THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. THE FUTURE OF TURKEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17167, 22 May 1919, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. THE FUTURE OF TURKEY.

Though the terms of the peace to be imposed 0:1 Turkey have not yet been revealed, there remains no reasonable doubt that the Allies have determined to treat the evil and incongruous empire of the Ottomans as drastically as that of the Hapsburgs, and to dissolve it into its component parts. The redistribution of territory has been outlined in a Paris newspaper, and the forecast may be accepted as being substantially correct, Constantinople is to be internationalised, possibly ! under an American mandate; Greece j is to receive the remainder of Euro- | pean Turkey and Smyrna ; Armenia I will become an independent State I under American protection; Syria , and Adana will go to France under a | mandate , Adaha to Italy; Mesopoj tamia and Palestine to Britain, j which will also become the predominant Power in Arabia. Of the whole of the empire which linked | two continents there remains only Anatolia, and this is properly reserved for the Turks, who here alone are in a majority. Anatolia is the home of the Ottomans. Thence they set out to vex and destroy European lands, and thither they will return under the just sentence of repatriation passed by the civilised nations which have tolerated them only too long. Fortunately for the Turks, Anatolia is a fertile, country large enough for all their legitimate needs, and with highly diversified conditions of climate. Should the moral and political quarantine in which the Turks are being placed effect their regeneration they may yet make of Anatolia a home as fair and flourishing as the provinces they •'ire relinquishing arc tortured and ruined. The dismemberment of the Turkish Empire reduces its population from 20,000,000 to 6,000,0011, liberating no less than 1-1,000,000 persons from a tyranny as demoralising as it has been cruel. Of these 8,000.000 are Arabs, at least 2,00n,u00 are Greeks, •2,000, Levantines, and there were 2,000, Armenians, though how many remain it is impossible to estimate. The Arabs and Armenians are found in masses, the others are more scattered, the Greeks being dispersed right through European Turkey and on both the Mediterranean and Bla''k Sea shores of Asia Minor. It is impossible to restore all (.reeks to the government of Athens, but the cession of Smyrna aud European Turkey outside Con-

stantinople goes far to satisfy all the reasonable aspirations of Greece. The roranant of the Armenians who placed • under the protection of havo escaped famino and sword are to be gathered into a nation and America, a disposition which is justified by the altruistic intorest Americans havo taken in Armenian education and religion. Presuming this is the' arrangement finally adopted, the acceptance by the United States of tho Armenian mandate will bo an event of the highest political importance. It means the definite emergence of America from her traditional isolation, and it secures for tho Great Powers her interest and support in a corner of Asia which is near Europe and which presents diffi- ! culties of administration as great as are to bo found anywhere. To Britain tho co-operation of America in this region will be specially welcome. It carries an assuranco that the corridor, to tho Far East will be in friendly hands and that the whole of the region from the Mediterranean to Persia, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea will bo under Anglo-Saxon control.

The Arab country is divided between Britain and France, tho former receiving Mesopotamia and Palestine and the latter Syria and the vilayet of Adana. Syria is on the whole a well-defined territory, with strong natural boundaries, It is a poor country, but Adana is rich in unexploited mineral wealth and has a fertile coast plain. The only other encroachment upon what remains of Turkey is made in favour of Italy, which has strongly pressed her claim to share with her allies | whatever political or economic advantage is to be gamed fi;om assisting in the administration of Asiatic territory. To Italy, which is without coal and is poor in minerals, the mineral deposits of Turkey make a strong appeal, and it is known that she hoped to secure the coalfields of Ileraclea, the ancient Greek city on the coast of Bit'nynia, which now* supplies Constantinople with a large quantity of lignite. This hope has apparently been disappointed, her compensation' being Adalia, a large but ill-equipped and declining seaport, and the administrative capital of a rich and isolated sanjak. All these territories are now backward—the blighting influence of the Turks sufficiently accounts for that— nearly all possess immense potentialities. In antiquity they were among the most densely populated countries in the world, and they may be again. The soil and climate are both excellent, and raw material can be mined or grown in abundance. Mesopotamia, now a wilderness, was onco the granary of the world, while Bagdad had a population of 2,000,000 inhabitants, and was the centre of the arts and ociences of the day. A wonderful system of canals supported the productivity of the surrounding district. When tho Turks came they destroyed the canals, an act thoroughly characteristic of them. They have been destroying over since, but now their power of mischief has been terminated. The work of restoration is about to begin, and from the new political order will spring not only a new Bagdad and j a new Damascus, but, what is more | important, the freedom and happiness and opportunity for selfdevelopment so long denied to Christians and Mahommcdans alike.