Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DEC. 21, 1922. THE NEAR EAST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 16010, 21 December 1922, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, DEC. 21, 1922. THE NEAR EAST.

Tlio next day or two should decide whether there is to be peace in the Near East, for after patiently parleying with the Turks and the mischiefmaking Russians, the Allied representatives at Lausanne, through their spokesman, Lord Curzon, have called the Turkish bluff and definitely demanded an answer to their proposals. It is more than probable, with this display of firmness, the Kemalists will come to terms, and sitiee the points at variance are not very great there seems to be reason at all why a good settlement should not be come to on such matters as the freedom of the Straits, the protection of minorities, and the various territorial adjustments. It is now quite evident' that had the Allies presented a United front there would have been no attempt on the part of the Turks to upset the Treaty of Sevres rind the present trouble would not have arisen. The recent discussions have fully justified the firm stand taken by Mr Lloyd George, when ho called for Dominion support, in the endeavor to show Turkey that Britain meant business. It is useless to argued with the Oriental! Therein France made a great mistake, hoping by diplomatic persuasion to accomplish what British statesmen knew only the show of force woiild bring .about. Certain incidents which occurred with startling rapidity brought about France's disillusionment. France took a false step when she made her retirement from Cilicia-, not only breaking faith with her Allies, but giving the wily Turks just the opportunity they wished. No sooner was the retirement, so benevolently executed, accomplished, than the. Turks: intimated that French evacuation of Syria was equally desirable. This had not baen bargained for. Then it was announced that Angora would put the caliphate in its pocket—a decision not received with pleasure by Mohammedans in the French colonies. After this came an intimation that if French warships desired to sail through the Dardanelles they must have the permission of the new Government in Constantinople ; whilst, finally, the new Customs tariff put a distinct bar on the ale of French merchandise in the Levant. And yet, says a well informed writer, this was only the beginning oi what France is destined to learn -with respect to Eastern mentality. When you are setting up as a great Mohammedan power, as Frence sought to do, it is not wise to give the. impression that you can he bluffed into making al! sorts of concessions. All that has happened in the Near East was prophesied a thousand times to Downing Street and the Quai d'Orsay by that: remarkable statesman, M.. Venizelos. Ho told M. Glemenceau and Mr Lloyd George that their support of Greece .was an absolute necessity to their control of things in the Near East, and, these statesmen realised the truth of what he told them. The Turk, as he explained, refrained from massacring the Near Eastern Christians simply because he was afraid of- the Greek spearhead in Smyrna, and not because he- had been converted from the ways of Taalatand of Envcr. It was, indeed, as much a means of securing the pacification of Anatolia as from any conviction of the justice, of the claims of Greece, that the Greek army was invited t'o occupy the Smyrna, enclave. .But when Clomenceau fell Angora saw its opportunity in tlio growing breach between the Christian Powers. Any group of statesmen who had understood the Eastern mind would have understood exactly what was happening, but the French Ministers were concerned solely with the reaction of their Near- Eastern policy in the West. Venizelos had given place to Constantino, and Constantino, they remembered, was ..the brother-in-law and ally of the Kaiser. If the Greeks wanted Constantino they must, take the consequences. No doubt, the Greeks made a. tremendous error in taking Constantino and,his incompetent generals. But the predilection of the Greek electors was not going to alter the nature of the Turk and to betray the Greek army in Anatolia to the Turk - was neither first-rate diplomacy nor first-rate morality. "It was done, and everybody knows how it was done," writes the correspondent. "The French troops were withdrawn, and the Turks were armed by the efforts of France, Italy and Russia. Simultaneously ;■ unfortunately, the Greek generals who had been persistently successful against the Turks were relieved, because they were Venizelists, and a man. practicallv crazy, was sent to command the troops because he was a creature of Cotistantine's, whilst the gross incompetency of the Ministry in Athens reduced the army in Anatolia to a condition of disorganisation and semi-starvation. Then the Turks struck and the Greek armv was driven into the sea. Rome sniiled, as it calculated its hold on the Dodecanese was secured. Franco smiled as she witnessed Kemal embracing Frank-lin-Bouillon and becoming more and more aggressive in his dealings with Lloyd George. There 'have been few more xinpleasant exhibitions of the diplomacy of the world," adds the writer, "than the deliberate sacrifice of the Greeks and Near Eastern Christians to (lie, political ends of certain of. the Great Powers." Greek population, he adds, is'pouring out of Thrace. Farm houses are left standing, the crops in the ground. The owners, ...fleeing for. I heir lives from the mercies of the Turk, of which thoy know by personal experience, are flooding Greece with poverty and misery. Hie population of Greece is only five millions, and on the resources of these five millions has been poured a million penniless and starving refugees. It is said that there

is not enough bread in Greece to last < for more than two months and unless outside help comes promptly another nation will be in the throes of despair. Siich is the condition in the Near East that the Allies at Lausanne have been endeavoring to rectify. France, it seems clear, is very much to blame. She led Kemal on and on, and* seemed to think it was good statesmanship because she was making trouble for England in India, and elsewhere. She entirely forgot that she was herself an aspiring Mohammedan power. That she only recollected when, to her consternation, she found Kemal giving her orders to get out of Constantinople as well as Syria. Then M. Poincare began to clasp Lord Curzon to his bosom. And it has been mainly through Lord Curzon's firmness at Lausanne that the position is likely to be retrieved.