The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1923. ATTITUDE OF THE TURKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 February 1923, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1923. ATTITUDE OF THE TURKS.

The lengthy sessions which have been held at Lausanne in the hope of eventually arriving at terms of settlement with the Turks appear to have become as interminable as the task of clearing out the Augean Stables. It

would seem, that the Angora Government regards the threat of war as its trump card, but although Britain and her Allies are war-weary and greatly impoverished, the Turks are in even a worse plight, for, in spite of all the intrigues of Soviet Russia, no help can be expected by Turkey from that quarter, while Germany is even in a worse position, and has more than she can manage in attending to her own affairs. The terms of settlement proposed by the Allies are such as the Turks might well accept and be left to face the future with brighter prospects than they deserve or could rightly expect. The misfortune is that after defeating the Greeks the Turkish Nationalists suffered from the malady of swollen heads, regarded themselves as visitors entitled to dictate terms of their own selecting, and refused to take stock of their position as defeated enemies in the Great War. In view of the past evidences of their treachery and cruelty, the Allies were morally bound to make the Turks impotent to menace civilisation. In olden times, tinder similar circumstances, Turkey would have been wiped off the map of the world and its people scattered to the four winds long before they had time to recover their arrogance, and it is fortunate for them that greater tolerance and forbearance exist today. What the Allies propose, apart 1 from securing the absolute freedom of the Straits, is in effect to protect Turkey and secure peace in the Near East. Nothing is more certain than if the Turks throw discretion aside and attempt to soothe the remnants of their pride by a resort to force, they will offer an opportunity to the Allies to dismember Turkey and drive the Turks into a corner of Asia, and they will only have themselves to blame. There is one recent item of news that deserves attention, and that is the signing of a convention for the exchange of populations, War prisoners and civil hostages. This mass emigration by compulsion of Turks and Greeks is on such a vast scale that its equal has not taken place since the Romans removed the Jews from. Palestine. The figures include 600,000 Greek civilians in Asia Minor (all that remain out of 1,600,00.0 in 1914), and 360,000 Turks living in Greece, also 30,000 Greek prisoners of war held by the Turks, together with 70,000 civilian laborers, besides 10,000 Turkish prisoners of war held by the Greeks, and 3,800 civilian Turkish hostages.. As the Turks expressed their intention to expel all the Greeks in Constantinople, there would be another. 800,000 people on the move. One of the effects of this exodus is to be found in a recent cable, which stated that thousands of sick refugees are now living at the quarantine station -at the Piraeus, while disease is creating serious panics. What the state of affairs will be when the exchange of prisoners takes place can only he conjectured. Meanwhile the position as regards Turkey is such as to cause anxiety, but the Allies appear to he prepared for any emergency that may arise.