JOVE CLIMBS DOWN

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 301, 6 December 1922, Page 10

JOVE CLIMBS DOWN

By J. Ra?iisa

On the 16th our Joves huiied their thunderbolts almost as much at Franco as at Turkey, called the Dominions to arms and threw a lighted match into the Balkans. A mixture of Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Churchill is 'an.. incendiary bomb. We must bo charitable however. It must be very hard for Jove to see his fond, air earns lome down about . his ejars, and if he then thunders wildly like a youth crossed' in love or a. poet in drink, and if in his recklessness lu> involves an 'innocent'world of people sti'icken with poverty by reason cf his past follies, , he can plead~ that he was greatly provoked and that tJiHJugh a god he is really only human. Fdr. the provocation was great. YS'd act the gods meet in. Paris yiitb. an ! expensive array of angels and archangels, and cut and carve, and put furniture removal labels on Turkey? Wet they not issue their decrees -(hat this was t o go to 'America,- this to' France, this to Italy, this to Greece 1 and thfe to Great Britain, and were! not these decrees laughed at by I [vernal, and diet not America, France I and Italy decline the invitations w> J appropriate with frigid thanks? Did. it not happen that, among the faithless only Greece and ourselves r<j-j ma'ned faithful, and -was not Greece j in spite of our lacking defeated )g- j nominiously by the sjaid Kemal .armed j Iby our own allies? This tragic comedy in the vauity of human vvish-es j was indeed hard to bear, and a man- j ifes'io in the literary style of tho j member far Dundee and the nervous I flare of, the Prime Minister was a j natural (as things are) sequel. - j * •* -:t w j 1 continue the narration of evi'uu, i for it Is important that they should not be forgotten. Jovo has now to j save his face, and he will not be a. very reliiiblo historian. The manifesto was just the thing to put spurs I into Kemnl's cavalry, ami it was tol-io-wjsd by a niovenient-<a|. : 43ymns i whicn. i made war inevitable had else happened. Had the writers of the manifesto been. in. control of the situation, we should now be at war. But j they were checked both at home and j abroad. The Independent Lvno-.a~\ ParLy summoned its great meeting in j London; next day the General Council declared tho unity of Labour m opposition to war; and simultaneously France made it clear that it was not to play in the game. The incendiary bomb burst in tho air-, but tlie gleam in ihe sky was the flare of j its contents and not the glare of I burning cities. * . * -* » Our Jovcs had to climb down. ProvidsntipJly tor us., F;anc« wao :n independent touch with Kemal ami our provocation counted for less than j French counsel. Lord Curzon went to Paris, where, by consenting to our abandonment of Greece and our tearIng' up the last fragments of our decrees against Turkey, he was able to get his country out of one of the tightest corners in .which, it .has ever been. That is the true sequel and significance of events. The Government brought us to the brink of war and France has saved us for the time being . That should be hammered in j from hundreds of platfornis till the i election comes. We havo had one! more proof that whilst this Government lasts nothing is safe. •v'r # -X- tt Is the danger over? I t,-*s& I could believe it. was, but no one who knows anything of the position will indulge in that happy belief. It vrVA not be over till the Conference is over. We agree t 0 offer no objection to the Turks resuming control of the Thracian country, ' Jincluding Atlriariaple, East of the Maritza, and tfcs ambassador from Kemal whom we refused to receive a few months ago was instructed to thform us that lie agreed, to the. freedom of the Straits under guarantee of the League of Nations. Could any Government elected during the flush of a great military *vic-~ tory mishandle a situation worse and j bow within four shears to a more humiliating defeat than this? All its professions, its boasts, it's schemes have vanished.' Rental's rebellion has defeated us. To the nation, the bitterness is not the defeat (that belongs solely to the Government, and particularly":.to the Pr%ie Minister), but the muddling which led to tfre defeat. So Turkey return*, v* * * * In passing I devote a paragraph to "the freedom of tUe Straits." In that extraordinary interview which the Prime Minister gave to tb.e Press in order to ¥r*y and save life face, in which he once more reveals hts own ignorance ans assumes that or his public, \\e lays' tiro crime of Turkey &>&,s to cfof*e the Straits to tlio Britieh and Russian fleets during the waTj. Does he mean that when the League o« &aUQBs control liie %ait-i they.

y Macdoiiald

are to be uasd .for. the passage of hostile fleets? Is it in that "freedom" that the people, who are talking of "the freedom of Ibis Straits" are "n- Jteres';e<l? It is a propaganda of spoof. If the Jwspue wery It\ of the Straits and did its duty--when war broke out, every ship of -war that went through thme wo aid bo !ntemo<l, in forcing the Straits we should, be as guilty of crime as . would be. a Power tha'; forced a way across Switzerland for its troops. Mr. Lloyd George does not know what "the free" dom of the Straits" means; if he does, he is again trying to cheat the iHibiic as he did in the Maurice aifair. . Well, our Government is hnm'tlated and hajT struck a deadly blow at cur prestige and influence m the East, where, in all conscience, we need nil we can hold. Ho reads that flaming in;aniiesit o imperfectly"- however, who does not see i;i it a Reliance to Prance as well as a threat to Kercial. And it te ■ Prance that has kept the peace, and, saved us from- war. This morning, 'France monopolises the Eastern sun. No other nation has a place there. It is Prance that will bring . Kernel into the Confereixx'ft; it is France that will see hhn through it. ;W.9 shall be patordJnate all-.the time, and our hands and minds will be ,fuil of the task of saving our faces. Truly both a miserable and & rfa.ugernus position to be in. and I should no: be at all surprised if the resuK. was to fores our hands not only in the East with Turkey.- liyt in Europe with Germany a<? wolL ■•* -:f * «■ I We have to think ol those thhigH, I for the people w3v.:. that way iare in. control of the- world. Wβ have to build up the. foundations of our own policy whilst protecting ourselves, against the moves made against us, juul a loss of initiative- now in the 'affairs of the workl may be felt long after this generattoft has goae to Ixi with its fathers. I therofore look upon the events of the past fort-Li'-ght (and they were Hie result o? years of foolish policy) as l>Fins ; graver than anything that lias happened since 1914. The whole question of our relations with France has been J rc-opeiied wi:h us. iv a position dls-. i advantageous for lirivi aegotiatbu. * * -* *■ Who can blame France M it wortc.3 for Its own hands?. We have wovlt-ed for ours. 'We have no status ,as a complainant. Krance went behind our backs when it sent the FranklinI Bouillon mission to Kemal; it Oame •nut against us when it armed Kemal; '1 separated itself from us when it ! withdrew its troops from Citanafc. 'its policy apart from any question of honour to allies (it has a reply to f.hat, "however), was right. It vvats utterly impossible to enforce tho Sevres Treaty; it was-folly t<, go on backing Greece. In all this, France had an eye upon us as well as upon Turkey, and' during the Conference (hat eye will not be moved. *■« * * Beh'nd the action of France wcr& two great 'molives the one financial and the other political. French and Belgian finance, and to a less extent I rtalian, is much concerned in Turkey. Ra'iu-ays, tobacco, municipal and I State loans and undertakings, mineral ! &nd other exploitation, are in She hands of these nationals, and IJ'.oy had much to do with the FtfanklinBoulllon mission and the agreement with Kemal. But no one who haa I travelled in these countries can. be j blind t o the fact, that France is jealous of its political and "cultural"' inI fiuence in the Near East and ilvil it considers that the war left us as an j unwelcome rival in Egypt. Palestine, Syria and Constantinople. It wishes to recover lost ground, and it, lias i succeeded apparently. 41- -X- •» * j 1 Indeed, the danger is not j>£s;''. Itj Is only beginning in a new and move; ! subtle form. We can meet it by a ! frank and open change in policy, but] I certainly not by pettifogging underhand moves. Tho Cabinet tlii-t accepted the famous, or infamous, manifesto cannot overcome, it. Whilst this Cabinet is in power, the danger will ' remain. If M. Poincare goes to Venice and our Prime Minister goes too, j we shall behold a. Sorry spectacle, j The Conference is to do much more than tear up the Sevres document; it i« to create a new balance of pow- I er, a new Imperialism, a new alliance of interest, and nobody present Jβ to be in © moral position to object or free to strive for a better issue. ! Australia can send its troops to the ; next war, but- Mr. Churchill's grave- j yards on Gallipoli will have B o deciding vo ! cc at Venice. The Archbishops have issued a call for prayers for }se\aee. If tliey next Sunday sisk the nation to go down ea. its ■'.fciiese and petition Mr. Lloyd Geirge r 0 £6, a,nd lie went, #ie loa<3. on the minds of guv fieopW &f tfht $>c Hghter*