THE NEAR EAST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18787, 14 February 1923, Page 6

THE NEAR EAST.

If the messages from Constantinople accurately reflect the attitude of Angora there is marked divergence of opinion among the Turkish Nationalists respecting the course that should bo adopted in relation to the draft treaty presented for signature by the Allies. The extremists are likely to make it difficult for Ismet Pasha to convince the Angora Assembly that the utmost was done at Lausanne to secure for Turkey the most favourable terms possible, and that nothing is to be gained by attempting to secure further concessions from the Allies. It is easy for ardent Turkish nationalists at Angora to suggest that Ismet was too conciliatory at ’Lausanne, The fact remains that Ismet tried the patience of the Allied representatives to the point

of exhaustion. If Mustapha Kemal ha.s been indulging in the wild statements credited to him anent Great Britain’s “wish to ruin Turkey” ho is not quite the astute and level-headed leader that he has been generally represented to be. The Petit Parisien reports that Ismet is awaiting Allied overtures for a reopening of the Lausanne Conference, and that it is expected that the Angora Assembly will authorise him to sign the treaty. It is to be hoped that this forecast will not turn out to have been more en-

couraging than accurate. A Constantinople message stating that the Turks are completing preparations for war would perhaps be taken more seriously had we not heard the same thing rather frequently of late. That the Turks are not in a particularly amiable mood may he taken for granted, but that does not necessarily mean that

they are unable to recognise that they are confronted with a blank wall of Allied solidarity, or that their leaders believe that by force of arms they can accomplish what they have been unable to achieve by negotiation. No prestige accrues to the Angora Government a.s a result of the demand for the withdrawal of the Allied warships from .Smyrna. Possibly the account given by a correspondent of the manner in which Rear-Admiral Nicholson responded to the intimation respecting the Turkish order is a little highly coloured, but it reads well, and furnishes an example of procedure quite in accordance with the splendid traditions of the British Navy.