The Eastern Situation.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1922, Page 3

The Eastern Situation.

.MR WILVORD'S SUR-VKV. WKLIJNGTOX, Sept. 18. As a close student of international events tile latest crisis found Mr AV iI - lord, tlie l.iheral Leader, ready at a moments’ notice without reference to printed data to discuss the eompli(atcl situation which has arisen as a consequence of the Tnrco-Grei inn clash. The Treaty of Sevres, explained Mr Willord, signed by the Allien as well as Turkey, allocated to Greece part of Thrace, running from the )>ort of Dadegatch via Adrianople to the Black Sea and part of Asia Minor. It will he remembered that King Constantino joined the Greek forces when they were moving towards Angora beyond the line piovidtd in the Treaty of Sevres. Then the Turks rose and drove them completely out. Now they are, according to cablegrams threatening to take the Straits of the Bardamdlcs and the part of Thrace given 'to tile Greeks,' including the port of Dadegatch on the Aegean Sea, tint onlv port on this sea possessed by Bulgaria before the Great War. and which it lost by the 'I reaty of Sevres. Ronmania was pleased at this treaty, because it put a piece- of territory between Turkish domination in Asia Minor and themselves. .Newspaper reports say that Bulgaria has mobilised in the direction of Adrinnopk\ which shows that their sentiment runs in the direction ol recovering that part of Thrace which was theirs before the war. Jngo-Slavia and Roumania are interested in keeping Thrace in the IniMtls of the Greeks. Constantinople is under Allied control. Tl is under Allied control in cl in rife of the British, and the Turkish goal is the replacement of the Sultan there in supreme power. The Sultan, according to the Mohammedans, must have jurisdiction from Constantinople, also control over the holy places. Greece, under Constantine, is in the ipteer position of recently having the patriarch of Constantinople elected, who is .;l follower of Vcni/.clos and not King Constantine.

THE MOHAMMEDAN VIEW. “There are seventy-two millions of Mohammedans in India, ” oontinued Mr Wilford, “who demand the Sultan’s return and dominance at Constantinople ami l lie protection of Mohammedan holy places. This accounts for the cablegrams from Delhi Unit Mohammedans cheered thu 'I urks. They arc interested in replacing the Sultan in Constantinople. Mohammedans in Egypt. Arabia and Persia aro backing no this Turkish movement, When I asked Mr Sastri during bis recent .visit ’to New Zealand •wliat M«i:inimm*<lan pfoplo thought of I*l io Tivjity of Sevres, lie* gave me a non-committal reply, but anyone who bail read the ‘Times of India” knows wliat they think of the Treaty of Sevres. They arc publicly demanding that it be modified, which means that they are backing the Turks in their nolicy of driving the Creeks Ironi Asia M inor. “Two questions remain: Shall they have control of that part ol 'I brace which has been given to the Greeks by thu Allies’ signature under the Treaty of Sevres? That is a difficult position lor the Allies. Only a few months ago they agreed to the Greeks occupying part of Thrace. From my reading the Turkish ■ pronouncement demanding control of the Dardanelles comes fiom Russia. The closing ol the l Dardanelles kills all trade that comes into the Black Sea by way of the Danube, therefore ’ liouiiiania, ,1 ugo-Slavia, Czeehn-Slovakin. and all the countries through which the Danube) acts as a commuicial waterway are concerned l the opening of the straits, while any ffnssian oceimation of that territoix must lie restrietcid for reasons of intern at.i mil' commerce. Ibe question, lor the Allies as I plainly see it is: Must we back the Greeks in holding Thrace, and must we see to the neutral nature of the waterway from the Black Sea to thu Mediterranean? That is the wholcv point,”