THE STORIED STRAITS

Evening Star, Issue 21504, 31 August 1933, Page 14

THE STORIED STRAITS

DARDANELLES DEFENCE Tiie Angora Government has surprised the chancelleries by its demand for the abolition of the demilitarised zones of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus and for the control of those straits to be handed back to Turkey. It was probably thought that the Lausanne Treaty had given the straits a permanent international status, and yet here is Turkey, not ten years after the treaty, putting forward a well-argued claim to end it, says the Constantinople correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian.’ The fact that it is not a mere flying of a kite, but a demand which Angora means to weight with all its usual pertinacity, is shown by the persistent recurrence with which at every opportunity it is now voiced by authorised Turkish channels. Following the first surprise raising of the matter at the Disarmament Conference. President Kemal Pasha took special care to mention it in his reply to President Booscvelt’s message to the ■world. It seemed almost to be dragged into an otherwise uncontroversial answer. Then once more the Turkish Foreign Minister, Tevfik Rushdi Bey. brought it up at Geneva in the detailed discussion of armaments, and secured that the claim should not bo immediately turned down but given a consideration at second reading. The Turkish arguments seemed to receive a sympathetic hearing. THE CONTENTION. It would be wrong to suppose that Turkey, jumping to the words “ treaty revision,” has simply determined 'to be the first to stake out her claim. Angora has no intention of adding to the confusion of tongues which has arisen since Italy pronounced the word “ revision” above a whisper. In its view the claim to have the straits restored to Turkish control is not a territorial question at all, but a military defence question. The Lausanne Treaty, placing the straits under international control and demilitarising their land zones, forbade Turkey to maintain within those zones trenches or artillery. But in the event of war between Turkey and a foreign Power Turkey has the right to defend the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus (which in effect means Constantinople), and this could only be done by heavy mobile artillery. However, the Disarmament Conference proposes to abolish heavy mobile artillery. This leaves Turkey without any weapons for the defence of this vital area. There are, according to Angora, only two alternatives —either to leave Turkey exceptionally in possession of heavy mobile artillery or to abolish the demilitarised zones of the straits, restore them to Turkish sovereignty, and thus give back to Turkey the means of defending these coast regions by heavy fixed artillery.

NOT WANTED. • Tho reason which Turkey puts forward for choosing tho latter alternative is that to leave her exceptionally in possession of heavy mobile artillery would place her in a position of advantage as against her neighbours—Greece, for instance —and other Powers. She says that she does not want such offensive superiority as would thus be granted her. She merely wants equality of armaments and security of defence. The claim that she is making is a claim for defence purposes. By refusing tho exceptional grant of heavy mobile artillery she shows her devotion to the principle of disarmament down to the limit of defence needs, and she points out that for the past ten years her pacific policy, and, indeed, the pacific character of the Kemalist regime are the guarantee of her sincerity. The Angora Government thinks it illogical and absurd that Turkey should bo able —after the disarmament schemes have gone through, if they do—to place heavy fixed artillery for the defence of her other coasts —for example, to secure Smyrna—and yet should be debarred from placing the same defensive arms to secure Constantinople, which is so much more vital to her. In those circumstances the Turks can only characterise tho present status of the straits as tho “ insanity of tho demilitarised zones.” They point out that Britain can close tho western gate of the Mediterranean at Gibraltar to defend her interests, whereas Turkey is to be left in the position of being unable to close the eastern gate of that sen against any naval violator actually of her own territory.