A DUBIOUS PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 7

A DUBIOUS PEACE.

MISGIVINGS IN TURKEY. ANXIETY OF FOREIGNERS. • HUMILIATING POSITION. By -.Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. I A. and N.Z. V LONDON. "July 20. Reuter's •„ correspondent at Constantinople , states that those conversant with the situation ,in ■; Turkey 'use apprehensive of the possibilities, especially 'in Constantinople after the withdrawal of the occupying troops in view of the anti-foreign feeling among the Turkish extremists who regard the peace, settlement as a. triumph over the foreigner. While the position of Western Europeans may be difficult, its seriousness; for GiwVi- and Christian Turks who had the slightest relations with the occupation forces, is evidenced by the arrest of Greeks and .the.report that the Turks have decided to expel hundreds of Russians who worked for the Allied forces, also Miany native Christians. : Advices from Constantinople state that Tuesday, which is the date of the signing of the Peace. Treaty, will be a red: letter day in Turkey. It happens as a coincidence to be the Mahommedan holiday of the " Feast of Kurban Baifman," celebrating the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and the anniversary of the proclamation of the Constitution for Turkey in 1908. (•' The faithful will proceed to <ha chief mosques and recite verges from the Koran and speeches'by nationalist partisans will be delivered. A feature of the celebration will be the sacrifice, according to immemorial custom, of sheep by rich Turks, who will give the meat to the poor, a. practice which has" fallen off of late years owing to the high cost of mutton. The Times special : correspondent at Lausanne says that when' the treaty is signed the lurks will have the greatest cause for enthusiam. All the, evidence obtainable confirms that the New Turks are but the old writ large, that the coming era of enlightenment and brotheriy love in Turkey, wnich is the correct thing* officially to hope for, will, from' the foreigners point of view, be at the best humiliating and at the worst bloody chaos. From the moment Turkey was admitted to the negotiations on terms of equality with the European States some such result has been inevitable. None wilfc begrudge'. Israel Pasha his complacent declaration that the conference was a splen did tribute to that admission of equality, but when one listens to' the tales from Angora, and when one sees photographs of that verminous squalid town, the little hall of the Grand National Assembly, with its wooden galleries and " paraffin lamps, for all the world dike a dilapidated village schoolroom; when one realises what manner of men these are' who dictated terms to Europe, one stands astonished at the pass to which the politicians of civilised races should have succeeded in bringing the prestige of the West. Mr. Percival Landon; , reviewing the work of the. Lausanne Conference in the Drily Telegraph, says that four great freedoms have been secured by this ,'ireaty; the freedom of New Arabia and "all that this means to Asia; the freedom' of the Straits and all that this means to Europe; the freedom of Turkey herself from Russia through the; League of Nations and the freedom of the Allies to again begin- their several works afresh and to frame unhampered policies for the Near East.

THE CHESTER CONCESSION. AMERIQA NOT COMMITTED. A.' and N.Z. WASHINGTON, July 20. -The ' Department of State, answering the National Popular Government .League's questions■; concerning the Chester concessions, denied that the concesuion-ai'ies-had been given moral and political assurances ' that in the, event of a dispute the United States \ Government would be bound to defend the validity of the concession. The reply asserts that the United States Government took no part in' the • negotiations, and concerns itself only with the maintenance of the open door. ..-.'.': :■' ; . ; ■■■ '■:' „. The league's membership includes eminent educators,, lawyers, labour leaders, and publicists, all of whom regard thi* denial as the roost sweeping and explicit the State Department has yet made. SCOPE OP THE CHESTER SCHEME. RAILWAY BUILDING ' PROJECT. The Chester concession, : negotiated by an American '■ syndicate, at the head of which is Rear-Admiral Colby "M. Chester, a retired officer of the United 1 States Navy, is a vast project to develop the resources of Asia Minor. '■■■■• .','..'■,.;::-,'* The principal parts, of the concession are:—(l) The building of three; systems of railway aggregating 4385 kilometres (2714 miles), so laid out as to interconnect with the present . railways, which aggregate approximately 4385 kilometres. teach of the three ; main ' systems to be built forms a separate agreement, preference in priority of construction being given to the division extending, from Alexandretta Bay to Harput, then to Arghana, where the famous _ Arghana copper mines are located, .to Bitlis;; then through the Mosul vilayet, to Kerkuk and to , Suleimanieh, which was the major part of the original Chester Project of 1909-1911. A , section was added to extend from Harput to Sivas by way of Chalty, and from Harput, to Van, crossing two great oil fields. The second preference in priority of construction comprises the lines from Angora to Sivas,. from Sivas to Samsoun and from Chalty to the Black' J Sea, with a parallel branch from Trebizond to Erzerum. Th«v third division is to interconnect Angora with Samsoun by way of Yozgad and the An-gora-Sivas line with the Ulu Kishla terminal of the Bagdad Railway by way of Cesarea, with a branch to Sivas and a section to extend from Erzerum to Bayezid, on the Persian border, ■ The Ottoman-American Development Company has the mineral rights to the: territory 20 kilometres on each _ side _of the railway lines and two years in which to make' its plans and decide the .exact route to be followed between terminals, and other advantages and elastic options that make the concession a very liberal one, the liberal farms having been granted because the Turkish Government is to share in the results. (2) The construction of a capital city for the Turkish Government at Angora, on a liberal plan, and the construction of three main port cities: This part of the concession can be extended f;o comprise the construction of as many towns as th» concessionaires can build, to replace the hundred or so towns and villages destroyed by the Greek troops. (3) The oil fields of Erzerum, Bitlis. and Van. estimated, to be as large as the •Mosul oil fields, which are still untouched and which may prove to be as rich as any in the world. These three oil • fields are of unquestioned title and can be exploited no matter what the decision regarding the Mosul oil fields may be. (4) / The titles to , the copper, gold, Platinum, iron, lead, zinc,, tin, nickel and other minerals to be exploited under the Chester Concession are not questioned, and their potential wealth runs into millions sterling, as they cover close to 100 mines. ■'; -