NEAR EAST

Southland Times, Issue 18930, 2 May 1923, Page 5

NEAR EAST

LAUSANE CONFERENCE. FRENCH GENERAL OPTIMISM. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) PARIS, April 30. General Pelle, interviewed by the Matin, expressed confidence in the successful conclusion of the Lausanne Conference. Ismet repeatedly desired to see Franco-Turkish misunderstandings dispelled. Unfortunately, Kemal’s views were different, but General Pelle did not believe his threatening gestures in reference to France need cause uneasiness. He was convinced Angora was aware of the hazards involved in a resumption of hostilities. TURKS ANXIOUS FOR PEACE. KEMAL’S ARMY IN BAD WAY. ATHENS, April 29. General Cladas has returned after being a prisoner in Turkey. He declares that the KemaLst army is in a lamentable state, miserably equipped and poorly nourished. The Turks are anxious for peace. The war party in the last Angora Assembly only numbered sixty. The dissolution was primarily due to Kemal’s desire to paralyse the war party's efforts. Cladas states that Kemal is confident the electors will vote for peace. The Soviet is assisting the Turkish army with foodstuffs via the Caucasus. COMMUNIST PLOT. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 30. Thirty arrests have been made, including several Russians, of persons implicated in a Labour Day plot to depose the Turkish Government and substitute Soviet rule. The movement was engineered by Russian Communists. SEIZURE OF GREEK FUNDS. LONDON, April 30. The Daily Express’s Athens correspondent states that the Turks seized the contents of strong boxes belonging to Greek clients of the Orient Bank in Smyrna. It is believed they intend to do the same at other banks. It is officially stated that if the Turks seize all the Greeks’ deposits, aggregating £2,500,000, Greece will regard it as an act of war.