AN ULTIMATUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23516, 2 June 1938, Page 11

AN ULTIMATUM

ACTION BY TURKEY CONTROL OF ALEXANDRETTA AREA UNDER FRENCH MANDATE THREAT OF MILITARY ACTION (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, June 1. (Received June 1. at 5.5 p.m.) The Antioch correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that after further rioting by Turks in Antioch, in which three persons were killed, it was officially stated that registrations for the elections at Alexandretta have been suspended. It is understood that Turkey has virtually sent an ultimatum to France, stating that Turkish troops will march into the Sanjak unless the French concede control of the territory. The region is practically under martial law. The Sanjak will hold the first elections on July 15, after which an independent Government will be established. The autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta, which‘was set up on January 1, 1925, is part of the Syrian Republic. By a decision of the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers at San Remo on April 25. 1920, France was assigned the mandate for Syria, which was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922. British forces, together with small French and Arab detachments, drove the Turks out of Syria and Lebanon In 1918, and occupied -those districts and also the district of Cicilia, which was restored to Turkey by the French in 1922.