensington Private Hotel. It is not known whether he has any relatives here. His financial circumstances were good. The annual exhibition of sketches and art crafts work, promoted by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society, will be opened in the Art Gallery this evening by the president, Sir George Fenwick. This exhibition is numerically of greater importance than usual, artists belonging to Otago, Canterbury, Southland, and Wellington having contributed very freely, and, judging by what is heard, the quality of tho gallery will also give pleasure. A specialty this year is a collection of sketches in oils and water colors by Miss M. E. Berry, a member of the Society of Scottish Artists who has just come from Edinburgh. Miss Berry’s rank in the profession may bo judged from the fact that she was commissioned by the French Government to paint a picture of tho German fleet surrender.

A wife who stated that she had opened certain of her husband’s correspondence while he was separated from her was told very plainly by Mr Bundle, SAL, this morning that she had exceeded her rights. A letter had como a week before from the Pensions Department, and the husband knew nothing of it. “ You had no right to open letters not addressed to you,” said! His Worship. “I was told I could open his pension papers, and I always have,” replied the woman. “It doesn’t matter who told you. You have not the right to do so. Just understand that in future,” His Worship warned her.

The Arbitration Court has fixed the following dates for its sittings : —Napier, May 28; Palmerston North, May 31; New Plymouth, June 5; Westport, June 13; Gorymoubh, June 15; Wellington, June 26. —Christchurch Press Association message. Judging by tho festive appearance of Burt Hall on Saturday evening tho Technical College .E'x- students’ Association should look forward to a very successful season. Tho Tennis, Hockey, and Soccer Clubs bad combined to celebrate the close of the tennis and the opening of tho hockey and Soccer seasons. About fifty couples danced to excellent music provided by Messrs Pizey and Beatb, while tho catering was in the capable hands of Mr Kroon, Between dances a series of amusing games, ably conducted by Messrs Hinton, Adie, and Harris, provided much merriment. Mesd-ames Marshall and Scott acted as chaperones. . The illuminated address to be presented to Mr T. K. Sidcy, M.P., by the electors of Dunedin South is on view in the window of Dawson, Ltd., at Cargill’s Corner. Tho text of the address is ns follows:—“Tho electors of Dunedin South desire to express to you their very hearty appreciation of the splendid way in which you have for so many years represented them in Parliament. Your fine record of twenty-one years’ service speaks for itself, No better proof of the faith placed in you is needed than that for such a lengthyperiod you have commanded the confidence of tho residents of the district, and, indeed, of the community as a whole. Your untiring service in the interests of your electorate, your city, and your province, and your work in connection with education and a host of other matters too numerous to detail has been such as to cam tho gratitude of all. You have shown yourself to be a man of principle, amd.allmatters submitted to you, be they of greater little momciij-, have over received the close attention which characterises all your work.” The address is signed, on behalf of the electors, by fourteen residents of tho district. It is that the statement mado by Sir Francis Bell as to the Government having to stop for the present applications for advances under the Soldiers’ Settlement Act relates principally, if not wholly, to the fijjancing of town dwellings.

A fire broke out in some jjorso at Galton Hill, Caversham, yesterday morning. Machines from the city and south Dunedin stations were quickly on the scene, and the blaze was suppressed before any serious damage had been done.

Dunedin importers appreciate very highly the action of the Union Company in sending tho steamer Kaitoa direct from Auckland this trip instead of calling at way ports. It makes a tremendous difference to our merchants, especially those who handle sugar, and when the merchants are suited the public reap the benefit.

Tho secretary of tho Plunlcet Society has received a letter from tho editor of tho New York ‘ World’s Work ’ magazine, requestinrr a complete set of the society’s publications and all possible information regarding the work, of the society. A bequest of a novel character was made to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, by Edwin _ Phillips, late of “ Lamorbey Hope,” Irving road, Toorak, engineer and patent agent, who died on February 15. Testator left real estate valued at £4,298, and personal property valued at £28,875. By his will testator bequeathed to tho Chapter of St. Paul’s Catljedral, Melbourne, the sum of £SOO for tho purpose of furthering the “ Go-to-Church Sunday movement,” at the rate of £SO a year for ten years. Alternatively he gave tho same sum to tho chapter “ for erecting on St. Paul’s a slowly-rotating electrically illuminated cross, whichever in the opinion of the cathedral chapter should attract more people to tho church.” Residents on tho lower slopes of tho hill districts, especially above the Plat, have experienced an influx of rats and mice since tho flood. The rodents evidently made for higher land when the water commenced to inundate their haunts and nests.

“ This is a very extraordinary position,” observed His Honor, Sir John Salinond, at Palmerston North, when a petition for alimony and motion for decide absolute cam© before him. “Apparently those people have not lived together at all.” “That is so,” replied counsel; “they separated immediately after they were married.” “I wonder why they took the trouble to got married at all, then,” remarked Ilia Honor. “ They lived together for years before they wore married, and then separated on tho day of the marriage.”

Two months’ hard labor for having kept a common gaming-house in Dominion road was imposed on a billiard saloon keeper by Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., in the Auckland Police Court last week, while in a similar case against a hairdresser it was intimated that the penalty would bo one month’s imprisonment. The magistrate refused to give the option of a fine in either case.

The faulty pronunciation of Maori names so common among -white people recently impelled a gathering of Hamilton householders to pass a resolution that all students at the Training College should be taught to pronounce Maori names correctly, so that they in turn might ho able to teach the same in primary schools.

Ths trustees of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind at Auckland, at their last meeting, accepted the resignation of Mr ri. Oberiin Brown, who has occupied the position of instructor in pianoforte and organ tuning and repairing for over twenty years, Mr Brown has been highly successful in his work (says the ‘ Herald ’), and more than thirty of his pupils are pow earning their firing as pianoforte tuners in different parts of the dominion. The trustees placed on record their high appreciation of the long and devoted services rendered by Mr Brown. The representative of the Melbourne ’ Sun ’ learns that there is a likelihood that the Duke of York will be appointed Governor-General of New Zealand on the expiration of Lord Jcllicce’s term. It is pointed out that New Zealand is tho best training ground in which a novice may gain experience, since it docs not possess {lie possibilities of constitutional complications, like dominions composed of federated self-governing States. “Do tho Customs take samples of every cask of -whisky that comes into the country?” asked Ills Honor, Sir John Salrr’ond, during the hearing of an appeal case in reference to hotel stock at Palmerston North. “ What, but whisky, do they expect to find in it?” Counsel* explainer! that a test of every cask was taken for tho purpose of excise. “ How about tho bottles?” asked His Honor, amid laughter. "Do they sample them, too?” But counsel was not clear on this point.

New season’s photogr, phic goods, excellent stock now arriving. Cameras from 6s. Send your order early ti H. J. Gill, 11 and 13 Frederick street, Dunedin; ’phone 1,144. —[Advt.] At the Early Settlers/ Hall to-night a dance will bo held under the auspices of the Otago Labor Representation Committee. Watson’s No. 10 is a little dearer than most whiskies, but it is worth the money. -[Advt.] The Rov. W. J. Eddy preached yesterday morning in tho Hanover Street Baptist Clwrcii, and in tho evening in First Presbyterian Church to large congregations. Tonight he will deliver his pictorial recital in the Burns Hall on ‘ Lepers of New Zealand, India, and the World.’ This will be illustrated with about eighty new slides, chiefly from his own photos taken in India. There wall bo a collection for tho funds of tho mission to lepers. Grocers, kindly oblige by forwarding us your orders early for “ No-Rubbing ” Laundry Help, “Keep Smiling” Floor Polish, and “ Golden Rule” Caudles to facilitate prompt delivery. R. Wilson and Co., Ltd., wholesale distributors. —[Advt.] Tho monthly meeting of the Gaelic Society will bo held ia Kroon’s Hall on Wednesday evening.

Reduced Prices.—Clearing all school hooks. —“ White House,” George street.—[Advt.] That’s the stuff! Watson’s No. 10 Whisky. Old and mellow.—[Advt.]