Turks Anxious to Join United States of Europe

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7098, 21 December 1929, Page 4

Turks Anxious to Join United States of Europe

ANGORA. If there is to be a United States of Europe, Turkey wants to be in it,_ even though her capital city is beyond the geographic borders of Europe, according to Mahmoud Bey, deputy, intimate friend of Kemal, and editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Milliett. On returning from Athens, whero he represented Turkey at the recent qtoace congress, Mahmoud Bey declared: “We Turks applaud the idea of tho federation of people,’’ he writes, “a federation which will unite all the nations of Europo on a perfoct basis of equality, and which will suppress tho hatreds and conflicting interests which now divide thorn.

“Turkey will participate eagerly in tho forthcoming congress of all the Balkan states agreed upon by the recent peace congress at Athens, for she hopes that this Balkan conference may bring into actuality a United States of the Balkans which may serve as a prelude and an example to a greater subsequent United States of Europo. Mahmoud Bey explains that Turkey’s non-participation to date in the League of Nations is not due to any prohibitory eontractural engagements but to the fact that she has not yet been offered a rolo therein satisfactory to her desires. “Turkey is especially interested in tho League and in the Kellogg pact,’’ he continues, “because it was basically through them that the idea of a United States of Europe arose. But existing obstacles in the way of international peace which the League and the pact have not yet removed must be removed before a European federation can have any permanent value.”