TURKEY'S FUTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 20

TURKEY'S FUTURE.

(By Cable.) INTRIGUE AGAINST ALLIES. BERLIN, Februaty 22. A deputation of Turkish officers is visiting Berlin, attempting a secret intrigue against the Allies. They assert that the insurrectionary movement in Asia Minor is completely consolidated, and is exerting powerful pressure on Constantinople, where the authorities no longer consider the signature of peace possible. It appears that the German Government has replied to the deputation that Germany is unable at present to develop relations in Asia Minor. The German press has been enjoined to observe complete silence concerning the deputation's movement. CENTURIES OF INTRIGUE. LONDON, February 22. Viscount Bryce, in an indignant article in the Observer, deals historically with Turkish misrule, barbarities, and broken promises of reform extending over the past 80 years. He declares that permission for the Sultan to remain in Constantinople disgraces the victorious Allies. They have yet time to retract. It is, hesays, untrue that the Moslems regard the city as sacred, and the idea that the expulsion of the Sultan would offend a considerable section of India .is grossly exaggerated. The real truth is that Constantinople has served for many centuries as a focus of intrigue and corruption, in which the scoundrelism of two continents accumulated, and it will continue the same under any form of Turkish occupation. CONSTANTINOPLE'S FATE. CONSTANTINOPLE, February 23. The news confirming Turkish tenure of this city is hailed by the vernacular press as a second conquest of Constantinople, which probably is not exactly the effect that the Supreme Council desired. The Turks are uneasy at the possibility of their territory terminating at the Chatalja line, but it is believed that this frontier must be extended to include Lake Derkos, the source of the city's water supply. AN OMEN. JERUSALEM, February 23. The heaviest snowstorm since 1860 occurred on February 15. It caused damage amounting to £250,000. The storm brought down a famous tree at El Butmi, on which culprits used to be hanged. According to local tradition the fall of this tree will synchronise with the fall of the Turkish Empire, and the populace are deeply impressed by this omem FRANCE UNEASY. LONDON, February 23. The Daily Telegraph's Paris correspondent states that the English protest against allowing the Turks to retain Constantinople is causing fears in France lest the decision may be reversed. A deputation of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chamber of Deputies visited M. Millerand to urge him to resist any attempt to alter the. decision already arrived at. DISPLAY OF NAVAL STRENGTH. LONDON, February 23. The British First Battle Squadron, including the Dreadnoughts Revenge, Resolution, Royal Oak, Ramilies, and Royal Sovereign, and four destroyers s?re anchored in the Bosphorus, forming the greatest display of naval strength ever seen in the Golden Horn. CONSTANTINOPLE, February 23. A detachment of British marines landed for review ashore, which provided an imposing spectacle. PARIS, February 24. The Echo de Paris says that France and Italy are sending warships to join the British battle squadron now in the Bosphorus in order to demonstrate Allied solidarity. THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES. GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION. LONDON, February 26. In the House of Lords, replying to Viscount Bryce, Lord Crawford stated that the Allies' High Commissioners at Constantinople had received no details of the Armenian massacres in Galicia, though there were many rumours of numbers of killed on both sides The Government was informed that the French had inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish irregulars at Marash. General Gourand sent important reinforcements, which he hoped would be sufficient to control the position. The whole matter was being* discussed by the Supreme Council, which was fully alive to the gravity of the situation. NATIONAL WAR POLICY. LONDON, February 25. The Times, in a leader, says that the Government has committed itself, perhaps irrevocably, to a revision of the national war policy aa regards Turkey without consulting Parliament, and is now attempting to buttress this decision by making play on Indian Moslem feeling. The Times adds: " We respect Moslem religions sentiment, but the Moslem i- nit entitled to dictate the policy of the Empire." EXPULSION OF THE SULTAN. LONDON, February 25. Interest in the Turkish question is unabated in England and France. An animated debate is anticipated in the House of Commons to-morrow. French feeling has been deepened owing to fears that M. Millerand may not be able to repeat the diplomatio success of his earlier visit to London. The French newspapers are actively

campaigning against the expulsion of the ', Sultan from Constantinople. THE MOSLEM PROBLEM. LONDON, February 24. The Labour Party has issued a statement replying to the Indian Moslems' representations, which points out that the Caliphate of the Osmanli Turks is not acknowledged by the rest of the Mohammedan world, and, as the question is a religious one, it should be settled by the Moslems. The reply distinguishes between various races formerly under Turkish rule, and urges that the principle of self-determina-tion should be applied where possible. The possible internationalisation of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus is favoured, also the axiom that the populations of the Syrian districts, Palestine, and Mesopotamia should be consulted as to whether they desire a restoration of the Ottoman sovereignty, unconditional independence, Or a mandate under the League of Nations. RETENTION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. LONDON, February 24. A deputation of Moslems from India has reached Venice, journeying to London to lay Moslem views on the Caliphate before the Supreme Council. The delegates claim to represent 70,000,000 Indian Mussulmans, and strongly urge the Turks' retention of Constantinople, forecasting grave trouble in India otherwise. THE UNSPEAKABLE TURK. A STRONG INDICTMENT. LONDON, February 25. In the House of Commons the greatest interest was aroused by the debate on the future of Turkey, which arose in the afternoon on the motion for adjournment, the Coalitionists attaching sufficient importance to the occasion to send out a three-line Whip. Sir Donald M'Lean opened the debate, stressing the deep obligation the Empire owed to India, but declaring that Britain' was under no obliga tion of any kind to the Turks, who entered the war without provocation from Britain. He described Constantinople as a cesspool of a breeder of war, and a source of massacres and horrors, and stated that if the Turks were left there Constantinople would once again be the seat of world disturbance. Mr Lloyd George declared that the Peace Conference had weighed the advantages and disadvantages carefully, and had considered all difficulties, obstacles, and perils. After discussing all those points the conference had arrived at the conclusion that on the whole the better course was to retain the Turk at Constantinople for the achieving of the common end. Referring to two of his pledges in reference to Turkey with which his opponents made great play, Mr Lloyd George declared that the first pledge, namely, " There will be a different porter at the gates of the Bosphorus," will be fulfilled to the letter.—(Cheers.) The second pledge was given in a speech in January, 1918, after full consultation and with the consent of all parties. He stated that the Allies were not fighting to challenge tli3 maintenance of the Turkish Empire with the capital at Constantinople subject to the passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea being internationalised and neutralised; also that Arabia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine be entitled to recognition as separate nationalities. The declaration was specific, unqualified, and most deliberate. The immediate effect was that recruiting went up appreciably. Nearly half a million enlisted in India. Britain could not have conquered Turkey without that help, and nothing would damage British power in Asia more than the feeling that they could not trust the British, word.—(Cheers.) • Proceeding, Mr Lloyd George declared that when the Peace terms were published there would be no friend of the Turk. If any were left who did not realise that he was terribly punished for his follies and crimes. He would be stripped of more than half his Empire and his capital. He would be under the Allied guns and would be deprived and of his army and navy and the prestige which that guardianship gave was important. The forts would be dismantled and Turkey would have no troops anywhere within reach of her gates. The Allies advised garrisoning the Dardanelles, and if necessary, the Bosphorus, which could be carried out with a comparatively' small force. An alternative to this proposal was international government at Constantinople and the surrounding country, which would be the most unsatisfactory government that anyone could choose. One of ; ,the difficulties had been the falling out of Russia and America. He had hoped that America might take the guardianship of Armenia; and even of Constantinople, but America for the moment could be reckoned out of any arrangement.

Discussing the effort in regard to the in ternationalisation of the protection of minorities the Prime Minister said that Sir Donald Mac Lean proposed to remove the Turk from a place where he could not easily direct massacres to a spot where he could organise them without interference. It would be to the greater safety of every Armenian if he knew he had the protection of the British fleet. If the Sultan lived at Kovieh he would be surrounded by a fanatical pooulation without knowledge of the outside world. The Allies had deprived the Turk of the guardianship of the road to the Black Sea, which gave him real authority in the councils of the world. Every precaution had been taken to see that the minorities who suffered so bitterly in the pr-t would have every protection, not of an terohange of Notes, but of that which i.„. derivable from a knowledge of those who had been persecuting them. They would be signing their decree under the menace of the British, French, and Italian guns.