CABLE NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1922, Page 2

CABLE NEWS.

THE NEAR EAST.

AUSTRALIAN AND N. 3. CABLE ASSOCIATION. ALLIED DIPLOMATS. LONDON, September 11. The “Central News Agency” understands there will bo a meeting of Allied diplomats to discuss the situation, including the threat of Constantinople. Conversations are already opened. Mr Lloyd George is still ill the country, hut is in touch with the Foreign Office.

POSITION AT SMYRNA. PARIS, September 11. Following on the entry of Turkish troops into Smyrna, a panic broke out among tlie Greeks but order was restored. Despite the Turkish commander’s undertaking not to permit of excesses, looting occurred in the early evening though it is not clear whether soldiers or tho lower elements of the population were responsible. The Turkish officers stopped it. Allied detachments landed with the concurrence of the Turkish commander. These now patrol the city which is quite ‘ orderly. Greeks before the evacuation removed the archives and all the bullion obtainable. EGYPTIANS ELATED. CAIRO, September 11. The populace of Egypt are elated at the Kemalist triumph in Asia Minor. Flage are now flying here and at Alexandria, and prayers are being offered in the mosques. The uneducated Egyptian people believe that the Kemalists having driven the Greeks from Asia Minor, will also drive the English out of Egypt; A prominent feature lias been a procession in Alexandria. In the procession was a large crucifix, broken in twain. WARNING TO TURKS. LONDON. Sept. 12. The Allied Commissioners at Constantinople have informed the Angora Government that under no circumstances will they permit the Kemalists to violate the neutral zone, including the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus, and Constantinople. It is tlie British Government’s policy to keep the problems of Thrace and the Straits separate from Asia Minor questions. An anti-Christian outbreak is reported in Constantinople. French and British ships have been attacked. British troops are held at Malta in readiness to sail to Turkey. MENACE TO EUROPE. LONDON, Sept. 11 As the assassination of Prince Francis Ferdinand was the spark which had- exploded Europe into the Great War, the recovery of Smyrna by her triumphant forces has revived Turkey, and may lead to another conflagration unless the danger is recognised and dealt with firmly. This is the warning from the United States Ambassador (Mr Morgenthnu) in an interview with “Tlie Times.”

Morgen than knows the people of whom lie speaks, and knows their leaders personally. He says that while the Turkish successes may appear small when compared with tlie military events in the Great War, the recovery of Smyrna is just such an episode as liinv lead to tremendous results.

A new and menacing situation has arisen, and a positive policy is needed to localise tho danger and prevent it spreading into Europe. Tlie Turkish Nationalist movement has crystallised into a formidable manifestation of Turkish military power and racial intolerance.

Morgenthnu doubts if the Turks will now be content with their avowed aim, the regaining of Smyrna and Constantinople, and dreads that even this may he accompanied by widespread - massacres and looting, partly as a makeshift means of paying the troops, and partly as a means to remove inconvenient minorities, as was done during the late war.

The Turkish victories are not only likely to affect the Moslems in the British and French dominions and the uneasy populations of Irak and Syria, but are even more likely to affect the countries defeated in the Great War. He asks what will happen if Angora regains access to Thrace, and tempts Bulgaria to restore communications with Turkey. Bulgaria smarts under the Versailles Treaty penalties, hut especially she resents the delay in affording her an outlet into the, Aegean Sea, and she may be tempted to fall upon the disorganised Greeks to recover her sea ports. New Europe is established with m unstable equilibrium. The new order was not sufficiently mature to resist anv violent shock,' if administered by a ' former dominant military caste which had been condemned throughout Central Europe to economic obliteration. Germany’s unemployed officers, finding Turkey able to come to life again and defy the Powers, would jump at the chance to join a. Kemalist barbaric war of revenge and plunder,' in which they would find opportunities for personal aggrandisement —thus the democracies of Europe averse to the intolerance of military burdens, may become victims of these gunmen of the world, rallying under the victorious Crescent, and embarking upon lucrative aggression, perhaps with Soviet assistance. , . Mr Morgenthau appeals to Britain to take the lead in localising the peril, adding that the Turks must at any cost be prevented from controlling, the Dardanelles. LONDON PRESS FEARS. . LONDON, Sept. 11. The London “Daily Telegraph’s” Geneva correspondent reports: League of Nations officials state the Turkish Government has made a declaration of its non-responsibility for any excesses by Turkish troops. (This was cabled oil September 10). It is stated by tlio officials auditioned that the declaration refers to the entire territory now in Kemalist forces’ occupation in Asia Minor. The correspondent says that the communication is regarded as a notification that the Angora (Turkish) Government is . giving the preliminary notification, to evade any responsibility. Tliereiore the League of Nations is stated by the officials to he powerless to take any direct action, and the League can only urge the Powers to inform the turns that the latter cannot escape the responsibility. It is feared (adds the correspondent) that such representations will be too late to save the Christians, who are now in direct peril.

GREEK APPEAL. GENEVA, Sept, 11, The Greeks have now appealed tp the Lcamie of Nations to take hnme-. diato steps to protect their pptipnals in Aimtolte,