NEAR EAST CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18277, 19 December 1922, Page 9

NEAR EAST CONFERENCE.

RUSSIA AND STRAITS.

FURTHER HEARING OFFERED.

THE GREEK PATRIARCHATE By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyriclilt. A. and N.Z. LAUSANNE. Dec. 17. The Near East Conference notified the Russian Soviet delegates that examination of the Straits question will he resumed to-morrow. It is intimated that the Allied experts are at their disposal. Most of the sub-commissions will complete their tasks next week. Turkish insistence on the removal of rile Oecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox Greek Church from Constantinople is likely to prove a thorny subject, Mr. P. W. Child voiced the objection of the United States. He pointed out that the patriarchate, was established by Turkey herself, not by a foreign Power, and declared that the United States would oppose its removal. The Turks contend that it is absolutely necessary to remove the patriarchate and curtail tho temporal privileges of the clergy. M. Caclamanos declared that Greece could not accept the proposal. Tho conference will not meet on Christmas or New Year's Day.

ATTACK ON GREEK CHURCH.

OLD PRIVILEGES THREATENED

The position and privilege of the Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople and it* dependent dioceses, which are threatened by the Angora Government, is originally based on the finnan granted by Sultan Mahomet 11. the Conqueror, to the Patriarch Gennadios, by which the. Patriarch was recognised as the head of the Greek Community or Nation (Roum milleti)C and freedom in matters of religious worship and civil jurisdiction affecting personal status (marriage, divorce, inheritance), with which went the right to .maintain schools, hospitals, and other commercial institutions, were guaranteed. This firman again was no innovation, but repeated the provisions of the famous Ahdname or treaty between the Caliph Omar and the Patriarch Sophronis of Jerusalem, at the Arab Conquest of that city, which treaty again was directly based on the Shenat or Sacred Law of Mahommedanism.

j The innovation of the. Angora GovernI ment consists in wishing to supersede this j time-old organisation, which dates back to i the first relations between Mahommedan- ) ism and the Christian Church, by an enj tirely new system based on their theory lof Turkish Nationalism. Thus, the authorj ity of the (Ecumenical Patriarch in the j Anatolian dioceses has already been sup- { pressed, tho very name of Greek Orthodox Church suppressed, and a new organism cnllcd the Turkish Orthodox Church set up in which Turkish is to be the. liturgical l&ngaug*. priests and bishops are, to he all Turkish-speaking, and Turkish instead of Greek is to be the language, taught in the schools which, in Turkey, are a.ll j Church schools. The Angora Government has even appointed a head of this Church in the person of a priest called Papa Evthimis who, needless to say, has not got the canonical qualifications required to hold such a high ecclesiastical post. If the Angora Government intends to extend this system to Constantinople and Thrace, then, in the opinion of many Greeks—and this opinion is shared by the present (Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios— it would no longer be possible for the (Ecumenical Patriarch to remain in Constantinople. The (Ecumenical Patriarch is the Senior Prelate—not a Pope but first in rank—of the Eastern Christian Orthodox Churches, and all important decisions or changes in the Orthodox Church depend on his initiative. As such, he has great prestige, but obviously that prestige would be greatly diminished if he became merely the head" of a Turkish Church, <n the narrow and Nationalist sense as the Angora Government understands it, selectel mcrelv for his subservience to the Turkish Government.

It is true that, even beforo the war, the election of the (Ecumenical Patriarch had to be confirmed by the Sultan, who had trie right of veto. But in practice the exercise of the Sultan's right -.vas a formality, and Russia would not have tolerated an abusive exercise of tho veto. To-day Russia's interest in the Orthodox Christians has ceased, and., as a consequence, there is no material check to safeguard the dignity and independence of the Patriarchate vis-a-vis tho Ottoman Government.

A great deal will depend o,i the extent to which the Powers .vill insist on tho maintenance of the right* of minorities. Unless the Peace definitely safeguards the ancient privileges which the (Ecumenical Patriarchate and other Christian Churches have enjoyed from time immemorial within the Ottoman Empire, it may be necessary to transfer outside the iini'ts of Turkey tho seat of the Oecumenical Patriarchate. It is interesting to recall that the last time the Oilcumenical Patriarchate left Constantinople was in 1202, at the Latin conquest of Constantinople, when the Patriarchate temporarily was transferred to Nicaea, whence it remained for 57 years till the restoration of Greek rule in Constantinople.