THE NEAR EAST

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1923, Page 2

THE NEAR EAST

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION TPKKLSH STATE.! I ENTS. CONSTANTINOPLE. Feb TS. Nuvspaper.- report I.smct ;is stating that Turkey, in order to facilitate peace, is willing to renounce her claim lor two Dreadnoughts ordered in Britain deforce the war and seized hy the Admiralty in 1914 and for six million Turkish pounds, which the Allies seized from hanks in Vienna and Berlin at the 1918 armistice. Turkey intended to seek an agreement hy means of direct negotiations in refrence to an indemnity from Greece. Kemal addressing an economic i ongress at Smyrna, attended hy five hundred delegates, including representatives of Soviet and Asia tie States, said for centuries, not years, the Allies should understand the ancient Ottoman Empire had ceased to exist, and a. new Turkish State had heen created full of energy. Turkey's absolute independence must 1m assured of recognition. Kemal is proceeding from Kiclieir to meet Ismet. The Angora Assemble meets on Mondav. IRISH AMNESTY. LONDON, Fob 19.

.Sunday was the final day for the surrender and handing in of arms under General- Mulcahy’s amnesty proclamation of February Sth. Apparently thci amnesty is to be extended, though its prolongation may only relate to two isolated columns In North Kerrv.

At anyrate. there are still hopes of a .settlement, as the Free State’s Ministers assert that only terrorism is keeping most of the rebels from surrender.

Denis Lacey, one of the most bitter insurgents in the south has heen the biggest loss to Die Republicans since the capture of Ernest Ale I ley in November.

It i.s stated a month’s time is proposed for peace negotiations in a favourable atmosphere. T'-L is made by neutral members of the Republican tinny, claiming to represent twenty thousand men. It is suggested all arrests and military activities end, and a reply he given by both sides by Febrnarv 23rd.