THE NEAR EAST

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 233, 14 September 1922, Page 5

THE NEAR EAST

Peace in Grave Peril JUCO SLAVIA HELPS GREECE. IF TURKS INVADE THRACE. [By Cable,—Press Association.—Copyright.] (Received 14, 8.55 a.m.) London, Sept. 13. “The “Pall Mall Gazette’’ says the Turks in Thrace are engineering an antiChristian movement. Encounters between Bulgarian Comitadjis and Greek detachments occurred at Neurokop. The Bulgarians were driven back.—(A. and N.Z.) M. Veuizelos has arrived at Paris. Ho ; will confer with M. Poincare and see . Mr Lloyd George in London later to I urge the Allies to uphold the Greek ’ claim to Thrace, which he believes the • Turkish successes are endangering. 1 it is reliably stated in Athens that the Governments of Jugo slavia and Roumania intend to aid Greece in the event of a Balkan conflict. Jugoslavia mobilising and concentrating troops towards Uskub. RECOVERY OF THRACE. PART OF THE TURKS PLAN. London, Sept. 12. Colonel Repington, writing in the “Daily Telegraph,” states that the recovery of Constantinople and Eastern Thrace is part of the Turkish national plan. A Turkish assurance that the Straits will remain free would not be worth the paper on which it was written. With the Turks dominating the Straits we should have Russian Soviet troops there before long. We are in the presence of a military situation demanding’definite precautions. It would be unpardonable to offer the Turks such a bait as the Straits weakly held. FRANCE WITH GREAT BRITAIN. The “Morning Post’s” Paris correspondent interviewed General Weygand, who denied that France supplied the Turks with guns and ammunition. “France possesses certain sympathies with Turkey owing to traditional memories and present community interests, but the Turkish advance, which has overthrown the work of the latest peace negotiations, is not viewed differently here than in other Allied countries. Th© Allies are facing a new situation, which is an accomplished fact, and cannot take exAsia Minor territories from the forces which now occupy them. The situatiou regarding Constantinople and the Straits is altogether different and the Allies are able to consider it with complete freedom. There are no differences between France and Great Britain regarding the solution of this question.” A cable from Rome states that the Ambassador has handed Signor Schanzer (Italy) a British Note declaring that the moment has passed for academical discussion on the Near Eastern situation and that the time has come for rapid and energetic measures for the defence of common Allied interests in Constantinople* and the Straits, Which must be settled before returning to the discussion regard the revision of the Treaty of Sevres. The Note points out a twofold danger: Firstly, the advance of Russian Bolshevism to the shores of the Bosporus. Secondly, the encouragement of increased panIslam agitation by favouring the victorious Turkish Nationalists. The agitation will not be limited to British territories, but will extend to the French and Italian colonies. DEFENCE OF ALLIED INTERESTS. BRITAIN’S NOTE TO FRANCE. A French semi-official statement says that a Noto has been presented at Quai d’Orsay declaring that the British Government reckons <ni the help of its Allies to ensure the defence of Constantinople and the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Note proposes that urgent military questions should momentarily be entrusted to the Allied High Commissioners in Constantinople. The French Government will probably decide on Thursday the nature of the replies to Britain and Italy. The statement adds without prejudice to Thursday’s decisions or contemplatabll measures, it is already certain that the French Government is as much attached to the principle of freedom of the Straits as the British Government. — (Reuter.) INDIAN MOSLEMS APPEAL TO BRITAIN. TO MAINTAIN NEUTRALITY. Delhi, Sept. 12. The Moslem members of the legislature memoralised the Premier and Viceroy, on behalf of 70,000 of His Majesty’s Moslem subjects, urging the necessity of the strictest neutrality in Hie Turco-Greek conflict, and expressing hope for the conclusion of an honourable peace, by which the Turks will retain Asia Minor and Thrace, including Adrianople, the removal of international control over Constantinople, with a guarantee for the freedom of the Straits, and recognition of the Sultan as the Khalif of Islam. — (Reuter.) MR. SASTRI ON MOSLEM SENTIMENT. Ottawa. September 12. Mr. Justice Sastri, speaking at Montreal, said it was due to the failure of Britain to keep the promise to allow the Turks to retain Asia Minor and Thrace that the unhappy Mohammedans in India,_who see in the Sultan of Turkey the Khalif of Islam, had declared publicly that they would forswear allegiance to th© British Empire and aid the Turks against the Greeks. “The Mohammedans naturally. and in my judgment (though I speak with grief) quite pardonably, rejoice in the Turkish successes as their own, and consider them a punishment inflicted upon the British Power for the attitude towards the Turk.”—(A. and N.Z.) 3 CHRISTIANS CLAMOUR FOR PROTECTION. FEAR TURKISH REPRISALS. London, September 12. The “Daily Tylegraph’s’’ Smyrna correspondent states that the Christian population and refugees are fearridden and are clamouring to the Allies for protection, fearing Turkish reprisals for the massacre of 4000 Moslems during the Greek ocupation of th© citv in 1919. Many of these Greeks and Armenians who were very prominent in this massacre were rounded up, court-martialled, and shot soon after the Turks’ arrival. Apart from this there have been few killings, except by snipers. Shops and bazaars, especially in the Armenian quarters, ar© systematically looted, soldiers and civilians taking part. —(A. and N.Z.) A TURKISH REASSURANCE. (Received 14. 8.45 a.m.) London, September 10. “Le Matin” states that Christian minorities need not fear molestation by the Turkish army. Mustapha having personally undertaken their protection and maintenance. Tin* Greek Government has asked the Allies for authority to requisition foreign steamers to transport refugees from Asia Minor.—(A. and N.Z.)

KEMALISTS OCCUPY BROUSSA. Constantinople, Sept. 12. Broussa, in Turkey in Asia, at the foot of Mount Olympus, which was first occupied by Kemalist cavalry and then abandoned, has been definitely occupied by the Kemalists. The Greeks got away via Mudania anti have been transported to Rodosto. The Inter-Allied military mission, with two companies of Esauch. infantry, landed at Mudania (a tew miles from Broussa) to maintain order. The Turks claim that unless the Turkish prisoners interned in allegedly unhealthy conditions at old Phalerum and Larissa are transferred elsewhere all Greeks prisoner?', including generals. will ho Hientically treated (A. and N.Z.)