THE DARDANELLES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 20 June 1936, Page 3

THE DARDANELLES

TURKISH PROPOSALS To the Turkish proposals for treaty revision, with a view to refortifying _ the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, the British Government has returned a sympathetic reply. It was impossible, says the "Sunday Times,” not to appreciate the contrast in method between Turkey’s orderly approach to revision and Germany’s action in Rhineland. The demand for refortification seems in all the circumstances a reasonable one. The policy which it is sought to reverse was one of harmony with (he conditions of a covenant-hound and progressivelydisarming world. It docs not accord with the conditions of to-day. The Turks have taken a deep interest in the case of Abyssinia; and it is natural that they should, since the principal aggression that the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean fear is that of Italy. The question affords : something like a test ease for the League’s working on the side of treaty revision. Let us hope that Geneva will come better out of it than it has in (he matter of restraining ail aggressor. Its efficiency in the latter direction has now been almost fatally compromised by its long scries of crooked postponements and self-stultifying delays. Here is an opportunity for it to show that at least, in a straightforward case of treaty revision, its machinery can be go!, to act with reasonable promptitude and straightforwardness.