OMINOUS DEVELOPMENTS.

Southland Times, Issue 19658, 7 October 1922, Page 4

OMINOUS DEVELOPMENTS.

The Constantinople communiques published yesterday announcing the full agreement of the Mudania Conference on all the major questions submitted to it are not, unfortunately, borne out by subsequent despatches., They were the reverse of the truth, and how such misk-ading informatiou came to be issued has yet. to lie explained. The later news of the conference is far from reassuring, and the cables convey inferences as disquieiing as the failure to reconcile conflicting interests, in that they suggest that powerful influences are working against a settlement on ths lines laid down for the conference to follow. Chanak has not been evacuated, no £oncJusion has been reached with regard to Tferace, and the labours of the con-

ference have been suspended without even a principle of agreement being defined. The Allied delegates have returned to Constantinople to consult their respective High Commissioners, and there matters stand as far as Mudania is concerned. The Turks are accused of endeavouring to widen the scope of the discussions by the introduction of political and diplomatic questions, and M. Boullin, the French political envoy, is laid under suspicion of encouraging these efforts to embarrass the British and delay the discovery of an acceptable solution. The British attitude has undergone no alteration. Chanak will not be evacuated and the Kemalists will not be allowed to take over Thrace until jieace is finally concluded. The news from other quarters contains little from which comfort can be derived. Greece is manifesting every disposition to resist the restora-

tion of Thracian territory to Turkey, although that was a clearly stated condition of the Allied note. She is reported to have gone so far as to have appointed a Gov-ernor-General of Thrace and to have despatched troops to Adrianople. As for Chanak. Kemal’s promised withdrawal according to Mr Donohoe, has been only partially carried out, and the Turkish troops on one sector are still in uncomfortable close proximity to the British lines. Moreover, Kemal continues his concentration in this zone. Russia is reputed to lie making preparations for eventualities, and to be getting its Black Sea fleet into such shape as it may for action. To-day’s news is altogether a dejecting budget, and it can only be hoped that matters will take a more favourable turn when the conference resumes.