The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1922. THE MUDANIA CONFERENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 6 October 1922, Page 4

The Star.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1922. THE MUDANIA CONFERENCE.

Delivered ©very evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera -Uamta, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna. Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurley ville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara. Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

The success of the Mudania Conference will pave the way for the drawing up of a better peace treaty than that made at Sevres in 1920. When the proposals for the Sevres Treaty •were under consideration we wrote, in an article on January 7, 1920: "Certain decisions appear to have been definitely made; the Turkish seat of Government is to be removed from Europe, and the French are to hold the man-. ' date for Syria, with possession of Damascus, to mention two of the most important features which the terms will contain. Nobody in Europe will regret the expulsion of the Turk, who should have been forced to leave years ago, but even now his going may give rise to much trouble in the Moham- j medan world. Discontent and unrest are all too apparent in Egypt and India at the present time and the handling of the Turk must be very carefully undertaken to avoid injuring religious susceptibilities. '■... . . The French mandate over Syria may not be to the liking of the Arab elements, though Prance has better claims to the mandate than the other Allies bgcause of her several financial interests in the

country. But these two. parts of the . peace settlement, containing obvious. < difficulties, will by no means dispose j j of the problems which the Allies must! J endeavour to solve. Early in the war! 1 Russia was promised Constantinople,' : the European shores of the Bosphorus,! : the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, ] and other less important parts. . . . The control of one of the most import- * ant waterways in the world cannot conceivably be handed over to, Russia un- , der her present masters." The Sevres Treaty was drawn up, but it proved by no means a solution and led to much , trouble in the Moslem world. The outlook steadily grew darker, and the last three months have seen conditions moving rapidly in the direction of war.! Great Britain found it necessary to j 1 take up a decided stand against the j growing aggression of the Angora Gov- j ernment, and to Britain alone belongs the credit for bringing about the conference on the problems which have to be dealt with. The Allies' offersHo the j Turks are more generous than one ex- j pected, and it looks as if the new peace treaty will restore no inconsiderable territory in Europe to the Turks. What the effect will be it is difficult to judge, but the Balkan States may soon become* the centre of trouble., The cable messages show that the con-; ference at Mudania dealt only with I preliminaries, and the problems in the Balkans will not be easily settled. If the new peace treaty satisfies the Turks, there may be great difficulty in pacifying Greece and Bulgaria. We are afraid that the restoration to the Turk of territory in Europe will lead'to trouble, unless the aims and as-j pirations and the age-long jealousies. of the Balkan nations are very care-1 fully studied. A settlement with the' Turks may re-establish British prestige in the eyes of the Moslems of India, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Palestine, but there is also the danger that the Moslems may regard Turkey's success against the Greeks at Smyrna and their partial recovery of European territory as a sign of power. The whole question is so full of perplexing situations and there are so many problems involved that it would be unwise to regard the success of the Mudania Conference as indicating .that permanent peace in the Near East is assured. However,^ it is satisfactory to know that peace for a time is fairly certain, , and we may be sure that every effort will be made to evolve a sound treaty, acceptable to all concerned. ' ■ *