NEAR EAST PROBLEMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 49, Issue 14960, 11 July 1923, Page 5

NEAR EAST PROBLEMS.

AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE.

AT LAUSANNE CONFERENCE. fress Association—Electric Telegraph—Oopyrig. LAUSANNE, Monday. Tlie agreement in principle arrived at was on tlie following basis: — The Allies have agreed to refrain from insistanee upon the currency in which the Ottoman debt shall be paid, without, however, such attitude precluding them from maintaining the principle that private contracts between Turkey and her creditors cannot be modified except by agreement 'between Turkey and the Ottoman bondholders.

On the question of concessions, the agreement recognises contracts made before October 29tli, 1914. The agreement also restores the war material belonging to the Turks which has fallen into Allied hands. —Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn. TERMS OF AGREEMENT. (Received Wednesday, 10.5 a.m.) LAUSANNE, Tuesday. Under the agreement, Constantinople, Clianak and Gallipoli will be evacuated six weeks after the ratification of the treaty by the respective parliaments. Turkey recognises her post-war frontiers. Capitulations are to be abolished. Minorities will be treated on the basis which Poland and Czecho-Slovakia adopted. Any dispute will be referred to the League of Nations. Except those resident in Turkey before 1921 ? foreigners will be amenable to Turkish law.

Britain keeps two ships ordered by Turkey before the war, and the Allies share the gold deposits which were at Berlin and Vienna.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.

A TRIUMPH FOR TURKEY. (Received Wednesday, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, Tuesday. The Daily Express’ Lausanne correspondent says that Ismet Pasha lias every reason for cheerfulness. The Allies have gone to the limits of generosity in order to secure peace in the Near East.

The treaty frees Turkey of two-thirds of her external debt.

Indeed, it is possible that Jugo Slavia may refuse to sign the treaty owing to the in-oportion of the Ottoman debt wherewith she is saddled.

The treaty places no limit on Turkey’s armed forces and restores her fleet, including the Goeben, though Allied experts believe that the ships are merely scrap iron. The humiliating regime of capitulations is ended. Turkey remains a sovereign Power, with a reduced, but homogeneous Empire, and is able to enter the League of Nations. If the Chester-group abandons the concession which Turkey has given them French and British companies enjoying pre-war rights will secure options.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.