WHO OWNS ASIA MINOR?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12253, 2 June 1914, Page 8

WHO OWNS ASIA MINOR?

The immense resources of Asia Minor and its position as a. bridge between h'urope unci the Far East have attracted the miger attention of the European Powers, which seem to expect that this rich prize is ready to fall into the mouth tit' some one or more of them. Now Germany and France have already halved, or quartered the orange. The English have obtained 'territorial grants; and inasmuch as this contains a population of 9,000,000 and is rich iu coal," lead manganese, copper, salt, and petroleum, it may be made a centre of industry to be exploited for export by railroad through the ports of the Mediterranean and. the Black Sea. The Turks are naturally indignant at what they consider a high-handed and piratical appropriation of their actual property. There is always a pathetic note in the complaints of the Turkish press, over flic direful result of the Balkan 'War.' and Pcyam. '(Constantinople) 1 mourns over the agreement made between Turkey and France, whose provisions are outlined in this paragraph from a Berlin paper: — ■' A draft of the Franco-German agreement on tlio Turkish railway and financial questions was initialled at the Foreign Office here (Berlin) at noon today by representatives of both parties. It is in the form of arrangement between the Deutsche Bank, which simultaneously represents the Anatolian and, Bagdad Railway Companies, and the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which is at the same time acting for the Syrian Railway Company and the railway company to be formed for the Black Sea basin. The German and French Governments. alter examining the agreement. intend to take official cognisance of its contents by means of an exchange of notes. The coming into force of the arrangements is dependent upon an understanding being arrived at by the parties concerned with Turkey upon the questions at issue." . But Turkey is mentioned -as a mere matter of formality, thinks the Poyam, and sighingly tells the full story iii-de-tail. The tone is that of helpless old gentleman who gives up his valuables with the pistol pointed at his head or the knife at his heart: —

"We an; perfectly aware that Anatolia belongs by right and in fact to us. Anatolia and Arabia are integral parts !of the Empire. But the Powers have decided to appropriate to themselves certain privileges in the line of economic enterprises, such as railroads, harbors, and carriage-roads. And after seizing these concessions from us in our weakness, they can not agree among themselves. They negotiate indefinitely. At last France and Germany seem to have agreed oil their respective pretensions. The Germans have ob-tained-the construction of the Bagdad railroad, wherefore the French have demanded compensating concessions, as the English did a while ago. England, in order to give her consent in the matter of the Bagdad railroad, demanded to be allowed to participate, in the. Bagdad-Basra section: and it was only after having obtained from Germany satisfaction on this point; and from us on certain others, that she disarmed, trance found herself in a similar situation. Not that we had. bargained with her over these concessions when we gave her the railway system of the Black .Sea slope. What she wished was a connection between this system and the Bagdad line. Germany, who first made difficulties, lias ended by granting the wishes of France." The article concludes with these words of abieet melancholy:—

"All this is quite wounding to our national sentiments. Whose is this propertv they arc thus dividing up after all? Surely it is ours. Then why do they dispose of it without even consulting us? Alas! we have voluntarily deprived ourselves of our own richts. We could not carry out their public works ourselves, so we have abandoned them to others. We can not complain but it is sad, none the less."