SITUATION STILL STRAINED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 9 October 1922, Page 5

SITUATION STILL STRAINED.

FEELING IN LONDON,

CONSTANTINOPLE, Oct. 7.

The conference at Mudania has resumed. '

The Allies refused to allow the Kemalist forces any passage through Thrace before .the conclusion of peace. The situation remains strained.

A British, communique states the resumed sitting of the conference was short, owing to the late arrival of the Allied generals. Ismet Pasha's attitude has softened since he received the Angora Government's reply to the Allied Note. ' .

The Turkish concentrations at Ismid are increasing. The situation at Chanak remains stationary, and the Turks are withdrawing from contact with our troops.

Ismet expressed pleasure at the dispatch of three Allied commissions to Thrace as proof of anxiety to protect Turkish persons and property. Kemal is going on a tour of the reconquered territory, in the course of which he will meet General Harington at Mudania. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

LONDON, Oct. 7. A very grave : view is taken in Downing Street of the Near Eastern crisis. Ministerial circles feel that a united front by Bf^ain and France is essential against the" Turks.

The Daily Express states the British Government has decided not to oppose the Turks crossing the Bosphorus into Thrace.

The British will hold Chanak and Gallipoli.

Mr Bonar Law has at last broken his silence regarding the Near East. In a letter to the Times he declines to apportion the blame for the events leading to the present situation in the Near East. He considers it is probably true that the British alleged pro-Greek sympathy alienated Mussulman feeling in India and elsewhere, but if we had withdrawn from Asia and allowed the Turks to cross into Europe it would have been regarded in India as the defeat of the Briti h Empire. Nevertheless, the burden should not fall on the Empire alone. The task was not specially Britain's interest, but humanity's interest. The Empire should not show hostility or unfairness to the Turks, but Britain, for financial and social reasons, cannot act as the world's policeman. We should tell Prance that the Near East is as much part of the general peace settlement as Germany,, and' if she is not prepared to support us in the Near East we had better imitate the United States and restrict our attention,-.to our own Imperial affairs.

PARIS, Oct. 7. It is semi-officially stated that Prance-will not consent to the presence of Soviet delegates at the peace conference, or to the holding of the conference at • Smyrna. The Journal dcs Debats says the Turks are acting as the conquerors of Europe and are promising nothing.