FORTIFICATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 11

FORTIFICATION

TURKEY AND THE STRAITS INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY “TOO SLOW” The text of the Note that Turkey has addressed to the signatories of the Straits Convention was issued in Angora recently, and is reported in the Manchester Guardian. The Note stresses the change in the general situation in Europe since the Convex.tion was signed. It adds: Europe was tjien on the road to disarmament, and its political organisation was to rest soley on the unshakeable principles of law as laid down in international undcrtakiugr. Land, naval, and air forces were much less formidable. “Since then the situation in the Black Sea has assumed an aspect of concord that is in every respect reassuring, while a state of uncertainty has gradually come about in the Mediterranean.” Navies, air forces, and island fortifications had been increased. During this complete change of conditions the •sole guarantee to obviate total insecurity of the Straits has in its turn disappeared, and while the Powers most interested proclaim the existence of a threat of a general conflagration Turkey at her most vulnerable point finds herself exposed to the worst dangers without anything to set against this disquieting insecurity. ”In acceding to the pressing demands which were made to her Turkey agreed to the demilitarisation of the Straits, which wore then completely occupied by foreign troops, after considering at length the value, in the existing conditions, of the minimum guarantees which were offered her. “Political Crises’’ f ‘lt is clear that if this guarantee becomes inoperative or uncertain the whole equilibrium of the agreement would be upset, to the detriment of Turkey and the peace of Europe. Now political crises have clearly shown that the present machinery for collecting guarantees is too slow in coming into operation and that a delayed decision is likely in most cases to cause the loss of the benefits of international action. “It is for this reason that Turkey felt herself unable to be satisfied in 1923—as many other Powers are at the present moment—with the collective guarantee that was supposed to be assured her by the Covenant so soon as Turkey became a member of the League of Nations. It is for this reason that she judged insufficient the collective guarantee of all the signatories of the Straits Convention and that she felt that only the combined guarantee of the four Great Powers seemed to her capable of assuring in the existing conditions the minimum and indispensible security of her territorial integrity. ‘But if that minimum is itself weakened or made problematical by political or military circumstances entirely different from those which existed at the time of its establishment, the Government of the Turkish Republic •cannot without incurring the blame for grave negligence expose the whole country to an irreparable coup de main. “The position of the guarantors of the security of the Straits ris a-vis the League of Nations and the particular circumstances rendering the military and effective collaboration of those guarantors less doubtful before the objective which have been assigned to them are elements which have completely upset the general basis of the 1923 convention. “Failure’’ of Guarantors “It cannot be affirmed to-day that the security of the Strait.- is still assured by a real guarantee, and Turkey cannot be asked to remain indifferent to the possibility of a dangerous failure on the part of the guarantors to do anything. There is room to add to those considerations that the Straits Convention mentions only a state of peace and war, in the latter case Turkey being treated either as a neutral or a belligerent, without foreseeing the eventuality of a special or general threat of war, and permitting Turkey to take measures, in this case for her legitimate defence. “To-day it has been clearly demonstrated that the most delicate phase of an eternal danger is precisely this threat of a state of war, possibly arising at any moment unexpectedly and without any formality. “This gap can of itself rob the contemplated guarantees, whatever their value, of their efficiency. From the beginning of its existence the Republic of Turkey has followed a policy or peace and understanding the carrying out of whith in all domains has not failed to impose on it fre M uent heavy sacrifices. “The Turkish Government has shown on countless occasions which have arisen during the last ten years a engagement, and of sincere attachment to the cause of peace which has been appreciated by all Powers. That security which Turkey has always assured to others she has a right to de mand for herself. “Circumstances independent of the will of the signatories of Lausanne have made inoperative the clauses established in entire good faith, and since the existence of Turkey and the security of all her territory is at stake the Government of the Republic may be led to take upon itself the respon sibility before the nation of adopting the measures dictated by imperious necessity. Request for Negotiations “In view of the considerations men tioned above and justly deeming that the provisions of article 18 of the Straits Convention concerning a joint guaratee c-f the four Great Powers have become inoperative and uncertain and that fhey can no longer in practice cover Turkey against an cxteral danger to her territory, the Govern me nt of the Republic has the honour to inform the Powers which took part in the negotiations for the Straits Convention that it is ready to enter into discussions with a view to arriving in the near future at the con elusion of agreements destined to regulate the regime of the Straits under conditions of security which are indispensable to the inviolability of Turkey’s territory and in the mostliberal spirit for the constant develop ment of commercial navigation between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.” Article 18 of the Straits Convention stales: — The High Contracting Parties, desiring to secure that the demilitarisation of the Straits and of the contiguous