THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1922. PERIL IN THE NEAR EAST.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 235, 18 September 1922, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1922. PERIL IN THE NEAR EAST.

Our cable messages received this morning indicate very clearly and very ominously a realisation of the great and immediate danger which threatens as the result of the Greek debacle in Asia Minor. While Christian nations have been preaching, and to a great extent adopting in practice, the gospel of disarmament, in the hope of promoting universal peace, the Moslem Turks in Western Asia have been steadily organising and fortifying their military strength, not, it is to be feared, without encouragement and assistance from one of the Western Powers. At the same time there has, without doubt, been a persistent campaign in progress to arouse resentment among all Mohamedan peoples against the interference of the Christians in the control and management of their affairs. That this campaign has been almost as successful in its results as the more open military movement there can be little doubt, and it is impossible to say how far the fires of religious frenzy that have been started may spread. Lacking any religious guidance themselves, the Bolshevist rulers of Russia have frankly espoused the cause of the Turks, quite regardless of the possible consequences which may descend upon Europe, and it has to be remembered that they have at command, and on the spot, a highly trained, capably officered, and fairly well equipped army estimated at over a million men. It can thus easily be seen that there are strong possibilities of something approaching disaster ere ever the Western Powers can muster in the region of war anything like an adequate force to cope with the obvious peril. Not only this, but we have also to remember that the Western peoples are thoroughly war weary, and that it will be difficult to arouse any new enthusiasm for a renewal of hostilities on a distant field. The gravity of the situation is quite sufficiently emphasised by the fact that the Imperial authorities deem it necessary to issue an appeal to the Oversea Dominions again to lend their aid in the emergency which has arisen. In the meantime hope has to lie a very great deal in the ability of the Allied naval forces to prevent the transfer of Turkish military strength from the Asiatic to the European side of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Ultimately a great deal will depend on whether Russia will recognise all that may be involved in lending support to present Turkish

ambitions realisation must almost necessarily lead to a widespread Islamic rising against anything like domination by Christian European nations. It must be with the most intense anxiety that the news of the next few days will be awaited, and we can only hope that the display of a thoroughly united front in Europe may have the effect of giving pause to the attempted execution of Turkish threats.